I am rereading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings many years after my last reading. At the front of the copy, on 11 Jan 2002 I wrote:
“Do we Orc-hestrate our wars? We are the Fellowship and our enemies are the Orcs. We slaughter hundreds of them without qualm and bury with great honor the few of us who suffer more than scratches. See p. 58.”
On p. 58 I bracketed:
‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends...'
Gandolf gave this response to Frodo’s condemnation of Gollum who is “as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.”
