Days Thirty-Five to Forty-One: We Begin The Two Towers

As I turn to post about our first week reading The Two Towers, I find myself thinking about the physical books themselves. I don’t think I’ve mentioned here that we are doing our family read-aloud with the LOTR paperback set that belonged to my grandmother. These were not her original books – she loved Tolkien for years, and I’m guessing owned older, hardback editions at some point -- but she sold her extensive library off almost completely when she moved to Virginia to live with my family in 1977.  She brought a few beloved books with her, but these paperbacks were gifts to her from my Aunt Janet in 1980.

I know that because on the flyleaf of the first book she’s written, in her beautiful script: “The Lord of the Rings (A Trilogy) Part One: The Fellowship of the Ring” with her name and the date (her 75^th birthday in 1980). She then added “A birthday gift from my very, very dear Janet and Gene.” She went on to write the other part titles in the other books.

I only found out about ten years ago that she used to read aloud from LOTR to my oldest cousin Jeff when he was a kid – he told me he could still remember her Treebeard! I took that to heart and gave Treebeard my very best voice – it was so much fun reading him the other evening. Hrm. Hoom.

I love that I’m reading to S. from her great-grandmother’s copies. I’ve read them to tatters over the years, of course, which means that in some cases pages are literally falling out. It’s a small nuisance compared with the joy of feeling that we’re sharing literary love across the generations.

If you needed any evidence that Tolkien is telling one giant story in six books (divided into three tomes of two books each) the beginning of Two Towers would provide it. He jumps immediately back into the story with Aragorn hunting for the hobbits at Amon Hen. One book melts into the other. There’s no back tracking to fill you in as many “series” books do today.  You’re simply right back into the story without pausing for breath.

And the story plunges immediately into high drama, even tragedy. While Aragorn is still busy searching for the hobbits, he hears the urgent sound of Boromir’s horn and hurries to his side, only to discover that Boromir is dying, felled by an Orc attack. The hobbits have disappeared. As readers, of course, we know that Sam and Frodo have safely escaped, but we must wait to find out the fate of Merry and Pippin while Tolkien gives us a long interlude focused on Boromir, who dies sadly but gracefully (his sacrifice in the hobbits’ honor and his confession to Aragorn assuring that). JRRT then gives space for Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas to mourn their friend and give him a proper send-off in a boat down the river.

I can’t read the scenes about Boromir without remembering an article written by my friend David, which I once reflected on in a blog post here. (It also happens to reflect on similar themes in Harry Potter, fitting since today is Harry's birthday...and the birthday of his author JK Rowling too!)

Tolkien has a challenging narrative task once the Fellowship breaks apart, as he has to find a way to help us, as readers, follow them all. As my smart 12 year old pointed out, this could be accomplished with quick edits in a movie. In the book, Tolkien wisely (I think) gives us long chapters with the smaller groups that have now formed. The beginning of Two Towers has us alternating between Merry and Pippin (first kidnapped by the Orc horde, later meeting up with Treebeard and the Ents in Fangorn) and Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, first chasing after the Orcs, then meeting up with Eomer and the Riders of Rohan. It will be a while (not until book 4, the second book in this volume) before we reconnect with Frodo and Sam, though they’re never far out of our thoughts or the thoughts of their friends.