Brian Hoelscher

 

Tolkien’s Six Keys to Happiness

 

1. Delight in Simple Things
• Hobbits live uncomplicated, rustic lives
• Elves enjoy simple things

                                                         i.      Watching the stars

                                                       ii.      Songs and stories

·        David G. Myers said

                                                         i.            Fit and healthy body

ii.                   Positive self-esteem

iii.                  Feelings of control over our lives and our time

iv.                 Optimism

v.                   Outgoingness

vi.                 Challenging and meaningful work

vii.                Adequate opportunities for rest and leisure

viii.              Intimate and supportive relationships

ix.                 A focus beyond self

x.                   Spiritual commitment that entails hope, a sense of purpose, and communal support and service

·        Similar to Develop an Honest Heart

2. Make Light of Your Troubles

·        Hobbits have an amazing power of recovery, the ability to make light of their troubles

·        Hobbits might sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table(Two Towers, p. 178)

·        Sam looks at a star that gives him hope during the mission to destroy the ring (Return of the King, p 211)

·        Marcus Aurelius said, “because life is short, sufferings are temporary

3. Get Personal
• Hobbits are so hospitable that they don’t lock their doors at night (Fellowship of the Ring, p 111)
• Sam, Merry, and Pippin insist on accompanying Frodo on his quest, unconcerned with the dangers
• Frodo decides to continue the mission alone because he is worried that his friends will get hurt
• Aristotle’s views on friendship

                                                         i.      Close relationships important to psychological development

                                                       ii.      Recent studies confirm this

·        The happiest university students are those who feel satisfied with their love life

·        Those who enjoy close relationships cope better with various stresses, including bereavement, job loss, and illness

·        College alumni who preferred a high income and occupational success to having very close friends and a close marriage were twice as likely as their former classmates to describe themselves as “fairly” or “very” unhappy

·        People report greater well-being if their friends and families support their goals by frequently expressing interest and offering help and encouragement

·        Asked, “What is necessary for your happiness?” most people mention-before anything else-satisfying close relationships with family, friends, or romantic partners

4. Cultivate Good Character
• One of Tolken’s goals was to “encourage good morals”

                                                         i.      Happy characters have good ends, unhappy characters have bad ends

·        Sam, Aragorn, Faramir(in the books, not movies), and Gandalf are happy

·        Gollum, Saruman, Wormtoungue, and Denethor are unhappy

                                                       ii.      In real life some happy people are not good and some unhappy people are not bad

·        Goodness is neither a “necessary” nor a “sufficient” condition for being happy

a.       But there is a strong connection between happiness and goodness

·        Rabbi Harold Kushner

                                                      iii.      When Bad Things Happen to Good People

·        Humans have a need to be good

5. Cherish and Create Beauty
• Happiness and beauty are linked just as happiness and goodness
• Rivendell and Lothlórien are places of light and great beauty
• Mordor, Orthanc, and Minas Morgul are dark and ugly
• Unhappy characters usually physically ugly

                                                         i.      Gollum, orcs

·        Happy characters usually beautiful or at least pleasant in appearance

i.                     Galadriel, Frodo

·        Ugliness enervates and depresses, while beauty inspires and refreshes

·        “We make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker”-J.R.R. Tolkien

·        similar to wonder and awe, most projects were about things the person saw as a thing of beauty, their own Rivendell if you will

6. Rediscover Wonder
• Tom Bombadil

                                                         i.      No desire of domination or possession

                                                       ii.      Ring has no affect on him

• Unlike humans elves are not as easily afflicted by ennui, or boredom, they have an almost unending appetite for what they love
• Tolkien wants us to learn from the elves and have a freshness of vision, a sensory reawakening similar to Frodo’s when he arrives in Cerin Amroth
• This is similar to the five steps to critical thinking, look for different perspectives, if you look at something from someone else’s view point, it might be less boring, and a way to combat the ennui in your life

 

Most of this information was taken from Gregory Bassham’s The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, Chapter four: Tolkien’s Six Keys to Happiness