About Inspiration after a Battle Won but the War not yet

This is my August follow-up post for LOTR Read-Along hosted by Lorren at The Story Girl. It includes SPOILERS.

I read to the end of Book Five. This is the part when events slowly start to resolve, the truth about many things comes out, and the characters prove their strength. Though this part is quite dark, Tolkien is a master of juxtaposing the horror and suffering side by side with nobility, gracefulness and beauty. He transfers the reader into the midst of the Battle of the Pelennor fields just as easily as enabling the reader listening to a small talk of an elderly woman in the Houses of Healing.

There is a lot of inspiration for leading a good, moral, brave life in the LOTR, and these six chapters are no exception. In Denethor Tolkien portrays a politician whose main goal is to keep his position of authority at all costs. I can see many of today’s politicians in him – just struggling for power and not doing the job entrusted to them, which would be taking care of what is good for the people.

Aragorn, on the other hand, presents the very opposite. He is primarily concerned about stopping Sauron and saving the people from suffering. He puts the benefit of others before his own. Thus, he does not want to start strife over the rule of Gondor while they still have to fight Sauron. He postpones claiming his rights until after the war if it ends favourably, in order to bring his allies together and try to ensure a better future for the people of the Middle Earth.

Besides Aragorn, another character worth looking up to is Eówyn. As a woman in a patriarchal society, Eówyn is pushed into the background. She is supposed to sit at home, take care of the household, and wait for the men to return. But she has “a spirit and courage at least the match” of men, so she goes out there and does great deeds. She does not let herself be told what she can or cannot do. She shows it is worth fighting for what you believe you can do and that we should not let other people discourage us from doing what we feel we are able to do.

There could be a lot more said about these final chapters of book five, but I think the above are the most important things. I said it many times, also in previous posts, what an inspiration the LOTR is for me. What about you? What in the LOTR inspires you in your life? Or, if not the LOTR, is there any other book that inspires you living as best as you can and achieving what you want?