Virtue in LOTR - Prudence

Proverbs 1:20 to 2:22 and Gandalf
We have largely ruined the word prudence in these days and we really don’t have anything to put in the place of it. This is the virtue that turns the light on for the other virtues and we don’t have a word for it. Don’t you love this age we live in? This is the virtue or moral character to identify (with knowledge and wisdom) the right action, not just in a general sense but for a specific time and place. All the other virtues can be thought of as subject to prudence. For example, the difference between courage and recklessness can’t be discerned without prudence. The difference between faith and credulity is only discerned by prudence. One other error of these last days is to consider prudence to be inactivity. You might hear someone say, “They are showing excessive prudence” meaning that “they” are too slow to make a decision. It is impossible to show “excessive prudence”. If someone waits too long then they were not prudent. Prudence fits with Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 in finding that for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. Proverbs 1:20 through 2:22 (and in other portions) addresses the importance of wisdom and prudence.

I believe the meaning of the Hebrew word translated wisdom is closer to prudence in the classical sense than simply wisdom. Listen to the following definitions for terms that are typically translated “wisdom” from the Wisdom Literature. The Hebrew word that we translate as wisdom (hakema) combines the knowing, understanding, and timely application and can be thought of as meaning the capacity to understand and so have skill in living. Someone with skill in living clearly has the virtue of prudence in their life.

I don’t think that Tolkien set out to make any particular character exemplify a particular virtue. It is a complex story but often one or more characters form an illustration that provides an illustration of a virtue. Gandalf the Grey is, in my opinion, one of the greatest illustrations of prudence in LOTR. As the Hobbits knew him he was famous for fires, smokes, and lights but “His real business was far more difficult and dangerous, but the Shire-folk knew nothing about it” (LOTR 1.33). Gandalf’s prudence is seen in the transfer of the ring from Bilbo to Frodo, his council to Frodo about the ring,

“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’” (LOTR 1.060)

We need prudence to govern the function of temperance, courage, and justice. Tolkien saw evil as something that takes away and does not give. I think you should think of Saruman in this context. He was actually superior to Gandalf at one time. Gandalf and Saruman are not humans. Within the universe that Tolkien populated … Gandalf and Saruman are “like” angels, not archangels but angels (Maiar). They are creations but they live forever and Saruman’s flirting with evil bled his virtue away. He was imprudent in many of his actions and eventually he became “colorless”. Gandalf the grey became Gandalf the white. White, as you may know, is all colors together in balance. In the end, Saruman the white became Saruman the colorless. In the movie you see Saruman get stabbed and then pierced and killed so they bring a nice closure. Saruman didn’t get that sweet release in the book. In the book Saruman was left in agony at the emptiness delivered by evil and only assassinated late in the book after he took over the Shire.