It is the very climax of the Tolkienian epic, the demise of that great Temptation. Frodo Baggins ascends Mount Doom to throw the One Ring into the fiery depths of the volcano, bringing about its final demise to decapitate the power of Middle Earth’s menace, Sauron.

Yet, despite all expectation, Frodo proclaims “I have come, but I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!”

After a journey that would echo unto the ages, Frodo chose submission over victory. Failure over triumph.

Much popular scholarship on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings focuses on the Christological significance of Frodo Baggins, the chief protagonist – that is, how he functions as an archetype and thereby embodiment of Christ and His saving work.

But unlike Christ, Frodo personally failed at his mission. Christ endured to the very end of His earthly mission. Meanwhile, Frodo submitted to the temptation to give up just as he was about to destroy the One Ring.

What was the purpose of this break in the typical Christ figure story? I cannot get into Tolkien’s brilliant mind, but there is a very telling lesson learnt from Frodo’s failure to endure in his labours.

Eastern Orthodox soteriology can provide a possible answer to the meaning behind Frodo’s fall from grace.

From this understanding, Orthodox Christians believe that the process of salvation is fundamentally synergetic — a product of both the efforts of God and man. This interpretation does not go to either extreme of seeing salvation as a product of solely God on the one hand, nor of solely man on the other. God calls, and man responds to His love. It is never fully one-sided.

St. Paul encapsulates this reality when he writes that:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

Note how St. Paul includes both the efforts of man (work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;) and that of God’s (for it is God who works in you…”). Of course, that is not to say that God and man put an equal amount of effort; God certainly puts in a much more significant portion.

To return to Tolkien’s trilogy, we therefore see more clearly the agency of the hobbit through his personal efforts and use of his own free will; Frodo willingly accepts the call to take the physically tiny, yet mentally burdensome Ring to Mount Doom. This is his cross. Gandalf highlights the significant role of the will in initiating one’s journey to salvation when he states during one conversation with Frodo:

““I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.””

And yet, Tolkien shows that our choices can change, they are never always in one direction. Oftentimes, we lose sight of our destination – the Kingdom of God – as we become distracted and relish in the many temptations we are faced with in this life. Frodo himself lost sight of his final goal of destroying the One Ring by yielding to the temptations of greed and a lust for the power derived from the Ring.

Thus, we are presented with a sobering lesson; inevitably, we may fall into sin on the path to the Kingdom of God.

Simultaneously, though we may fall, it is a matter for us to get back up, repent, go to confession, and keep going on our spiritual journey. Because, as St. Tikhon of Zadonsk once said, “there is more mercy in God than there are sins in us. Confess your sins at once, whatever they may be.”

Consider the contrast between Judas and St. Peter in the Gospels; Both of them fell, the former by betraying Christ, and the latter by denying Him.

However, St. Peter was the one who repented and returned to Christ. Judas, on the other hand, never sought to repent and accept God’s mercy. Let us be like St. Peter.

Therefore, though we may fall seven times, let us get up eight! Let us rise and receive the mercy of God, and use our free will for His glory.