April 9, 2003

Strange Ideas About Pippin Dying!
Danny

I think it is a very far stretch in deed to say that Gimli's account of finding Pippin is to be interpeted that he was dead but then revived. I see how it can be interped that way, but I feel that it is more likely that when Gimli "made sure you[Pippin] were dead" he failed to detect a heart beat that was too faint. Certainly, Aragorn was a King and healer, but neither he nor Gandalf ever was given the power of the Valar over death.

A few things really stick out to me. First off, if Gandalf or Aragorn could revive the dead, Eowyn's danger in the House of Healing would have been trivial, same with Merry's. Faramir's sickness also would not have been a big issue because they could have just revived him. Tolkien is not likely to give any character an ability like that which would trivialize key events in the story. The peril the characters face in the whole story would be so diminished to make the book laughable. After all what would it matter if so and so dies? Gandalf or Aragorn (take your pick) can just revive them. If Aragorn could revive the dead, what superior healing power could Elrond have that would drive Aragorn to Rivendel to save Frodo in the first book? The context Gimli brings up the whole tail of finding Pippin was in his talk of how the hands of a king are the hands of a healer. That seems to indicate that Aragorn healed a nearly dead Hobbit, but not that he revived a dead one. Healer and reviver are vastly different.

You may argue that the passing of the Shadow allowed for greater power for good, and that might work, but I still feel it is a bit of a stretch.

So I see how that interpetation can be taken, but I also beleive that interpetation to be entirely out of harmony with Tolkien. The cost of battle against evil was something Tolkien was all too familiar with. I don't beleive he would trivialize that in his book and create a synthetic happy-ever-after by reviving a main character if they were to die. So there is my opinion. Perhaps this will generate some interesting discussions that don't talk about our support or frustration over the movie (which I beleive has been beat to the ground.)