Lembas, the wafer-like and highly nutritious bread given to the Fellowship as they left Lothlorien, symbolizes perseverance as well as physical, emotional, and spiritual sustenance. Lembas is intended to sustain travelers on long journeys. Accordingly, it strengthens Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas as they run for days on end in a hopeless pursuit of the orcs that kidnapped Merry and Pippin, enabling them to press on in spite of their despair and exhaustion. But it doesn’t just renew their bodily strength—it also gives them mental respite, reminding them of friends, laughter, and happier times. Lembas is also essential for Sam and Frodo’s well-being as they journey through barren lands and the oppressive weight of Sauron’s gaze. When their other food runs out and they have nothing else to keep them alive, they have lembas and its accompanying memories of home and old comforts. In its role of maintaining the spiritual health of the hobbits, lembas is reminiscent of the Christian Eucharist.
Sam, who understands the importance of food for emotional and mental health as well as simple physical sustenance, often urges Frodo to eat a little lembas when he feels particularly despairing. Gollum, who eats only raw flesh, hates the taste of lembas, finding it offensive in its connection to the elves and its association with goodness and happiness. In this way, the lembas also represents the hobbits’ virtue and the refinements that separate them from Gollum and his more animalistic behavior. Sam, who has little trouble remembering the joy of home, becomes tired of eating only lembas until Gollum refuses it, and then finds himself once again appreciative of the taste. Sam, determined to get Frodo home at the end of his quest, carefully rations the lembas, planning to save it for when their need is most dire. He understands that once they leave Ithilien and enter Mordor, the bread—and the reminders of home and spiritual sustenance that it brings—will be scarce.
Lembas Quotes in The Two Towers
The cakes were broken, but good, still in their leaf-wrappings. The hobbits each ate two or three pieces. The taste brought back to them the memory of fair faces, and laughter, and wholesome food in quiet days now far away. For a while they ate thoughtfully, sitting in the dark, heedless of the cries and sounds of the battle nearby.
‘About the food,’ said Sam. ‘How long’s it going to take us to do this job?’
[…]
‘I don’t know how long we shall take to—to finish,’ said Frodo. ‘We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need to give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again?’
‘I’m afraid our journey’s drawing to an end.’
‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’
Lembas Symbol Timeline in The Two Towers
