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.