Latest / Mythmakers / Root and Twig - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 4

Transcript

Root and Twig - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 4 · Mythmakers

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
• 0:12
  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding and
• 0:19
  we are continuing our series today where we take an author's journey through the Lord
• 0:25
  of the Rings and we have reached chapter four in book three that's in the two towers and
• 0:31
  the chapter rather gives away its content because it's called Treebeard. Now if you turn to this
• 0:37
  chapter you'll notice that it is amongst one of the longer ones that Tolkien wrote. It covers a lot
• 0:44
  of ground both in terms of how far they walk but also what happens in it. It's stuffed full of
• 0:52
  events. So I've broken it down into six main parts not of equal length so the first part is
• 1:01
  seeing Mary and Pippin on their own having escaped into Fangorn Forest. The second part is their
• 1:08
  meeting with Treebeard and going to stay with him. The third part which I've separated out is the
• 1:13
  talk they have with him because we get a lot of the history of the ends it's quite a long
• 1:19
  piece in this chapter and then the fourth part is the Entmute and the debate there. The fifth
• 1:27
  part is the the little stay that they have sort of on their own whilst the Entmute goes on with
• 1:35
  Brego Ladd who is the Hastie Ent and the last part is the March on Eisenguard where they move
• 1:45
  through the forest to reach Eisenguard. So do you remember that the very first sentence in the
• 1:51
  two towers was incredibly short it was like two two words? Look in contrast to the first line of this
• 2:00
  chapter because it's a very long sentence indeed I'll just read it to you. Meanwhile the hobbits
• 2:07
  went with as much speed as the dark and tangled forest allowed following the line of the running
• 2:14
  westward and up towards the slopes of the mountains deeper and deeper into Fangorn. So a long
• 2:22
  sentence and what seems to be going on here I think is that we are being wound into Fangorn
• 2:30
  in that sentence structure so it's very different from the short sharp sentences where we're running
• 2:35
  and following and hunting this is we are wandering in and in a way getting lost and this is what
• 2:43
  books and prose can do in a way that films can't. So if you remember the film version of this if
• 2:51
  you've seen that it's all very rapid because they're keeping up the tension of the battle
• 2:57
  Mary and Pippin run into the forest they're pursued by I suppose Grishnark and he's then stamped on
• 3:06
  by Treebid and off they go. This we have a run into actually getting settled in Fangorn
• 3:14
  and it's also very much not the atmosphere of a studio set the limitations on filming meant
• 3:20
  the Fangorn of Peter Jackson's films was all in a large sound stage I'd love to see a
• 3:27
  filmic version of this where they actually use a real forest but that probably will happen one day
• 3:32
  but this is what books can do it can build the atmosphere we don't have to rush from event to
• 3:37
  event and we can really get to get a sense of the landscapes of Middle Earth. Note that we also get
• 3:45
  more about our characters when we see them in new settings locations can have a character of their
• 3:54
  Fangorn is this old bearded forest we've had the image of them like the first people seeing the
• 4:03
  first dawn in the previous chapter here their childlike aspect is and their youthfulness is
• 4:11
  emphasised by seeing them doing such things as dabbling their sore feet and legs and peering around
• 4:19
  at the trees that stood silently about them what you notice on a reread because remember
• 4:25
  there a book is so different when you first read it to the rereading it's like knowing the end
• 4:31
  of a murder mystery the second time through is very different and this is the case here that we know
• 4:37
  it is significant that they're drinking from this river and they are feeling a lot better as a
• 4:43
  result and no doubt growing an inch or two anyway it's their conversation here that I wanted to
• 4:49
  highlight there is a shy reference here where Pippin talks about the forest as it reminds me somehow
• 4:55
  the old room in the great place of the tukes a way back in the smiles at tuckbra a huge place
• 5:05
  where the furniture has never been moved or changed for generations we don't actually visit
• 5:13
  the tukes house at all it's referenced but we are getting a sense of Pippin's background
• 5:20
  and he is thinking of the oldest thing he knows which is the this great room which is associated
• 5:27
  with the old tukes who is characterised as a sort of benign mishavisham mishavisham from great
• 5:34
  expectation wandering around getting old in the room as he grew old but of course the what this
• 5:43
  really ghost point out is the hobbit's yardstick is so much shorter than everybody else's that the
• 5:51
  old tukes someone who billboca remember so it's within living memory and that's the oldest thing he
• 5:59
  can come across whereas we know that tree bit or we get to know that tree bit is one of the oldest
• 6:05
  living creatures in middle earth so eons old and then another stylistic thing here just to point out
• 6:13
  if you want to describe a place why not give the description to one of the characters so we've got
• 6:20
  Pippin saying look he's saying it ostensibly to Mary but we also look look at all those weeping
• 6:28
  trailing beards and whiskers of liking that image has been used before but we keep hearing that
• 6:34
  note played which is preparing us for meeting the creature who is very much like an old bearded man
• 6:40
  with his liking so we are being the breadcrums are being led along to the next meeting Pippin also
• 6:48
  characterises it as the opposite of spring he says that it's I can't imagine what spring would
• 6:56
  look like here if it ever comes if you remember where we are on the timeline we are actually on
• 7:01
  the verge of spring so presumably there is a spring in fangoon but he also says there are no animals
• 7:07
  and that's quite an interesting point that it seems as though the animals have almost been crowded
• 7:13
  out by the trees there is a mention of animals later but we never actually see any so it does feel
• 7:19
  intensely tree-ish place rather than a forest as we would know it where animals actually flourish
• 7:26
  and Mary in fact says the thing about the tree-ishness this is just him and frightfully
• 7:31
  tree-ish so he is the one who points out that there are no animals here anyway so they move on
• 7:36
  from there by the happenstance of the sun almost spotlighting away forward you never quite know
• 7:42
  in middle earth it's if it's just luck or if there is something more intentional guiding them
• 7:47
  I mean obviously there's a narratorial intention by the author but there is also powers
• 7:53
  at work as we are being told by the characters they go and climb the hill up to the ledge where there
• 7:59
  is just one old stump of a tree with two branches left one thing I want you to highlight here
• 8:08
  again this is I've mentioned this several times in this journey that there are there are bits in
• 8:15
  the book which are sort of unremarkable like nobody's favorite passages but yet when you
• 8:20
  find them you think wow that's just such beautiful written and I think the passages which aren't
• 8:26
  touched by film versions are even nicer as a result and this is one of them here so this rock
• 8:35
  ledge that they climb up is given a very specific description and this is the hallmark of Tolkien's
• 8:42
  landscapes it's not just a green hill he gives it absolutely he's seeing something in his mind
• 8:49
  and he is relaying that to you so here we go the ground was rising steeply still and it was
• 8:57
  becoming increasingly stony the light grew broader as they went on and soon they saw that there
• 9:02
  was a rock wall before them the side of a hill or the abrupt end of some long route thrust out
• 9:08
  by the distant mountains no trees grew on it and the sun was falling full on its stony face
• 9:15
  the twigs of their trees at its foot were stretched out stiff and still as if reaching out
• 9:22
  to the warmth where all had looked so shabby and gray before the wood now gleamed with rich
• 9:28
  browns and with the smooth black graze of bark like polished leather the bowls of the trees
• 9:35
  glowed with a soft green like young grass early spring or a fleeting vision of it was about them
• 9:42
  so I think the learning point here that I take from it is never throw away a place always make it
• 9:50
  something where it is very clearly defined and a place you could walk into so that the readers feel
• 10:00
  that you know exactly what you're doing because these little touches these deaf touches
• 10:05
  of these unremarkable places is what adds up to the entirety of the enchantment of Bidlerth
• 10:11
  and we have another of these quintessentially Tolkienian moments where they stand together
• 10:17
  and look back out across the heads of the forest they're now up the hill and we get the famous
• 10:24
  line here once they're up there where Pippin is unintentionally rude as they're looking back out
• 10:33
  across the forest this shaggy old forest looks so different in the sunlight I almost felt I liked
• 10:39
  the place unfortunately he's saying that in the hearing of his host right so now we get the
• 10:47
  introduction of Tree Bid let's just pause at that point and think about ends what are ends where
• 10:54
  they come from well I think it's worth following Tolkien's own journey about ends he would have come
• 11:01
  across the word in Old English poetry where ends were regarded as giants the creatures that you
• 11:11
  might have to battle if you were sagawane out in in the in the wilds so they weren't necessarily
• 11:18
  a benign force at all remember the Old Bang Willow we've already had a kind of almost entished tree
• 11:25
  not quite a full ent but on the spectrum and when he first started writing this story
• 11:34
  the very very first thoughts was that Tree Bid was in fact and I found this quite shocking when
• 11:42
  I came across it in Michael White's biography but here you go Tree Bid was originally thought of
• 11:49
  as a hostile figure who imprisoned Gandalf and it wasn't Saruman who did that so they're hard to
• 11:57
  imagine because I've always thought that Tree Bid was in fact one of the best at heart characters
• 12:04
  but he started his journey on the other side of the heroes and villains sheet but was relocated
• 12:13
  as the role of the Saruman Wizard developed and I suppose also in contrast to the mechanized
• 12:22
  ruined landscapes because he stands for the forests and the old world so Tolkien moved away
• 12:29
  from that very first thought and it shows you how as a writer do question your first thoughts
• 12:37
  but they're good to have because it's from that where you go so well no that's wrong that response
• 12:43
  is where your story starts so it's interesting to see the workings of Tolkien at this point
• 12:50
  and we also get very clear impression that one thing that has remained from that initial idea of
• 12:57
  them being powerful enough to hold on to Gandalf is that they are more powerful than they seem
• 13:05
  and they are not to be underestimated this is one of my favorite introductions of a character
• 13:13
  in Lord of the Rings because well basically Tree Bid is sassy he starts with sarcasm so I almost
• 13:22
  felt you like the forest that's good yeah I roll or equivalent or integer equivalent
• 13:29
  and he comes back or claps back with I almost feel that I dislike you both but do not let us
• 13:39
  be hasty so wonderfully comic but also characterful introduction he is described as a 14 feet high
• 13:49
  which is a decent size but not overly tall for a tree and we'll pause here for the actual
• 13:57
  description because I love the toes Tolkien's good on feet isn't he whether it that tree
• 14:05
  bid was clad in staff like green and gray bark or whether that was its hides was difficult to say
• 14:12
  at any rate the arms had a short distance from the trunk were not wrinkled but covered with
• 14:17
  the brown smooth skin the large feet have seven toes each the lower part of the long face was
• 14:24
  covered with a sweeping gray beard but she almost triggered the roots thin and mossy at the ends
• 14:32
  but at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes this is where I think the realization
• 14:38
  of Tree Bid wasn't bad in the Peter Jackson version it's so hard because sometimes
• 14:45
  their characters work better in the half realized world of the imagination
• 14:52
  you can be a little bit indefinite like that description was it it's hide or was it bark
• 14:59
  I think they did a very good job particularly with the beard with the twiggy bits near the
• 15:03
  the base of it and the eyes of course I'm trying to delete from my head the filmic version of this
• 15:15
  and try and see what Tolkien was saying and I think where was supposed to rest most and put our
• 15:21
  concentration is the eyes and there's an interesting second description here where
• 15:30
  Tolkien turns to a later memory from Pippin one of the things this does is that we know
• 15:38
  the hobbits survive in order to give this account so a little bit of jeopardy is taken out by this
• 15:45
  but it's fine I think because it does seem a story well where at least some of the hobbits will
• 15:50
  survive but the description of the eyes is very long but also very thoughtful of course
• 15:57
  one felt this is Pippin and Pippin is suddenly finding this poetic register that we haven't heard
• 16:03
  from him before one felt as if there was an enormous well behind them filled up with ages of memory
• 16:10
  and long slow steady thinking but their surface was sparkling with the present
• 16:18
  like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree or on the ripples of a very deep lake
• 16:25
  I don't know but it felt as if something that grew in the ground asleep you might say or
• 16:30
  just feeding itself as something between root tip and leaf tip between deep earth and sky
• 16:35
  had suddenly waked up and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to
• 16:42
  its own inside affairs for endless years a wonderful description of an ent and a suggestion of
• 16:49
  what a mature Pippin will be like because that doesn't seem like the Pippin of the early days of
• 16:58
  this book so one of the famous stories about tree bid is that in a way he is C. S. Lewis in the book
• 17:09
  the poor homage to his presence in the book the inklings often put each other in their books
• 17:16
  and C. S. Lewis's booming voice was something that Tolkien was trying to capture with the
• 17:23
  homes of tree bid I have completely the wrong voice for tree bid so I won't insult you by
• 17:29
  trying to do it you did a nice deep vape bass voice for this I don't think it is meant that
• 17:36
  it's not like the professor for example in Nania or someone like that this is just meant as
• 17:43
  almost like an inside joke where everybody would chuckle knowingly that jack's voice
• 17:49
  was being sent up a little with his poetry and his prollyx way of talking so we'll just do the nod
• 17:58
  and then we'll put C. S. Lewis to one side he's not suddenly become a tree in the book it's nothing
• 18:03
  as close as that so now we enter the conversations with tree bid and the conversations happen first
• 18:10
  of all while standing still and then on the move so the first part of that conversation is where
• 18:17
  we get the first of the poems and tree bid who has not had the experience of meeting a hobbit
• 18:24
  before he's not so proud that he won't go back to what sounds like a learning rhyme the kind of
• 18:31
  thing that you might have learned at school by wrote to enumerate I don't know kings and queens
• 18:37
  of England or something here he's doing it for the different species and the division in the
• 18:44
  list is that sentient creatures who have speech that kind of creature get a whole line
• 18:52
  whereas non-speaking creatures get half a line so dwarf the Delva darker his houses
• 19:02
  versus beaver the builder back the leaper so when the hobbits hear this they quickly work out
• 19:11
  what's going on what the code of this learning poem is and pipping rapidly comes back with
• 19:18
  half grown hobbits the whole dwellers and this is part of the well it instantly earns tree
• 19:26
  bids approval because he likes the idea of living in a hole but it also shows the nature of these
• 19:33
  creatures that he's just met to leap ahead of him but he's not slow himself he is very cunning
• 19:44
  and he's very I think probably the difference is he's very methodical if you know someone
• 19:49
  in your life who will not be rushed that is a tree beardish quality so maybe that will help you
• 19:55
  put up with it in future. Warning the following zipper cruder radio spot you are about to hear
• 20:00
  is going to be filled with efforts. When you're hiring we at zipper cruder know you can feel
• 20:05
  frustrated for lore and even like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to
• 20:11
  find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately zipper
• 20:17
  cruder figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try zipper cruder for free at
• 20:22
  zipper cruder dot com slash zip with zipper cruder you can forget your frustrations because we
• 20:28
  find the right people for your roles fast which is our absolute favorite effort. In fact
• 20:34
  four out of five employers who post on zipper cruder get a quality candidate within the first
• 20:38
  day. Fantastic so whether you need to hire four 40 or 400 people get ready to meet first
• 20:46
  rate talent just go to zipper cruder dot com slash zip to try zipper cruder for free don't forget
• 20:52
  that zipper cruder dot com slash zip finally that zipper cruder dot com slash zip. Notice the
• 20:58
  evolution of tree beard speech so he's using mainly common speech to talk to them and it starts with
• 21:07
  short sentences partly that is because he is not his on his guard but also one would imagine
• 21:18
  because because he doesn't use it very often and he's got to remember it so the first few sentences
• 21:25
  are very short turn around that's good no sort of subordinate clauses and then as he gets more
• 21:34
  comfortable with them he gets more and more complicated in what he says his sentences are longer
• 21:43
  and he starts to weave in some of his own language so there's a sort of a unbending I don't
• 21:50
  instantly bend but there's an unbending in his language and it becomes more like entish
• 21:55
  as it grows quite I haven't noticed that till I read it through this time to see that he does
• 22:01
  change in the way he speaks the greetings of the two people ent and hobbit sort of stand for the
• 22:11
  differences in their culture so you know we love these exchanges don't we they're such great fun
• 22:19
  nobody else calls us hobbits we call ourselves that said pippin and then they say here's our names
• 22:25
  I am a brandybuck Meriatic brandybuck though most people call me just Meri and I'm a tuk
• 22:31
  peregrine tuk though I'm generally called pippin or even pip I'm very James Bond of them though
• 22:37
  this predates James Bond so name first then first name but poor old cheap it is rather left standing
• 22:44
  in the dust he says hmm you are heasty folk I see and so what he gives them and it is told here as
• 22:54
  a queer half-knowing half humorous look that comes into his eyes he says oh if I tell you my
• 23:01
  real name will be here all day kind of thing and he has this line real names tell you the story
• 23:07
  of the things they belong to in my language in the old entiche as you might say now there's one
• 23:14
  thing that you want to take away from where tree bit is like Tolkien it's that sentence for Tolkien
• 23:24
  words were the story of the places that they came from entiche in a way is he's almost more
• 23:32
  I suppose elvish is the same but he could see that as an extreme version of his own love of
• 23:38
  language as telling the story of a place but he's also aware of how this can be humorous because
• 23:45
  he is in a way sending up himself and other philologist because there's this debate about the
• 23:52
  nature of what they're standing on and tree beard starts his long name which is reminiscent
• 24:00
  of those long place names in Wales and the hobbits try to come up with answers for what that means
• 24:07
  hill shelf step and tree beard after thinking about it goes yeah hill so nice to see that Tolkien has
• 24:18
  a sense of humor about his own love of language as story there's also a very wise and resonant
• 24:29
  passage here about trying to work out who's on whose side so Mary's saying you know
• 24:37
  what side are you on and tree beard is saying well it's not about sides for me but how do you judge
• 24:45
  if he is a friend or a foe is this I'm not going to do anything with you
• 24:53
  not if you mean by that do something to you without your leave that's exactly what the orcs did
• 24:59
  they did something with the hobbits we might do some things together so there you are if you're
• 25:07
  working together with someone is your friend and your ally if they're doing something to you
• 25:12
  manipulating you having a malign force over you like the ring then then you can recognise the face
• 25:19
  of evil not it's quite a good rule for life as well isn't it this exchange where they talk
• 25:28
  Mary and Pippin and tree beard actually is almost lifted word for word as the script for the BBC
• 25:35
  audio version which shows you just what a good small mini play it is because it's transposed very
• 25:42
  well to radio drama then so that's the static in the same place conversation then we get on the
• 25:48
  move conversation tree beard is carrying them and I love this touch that we are told that the hobbits
• 25:56
  feel safe and comfortable if you remember that books also provide you with an emotional journey so
• 26:02
  the previous chapter was dark confused terrifying it's a good idea to then move from that darkness
• 26:11
  to the light and this is one of the chapters of light it's full of comedy it's full of hero
• 26:17
  characters delight the magic and restorative powers of nature it's the antidote to the bad medicine
• 26:25
  that we've just had as they walk there are lots of fascinating parts of this conversation just
• 26:32
  want to highlight a couple he gives a critique of lorian we were left with the idea that it's almost
• 26:40
  this beautiful land outside time but he gives the critique that it is they are falling rather behind
• 26:47
  the world in there I guess they have gone from being they're fading not growing it was the land
• 26:55
  of the valley of singing gold now it is the dream flower so he is recognizing that the elves themselves
• 27:02
  are no longer at the cutting edge of history we are entering into a different world where other people
• 27:08
  are going to be making the running and if you think about the overall scope of the war in the
• 27:14
  appendices you see that battles were fought up in the north by the elves and so on but it is
• 27:21
  actually the men and the ants that actually do the heavy lifting in terms of the the main front
• 27:29
  of this battle though the ants don't know yet they're about to step up and join the men in
• 27:35
  resistance they move from that to a discussion of the old forest and here we have an explanation of
• 27:43
  why you might get a creature like old man willow tibia says it's a shadow of the great darkness lying
• 27:50
  on that land it's interesting in that it was put in that way because that's not something that
• 27:57
  Tom Bombardill stressed he talked about the rotten hearts of the trees but it does seem to fit with
• 28:07
  the history of the northern kingdom and tibia goes on to say that the role of the ants are
• 28:14
  we are tree herds we old ants and sheep get like shepherd and shepherd like sheep so I suppose a
• 28:20
  reader might be thinking in our sort of musing wire than a ants today um let's just run with that
• 28:27
  fantasy he's saying that they're sort of there the idea that there's emerging of that property
• 28:33
  that they'll get more and more treeish the idea that when we fill the woods are alive it's because
• 28:38
  they once were or maybe still are when we have our backs turned this is something which
• 28:44
  cs Lewis transposed into nania the idea of the sort of moving singing trees and of course they've
• 28:50
  both got it from the idea of nireds and dryeds and folkloric versions of this but there's a lot
• 28:57
  of cross fertilization of the story is going on here we get the back history of the ants here
• 29:04
  tree bid tells us that the elves began it they woke up the trees this part where tree bid is telling
• 29:11
  his back story whilst walking is an example of how to give over necessary well maybe not even
• 29:21
  necessary but interesting background detail because merriam pippin need to know it always have
• 29:28
  that question in your mind is it natural that they would ask these questions do they need to know it
• 29:33
  at this point and they have space they have time it's the first few hours of their communication
• 29:39
  with tree bids all of this feels like the natural kind of conversation he would have and we have
• 29:45
  a lovely evocation of what it was like in the very early days of middle earth for example there's
• 29:54
  a line here which I've underlined in my notes the tree bid says I used to spend a week just breathing
• 30:03
  that gives a sense of the purity of the air the fact that it was almost all forests
• 30:08
  and also the slow passage of time how spending a week breathing was just what you did if you
• 30:15
  were a tree so we've moved into tree time not hobbit time and this gives on to a poem the unity in
• 30:24
  this poem is that of the seasons but it's full of places we don't know unless we go and dig deep in
• 30:33
  Silmarillion and the maps and so on so assuming you haven't done that when you first come across it
• 30:40
  here what makes it work or not I think is how much under a spell of the sounds of this language
• 30:47
  you fall the fact that he moves between speech and poetry so easily he shares that in common
• 30:56
  the hobbits do that as well at times he else do that at times so it's part of the world of
• 31:04
  middle earth where to express something in song is as natural as saying it in speech so that's
• 31:11
  the conversation on the move then we get to tree bids house which is beautifully described it
• 31:19
  feels like a tree version or someone like ederas you have the larger hall with the pillar trees
• 31:25
  and then a retreat at the back so we're still within this more archaic structures of the old
• 31:32
  English world as opposed to the gondor world of which was more medieval and Norman with gates
• 31:40
  and ramparts and and the complication of a city this this idea it's a simpler grandeur a natural
• 31:48
  grandeur chimes with the way he characterizes it he just simply says I like it Tolkien's very
• 31:55
  fascinated I think by trees he said he loved trees he had favorite trees sadly his favorite tree
• 32:01
  in the botanical gardens is now only a plaque mentioning its place but you can walk around Oxford
• 32:08
  and touch them the trees that Tolkien would have seen and there's a little detail here which I
• 32:15
  want to mention which shows you how closely Tolkien observed things as he was writing he talks
• 32:24
  about the steps that tree bids takes being toes first and if you think about how trees make
• 32:33
  progress they do it by pushing their roots forward into cracks and expanding that way so he's
• 32:40
  giving the gate of the end as far as he can a treeish feeling he may have a simple house but it's
• 32:48
  not without it's it's drama and it's beauty because we have the description of the lights which
• 32:54
  then pass from the bowls with and the lights that he conjures up or one imagines it like a phosphorescence
• 33:03
  natural bioluminescence which then passes to all the leaves so it's incredibly beautiful and
• 33:10
  ethereal the hobbits surprisingly are finding themselves full after drinking what looks like pure
• 33:19
  water they do nibbles and then bass just you know just because they they're used to eating and we
• 33:25
  can start to see that something strange is happening to them because the effect of the draft
• 33:30
  began at the toes and rose steadily through every limb being refreshment and figure as it
• 33:35
  caused upwards right to the tips of the hair indeed the hobbits felt that the hair on their heads
• 33:42
  was actually standing up waving and curling and growing now this is like those sort of fast
• 33:49
  forward David Attenborough programs where you look at a fern unfolding or something like that
• 33:55
  Tolkien as a king Garda would know that in spring you could almost watch you can see things sprouting
• 34:02
  and growing if you stood there long enough you could see them grow in a day and that's the sort
• 34:07
  of feeling you get from this so TV it lies down so the drink doesn't rise to his head and we get
• 34:14
  the chance now for Mary and Pippin to tell him what's going on we don't need to recap that
• 34:22
  but what's interesting here is what it shows about the things that interest tree bit so he's
• 34:29
  interested in the shire and he says that the entwis would like the shire that's explained later on
• 34:34
  he's most interested in Saraman and we're beginning now to head towards what this is actually
• 34:40
  all about it's not just a side step in the story an interesting encounter like Tom Bombadil
• 34:46
  is actually going to be one of the major pieces in the puzzle of this battle and Treebeard himself
• 34:54
  makes a masterful summary even though they have gone back and throw in their story telling by
• 35:00
  root and tweak but it is a strange business upsprout a little folk who are not in the old lists
• 35:06
  and behold the nine forgotten riders reappear to hunt them and Gandalf takes them on a great
• 35:11
  journey and Galadriel harbors them in Taras Galathon and Orcs pursue them down all the leagues of
• 35:18
  Wilderland indeed they seem to be caught up in a great storm i hope they weather it pretty good
• 35:25
  summary i hope you agree and there's then the conversation about how everyone's going to survive
• 35:34
  and Treebeard remember this is described later on as like the stones that start the avalanche
• 35:40
  he says there is not that an old end can do to hold back that storm he must weather it or crack
• 35:47
  Treebeard realizes that this is a fight for survival how are they going to weather it will they be
• 35:54
  felled or cracked in the onslaught and his thoughts turn to Saraman we haven't met Saraman or
• 36:01
  we've only met met him in story he met him when Gandalf recounted his imprisonment but here we
• 36:08
  get a longer version of Saraman as he has gone from seemingly politely sitting and learning the
• 36:17
  secrets of the wild to being a man whose eyes are shuttered like shuttered windows in a stone wall
• 36:26
  and further he has a mind of metal and wheels who is plotting to become a power
• 36:34
  Treebeard shows he has no flies on him because he has worked out that there has been some awful
• 36:40
  breeding program going on because it uracai are not like other orcs as he is doing this
• 36:48
  the passion behind it grows how do you stop your readers mentalize glazing over well you
• 36:56
  you put passion and energy into what is being said and as Treebeard realizes through this conversation
• 37:07
  and reminds himself of the evil that Saraman has done he is like the the first blast of the storm
• 37:16
  his anger builds until he does this thunderous curse him root and branch and so on and fire
• 37:25
  shoots out from the bowls his beard goes like a bison brush bison brushes like the sort that
• 37:32
  which is right in children's illustrations twiggy brushes but he has self control so he has his
• 37:38
  burst of anger and then he buttons it all down restores his humour he stands under the waterfall
• 37:45
  and then he's beginning to work out that he actually has to step up the roll call of
• 37:51
  ends as he thinks about who can come and help him then sparks off the story of the end wives
• 38:02
  this is a little bit aside to the main story but we've heard mentioned of the end wives a couple
• 38:07
  of times so it's fun to actually get some answers why there are no more ends so is this story
• 38:15
  of end wives this is gender politics because the wives are characterized here as people staying
• 38:24
  close to the homestead gardens farms not the sort of people who go out to striving the mountains
• 38:33
  is it that or are we here getting a glimpse of a sort of sociological idea that
• 38:41
  that you get past your list communities of the ends sitting alongside the gardening and the farming
• 38:50
  arable development of culture it could be both of course and we don't hear it from the
• 38:56
  end wives point of view we do get this song which is quite fun it's a two-voice song with
• 39:03
  an end wife an elvish song again we've got the seasons running through it it's told in rhyming
• 39:10
  couplets i would say that in terms of just looking at it as a chapter it is taking us quite a
• 39:18
  long time this chapter that could be part of the point but it's also why when you're doing
• 39:26
  something like a filmic version of it you skim through this because a reader might indulge you
• 39:32
  in not being hasty but the demands of a narrative may mean that a blue pencil is needed for a script
• 39:41
  so anyway let's let's go as keep on going the previous day or a few days may and pipping been
• 39:48
  dragged from pillar to post by the orcs and here we get another of Tolkien's capstone passages
• 39:57
  some page 81 in my edition just after the song it's the equivalent of the lookback moment is
• 40:04
  let's take a snapshot let's crystallize this moment
• 40:08
  Mary and pipping climbed onto the bed and curled up in the soft grass and fern it was fresh and
• 40:14
  sweet scented and warm the lights died down and the glow of the trees faded but outside under
• 40:20
  the arch they could see old tree-beard standing motionless with his arms raised above his head
• 40:26
  the bright stars peered out of the sky and lit the falling water as it spilled onto his fingers
• 40:32
  and head and dripped dripped in hundreds of silver drops onto his feet listening to the tinkling
• 40:40
  of the drops the hobbits fell asleep somewhere in that passage is the magic of middle-ath
• 40:48
  right so the next section we'll move swiftly on now we get to the end moot now moot you may have
• 40:55
  been in moots at school it's a country debate it is actually an old form of government where
• 41:02
  smaller units would gather together in a moot to debate there was legal structures around this
• 41:10
  in the sort of Anglo-Saxon world so this and you still find places called something moot
• 41:18
  here as a sign of there used to be a moot held there regularly in this case we're going to
• 41:24
  where the ants hold their moot which is a place called Dern Dingle as we go there there is
• 41:31
  another evocation of how tree-beard walks along humming all the time it doesn't speak he rumbles
• 41:39
  and hums to the trees I'm not sure what they were saying in the terms of biology in Tolkien's day
• 41:47
  but certainly people who deal with trees these days talk about the signals and the interconnectivity
• 41:54
  of trees that in a way a forest is a whole living organism so Tolkien's ahead of the game there
• 42:02
  in sort of sensing that the trees were in communication with each other and the fact that this is
• 42:08
  in daylight and there is so many different contrast we go from nighttime to daylight up mountains it
• 42:15
  shows you please read the book because filmmakers take shortcuts the whole of the entish bit
• 42:23
  is mainly in gloom and twilight it makes it easier to do the well it's not easy but it makes
• 42:30
  it a little bit easier to do the CGI there's such a richer diet when you read the ants in this
• 42:35
  chapter than watching a brief episode in a film when we meet other ants that's very exciting
• 42:41
  because Tolkien has set himself a rule that ends like trees but there is different as trees are
• 42:47
  from other trees which gives us a whole range of descriptors for the different trees
• 42:54
  and if you're wanting to write a fancy world this is part of the fun you set yourself a rule
• 43:01
  about a race or a magic and then you just run with what that would imply so if ants are like trees
• 43:10
  it means that you're going to have a tiny little willow tree like a dwarf willow but you're also
• 43:17
  going to have a majestic Douglas so you've got the whole range to play with so rules are vital
• 43:27
  to fantasy to make the fantasy work but also great fun to play with another I keep mentioning the
• 43:34
  film I was sort of pleased with the way they did the ants but also disappointed so for example here
• 43:44
  in order to propel the narrative on Mary comes across as being quite rude and sort of get a move on
• 43:50
  here the hobbits are more they are the necessary spark that lights this fire but they are also guests
• 44:03
  and they wait for the ants to move at their own pace so there isn't that tension and the annoyance
• 44:09
  that you get in the film version though Mary in this version does mention the ants aren't as safe
• 44:17
  or funny as they seem and Pippin has this very telling comparison between the difference between
• 44:23
  an old cow chewing in a field and a charging bull and we also have a reminder here of the longing
• 44:31
  for their companions because they feel outsiders in this end 12 there's a short series of I think
• 44:38
  it's a day and a night where they stay with Gregorlad and Gregorlad it has already made his mind up
• 44:45
  his called quick beam so Tolkien has chosen a tree that sounds tasty and unlike treebeard
• 44:53
  Gregorlad takes them hand in hand as they walk around his favorite places and go to his home
• 45:01
  he is differentiated from treebeard by being I would say the merry ent
• 45:07
  all that day they walked about in the woods with him singing and laughing for quick beam often
• 45:12
  laughed he's got that youthful prime of his life energy but he too lapses into poetry
• 45:22
  I'm not sure about this poem I do love Tolkien's poetry but this particular one
• 45:31
  does sound well the declaration of oh may fit with the sort of hollow sound of an end hoot
• 45:39
  bellow but it also sounds easily paraded but anyway it's a poetry about the lament for lost trees
• 45:50
  oh row and dead upon your head your hair is dry and grey your crown is spilled your voice is
• 45:55
  still forever and a day so we're with lots of internal rhymes there I don't know not my favorite
• 46:03
  of Tolkien's poetry I must admit one more writing point here if you're going to say and they
• 46:09
  waited and they waited make each moment of waiting seem a bit flavoured bit differently so for
• 46:16
  example a second night came and still the ent's hell conclave under hurrying clouds and fitful
• 46:21
  stars so there we've got the pathetic fallacy a pathetic fallacy is where you project onto the
• 46:29
  outside world particularly weather that it's what you're feeling so say if you're feeling sad and
• 46:35
  it's raining pathetic fallacy is that it's crying it's not really a fantasy in middle earth though
• 46:44
  hurrying clouds and fitful stars may reflect the mood of the hobbits but there is a sense that the
• 46:52
  whole of nature in middle earth is an emotional landscape so it perhaps doesn't quite follow the
• 47:00
  same thing of of our real world version of pathetic fallacy but anyway the harmony between what
• 47:07
  the hobbits are feeling and what's going on in the world is a shorthand to giving you a
• 47:13
  a sense of the anticipation and the difficulty of waiting and then we get to finally part the
• 47:22
  sixth part where the march of the ends finally happens this is a fulfilment of Tolkien's childhood
• 47:31
  when he read Macbeth he didn't like the way the prophecy of the woods marching on
• 47:38
  Macbeth's castle was fulfilled as tad out to be soldiers with branches in their helmets
• 47:46
  he wanted the woods to actually walk and so he makes them walk we've got a marching poem here
• 47:52
  which the sounds of it all these poems the entish poems really work on sound so they should
• 47:58
  be read aloud I think rather than just I I read it's the sounds of drums and booms and because
• 48:07
  we've had to wake quite a long time in this chapter it comes as release it seemed now a sudden
• 48:17
  as the bursting of a flood that had long been held back by a dike and as they walk Mary and Pippin
• 48:25
  go back to sit with on tree-beard shoulders we get a fascinating little bits of lore we hear
• 48:32
  that trolls are counterfeit ends which we might not have known I'm before this point and also we
• 48:40
  get the mood on which they are marching into battle tree-beard he looks sad but not unhappy it's
• 48:48
  a kind of ragnarok spirit where the point isn't winning the fight it's about fighting on the
• 48:55
  right side so they know or tree-beard knows that this may be the last march of the ends but they are
• 49:02
  actually on the right side by doing this and we get the suggestion of the Macbeth fulfillment here
• 49:11
  what we now later learn about horns are joining them the trees are moving in behind to swell
• 49:17
  their army and after this magnificent chapter which ends with this trumpet call and the march
• 49:28
  and the sound it goes silent and you get the dramatic end with tree-beard saying night lies over
• 49:36
  eyes and guard we are on the eve of the battle we've reached our target and that dramatically is
• 49:44
  where Tolkien cuts away and takes us back to the other characters leave the suspense
• 49:52
  make us wait for the payoff what happens to the ends and we won't find out for quite some time
• 50:05
  thanks for listening to MythMakers podcast brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy
• 50:12
  visit Oxford Centre for Fantasy.org to join in the fun find out about our online courses
• 50:19
  in person stays in Oxford plus visit our shop for great gifts tell a friend and subscribe
• 50:26
  wherever you find your favourite podcasts worldwide