Lady Goldberry
I recently started reading The Lord of the Rings again. This will be my third run through it. Often enough when you read through something multiple times one part or another will strike you differently each time. As I read through the episode with Tom Bombadil one of the scenes struck me. The poor hobbits had just barely survived an encounter with a murderous tree. They were saved by this mysterious man Tom Bombadil. He takes the hobbits to his home in the woods. As they near the house they hear a sweet song sung with a clear voice that was both young and ancient. Upon entering the house they are flooded with a golden light and a woman who says “Come dear folk! Laugh and be merry. I am Goldberry, daughter of the river.” Then it says that Frodo’s heart was moved with a joy he did not understand, a deep delight that was at once strange and familiar, as he exclaimed “Fair Lady Goldberry!” Honestly, I had completely forgotten about this character of Lady Goldberry. The previous two times I read this story she obviously didn’t leave much of a mark on me. This time was different. I was struck by how Frodo is overwhelmed by her beauty.
I had this on my mind a few weeks ago when I went hiking with my older godson Diego. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton - popular ski resort in the winter, and a great hiking spot in the summer. The trail rises steeply to give you a commanding view of the valley below. Several small lakes fed by the winter snows are all connected on this trail: Lake Martha, Lake Catherine, Lake Mary, and Dog Lake (seems a radical departure from the name theme here, but whatever). Even after a long and very hot summer the place is still very green. Many kinds of flowers dot the landscape. Plenty of squirrels and chipmunks scrambled over the rocks and roots, deer bounded away as we drew near, and the large and immovable moose just stood there and continued munching as we walked by.
When we arrived at Lake Catherine we set down on a log on the shore. The sky reflected perfectly in the glass-like lake. As we watched, the insects came out over the water and the fish had a feast. This wasn’t the first beautiful landscape I have encountered, but the spellbinding effect was the same. After the fact, I begin to think: Why am I content to stare at this landscape for hours? Why do I feel reluctant to turn away? Why does it hurt when I finally do turn away and go back to life as usual? Like Frodo’s experience of Lady Goldberry, there is something overwhelming about beauty. Beauty touches the soul in a way that is captivating and delightful, and yet also stirs a longing and a hurt.
Beauty is obviously attractive. We long for it. It is delightful when we experience it. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato taught that beauty stops us in our tracks and demands our admiration because the beautiful has a sense of completion. There is something about it that is whole and as it should be. When something whole and complete touches our life we are captivated by it.
When something captivates us, we are reluctant to turn away. Still, we must turn away and go back to our lives. Eventually, I had to leave that log on the shore of Lake Catherine. Something about leaving it behind hurt. Beauty captivates us because it shows us something wonderfully complete and whole. It also causes a longing and hurt because it gives a glimpse of what we currently lack, and what we long for deep down – that completeness and wholeness.
Any encounter with true beauty is ultimately a touchstone with God because God is supremely beautiful. All beauty comes from Him because He is by nature whole and complete. Anything beautiful we encounter is a reflection of divine beauty. In the case of something like the landscape, the Book of Wisdom says, “For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.” (Wisdom 13:5 NABRE)
The saints all encountered God’s beauty. They were captivated by it and humbled by it. It may seem odd to us how much the saints talk about their sinfulness. We think “they are saints, how could they be sinful? Certainly, they are not sinners like the rest of us!” They saw their sin more acutely and were hurt by the beauty they encountered because they saw how far they fell short of the goodness and completeness of it. At the same time, the saints had hope because their encounter with beauty was not an experience of something inanimate or lifeless, but an encounter with a person. God is living. In Christ, we see the face of the Father. We can know him and love him. Through that healing love our lives are changed and that longing is fulfilled. I’ll end with the words of St. Augustine in his Confessions. Young Augustine had sought truth, beauty, and goodness in all the wrong places. Finally, he met Christ and found what his heart longed for:
Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.
Thumbnail image: personal photo I took of Lake Catherine near Brighton, Utah
Here is a great article that helped me find the words to describe the effect of beauty, plus other good things I didn’t discuss:
https://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/why-beauty-hurts/
