This week I saw the most startling photograph. It was one of Elijah Wood on the set of LOTR in his street clothes but wearing his Frodo wig. It put to mind this peculiar idea: What if Frodo manifested himself right here and now in this world is this how he would look? In jeans and a casual shirt and sneakers? Like I said, it was a peculiar thought.
Poor Elijah. No wait. Blessed Eljiah! Don't worry about him becoming another Mark Hamil and spending the remainder of his days trying to sort of let go of that Luke Skywalker image. Elijah has had a different experience and I alluded to this a few entries back so this will be a bit redundant but so be it. However, that aformentioned(sp?) photo has set off a swirl of thoughts and even a memory that needs to be written down.
Elijah is blessed. First of all he is a talented actor and has completed more projects in his short 23 years of life than many twice his age. So he is a veteran of that world. But he went to another world and I truly believe had a life-changing experience. He went to Middle-earth also known as New Zealand and became one of the most beloved story characters of the 20th century for something like 18 months of his life at a time when people his age are usually beginning college. He received a different kind of education.
And something happened to him there. He grew up. You can read in interview after interview where he talks about this. He made friends he will keep forever. Sounds like college doesn't it? He lived away from his family for the first time and if the rumor is correct he even had to live without a childhood comfort item--his blanket --for a time. We all need 'blankets' so I have no comment about that. But he grew up.
And he 'became' Frodo. No, it's more than that. He let Frodo into his very being. He had to or else that performance we see on the screen would have been flat. Yes, when the cameras stopped rolling he and his cast mates in their wigs and Hobbit clothes went back to being naughty men with their jokes and silliness but everyday he got up and put on that wig and feet and clothes he took on part of a beloved being that permeated his soul. No doubt about it.
So who am I to state such things about someone with whom I have no relationship? Just someone who has a feeling this is so because I know Frodo can change one even when you just get to know him in a book or on a movie screen. There is no other being on this planet that has come to know Frodo like Elijah. And like I said before--Elijah is blessed.
I imagine that he isn't even fully aware of the ramifications of this yet and as he matures and experiences life, that part of him that still carries around the 'essence' of Frodo will resound more and more. Things like that do as we get older --ahem.
Now I have read lots of 'stuff' about women and fangirls who are just NUTS about Elijah. OHhhh he is soooooo hot! It goes something like that. What can make one nuts about Elijah has to do with Frodo and I think that for some they are responding to Frodo and not so much Elijah. But then it gets all mixed up and off they go angsting away or drooling on their fangirl sites about him.
But it is Frodo that I respond to. No matter where Elijah goes or what he becomes he will always 'have' Frodo inside of him. "And that is a comforting thought".
Comforting most of all I say for Elijah. Frodo will be with him all of his life and to his dying day he will have him along for the glorious ride. He has even said it himself-- "Frodo is my shade." Boy can I relate to that remark. Yes Mr. Baggins, the best Hobbit in the Shire, got into Mr. Wood's very being and he is still there and when you mess with someone as incredible and spiritual as a being conjured up with the powerful words of a master story teller well you are in the grasp, so to speak, of something beyond yourself.
And oh yes Frodo is indeed spiritual. If you don't know what I mean read the books and see for yourself. Like Professor Tolkien himself who never openly preaches his Catholic and Christian beliefs in the trilogy, Frodo is a very spiritual being without it being preached right at you. Some say he is a Christ figure. But that is another topic for another entry.
I met Mr. Wood a few years ago in San Diego. I admit I was a nervous wreck waiting in line with all of the other nervous wrecks too so it was good company. When it was my turn he glanced up at me in a polite manner but he was intent on signing my calendar and moving on to the next person in the long line of nervous wrecks behind me. As I left the table he and Billy Boyd were seated at I said, "Thank you and goodbye Hobbits!" And Elijah looked up at me and laughed and made eye contact. With a laugh in his voice and his azure eyes sparkling he answered with an equally cheerful, "You're welcome! No problem!" What I saw in his eyes was a Hobbit. And that was a"comforting thought" for me and enough to make me feel as if I had just travelled all the way to Middle-earth myself. Yep, no doubt about it--Mr. Frodo resides in the soul and being of this young, talented man and God Bless him for it.
OK OK, I admit I have my moments of falling off the edge about dear Elijah but it always comes back to whom I am really falling in love with again and again --Frodo. And that's the most comforting thought of all.
