A busy week has put me several days behind in my posting,
but we’ve been reading along at a good clip and are actually nearing the end of
Fellowship. Though I’m sorry I’ve not kept up with the daily
discipline of reflecting on our reading, in some ways, it’s also enjoyable to
reflect on several days’ worth, especially when the chapters read are so very
different from one another.
I often think of Tolkien as the master of description. There
is something beautifully precise and careful about the way he weaves together
his narrative. Although you trust that he knows his plot through and through,
and will carry the story through exactly as it needs to go, you never sense he
is in a hurry to rush to the finish-line or sees any moment as superfluous,
even if it doesn’t seem to immediately serve the needs of his plot. That
languorous but purposeful pacing doesn’t seem to work for all readers, although
those of us who love Tolkien love him for it.
With all that said, there are moments when you realize he
can also beautifully pace a tense, dramatic scene, and “The Bridge of
Khazad-Dum” is one of those places. My husband thinks it’s one of Tolkien’s
best chapters anywhere, and I think he may be right. Certainly it is a pure joy
to read, building tension step by painful step as we traverse with the
Fellowship through the darkness of Moira, Gandalf in the lead, the light of his
staff shimmering as he leads them ever onward, trying to remember the twists
and turns of this deep and ancient place.
What makes it all even more ominous is that Tolkien gives
us, early in the chapter, a broken glimpse of what happened to Balin and his
compatriots. Given that they’ve just discovered Balin’s tomb, it’s unnerving
when Gandalf finds some torn and faded pages scribbled with writing, which he
attempts to decipher so they can hear the story of what happened. The company
learns, to their sorrow and horror, that Orcs had descended upon Balin and his
faithful companions. The story that Gandalf pieces together, in broken bits and
pieces, recalls terrible drumming sounds in the deeps of Moria, a sound the
Fellowship is sickened to hear not long after Gandalf finishes reading.
Reading the recurring “doom, DOOM!” in a relentless, booming
way (getting a little louder as I went) lent music and suspense to the chapter
(and made my husband give me a big thumbs up at the end). Lest we miss the
ominous notes of the written history: “they are coming,” and “we cannot get out,”
JRRT has Gimli and Legolas repeat those very words just a few minutes later, as
the Fellowship realizes they are trapped. It looks as though history is about to repeat itself.
Blessedly, the company has Gandalf with them. His
determination that they will survive, and his willingness to face the ancient
terror of the Balrog, is inspiring. The chase across the bridge makes your
heart hammer. I read “Fly, you fools!” with my best wizarding roar. Then the
bridge cracked and plunged Gandalf into darkness and the rest of our heroes
fled.
S. has heard us talk about LOTR so much already that she has
an inkling that Gandalf will return, plus I confess I slipped and said
something fairly definitive. Still, she’s read enough good stories (many of
which echo Tolkien) that I don’t think this was a terrible spoiler. My favorite
comment from her in this chapter was when she astutely observed that, knowing
Tolkien, he probably wrote the entire history of Balin and company and only
gave us little tidbits of it in the disintegrating journal.
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