WK 7

 

    Lord of the Rings trilogy is fundamentally a classic quest story, it is in some sense a call to action. We are the Hobbits in this story, because we live in our little protected homes in our shire and we don`t really think about what is going on in the outside world and one of us eventually, who is a little bit more adventurous than others is called to action, just like Frodo, he is the hero. This call is initiated by a wizard Gandalf, who is represented as the wise old man, he is God for all intents and purposes. The wizard also represents the self from a Jungian perspective and our capacity for wisdom. We can see this represented in Christianity as well when Abram is called to action by God: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing”. The only reason why the Hobbits can peacefully dwell in their shire is because the Strider Aragorn, is patrolling the border. The Strider represents the ancestral figure because he is the descendant of old kings. We are supposed to let go of the old and give rise to the new hero, or the predecessor. King usually represents the culture and order, however if there is too much order and structure imposed than that king becomes a tyrant. Precisely because of that we have to make continual transformations in order to prevent the culture from becoming corrupt as it gets old. That is why we constantly have to live at the place where order and chaos meet.

    The movie Hobbit shares much of the mythology because it is essentially a retelling of Beowulf, the classic hero myth. The overprotected Bilbo is called out to action and he has to face a dragon. The dragon is the archetypal representation of a snake, but in this case, it is a meta-snake because it breathes fire and hoards gold, and also it can fly. The dragon is one of the most common symbols across all mythologies from around the world, because it is the amalgam of our primal fear of predators (snakes and predatory birds). People have an intrinsic fear of snakes, however in order to achieve the gold we have to go out into the unknown or outside the comfort of our shires, and face the fire breathing dragon of chaos. Bilbo is not necessarily someone who looks like a hero, but that is precisely the point. We all share to heroic capacity if proper transformation is undertaken. That can be done if we integrate our shadow according to Jung, which is recognizing our own capacity for malevolence. Bilbo has to become a thief in order to fight the dragon, by doing so he integrates his shadow and becomes aware of his capabilities.

    These are some of the mythological elements that we see in our pop culture and in movies such as Harry Potter, Pinocchio and Lion King as well. And the reason why these archetypes aren`t stale and boring is because they are true, they are us.