The Cross-roads

Sam was watching while Frodo tried to sleep, the day passed slow, since no sun shined. Gollum finally returned after being away for hours. "'Wake up, wake up! Wake up, sleeps!' he whispered. 'Wake up! No time to lose. We must go, yes, we must go at once. No time to lose!'" (p. 310, The Two Towers). Sam was immediately suspicious as Gollum had been reluctant to travel by daylight (granted this was not normal daylight). Frodo wearily followed along and they went with great stealth; although with their Lothlorien cloaks and careful hobbit feet barely anyone would notice the travelers in those conditions.

After about an hour they reached a road with vast ancient trees ahead. Gollum named the spot the Cross-roads and it was where they were headed. As they reached the spot they found the gnarled, massive, ancient trees formed a sort of ring. "In the very centre four ways met. Behind them lay the road to Morannon; before them it ran out again upon its long journey south; to their right the road from old Osgiliath came climbing up, and crossing, passed out eastward into darkness: the fourth way, the road they were to take" (p. 311, The Two Towers). It was a dreadful place not helped by the fact that an ancient Gondorian statue remained, akin to the Argonath, with it's head lopped off.

As Frodo was caught in a moment of despair out of the West the setting sun gleamed underneath the unnatural darkness. "Suddenly, caught by the level beams, Frodo saw the old king's head: it was lying rolled away by the roadside. 'Look, Sam!' he cried, startled into speech. 'Look! The king has got a crown again!' The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed. 'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo'" (p. 311, The Two Towers).

I can't help but wonder if this glimpse of foreshadowing and hope was given to Frodo by the Valar. Frodo is only drawing closer to perilous danger at this point; weary and glum. That bit of light, the focus on the king crowned again (Aragorn); the hope that evil cannot conquer forever. Don't we hope for that same thing? I know I do. It's written in my soul it seems. The injustice, the suffering, and the plain evil in this world. It cannot conquer forever, can it? Perhaps along our journey's were too are given divine signs of hope. No indeed, they cannot conquer forever.

Middle-earth timeline: Third Age, 3019, March 10th
Today's reading comes from: The Two Towers, pages 309-311