Latest / Mythmakers / Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 2 Chapter 9

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Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 2 Chapter 9 · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creators brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Goulding and
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  today we are going to have one of our sidecasts as we take an author's journey through the
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  Lord of the Rings. And we have reached chapter 9 in Book 2 that's towards the end of
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  the Fellowship of the Ring and the chapter is titled The Great River and it very much does what
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  it says because it's the longest stretch of the river travel that they do heading south towards
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  Mordor. Now looking at this chapter I don't suppose it's anyone's favourite chapter as a whole
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  but there may be some favourite moments in it and there are two for me. Maybe three actually.
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  What we look at those as we go along. The actual structure of this chapter, the other
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  previous chapters I've been talking about it falling into sort of three parts or that kind of
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  thing. Here actually when I looked at it it seemed to me as if it's more like a string of beads.
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  There are probably around six little episodes strung on the string of the river as they go along.
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  So look out for that as a change of structure. It starts in a dreamy drifty mood. It's got a
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  uneasy opening. Frodo wakes up, he fell asleep at the end of the previous chapter. So this is one
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  of the ways that Tolkien often starts a chapter is with Frodo waking up and we get here
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  sort of it's a odd beginning because it seems as though they're not exactly aimless but they
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  are definitely drifting and it's described like that. It's said that not that most of the company
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  were eager to hurry southwards they all want to hold back. Aragorn let them drift with the stream
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  as they wished, husbanding their strength against willingness to come. Now I think it's a dangerous
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  game in a book to let it feel as though it's drifting but what rescues this particular version
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  is the undertow of the river. They are moving onwards no matter what. If that same sentence had been
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  written about them just camping on the bank for a week I think it would have lost the tension
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  but there is the reluctant drag into adventure that is happening here. So I see Tolkien actually
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  just keeping us reminding us of the stakes and he does that through the point of view of Aragorn
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  saying that he felt in his heart that time was pressing and that the Dark Lord hadn't stayed
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  still whilst they were in lorien. So keep the drum beat up, keep the tension going even if you are
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  in a passage which is purposely seemingly more relaxed because you want that in order to make
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  this abrupt change into action as comes in an episode or two fit even more of a contrast.
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  This is another place where we could admire Tolkien's world building. Sometimes actually I think
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  his almost at his best in these little unremarkable corners of Middle-Earth. The brown lands he
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  described as brown and withered they looked as if a fire had passed over them leaving no blade
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  of green and unfriendly waste without even a broken tree or a bold stone to relieve the emptiness.
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  This is the eastern bank of the river. Wonderful description. I love the
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  it's almost again it's where his prose seems almost poetic brown and withered they looked
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  that inversion rather than they look brown and withered. Brown and withered they looked
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  as if a fire had passed over them leaving no blade of green blade a hard edge but it's not even
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  you know like it could be a spear or a blade of that sort but we don't know a blade of grass
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  also harsh edges even in the description of what's not there an unfriendly waste without even a
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  broken tree or a bold stone that's sort of juxtaposition tree and stone. Wonderful but of course
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  what this makes us think of if we know Tolkien's experience in the First World War is it does
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  feel like a battlefield and it is described as arrogant doesn't know what had happened here even
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  he doesn't know exactly but there's a feeling of the plots of the enemy the battles of yesterday
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  having passed over this and belighted it forever and I wonder if Tolkien had in mind what had happened
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  to the fields of France the idea that the blasted trees and no stone left standing in no one's land
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  if that was in the back of his mind it certainly is more and more as you get closer to Mordor
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  and he says that himself in his letters that it is in the back of his mind though he admits he
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  also has some William Morris stories in his head as well so never think there's just one
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  one reference point Tolkien's always drawing from a whole scrapped book of ideas and of course
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  any creative does the same so in contrast to the the eastern bank which is the left bank as they
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  go down the river on the right bank the other side is a wonderful description of a flat green land
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  with the rushes and here we get the evocative mention of small birds peeping in in the rushes
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  but they're unseen and then you get the phalanx of black swans going overhead you never know
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  those swans were in some way friendly or unfriendly but everything seems like a portant in this
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  emptied out landscape so here what we're looking at is an author creating a charged
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  atmosphere in a landscape which is bleak and desolate it is arrogant who is taken over from
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  keleborn keleborn back in lorian was giving us the he was our map describer arrogant is now doing it
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  here's the one providing the geographical brief and he makes it clear and Sam recognizes this
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  because Sam is the one reacting that they are on the front line and actually a river is a very
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  clear demarcation of a front line it's very helpful for a reader to be able to imagine oh yes the
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  enemy territory is on that side of the bank and dangerous but friendly territory is on
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  the west side of the bank i did actually one stage in my life go to a war zone as part of her
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  job i was doing um for oxfam and the front line in this particular conflict in minda now which was a
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  civil war conflict in the philippines was a road and so driving down the road
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  you can sense the sort of divided lands those civil wars are obviously more messy and less tidy than
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  this particular front line more like the front line as it stood in the first world war
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  talking continues to turn the ratchet of tension slowly here because as they carry on in this
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  drifting with the current way there's a feeling of insecurity grew on all the company and here we
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  get an unusual check-in on what everybody's thinking so it starts with Frodo which is not surprising
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  because the conceit is that he's later on putting it back together again as the story
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  he's thinking back to lorian which gives us the contrast of the green land with gold and silver with
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  this land of mists and brown lands you know it's by when you put one shiny bright thing against
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  something dark and drear and misty you get each looks better you know one more extreme version
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  of themselves but we also get a check-in to the headspace of legolas very unusually
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  and gimly who's thinking about what he's going to do with galatriel's hair
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  but tellingly we see Boramir from the outside it's Pippin who is worried about him
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  so Boramir's behavior which has been disruptive for many chapters he's now seeming to lose it a bit
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  because he's he's basically been quite creepy he's paddling up to catch up with Frodo and then
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  sort of drifting back again so he is falling under the power of the ring though that isn't spelt
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  out here but an attentive reader will be aware of the alarm bells which should be ringing around Boramir
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  so that's the first section which I would call the sort of drifty menacing section
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  and now we get to the second of our little episodes and this is when they pull up on an
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  iot or an eight what that is if you're wondering is a peninsula or even a little island on the bank
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  of a river um the spelling that Tolkien has chosen EYOT is not the most usual one is often written
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  down as a it anyway that's what it is defiantly water around an island or a little peninsula
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  into a river or lake and here we get remember we've had this long long build up to golem's approach
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  but here he actually gets named because Sam has noticed and unlike everybody else who's been
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  keeping it to themselves including Frodo Sam who notices something a log with eyes in the river
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  basically says tells Frodo everything he saw and dares to give it a name as well and Frodo says yeah
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  I know why they don't talk to each other is one of those mysteries in this part of the story
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  and then they agree to go into loan on keeping watch um but that doesn't last very long
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  because as Frodo is keeping watch he has a near miss of seeing golem and that wakes arrogant so
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  arrogant says so you know about our little footpad do you and arrogant goes on to tell Frodo and us
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  that he's tried to capture golem on a number of occasions okay why has he not told the rest of
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  the company I don't have an answer for that and I can't think of a story answer for that other
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  than perhaps maybe not wanting to alarm them or he didn't think it was necessary but it does mean
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  finally it becomes a company knowledge because arrogant twists the tension by saying
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  he's a dangerous creature quite apart from murder um by night on his own account
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  he may put the enemy that is about on our track so he spells out the danger he sees from golem
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  and it does become a full company watch so now everybody is in on the fact they're being tracked by golem
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  so moving on from the 8 the 8 there's a change in landscape and I've written this down it's
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  quite a long passage but I loved it soon they were passing through a hilly rocky land and on both
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  shores there were steep slopes buried in deep breaks of thorn and slow tangled with brambles
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  and creepers behind them stood low crumbling cliffs and chimneys of grey weathered stone dark
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  with ivy and beyond those again there rose high ridges crowned with wind rhythm furs
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  why did I bother to write down a passage about a place I don't even get off the boat to go and see
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  well have you noticed how Tolkien has organized that one of the challenges when you're describing
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  a new land is how to organize what you see so that you take the reader with you and here Tolkien is
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  doing it like a landscape painter that might sketch out a scene before him or her he moves from
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  the foreground to the background so we have the shores and the breaks of thorn and slow that's
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  like underbrush and then behind that the cliffs and behind that the ridges so we are mental eye is
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  drawn and organized so that we can see one thing in relation to another and note how specific he is
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  again he talks about different flora and fauna we've got not fauna in this case but flora
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  thorn and slow brambles and creepers and furs so you could imagine all of these different
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  plants of that are growing wild and here at the end of this little section which I've called the
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  AEP section we get an eagle just glimpsed high up in the sky which is possibly a link to Gandalf
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  we later find out but he's just planted there so that it can be referred to later
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  okay in the third episode talking quite rightly thinks I've been drifting a bit and they've been
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  chatting away and we've had the tension mounting with knowing golems on the heels but something's
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  got to happen and two things happen in quick succession first is a physical danger when they suddenly
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  find themselves much closer to the sanghibir rapids than they thought do note that burramir is as helpful
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  as ever basically telling you know we're all going to die kind of thing uh arrogant admits to being
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  out of his reckoning because they've gone faster than he thought he's not been here before this way
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  he's learning on the job he does say he's less should we say less comforting in this section
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  he says turn if you can i'm not quite sure what the alternative is is to go over the rapids is it
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  anyway it's clear that the turning of the boats against the current or across the current is massively
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  difficult and even burramir and well not even burramir but burramir starts shouting orders almost as if
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  he's fed up with arrogant and he wants to take charge which is that sort of tension that's been
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  working away subtly underneath everything anyway so uh between arrogant and burramir they managed
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  to get the boats away from the the rapids but that's not the only danger at hand because in an
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  excellent piling on of the drama that is the moment when the auks attack and here it ties up the
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  eight episode because there is a suggestion that these auks may have been alerted by golem so golem
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  has been swimming down the river so he of course can land on both the east and the west bank so it's
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  plausible that he may have alerted nearby auks and at this point the current has pushed the boats far
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  over to the east so it's a perfect place for an ambush here we have a sort of memory of lorian
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  still holding on to protect them because after a few near misses an arrow striking
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  Frodo but bouncing off his cloak with male shirt underneath his cloak and so on the arrows
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  stop fighting their mark and there's a reference here to possible protection from the cloaks and
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  the boats making them very hard to spot and with an effort they reach the west bank
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  i love this bit that's about to happen because legless doesn't do an awful he's one of the
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  least used of the company we get less glimpses of him fewer glimpses of him i should say
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  and this is one of those moments where he comes to the fore and we see it from Frodo's point of view
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  when they reach the shelter of the west bank legless leaps up with his bow he's the one with
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  the long range weapon and Frodo looks up and sees legless's head it was dark crowned with sharp white
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  stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind we suddenly reminded that he is this
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  ancient one of the ancient race of the elves and then we get an echo of the eagle episode but it's
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  come back in a much darker more terrifying form they don't yet name the Nazgul because that is a
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  little bit early but we get a sort of precursor we see one without knowing what it is but we know
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  it's not an eagle because Frodo feels it's evil presence and his wound starts to ache
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  just as we think all might be lost you know there's a overhead attack legless's bow sings out
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  that is not the fun you know Tolkien is picking on the
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  the usage of the the twang of the bow being like singing which you'll find in some folk tales and
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  things but it seems particularly fitting for an elven bow doesn't it and legless manages to get a
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  shot in which falls than as the the creature the winged fell beast and it disappears and the sky
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  is described as being clean again so that dark evil presence is gone so a hero moment there for
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  legless which is very uh enjoyable to see Boromia by contrast is still being his creepy self
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  whilst one person is standing up crown with light he got Boromia being darker and more nasty
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  I sort of trying to work out why when Frodo says I think it felt
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  like something but I can't say what Boromia is trying to pry and poke and find out what
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  for Frodo has already said he doesn't want to say so the all is not well with Boromia
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  so here we come to the fourth of our little beads on the the thread which is the river
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  which is when they are sort of sheltering on the bank and the immediate danger is passed
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  there is a reflection on the nature of time and it's right that legless has just had his hero moment
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  and he now has one of his most wonderful passages in the whole book that he gets to say
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  and that's about the nature of time Sam is worrying because he's seen the moon come up a new moon
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  and he's trying to work out where they are in terms of the calendar
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  Frodo says he feels like time stops in lorian and legless has this rather wonderful
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  notion or speech about time as it appears to the elves nay time does not tarry ever so you know
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  they may have felt like it stopped but it doesn't but change and growth is not in all place
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  in all things and places alike for the elves the world moves and it moves both very swift and very
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  slow swift because they themselves change little and all else fleets by it is a grief to them
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  slow because they do not count the running years not for themselves the passing seasons are
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  but ripples ever repeated in the long long stream yet beneath the sun all things must wear to an end
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  at last so he's using the river that is around them as a sort of visual of this idea of both the
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  ripples and the moving on the drag onwards which connects to where we started with this the feeling
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  that they are being dragged into their quest you can't stop and stand on the bank you have to
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  carry on in this direction and that phrase yet beneath the sun is actually quite to like
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  ecclesiastes it's sort of biblical in phrasing as elves often are
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  Frodo puts his foot in it a bit by speaking out loud about the ladies ring
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  and is told to speak no more of it by arrogant and this little interlude about time
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  is sort of wrapped up at that point and arrogant is still being not very positive
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  because he says time flows on to a spring of little hope but I guess you see the alternatives
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  is for him to say yep we've got this guys it's in the bag of course he can't say that because that
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  would would make us not believe the quest could fail we have to believe that they could fail in order
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  to want to to stay with them to see them succeed the next day they wake in a wet and foggy world
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  and Boramir and Aragorn are arguing again as to the right path Boramir wants to give up on the river
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  and set out to minister it because all the all the time they've been on the river that he
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  knows what he wants to do his agenda is clear he just wants everyone else to fall into line and
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  go within Aragorn likes the river because it puts off the decision he knows what he wants to
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  do in his heart but he also knows what the quest needs to do and he says that the river is at
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  least a path that cannot be missed carrying on down this front line is putting off the decision
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  and Boramir says something which on a second read sounds prophetic Boramir says well all right then
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  kind of thing to the tall aisle I will go but no further and of course he does go no further
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  now we get to the fifth episode which is the portage way I want to just sort of sing the praises
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  of an unfilmed episode in the story where there is no BBC audio version there is no Peter Jackson
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  version to get in the way of you just enjoying the prose of Tolkien I love these extra special
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  because they don't feel tired and worn out and I haven't seen them a million times
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  and this is also a turning point in Aragorn's sort of mood as well he starts by saying
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  and once they've gone off to try and find a way round the rapids it looks pretty pretty bleak but he
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  and Legolas go and have an explore and he comes back saying all is well they found the old path
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  Boramir is still being a grump frankly and one of the ways in which
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  his stirred interaction is by Gimli saying a very Gimli-esque thing which is the legs of men will
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  lag on a rough road while a dwarf goes on be the burden twice his own weight master Boramir so
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  a bit of prodding from everyone else Boramir and Aragorn carry the boats up and around down
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  past the falls to the next safe mooring point but he doesn't stop there because this is
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  quite some little episode because it also comes to an end this is tiring work carrying these boats
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  even though they're unexpectedly light and everybody is exhausted by the time they reach the
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  bottom of the rapids and Boramir gets to sort of have a clap back at Gimli who's nodding with
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  tiredness so a fun little episode all of its own with the company showing both their
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  willingness to work together but also the fact that it's not all sweetness and light in the company
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  and so they get back on the river there was one little bit of description here as the land gets
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  high either side as they approach the Argonath which is the two statues of the kings that actually
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  is very memorably realised in the Peter Jackson film but there's a bit here which I thought was
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  really beautifully described before you get to the Argonath which is as they go down this
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  chasm talking rights over them was a lane of pale blue sky so he's flipping it so that if you're
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  looking up you've got this pale blue sky in the lane it gives you the sense of how steep the
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  sides must be for the sky to be just a lane above their heads it's a very clever way of
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  telling us what it feels like to be at the bottom of this chasm and then we move into the last
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  episode the sixth episode in this river chapter which is the wonderful moment of reaching the
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  Argonath which might well be somebody's favourite moment it's up there amongst mine and it's
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  sort of starts with Argon's declaration in a way behold the Argonath and it's well worth
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  beholding so let's do a little bit of beholding of the Argonath seen from Frodo's point of view
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  as Frodo was born towards them the great pillars rose like towers to meet him giant say seemed to him
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  vast grey figures silent but threatening many saw that they were indeed shaped and fashioned
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  the craft and power of old had wrought upon them and still they preserved through the suns
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  and the rains of forgotten years the mighty likenesses in which they had been hewn upon great
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  pedestals founded in the deep waters to two great kings of stone still with blurred eyes and
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  crannied brows they frowned upon the north the left hand of each was raised palm outwards in
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  gesture of warning in each right hand there was an axe upon each head there were there was a crumbling
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  helm and crown great power and majesty they still wore the silent wardens of a long vanish kingdom
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  I probably not the only person who is reminded of rewriting of Shelley's Aussie Mandius here
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  Aussie Mandius which is the poem about the fragment in the desert look on my work she might
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  be in despair that statue is a symbol of a broken kingdom so though gondor is also a broken
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  kingdom the king has been gone for many many generations these statues are still standing still on
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  guard so the message is different here is that actually the king is returning one odd fact if you
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  visualise this both of the kings are holding out their left hand which is a bit doesn't the
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  symmetry of that doesn't quite work do you think about it um anyway it might have been better if
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  one was holding out the left hand and won the right but hey I'm not going to rewrite talking
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  just when you think about it they're both one of those arms is going to be over the river
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  anyway I'm nitpicking on say I should stop because again this arc enough is a bit like meeting
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  Galadriel is a test of what you all feel and think for most of them it's a daunting and unsettling
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  experience particularly for poor old Sam who is you know he's basically bleeding out what a
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  horrible place and that is the prompt for arrogant to really settle into this more kingly role that
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  he's sometimes been flirting with but now this is the moment where it sort of settles on on him
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  the banter lookingship fear not and then the passage goes on in the stern sat arrogant son of
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  arathorn proud and erect a king returning from exile to his own land so we're not with strider
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  anymore we're with arrogant though he still is in doubt he says he wants to go to ministeriath but
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  he knows he should go into mortal the chapter ends once you get that glimpse of kingship you get
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  them mooring their boats again on a little inlet called nenn hithole and there's a great end to
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  this chapter it sums everything up the tenth day of the journey was over willed alarm was behind
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  them they could go no further without choice between the east way and the west the last stage of
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  the crest was before them I think when talking broke that he really did think he was coming towards
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  the end clearly we all know there's another two books this is not the end but it is the last stage
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  of the quest for the fellowship as a whole because the next chapter which concludes fellowship with
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  the ring is the breaking of the fellowship and that's where we have to say goodbye to one of our
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  companions and I'm sure that's not a plot spoiler so meet me again for the breaking of the fellowship
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