The Danger of Light and Joy

My family saw Prince Caspian on its opening weekend, but it did not impress me enough to write a reflection. Rather, I have had the following excerpt from Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring laying about for over a year. This scene, from "Farewell To Lórien," was not included in the movie version, although it can be found on extended DVDs. As he and his new friend Legolas are paddling away from the Elf realm, Gimli the dwarf is overcome with what he is leaving behind: the beauty of Galadriel, the elf-queen (Cate Blanchett in the movie). Galadriel is "that which was fairest" in the excerpt:

"The travellers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.

'I have looked the last upon that which was fairest,' he said to Legolas his companion. 'Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift.' He put his hand to his breast.

'Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!'

'Nay!' said Legolas. 'Alas for us all! And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. But I count you blessed, Gimli son of Glóin: for your loss you suffer of your own free will, and you might have chosen otherwise. But you have not forsaken your companions, and the least reward that you shall have is that the memory of Lothlórien shall remain ever clear and unstained in your heart, and shall neither fade nor grow stale.'

'Maybe,' said Gimli; 'and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless; yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream. Not so for Dwarves.'"

Once Gimli had experienced beauty itself, which Galadriel represents in Tolkien's epic, nothing else satisfies. The "danger of light and joy" means all other shadows of true Beauty only make him long for Beauty itself, which he now has only in unsatisfying memory. The elements of reality that he formerly found beautiful and satisfying now seem dull and dingy.

It does not surprise me that this scene was left out of the theatrical release because it is impossible to portray the beauty of Galadriel --despite Blanchett's stunning features -- as it was perceived by Gimli. The audience may have mistaken Gimli's longing lament -- for the One -- for a baser human desire.

Perhaps this scene reflects the difficulty of expressing the experience of the source of Beauty. Human analogies and likenesses (e.g., a bush burning but not being consumed, a brightness no bleaching agent can achieve) do not convince those who have not experienced Beauty, whereas, for those who have had a glimpse, every likeness is pale, dreary, unsatisfying.

The human person is prone to choose lesser beauties over the source of all Beauty, but this choice becomes all the more difficult when one has experienced the Source. Not only does the likeness not satisfy, nothing satisfies but the One. That is Gimli's "danger of light and joy." [5.21.08]