Latest / Mythmakers / Devilry of Saruman - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 7

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Devilry of Saruman - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 7 · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm
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  an author but I also adore Lord of the Rings and I have been reading my way through Lord
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  of the Rings taking an author's look at what's going on and we have reached in two towers,
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  chapter seven which is the one called Helm's Deep. Now what is going on in this chapter?
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  Well there falls into two parts. The first is the journey to Helm's Deep and then the second
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  most involved part is the battle and one of the questions I want to focus on here is the question
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  that any author faces is how do you write something as complicated as a battle with action going
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  on in lots of faces on the battlefield and we're going to be looking at Tolkien's use of metaphor
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  and similarly as a way of capturing that particular battle. So the first section we're on our way
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  to Helm's Deep. Note here that there's an interesting point of view that Tolkien used to start with.
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  He actually has a combined point of view, the host that are joined together to reach Helm's Deep
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  and the way it's written is for shadowing some of the things Tolkien does particularly in the battle
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  of Pellano Fields and that is it's very close to the poetry that he will later use to recount the
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  battle which is done as if it is written by a bard of Rohan. What do I mean by this? Well just have
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  a look at the second paragraph right at the beginning of this chapter. He uses the tradition
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  of a literative verse here and it's sort of just bubbling away underneath the sentence structure.
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  You'll hear it if I start reading. So he writes the host Rohdan need to drove them
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  fearing to come too late they rode with all the speed they could pausing seldom, swift and enduring
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  with the steeds of Rohan but there were many leagues to go. You could slightly rearrange those
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  words and put them into the verse form and it'd be very close to the kind of poetry that we later see.
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  So you've got speed, swift, steeds all those sort of s sounds and you've got those sort of short
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  sentences, the host Rohdan need drove them. Those are the kind of patterns that I echoed in the
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  poetry of the Pellano Fields section. Anyway here it's written as prose but you can't help but hear
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  it when you're reading it in your if you are able to read so that you can stand up the words.
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  It's very evident and of course if you listen to the audio versions it will pop out of how it is
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  spoken and you'll see what I mean. The first little gloss that you might be interested in which is
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  an unusual word. I don't remember anywhere else in Lord the Rings and that's the word Biffelwack
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  which means a camp without tents. It does seem a word that is quite modern not used to seeing it
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  in middle earth but actually when I dug into this it's actually a Swiss German word which then
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  went into French so it's got this sort of done that journey. So there's a passage here just after
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  the section break about shadows and this is a very interesting passage because shadows in Tolkien's
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  world are usually either the sign of the bad or the sign of the ambivalent so we've got both of those
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  here. So we've got a sort of darkness coming from the east, a heaviness and a darkness from the east.
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  We've got something similar coming from the wizard's veil which is associated with Saruman
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  but then Gandalf who knows what's going on in deeper ways than anybody else. He asks
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  what he can see in the shadows and Legolas gives a poetic description of these figures he can see
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  in the shadows. It is as if the twilight under endless trees were flowing downwards from the hills.
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  So that's a hint of the allies of the Ents who are the horns, H-U-O-R-N-S and is evident from the
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  way they are described by tree bids that they are not always on the side of mankind or elf kind.
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  So they're also in this shadowy shades of gray area and it also is a way of connecting this
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  part of the story of course with the Mary and Pippin part of the story. So we're getting a hint
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  of what's going on there but we don't know. Then that is one of the techniques all this use is
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  you delay the gratification, you raise the question but you hold onto the answer so people read on.
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  So we can imagine that there's something going on with tree bid and the Ents and the horns
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  over in the wizard's veil but we don't know what at this stage. The journey on the way to Helm's
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  there is some beautiful bits of natural description and one of the things that I wanted to
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  highlight here is part of Tolkien's style and some of the things that make him a particularly fine
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  writer is by saying let's stop and admire the clouds with him. He gets many occasions when he's
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  talking about sunrise's sunsets but what he does is he always makes them different so I think
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  he has noticed he has stood in his garden at Northmore Road he has stood on the top of one of the
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  buildings when he was on fire watched during the Second World War where when he's walking with his
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  friends before the time of writing that and he's noticed the difference. So if you want to write good
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  descriptions of nature make sure not when you're sitting at your computer or writing with a pen
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  when you're out and about that you are actually noting down exactly what it really looks like
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  so let's admire his clouds it's described like this a somber canopy with great billowing edges
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  flecked with dazzling light so no lazy generalisation here about you know clouds like cauliflower's
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  that kind of stuff he has seen it noted it and put it down but it also of course has the
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  ominous aspect to it which fits with the mood that he's trying to create what they see in the
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  distance is a mountain called three here which is from Old English we're in a world where
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  Rohan language is predominates and that's Old English which means three cornered it's a three-peat
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  mountain and coming towards them we get the drama and he's given quite a bit of
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  space in the narrative of a single horseman coming towards them it's sort of in the
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  it's like some sort of epic filmic moment as he comes towards them across this plane with the
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  sun setting behind him and so on this moment i think is was transferred in the film to
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  arrogant if you remember they've added in a whole kind of little extra adventure for arrogant
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  perhaps they felt there wasn't enough happening to him where he falls off a cliff and then he gets
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  rescued by the horse and then he rides towards Helm's deep and those wide shots with arrogant on
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  his horse which is why they want to do that to sort of locate the place and give it the epic scale
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  is actually given to this single survivor of a battle at the forward survival anyway there is a
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  brief account of what happened at the forward survival and if you want to read the larger version of
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  this just look in the unfinished tales where the strategy behind the leaders of Rohan is actually
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  explored in much fuller form we're also told that part of the Rohan culture of fighting isn't just
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  cavalry charges it's described here that they used a shield wall a shield wall is literally
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  shields held in a wall so the front people hold the shields in front the next row behind put
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  the shields over the top to protect their heads and the person in front of them and this is
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  something which is associated with the Anglo-Saxon tactics for fighting so they're not always on horses
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  they are sometimes on foot as would have been an Anglo-Saxon fighter someone like King Alfred
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  so one of the interesting things at this point is the hopelessness that is felt by Rohan
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  it feels battered it feels like it's losing and we know that much of this was written in the forties
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  when perhaps talking himself was feeling something very similar about the mood about the wall
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  in England at the time but in that darkness the presence of the king acts as a sort of light
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  a return of hope and the king in this case is said and the of course he's also with the
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  greater king aragorn as well whose return does similar things to
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  ministerous and to gondol we also get hidden heroes in this chapter there is clearly lots more
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  behind this than Tolkien puts into the book which is why the unfinished tale has quite a large
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  section which never made it into this part and the person who sort of specifies this really or
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  represents this is Erkenbrand
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  Erkenbrand if you've only watched the films you won't know who on earth Erkenbrand is
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  his name is from old English and possibly it is from Erken which is like Arkenstone remember the
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  the Hobbit stone means precious and brand means flame and the notes say that
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  Tolkien briefly considered it as a name for aragorn
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  that of course it wouldn't fit with aragorn's origins if they went for an old English name
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  but you can see why it would be attractive precious flame and this Erkenbrand gets a lot of time
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  being discussed in his absence but yet only really appears on stage as it were very briefly
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  so he's one of those hidden heroes the person coming with this message from the defeat at the
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  uh Fords of Eisen is called Seal now Seal isn't really a name it's a social rank and it means a
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  Freeman someone who isn't one of nobility but it's used as though it could be a name which I
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  imagine lots of people have just read straight past but it's actually more saying he's just an ordinary
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  soldier this message from Seal precipitates Gandalf suddenly taking off
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  again this is where if you've watched the film you'll think he says something dramatic about
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  on the third day you know look for me at sunrise done of that is here he doesn't give a timeline
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  he just says you go to Helmsteep I've got other things to do and off he dashes and his departure is
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  one of those lovely poetic moments that we're getting in these chapters in fact reading these
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  closely have made me realise just how much poetry there is hidden underneath the prose here so here
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  it is even as they looked he was gone a flash of silver in the sunset a wind over the grass a shadow
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  that fled and passed from sight you have to now turn to the unfinished tales if you want to find
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  out exactly what he does because we learn from that that he goes to Eisengaard and spends 20 minutes
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  there we get a sort of version of this later from Mary and Pippin but there's a sort of longer
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  form version of it in the unfinished tales so Gandalf going is a bit of a shock to everybody
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  and we get a moment here where Tolkien is dipping into I think his knowledge of Shakespeare because
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  we get something very familiar from plays like Henry V where you get the voices of the ordinary
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  soldiers discussing the doings of the great ones and in this case it's an unnamed guard speaking
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  to Hammer who your remember is one of the main movers back at Meduseld the man on the door
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  and the guard is fearful but Hammer defends Gandalf Greyhame and he says I will wait until I see
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  Gandalf again he's not judging the outcome like the other guard is but it's that little moment
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  where you see into the host we were talking about the host being like a collective we have now
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  focused on some of the feelings going on in one part of that okay so now we are reaching Helm
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  Steep we get quite a long description involved description of Helm Steep and that's important I
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  think for the seriousness with which Tolkien takes the whole idea of battle plans and strategy
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  because if we've laid it out to us we can then follow the various moves that later follow
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  as the waves of the attack happen it's like a military survey with little poetic flashes in it
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  for example within the survey you get the idea of there being crow haunted cliffs which obviously
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  if you were purely military you wouldn't include this is one of the chapters where they Tolkien is
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  trying to calculate distances and there is apparently a contradiction between what the map
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  shows and what Tolkien is working on in terms of his own calculation as to how far how many leagues
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  there are the distance in Tolkien's calculation isn't as big as the distance on the map so
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  sometimes there are little discrepancies but anyway you get the sense that the the important point
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  because obviously we're in a fictional world the important point is the remaining forces under
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  Erkenbrand have been scattered and so they don't know how many there's going to be and who's
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  going to make it back to the base Helm Steep we do get an odd sentence here which always will strike
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  a modern reader as being a bit bizarre which is Aragorn and Legolas went now with Emma in the van
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  Emma is presumably still with Gimli behind him van is short for vanguard slightly unfortunate I
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  think might have been better having the whole word there and as they are approaching Helm Steep
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  we get a look over the shoulder to what's going on behind and here we get one of those moments of
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  the terrible beauty of war that Tolkien excels in he talks about the enemy torches being like
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  red flowers and Thierden says they are burning as they come ric caught and tree and those of you
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  who know the films well will recognise this as being transferred to air wind in the film
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  but here it's actually Thierden who says it and so they are retreating knowing that the land
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  behind them is being well subjected to a scorched earth policy so we get a second enjoyable little
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  cameo here of another character who comes to represent the ordinary soldier this is why we got
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  Henry the fifth in our mind in this chapter and that is gambling the elderly fighter
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  and he is the one who tells it straight is manning the outer defenses and he's saying we haven't
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  got enough people and those that we do have are too old or too young but he says it like this
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  most of them as the fighters have seen too many winters as i have or too few as my son's son
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  hat here again this is a line which Peter Jackson's team moved over to somebody else
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  and it's lovely to have it back in the mouth of an ordinary Rohan soldier because he's still defending
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  even though he knows that it's pretty hopeless he is still defending and they go on
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  begging up Erkenbrand in this discussion in a way Erkenbrand is one of the dogs that doesn't
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  bark in this story i feel that with all this time giving Erkenbrand he perhaps at some point
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  Tolkien thought he was going to be a bigger character it feels as though he should be
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  he does appear as we'll see but he's uh i it's sort of odd that he doesn't really have more of a
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  role but anyway what is clear though is the defiance of gambling who says to Theroden and his
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  followers that he is going to defend if they come to bargain for our goods at Helmsgate they will
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  pay a high price so that sort of turning into a haggle sort of black humor of the situation that
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  he's picking up there so we've been spending a lot of time in this chapter in the host in the
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  minds of Rohan people the king the ordinary soldier and it's time to check in on our heroes and
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  Tolkien does that by going to Legolas and Gimli discussing the merits of the fortification which
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  they find themselves we also get a reminder of their cultures because there is mention of the
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  the bow and the axe and that bow and axe combo is now going to be one of the main things referred to
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  during the battle that follows so it's set up nicely here we probably don't need reminding but
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  it just underlines how they both would proceed in a battle so the question here for an author
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  who's about to fight a battle at night how do you control the narrative and what Tolkien is showing
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  here is a masterclass in how to describe it in waves in stages so you'll see through the metaphors
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  I'm going to pick out and sometimes it's as similarly how he does that anyway so we get the
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  enemy is at hand so this is a tidying up of all the reports coming in from all the different sources
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  it's given as a unison report this is though it's amalgamated in HQ so the enemy is at hand they
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  said we lose every arrow that we had and filled the dike with orcs but it will not halt them long
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  already they are scaling the bank at many points thick as marching ants but we have taught them not
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  to carry torches so it's a joint report from the people right at the last exposed flank who are
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  now retreated behind the walls and so we get here the first of the metaphors that come into this
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  which is the idea of the enemy being so numerous that they're like a swarm of ants
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  and the other way talking controls what we see is we see it by having the blackness there it kind
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  of shuts down most sensory options and then he reveals like dramatically suddenly in flashes
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  because he has a thunderstorm which he brings on that's the sort of you know the atmospheric
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  even more pumped up by having thunder and lightning and rain but you get glimpses of the enemy
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  not long surveys and he continues with the idea of them being like a massive invading insect
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  insects because you've got a description of the space is the battlefield area
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  boiling and crawling with black shapes so it's definitely this idea of a horrible horrible
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  invasion of insects but then he switches it is one of the switches of a lexical switch he makes
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  and he moves from talking about them as individual insects to talking about them like a great field
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  of corn the idea of it being a whole a unitary like an awful harvest that has come to their door
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  he he says this the men of the mark and may he's looked out as it seemed to them upon a great
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  field of dark corn tossed by a tempest of war and every ear glinted with barbed light that ear
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  there is the ear of corn and he's able by using this metaphor to move from a sort of invasion
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  of ants that's going everywhere to suggest something which is actually more regimented more
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  standing in rows literally and and following a single order it seems to it moderates from the
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  confusion of a insect invasion to a field of corn which is still vast but it is also still
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  and it gets the idea that they are poised waiting in this chapter the first moves in this battle are
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  made by the enemy again in the film again dramatic license of course they can the first arrow is
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  shot from an ill-disciplined member of the Rohan defenders nothing like that here the men of the
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  mark are quiet they hold their fire until the moment when they are ready to reply when they're
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  within range of the weapons and so after the initial attack from the enemy then at last an answer
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  came a storm of arrows met them and a hail of stones so Rohan is much more disciplined in this
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  version than in the film version so we've had insects we've had corn and then the imagery changes
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  again it changes to the sea so we're working our way through sort of elemental forces and this
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  is the most powerful this is the wave which literally a wave which is the most forceful and this is
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  where he's talking is creating the idea of it being a really powerful enemy this this is the
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  enemy they waved broke and fled back and then charged again broke and charged again at each time
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  like the incoming sea they halted at a higher point if you just look at that sentence it's in
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  towards the end of page 138 in my edition you can see that there is a mimetic quality about
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  the sentence so the punctuation gets there's sort of short sub clauses and then a longer one like a
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  sweeping in off of the waves going higher as you read it you're carried on the momentum so I
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  read it again they waved broke and fled back so that's the retreat and then charged again broke
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  and charged again and each time like the incoming sea they halted at a higher point so it sort of
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  sweeps forward after describing the battle in terms of these great forces you have to focus on
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  the actions of individuals to get any grasp of what's going on and the action here moves to
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  arrogant and airmer who are fighting together there's a nice little simile about arrogant as he runs
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  to deal with problem it talks about him running like fire it sounds a bit like the flame on a fuse to
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  a bomb so it's that kind of idea that he's shooting along to have an explosive encounter with the
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  orcs at the very gates of Helm's deep and we get the two swords unshived of course arrogance and
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  duel but we also get airmer's sword which is called goose winner and that's another
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  old English word which basically means battle friend so they're coming to deter the people
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  using the battering ram or trying to attack the gates they are echoed by what's happening in the
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  weather around them a keen wind was blowing from the north again arrogance from the north the clouds
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  were torn and drifting and stars peaked out and above the hills of the coombside western moon
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  road glimmering yellow in the storm rack so the the overwhelming clouds are breaking up and there's
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  a sort of subtle echo of the little activity that's been going on at the gates there's a final bite
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  in this attack though and airmer almost goes to meet his maker at this point because
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  some orcs have been playing dead and they jump up and it's only the hidden presence of Gimli
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  who is their backup though they didn't know it who prevents them killing airmer and he shouts
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  Baruch Kazad Kazad Imenu it's not glossed here but apparently that means axes of the dwarves
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  the dwarves are upon you so Kazad meaning dwarf Baruch presumably axes but it's quite nice that
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  you get these little wall cries with no explanation whatsoever but they sound right don't they
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  anyway he saves airmer and then that gives us a chance for a little banter which Gimli does with
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  airmer and then he carries on Gimli does with Legolas in their the game of how many they're managing
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  to kill that thing that was carried over into the film but here it's used as a way of marking the
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  passage of time in the battle so you get the human or the dwarf touch here to remind us that
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  battles are about the individuals fighting them so as this battle progresses we're still in the
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  enemy as the elemental force of the sea here but it's not going so well in some ways they are like
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  a relentless storm battering but they're also losing lots of their own number and the image here
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  is that of shingle in a storm so we've got a storm going on it's all very it's all fits together
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  before the walls foot the dead and broken were powered like shingle in a storm ever higher
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  rose the hideous mounds and still the enemy came on so they're still like the sea battering away
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  at Helm's deep we get changing groupings in this battle which is part of keeping it fresh keeping
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  the our interest so after having airmer and aracorn as a fighting pair we've now and Gimli and
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  Legolas we now get an unexpected pairing of gambling and Gimli which is great fun because they go
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  to head off an incursion amongst the horses and to mend a weakness in the walls which is under
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  this culvert which some of the orcs have have crept through this wind of work if we hadn't already
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  got an idea of what gambling is like earlier so the ground for this was set as they approach Helm's
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  deep earlier in the chapter Helm's deep has now moved from being described as a a castle at
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  Nistel it's now described as a island in the sea carrying on this extended metaphor of it being
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  battered by seas and aracorn understandably as are many of the other fighters is weird by it all
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  and he says this is a night as long as years and again thinking about the moment when this was written
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  it does feel like some think that somebody might have said if they were on fire watch during
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  World War II watching the rooftops of Oxford as Tolkien would have done to check no fires were
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  or no bombs were being dropped to start fires but he also must have done night watches like this
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  in World War I when he was much more in the front line of battle himself but it's a I think it's
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  good to remember the the cost and the strain of war and that's what Tolkien never forgets
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  and there's a pause here where gambling who is our old Rohan man fills in on some of the politics
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  of the Dunlendings who are amongst the orcs who are attacking those of you who have watched the
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  the film that came out about War of the Rahirim they involve the Dunlendings from earlier on in
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  the history of Rohan but we do get here the only word of Dunlendings speech that's in Lord of the
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  Rings and gambling says it it's the word for oil so if you want to make a really hard quiz on
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  Lord of the Rings that you can use that one what's the only word of Dunlendings speech for
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  which seems to be a term for abuse for the people of Rohan and gambling says that they
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  are there the Dunlendings because that is an old hatred Saraman has inflamed just look at the history
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  of modern warfare and you'll see that despots can use existing fractures in existing
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  resentments and bring them back to the hot heat of fire again that's what Tolkien would have
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  observed going on in Europe of course during Second World War and here it's used to give this
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  sense of what's going on in the politics of this battle more reality really it's not just a
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  hold of fantasy creatures there is also human agendas that have got mixed up in the mix and I
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  think that always makes it feel a thicker more realistic world arrogance hope that the day
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  will bring new hope does seem to be false because it's very rudely interrupted by an explosion
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  probably not the first time you've heard that Saraman is noted for his use of what seems to be
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  gunpowder bombs fire fireworks of that sort I suppose to the friendly fireworks at Gandalf stands for
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  and it is called by Aragorn devilery of Saraman now devilery seems a bit of an odd word in a
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  middle-earth world which doesn't really do the theology so much but
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  there is also this idea that it's a form of translation so anyway we get the idea that it is
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  demonic it is very dark arts to use this kind of weapon cowardly perhaps in because it's not
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  a sort of one-on-one fight which is the way our heroes are fighting and the explosion
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  is the last of the great sea images that we get in this battle and it's the very very high point
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  over the wall and under the wall the last assault came sweeping like a dark wave upon a hill
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  of sand so I've really been watching the the rise in power of one side by nature the other side
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  descends and so from being an island in a rock how steep is now a sand castle very fragile surely
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  it's going to fall and add to the excitement of this chapter she's full of action and full of
• 35:33
  set pieces of little skirmishes here and there we get Aragorn in peril but he shows his courage
• 35:44
  because he responds to his own personal danger to deciding to go and talk to the
• 35:54
  the enemy hold a parley he speaks first to Theoden who is held in reserve he's protected up in
• 36:03
  the tower and the king is determined to ride out and he says but I will not end it here taking like
• 36:13
  an old badger in a trap it's very much in the spirit of this is my final throw he's not actually
• 36:18
  like a kind of almost suicidal bid and Aragorn first of all before we reach that point we'll go
• 36:28
  and see what words will do and he goes and talks to the people beyond the gates this particular scene
• 36:36
  is very well done in the BBC audio version of it from the 80s if you want to hear a dramatic
• 36:43
  rendering of it and he says the words you do not know your peril which seems at this point
• 36:51
  like a form of bluster because Aragorn doesn't really have anything to back up this threat with
• 37:00
  but it also turns out to be prophetic because as he is saying that other forces are
• 37:06
  mustering behind the enemy to cut them off and he ends up that the great sea of enemies
• 37:15
  becomes surrounded by a three pronged assault so we have Therden riding out as he promised he
• 37:26
  would do we've got the arrival of the horns who we saw right in the distance early on in this
• 37:36
  chapter we don't know at this point but they've been summoned by Gandalf and they've cut off the
• 37:41
  retreat and the only other way out finally finally Erkenbrand we spent a lot of time anticipating
• 37:50
  he and his people have been rounded up by Gandalf and they cut off that retreat
• 37:58
  and it is truly a majestic moment when they all come out together so I'll just read a little bit
• 38:07
  of that helm helm the riders shouted helm is a risen and comes back to war helm for Therden king
• 38:17
  and with that shout the king came his horse was white as snow golden was his shield and his spear
• 38:25
  was long at his right hand was arrogant and lendils air behind him rode the lords of the house of
• 38:32
  the old the young light sprang in the sky night departed so great drama out they sweep
• 38:43
  and the enemy who want to flee are brought face to face with something which is just
• 38:50
  quarter a nameless wood forests and woods are the things which scared our ancestors this is
• 38:58
  and of course it seems to be there by wizardry it suddenly appeared but the darkness under the
• 39:03
  wood is understood to be a threat and so that they are forced to go into what is a primeval terror
• 39:11
  and they don't want to go of course so the enemy is now back to how it started
• 39:16
  but much weaker they've gone back to being like insects the enemy is now packed like swarming flies
• 39:25
  so do you remember they were invading like ants they're now swarming flies
• 39:31
  and they've changed from the scale of being elementally strong like the sea to being tiny
• 39:35
  little creatures who can be swatted I suppose and then we get Erkenbrand and his men on foot
• 39:43
  arriving no it's not a cavalry charge so forget the film this is people coming on arriving on foot
• 39:50
  no doubt with their shield wall intact and with them is a rider plaid in white with the rising
• 39:57
  sum behind him so Gandalf making a dramatic entrance with the light behind him and here we get
• 40:06
  talking really indulging in wonderful rhetoric of battle he uses a strategy here called anaphora
• 40:17
  which means a repetition so here we get it I'll read that bit and you'll see what I mean listen
• 40:23
  for the word down down through the breach of the dike charge the king's company down from the hills
• 40:30
  the leaped Erkenbrand lord of westfold down leaped shadow facts like a deer that runs shorefooted
• 40:37
  in the mountains so they're coming at the enemy from all sides so you would have thought
• 40:47
  that maybe we end replies but no talking has to get one more
• 40:51
  similarly to dispel to get rid of this enemy and it's a similarly where they're compared to being
• 41:03
  like a black smoke they've become insubstantial and the last thing we hear about them is wailing
• 41:11
  they passed under the waiting shadow of the trees and from that shadow none ever came again
• 41:21
  end of chapter so how to write a battle control your imagery see how talking move through different
• 41:32
  groups from insects to elemental to ears or corn to the sea elemental forces and then retreats
• 41:41
  back again to it being flies and finally smoke keep the element humanizing element going by checking
• 41:49
  in with your main characters but also with the soldiers and also lay out the battlefield when you're
• 41:55
  in a building like that or a sort of castle complex make sure you can the reader can follow where
• 42:01
  the different encounters are happening so that you don't lose track of a vast battle because you can
• 42:08
  see where the key assaults are happening I do think it feels like a chapter written by someone
• 42:14
  who's been to war and I think that gives it added now poignancy but also reality so that is the
• 42:23
  first of the big set piece battles in the two towers and the next chapter will see us on our way
• 42:32
  to ison guard to find out what's been happening there thank you for listening
• 42:43
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