Portal Quest Fantasy

 

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king”

(pg 167) (Gandalf in a letter to Frodo about the nature of Strider a.k.a Aragorn)

I want to begin this analysis by saying that this is my personal favorite quote from any LOTR book–it’s plain, it’s beautiful, and it really reveals the character of J.R.R. Tolkien. He was a man who had hope in good things, and the eventual triumph of light versus dark.

“All that is gold does not glitter… Not all those who wander are lost” is the phrase that sticks out to me in this passage. I would say this shows the hopefulness and wonder of Portal Quest fantasy. You could almost imagine these words being in the Hobbit. The poem essentially tells us that heroes come in all shapes and sizes and that their physical appearance isn’t necessarily indicative of the content of their character.

When you think about it, most of the protagonists of Portal Quest are unlikely heroes, from Bilbo to Frodo, to Lucy in the Chronicles of Narnia; these are not characters that you would’ve guessed had it in them to aspire to great deeds of any sort.

I think this is backed up by the style of the poem, which is confident, matter-of-fact, and brimming with wisdom—which makes sense because it’s coming from the mentor figure of our story, and is our guide who we can rely on.

But it also partially relies on Intrusion Fantasy with the phrases like “Deep roots are not reached by the frost” and “A light from the shadows shall spring” as if to suggest that there are evil beings attempting to penetrate the peaceful worlds of the Shire and Rivendell, but that there is overall a power of light at work that keeps them at bay. Darkness is coming on, but there is a failsafe at work to fight back against it. Unlike H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu the intruding force doesn’t get to run rampant through the world it’s invading, there are forces strong enough to push it away.

Which circles back to the “All that is gold does not glitter” and “Not All Those That Wander Are Lost”, it is in the hands of those people, the little folks, the unforeseen heroes that the fate of our future relies on. It’s through their actions that peace will be restored to the land of middle earth.