Symbolic and Mythic Expression
in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

The Most Unlikely Person

9/19/2K6

"the most unlikely person imaginable"

-- Gandalf, on Bilbo finding the Ring (Fellowship, p. 65)

There are fine distinctions to be made in symbolic expression.

On the one hand, the finding of the Ring is an expression of supernatural providence.

On the other hand, supernatural providence also finds expression in that it was Bilbo who found the Ring.

An orc would have been a more likely candidate to find the Ring. Orcs after all live underneath the Misty Mountains. Hobbits, however, rarely venture out of their own lands, and their lands are far away from the mountains.

Instead the Ring was found by "the most unlikely person imaginable" (Fellowship, p. 65).

It is possible for an event to be an expression of an idea and for the idea to find expression in the event, both at the same time. The finding of the Ring is an expression of supernatural providence, and supernatural providence finds expression in the finding of the Ring.

On the other hand, sometimes an idea finds expression in an aspect of an event, and yet this aspect of the event is not itself an expression of the idea.

Supernatural providence finds expression in that it was Bilbo who found the Ring. On the other hand, it being Bilbo who found the Ring is not in itself an expression of supernatural providence.

Possibly the determining factor in these differences in symbolic expression is that one is an event, and the other an aspect of the event.

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