Tolkien and Heroism

i alluded previously, briefly, to my interest in what makes Tolkien's heros heroic. of course, it is easy to see what in the protagonists of Lord of the Rings, but most of the history of Middle Earth is much darker than this. as i gradually work my way through Silmarillion, what seems a painfully obvious point occurred to me: they all fight for something greater than themselves. the tragic heros, such as Feanor and even Melkor, are those who cause division and strife for their own ends. even those who seem to fail, however--what Gandalf will later describe to Frodo as a time of "sorrow . . . and gathering dark, but great valour, and great deeds that were not wholly vain." (bk.1, chp. 2) it does not seem high praise, but perhaps takes greater valour than we can understand in our self-bound age, a sort of courage that holds the self as little or naught and the goal as everything. it is a sort of valour, indeed, which none but a Christian could fully understand--to face death boldly, to lose everything, and yet not for self-gain. or, to paraphrase Chesterton, the soldiers of Christ go singing gaily in the dark. for it is also true that only in sorrow and gathering dark can the light of great deeds shine forth.
to be continued . . .