Days Forty-Two to Fifty-Two: Friends Well-Met, Battles Well-Fought, and the Taking of Isengard

We spent eleven days moving on through the rest of book III, the first half of The Two Towers. S. was delighted to discover that “The White Rider” of chapter 5 was none other than Gandalf, miraculously back from his battle beneath the earth with the Balrog. I never get over my delight in that either, no matter how many times I re-read LOTR. I always feel like I breathe easier when Gandalf is back.

The Men of Rohan are not so sure about Gandalf and his intentions. They call him “Gandalf Stormcrow” and say that his presence among them does not bode well, that he is always riding just ahead of the storm. Of course, they and their King, Theoden, have been listening long to the insidiously evil words of Grima, otherwise known as Wormtongue (“sort of like Wormtail!” S. cried, immediately recognizing one of JKR’s literary debts). It takes Gandalf coming among them again, now Gandalf the White, to wake their king from the kind of evil dream he’s been mired in since Grima became his counselor. It’s wonderful to see Theoden reawaken to life and truth and hope, and to see Grima unmasked for what he really is.

It’s also wonderful that two-thirds of the original Fellowship is now back together. Boromir is dead, and Sam and Frodo have passed out of the help of the others for now, but the other six finally gather together in Isengard, where Gandalf rides with the Rohirrim. What Tolkien doesn’t tell us right away (though he hints at it early, and then unpacks more fully later) is that Gandalf has already come across Merry, Pippin, and the Ents. In fact, the whole reason Gandalf is willing to ride toward Isengard, Saruman’s stronghold, is because he knows the Ents have been busy there.

Before we get there, however, we stop for the Battle of Helm’s Deep. This is one of those places in the narrative where I find myself influenced by the visuals of the Peter Jackson films, whose digital magic invests Helm’s Deep with thousands upon thousands of what JRRT might term fell warriors. Although I think Jackson overdoes it here (as elsewhere) you can at least understand how he was inspired to make this such an epic battle. There do seem to be Orcs and evil men everywhere, climbing the walls and laying siege to the deep. The men of Rohan and our other heroes are hard pressed before they manage to win the day, with the help of some Huorns (living trees). Gimli lops the heads off of forty-two Orcs before all is said and done, and Legolas kills almost as many with his bow.

Battle just seems to draw the two of them into closer friendship than ever. By the time book III is done, they will have made a promise to go together to a place each longs to see if they actually survive the ongoing war. Legolas longs to see the beauty of Fangorn, which they must hurry by on their way to Isengard, and Gimli is so moved by the brief glimpses he has of the caverns of Helm’s Deep that he waxes eloquent for a whole page. I tend to read Gimli with a very gruff tone (trying to keep in mind that he’s a softie at heart) and I found this page taxing, since Gimli is prone to growling out good one-liners. I loved him for it though. One of my favorite elements of Gimli’s character is how his rough exterior belies an extraordinarily sensitive response to beauty wherever he truly sees it – whether that’s in unexpected places like Lothlorien, where no dwarves go, or the familiar dwarvish depths of caverns.

Getting back to Merry and Pippin made my heart sing. They bring such light and levity even to grave proceedings – hobbits have a way of doing that, just by being their ordinary selves. I love the picture Tolkien gives us of the two of them lying with their arms behind their heads, smoking pipeweed on the “edge of ruin” – they sit and take their ease even with the destruction of Isengard all around them, the Ents still busy un-damming rivers and streams, and Saruman holed up like a rat in a trap. The chapter where they serve breakfast (or second breakfast) to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas is one of my favorites. The three elder companions are thankful to have found their little friends again, and astonished, I think, by how much they’ve grown – literally (those Ent-draughts are powerful!) and figuratively.

From a read-aloud point of view, I liked getting back to Merry and Pippin’s voices. Which leads me to wonder: how do you read your hobbits? My Frodo voice is high and calm, ethereal. I always picture Frodo thinking deep, high thoughts, even while doing something ordinary like washing dishes. My Sam voice is folksy, quick, and a touch anxious. I read Merry in a typically cheerful voice, measured and even – he tends to pace his words carefully, as though weighing them a bit before speaking them out loud. Pippin’s prone to outbursts – I read him even quicker than Sam, a tad impatient, and even sometimes whiny. I think of the four hobbits, he’s closer to adolescent insecurity.

Will all these heroic folks, big and small, survive? It’s a near thing at Isengard. Saruman still has enough power left that he almost sways his listeners with his persuasive voice. He’s backed into a corner though, and his quick about-faces when faced with different responses and pressures shows his true colors. I’m reminded of JKR again, and how her boggarts are disarmed when they face a whole room full of people because they don’t know what to shape-shift into next, what form to take to try to frighten the ones they face. Saruman is like that here – you can practically sense him thinking, “do I play powerful wizard offering counsel? kindly but defeated old man in need of help?” etc. Theoden shows surprising strength in seeing through Saruman’s guises, and Gandalf does as well, finally unmasking him in front of all

Pippin’s brush with the Palantir is important: it adds suspense to these final scenes in book III, it helps us know how Saruman and Sauron have been communicating (no walkie-talkies or tin cans on strings for these two!) and it sets up the separation of Pippin from Merry, since Gandalf decides to take Pippin when he rides on to Gondor. More growth is ahead for both of these gentle hobbits, but before we can learn about that, we need to turn back to Sam and Frodo. Which we do, with book IV.