Let me say first that this is NOT a review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, rather it’s a drabble inspired by it. I will try to give nothing away except maybe a few overarching plot points that hopefully you figured out in the first movie. I don’t want to spoil the fun for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

Though if you haven’t seen it… seriously, go now, watch! That Dragon is the most brilliantly executed Dragon I’ve ever seen on the big screen.

Well done Peter Jackson, well done.

I’ve always loved The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit stories. Ever since my Dad read them to us as children they’ve caught my imagination. I now, in fact, admire my father for not loosing his voice forever reading us such a massive story. I’m a huge fan of Tolkien, I love the idea that he set out to write a mythology and actually succeeded. Rings fans are some of the first of the major fandoms of the world, and I love being one.

I also admire the talent and skill found over in New Zealand that has brought the stories to life. I’m a fan of Peter Jackson’s vision. I’ve been blown away pretty much ever since I was sitting in the theater for the midnight showing of Fellowship and saw The Shire. I remember thinking, “He totally got into my head and put it up on the screen!” In fact the only place that didn’t look exactly how I imagined it in the Rings movies was Lothlorien, and it was WAY better.

I’ve been to each midnight showing.

So suffice to say, I was pretty excited when my parents offered us some tickets and babysitting so we could see the latest Hobbit at the stroke of midnight.

I dragged myself to bed around 4am with my mind still buzzing from the ending, but also with a kernel of a lesson growing in the workings of my brain.

Lessons can be found all kinds of places if you look. They are like little whispers and love notes from the Father, and they are everywhere if you pay attention. I used to be very aware of them, and one of the joys I’ve found in managing this blog is that I’ve become more and more aware of them again as I look for ideas to generate content.

Anyway, there is a line in the film, I won’t say who says it to whom, suffice to say it’s a bad guy’s line. I don’t remember the exact words but it’s something like:

“There is no light that can penetrate this darkness.”

It immediately struck me as, well, wrong!

Completely and totally incorrect.

Light always penetrates darkness. All you need is a source.

It’s a concept that has been in my mind since childhood. Darkness never “puts out” light, light always “puts out” darkness. In fact, darkness is only the absence of light.

When you light a candle or flip a switch, there is nothing the darkness can do of itself to put that light out. It’s very existence obliterates the darkness. Even if it’s a small light, where that light shines there is no darkness.

Of course I can see how that “darkness” of the world would want us to not realize this fact. Would want us to buy into the idea that our light has no power over it, even though it has all power over it.

So in that sense, it’s a very accurate “bad guy” line for the film.

Darkness does creep in, if we are not vigilant with our light. If we do not tend our light and we let it grow weak we may wake up one day overcome with the darkness in our lives.

In some ways that is the background story going on in The Hobbit.

Purists have been upset that Jackson has been expanding the story to include lots of back story for “Rings” that is not found in Hobbit but only is actually in the appendices for Lord of the Rings. I haven’t minded this fact as in all honestly quite a bit of what he is adding is not “completely new.” Just not mentioned in The Hobbit itself. Tolkien wrote Hobbit first, and then he wrote Rings and added backstory to fit. Jackson has the backstory now, he’s just putting it in where it goes. This has made The Hobbit trilogy into more than just a chronicle of The Hobbit story, but also a set up for the evil we see in Lord of the Rings. An evil that is strong, deadly and ready to take over the world.

Most might not realize that Sauron, the bad guy from Rings, is a very old character in the Middle Earth mythos. He was, in fact, defeated before. So how did he rise to power again? How did the good and wise characters throughout these books allow themselves to be blinded by him as he slowly became a threat that could ultimately destroy them?

Maybe for the same reason a Dragon was attracted to a dwarfish Kingdom and took over a mountain.

The threat of Dragons was known. The fact they were attracted to great wealth was also known. But the dwarves of the lonely mountain didn’t want to listen to the cautions of those around them. Gold and Wealth was their industry, and there was nothing wrong with that, but greed crept in slowly, over time, blinding them to the danger, until they found a Dragon in front of them they could not defeat.

But there is still hope.

Because that darkness line really is wrong.

And if we could just plug in to our source, and stoke the flame, Christ’s light will always defeat the darkness.

No matter what Dragon we may face.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

~Joy Aletheia Stevens

Photo Credit: One Ring to rule them all by I_Believe_ (CC BY 2.0)  

Photo Credit: Red_dragon by Aggiorna  (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo Credit: show me some light. By Md saad andalib (CC BY 2.0)