Hamlet, Footwashing, Maundy Thursday, Hobbits, and Revelation
Echoes of Maundy Thursday in Hamlet (and Hobbits): [Image: Screen capture from YouTube clip of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), directed by Peter Jackson, Warner Bros. based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien. Fair use.] [UPDATED 26 March, 2026] Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday, 2 April, 2026) begins what the Catholic Church calls the Triduum (Paschal or Easter Triduum). “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for “command,” so Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin words once used at the opening of the Thursday service during Holy Week, and the gospel in which Jesus commands his disciples to love and serve others as he loved and served them. It includes a ritual remembrance of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:1–17), with Jesus “New Commandment” to love and serve, an idea used by (sometimes antisemitic) Christians to differentiate from the Ten Commandments of Moses. [1] There are echoes of this in Hamlet 1.2, when Horatio enters, he has t...