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Top 5 Moments in The Lord of the Rings · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythBakers.
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  MythBakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy creators brought to you by the
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  Oxford Centre for Fantasy.
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  My name is Julia Golding.
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  I'm an author but I also run the activities in our centre.
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  Now I know many of you who listen to this are as keen on Tolkien's work as I am in particular.
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  Many of us share the love of the Lord of the Rings as our favourite novel or three novels.
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  And I thought I'd set myself a really difficult test today and I'm going to also set it for you
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  which is can you pick out your five favourite moments from the Lord of the Rings?
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  And here I'm talking about the Lord of the Rings, the novels and not the films.
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  Well perhaps take the films separately on another occasion.
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  And when I say moments I am not talking about my favourite character or my favourite location.
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  I'm talking about just one or two sentences of things that as I approach them in a reading
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  that I really look forward to because it's the air punch moment where I go yeah that's so good.
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  So that is the limit I've set myself.
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  Now I've chosen my five after much agonising and I wonder if you agree with me on them or on any of them in fact.
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  So do let me know your own top five.
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  Before I go to talk about mine let's think first about Tolkien.
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  Now I attended a seminar series back in the autumn called Tolkien at 50, 50 years on from his death.
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  And one of the most fascinating things that came up during the course of that conference was finding out what Tolkien's favourite scene was
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  or at least what scene moved him the most and he felt most important.
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  And the answer is actually quite surprising.
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  It's a scene from a part of the book that doesn't make it over into the film series.
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  And that's the chapter called The Fields of Kalmalin.
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  This comes in the middle of the Return of the King after Frodo and Sam have succeeded in the quest.
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  It's when they wake up they've been carried by the Eagles to a sort of grassy idyllic place in the Thillion which is the the wooded area next to model.
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  And they wake up and they are greeted by seeing Gandalf has survived which they didn't know to this point and they also there is a party where they are reunited with their friends and a ceremony.
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  So what is it about this particular part that moved Tolkien so profoundly you can actually see the tear stains on the manuscript which in itself is incredibly moving.
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  And it's the moment I think when Sam gets to hear that they are so he's going to be sung.
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  If you remember on the stairs going up to Kirithongal they talk about Frodo and Sam talk about if there's if there's would make a good story.
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  And the bit that made Tolkien week is when they are led by arrogant and there's sort of a ceremony with all the nights of gondor and they're led to sit on a sort of throne.
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  And everyone kneels to him is a version of the bit we see in the Peter Jackson film where everybody bows to the hobbits.
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  And then a minstrel steps forward and says nor low lords and knights a men of valor unashamed kings and princes and fair people of gondor and riders of Rohan and he sons of Elrond and the dunodine of the north and elf and wolf and great hearts of the Shire and all three folk of the west.
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  Now listen to my lay where I will sing to you a Frodo of the nine fingers and the ring of doom.
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  And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for Shire delight and he stood up and cried a whole great glory and splendor and all my wishes have come true and then he wept.
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  And everyone else weeps as did the writer as did Tolkien and you can see how the importance of story and moving people in story is so important to talking so using that as our guiding light.
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  Our silver ill in the darkness we are going to think of the five great moments from the novels or three novels I could of course pick out hundreds of favorite moments but I had to narrow myself down.
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  So the first of my choices may come as a little bit of surprise which is I've chosen a moment from the scaring of the Shire so I'm beginning at the end again I really like this chapter because it wasn't done in the film unlike the fact it wasn't because it's still mine I haven't got other people's images in the way of it.
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  And it's a wonderful little adventure all of its own a story after the story I think at one point actually the four actors who played the hobbits were wondering if they could do a sort of follow one film of this that would have been great actually maybe someone will get around to doing that anyway.
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  They come back to the Shire they've been left by Gandalf Gandalf as more or less said them look you're great enough big enough people now to do this on your own and that's what we find out.
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  Everything that they meet in the Shire they have a strategy which they have learned from watching the great people they've been amongst plan battles and we just see how competent they've become they it's like.
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  The whole of the story at this point has prepared them for this moment not throwing the ring in the cracks of doom it's this moment of saving their own land from Saruman.
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  And it's a great little section all of its own so if you never got around to reading the novel and you don't feel you can read the whole novel do read just these sections because you will get so much pleasure for them and that might encourage you to go and find out what's in the rest of the novel.
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  But the moment I absolutely love within it all so they're being very heroic and they're being very competent and they're raising the Shire and
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  where they get the sort of mixed feelings are coming back to a land that they've seen changed which was the land that kept them going all during their adventure.
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  Sam goes to see what's happened to his old dad he knows that things haven't been going well because he got glimpses in the mirror of Galadriel way back in book in the fellowship of the ring.
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  And what's so wonderful is this moment gaffer is introduced to Frodo again.
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  So here's our great heroes who have saved the west and gaffer brings everyone down to earth with a great bump he says it takes a lot of believing to the gaffer though I can see he's been mixing in strange company.
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  What's coming with his wiscuit I don't hold with wearing iron mungury whether it wears well or no and there is wonderful Shire sense which is what they've been fighting for after all that he wants.
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  You know it is time to put down the weapons it's time to lay aside the male and go back to wearing your waistcoat.
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  The other nice bit about this which I always think when I read that word wiscuit which is a kind of colloquial way of saying waistcoat is that Tolkien at one stage in his early career worked at the Oxford English dictionary and he worked on w.
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  So as well as working on words like walrus he probably also worked on words like wiscuit but read that somewhere maybe in John Garth anyway I thought that was a lovely thought that he's so aware of this word as he writes it.
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  So for me that signifies the humor in the book that also the good solid values of it's not about war it's about fighting to regain peace and I just think it's beautiful it's an absolutely wonderful moment so that's number five.
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  And it's kind of bundled up in the whole scaring of the Shire chapter to be honest.
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  So what's that number four on my list?
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  Well it's another Sam moment actually I was surprised as I crossed things off and narrowed it down how many of these come from return of the king because it's not I wouldn't have thought of it as my favorite book as a whole I like the fellowship of the ring very much.
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  So I found that quite interesting that these moments were falling in the last book.
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  The bit I found myself going to is the part when Frodo and Sam have been separated and Frodo is looking Frodo is captured by the orcs is held at the top of the tower of curious angle and Sam is looking for him.
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  It doesn't happen in the way of the Peter Jackson films it's not been a falling out Frodo is struck by she lob and Sam thinks is dead and leaves him which actually in a way is kind of even more awful than a falling out and then realizes mistake so this is him trying to put that mistake right trying to go back and find Frodo.
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  So amongst the darkness which is described beautifully talking is great at setting the scene of somewhere really terrible and hopeless and violence and grin and dirty and what is just really well evoked and in this setting of utter darkness and Sam at the moment to all is lost because he can't find his master he sits down and sings the most beautiful song.
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  If any of you have listened to the BBC adaptation of this Sam sings this song beautifully and the song I won't quote it all but I put it in here because this is one where the poetry of Tolkien really shines out like a diamond on a black velvet background.
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  And it goes in western lands beneath the sun the flowers may rise in spring the trees may bud the waters run the merry finches sing or there may be tears cloudless night and swaying beaches bear the Elven stars as jewels white amid their branching hair.
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  It's just wonderful stuff and that haunted me really during my teenage years I used to often humble sing that to myself it seems to sum up that quality that so many of us know of this piercing beauty that Tolkien captures and it's something I think I've always looked for and keep on looking for another fantasy stories and haven't yet found someone who matches him for that perception of beauty.
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  It's the I can only really find it in other poetry by other great poets.
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  So I find I always moves me.
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  And well I might as well read the second verse because it's not much is it.
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  And the second verse really applies to him at the moment his in.
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  The here at journeys and I lie in darkness buried deep beyond all towers strong and high beyond or mountain steep above all shadows rides the sun and stars forever dwell I will not say the days done not bid the stars farewell.
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  Again so beautiful achingly beautiful and it connects to the moment which comes not much longer afterwards when they are making their way across the plains of gorgoroth I think it is to mount doom where they're again surviving on fumes and.
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  Frodo is asleep fitfully completely exhausted worn out by the ring and Sam looks up and the clouds part and he sees one star and it's a moment where he finds that sort of gritty courage which enables him to.
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  Support and half carry Frodo the last way so.
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  The foreshadowing of that moment is in this song it's all a beautiful web that's woven all the way through the book fabulous writing so that's moment number four for me.
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  What's that moment number three.
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  Well has to be air when I mean talk about talking not doing very good female characters.
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  No he the ones he does do are so there's so much in them for us to cheer and what's so fun about the moment when air when kills the rich king is that talking is again rewriting Macbeth.
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  So we all probably know that one of the reasons why talking wrote the ends marching on sarahman and isengard is because of a line in Macbeth where woods are done so name appear to move and the explanation is given that the marching soldiers are.
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  Disguising themselves with greenery like a kind of camouflage and Tolkien found that every day explanation disappointing and he wanted a real wood to march upon the hop the fortress of the bad guy.
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  And so that's what he does with the ends and that's a really good prompt there for any of you out there who are wanting to write if you've got something like that.
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  Some story that disappoints you you can get a chance to rewrite it in your own way move it to your own world and do what you would have done is it's a great.
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  It will release really interesting things inside you and you're probably right very well about that as a result.
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  Anyway, not that part of Macbeth he's rewriting he is rewriting the prophecy that Macbeth won't be killed by hand of man born of woman.
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  And the twist in the story is Macduff has been born of the equivalent of a caesarian section ripped untimely from my mother's womb I think is the quote so there's that little play where the prophecy comes true.
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  Macbeth isn't safe because his enemy has had this unusual birth.
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  So let's go to the battle of Paleno and the witch King which King is feeling very confident about his fortune because he knows that no living man may hinder him he tells.
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  Dernhelm who is Erwin this.
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  And just also mention in the book we are held back with the realization the first time we read it that Dernhelm is Erwin no we're guessing but it's only at this moment we discover who she is.
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  For sure and of course the twist in the tale here is no man does hinder him but he is hindered by two is hindered by a hobbit who isn't a man and by a woman.
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  And so between them they manage to break the spell and kill which King first of all Mary gets to stab in the back of the leg and then of course Erwin has the moment where she delivers a coup de gras.
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  And that gives her the fabulous line where she takes off her helmet and she says to him but no living man am I you look upon a woman Erwin I am airman's daughter you stand between me and my lord.
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  And kin begone if you be not deckless for living or dark undead I will smite you if you touch him.
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  That made you want to cheer doesn't it it's a fabulous moment so dramatic and because the which King has told us of this prophecy we can see click click click how the prophecy is about to come true which adds to our enjoyment of that moment.
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  So there we are a bit of rewriting of Macbeth or great effect.
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  That was my number three slot.
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  So what comes at the top of my list well again really difficult so many things I could have chosen but remember I'm going for just small moments not whole scenes and a number two for me is the moment when Frodo aren't throw.
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  The ring in the fire.
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  It is so important that he can't do it.
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  All sorts of reasons thematic for Tolkien's view of the nature of humans and his faith but also because it is surprising the quest you're supposed to achieve the quest when you're right on the edge you are supposed to kill the dragon sees the Silmarils whatever it is you're supposed to be able to do it.
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  But Frodo he gets right up to the edge after all that struggling all that bravery and then he says I have come he said but I do not choose now to do what I came to do I will not do the deed the ring is mine.
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  And it's a complete oh no moment we're seeing it through sounds eyes and the devastation is clear.
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  And again a bit like the prophecy with Erwin we begin to see that this whole moment has been prepared for because we all know what happens next it's.
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  The column also wanting the ring that proves the the thing which actually allows it to be destroyed not Frodo's own self will but something he and Bilbo did much earlier and all the other people who showed mercy to golem allows golem to be there at that moment and do the thing by accident that Frodo cannot do.
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  Of course that from Tolkien's view of humanity we are not we're not we're not heroes we are sinful creatures and so Frodo being weak he's incredibly strong because he shares the same weakness as I asked that we can't do it without the help of providence.
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  And so that's very important that the quest ends this way it may not fit people's ideas of the sort of superhero story or something it's not that he isn't a superhero he's a little hobbit who's done a really difficult task.
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  And even so even though he succeeds with others cannot he still needs the help of something else outside of him to help that moment happen and the ring be destroyed the victory over evil for the time being to be achieved so that's my second moment because it's a rude shock incredibly important and very powerful really opens up what the whole book is about.
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  So what lies that spot number one well you can imagine how difficult it was to pick it but it's spot number one it comes in the chapter of the bridge of Casadum in the fellowship with the ring and it is the moment where Gandalf fights the Balrog.
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  It's not that you cannot pass just notice you cannot pass not you shall not pass you cannot pass it's not that moment is actually a few lines later where Gandalf has forced the Balrog into the Casam and then he staggers and falls and scrabbles to hold on to the stone and then he slides into the abyss and it's this line.
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  Fly you fools he cried and was gone.
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  Wonderful bit of writing because in that encapsulates Gandalf's character our irassable wizard is still irassable he's saying look I'm creating this time for you to escape fly but it's also done out of love for them.
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  So he's saying he's putting himself dying for his friends no greater love has man than die for his friends it's that thing and he's dying in character dying we yeah for the moment dying in character with the you falls I also love the bits where he calls pipping a full you full of a two.
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  We are fools in this world and that's what Gandalf is summing up but of course it's the end to him epic battle it's not walking away.
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  He is being consumed by that battle and falls into the abyss and we on the first time of reading first time of seeing the film we think is gone so we suffer the lost along with the fellowship.
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  So that fly you fools is just epic it's my favorite moment I think in the whole book so loaded with power meaning.
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  So there my five top moments I've still got hundreds of others just something in my mind to join them as I'm sure you have so do let me know your own favorite moments ones that really should have been on my list and I hope you've enjoyed listening.
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