Books: More Than Just Educational

Timothy Galvin

Bonnie Robinson

ENGL 1117

20 February 2020

Books: More Than Just Educational

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” -Mark Twain

Books – we all must read them at some point. Whether you are a born and passionate reader like I am, or someone who only reads for an assignment the night it’s due (we’ve all been there, don’t feel too bad), books are all around us. And it seems to some that books are something that we must read, even when that is simply not the case. There are many times where a book, read for fun, has taught a person something, a lesson perhaps, beyond the educational sense. For this essay, I will be pulling one of my favorite quotes from the fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by John Ronald Ruel (J.R.R.) Tolkien. The follow quote is a life lesson that I carry with me, even to this day and age, years after reading the trilogy (though Tolkien himself calls it three volumes set across 6 books), and the novels still inspire me. This exchange is taken early in the volume, when Gandalf is discussing with the Hobbit Frodo Baggins the origins of the Ring of Power and the creature Gollum. In the passage, Gandalf relates to Frodo how Gollum was making his way to the Shire, the home of the Hobbits, in search of the One Ring. “The Shire – he may be seeking for it now, if he has not already found out where it lies.”  

“But this is terrible!” cried Frodo “… What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature when he had the chance.”

“Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy, not to strike without need…. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement, for even the very wise cannot see all ends” (58). This is arguably one of the most powerful exchanges in literary history. If it weren’t for Bilbo’s Pity and Mercy, the events of The Lord of the Rings would have been vastly different. The whole Quest of the Ring, the main driving force of the novels, would have failed with Frodo taking the Ring for himself, or possibly being found by the forces of Sauron and Mordor since he and Sam would have no guide to Mordor and Mount Doom.

As you can tell from this exchange, books are not just strictly educational. Some, like The Lord of the Rings, instill values in us, values that are applicable to day to day life. And isn’t that an encouraging thought?

Works Cited

Tolkien, J R. R. “Book I Chapter 2 The Shadow of the Past.” The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 2012.