Latest / Mythmakers / Forth the Three Hunters! - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 1

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Forth the Three Hunters! - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Bk 3 Ch 1 · 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. Now after a summer break I am
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  returning to our sidecast where we read our way through the Lord of the Rings and it's
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  very appropriate that this autumn we're setting off with the two towers which is obviously
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  as you all know the middle segment but in terms of how Tolkien thought about it we're talking
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  about Book 3 because he wrote it as six books. Now I've not sort of thought about this as
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  deliberately before so this time I made sure I noticed everything that was happening
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  before we started reading the two towers. I tend to just immediately turn to chapter 1 but I
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  thought well how do they make the bridge between the Fellowship of the Ring and the two towers
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  and I noticed that there is a very masterful previously on section and it also tells you where
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  we're going to end the star and the end and so it says this now tells how each of the members
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  of the Fellowship of the Ring fared after the breaking of their Fellowship if the coming of the
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  Great Darkness and the outbreak of the War of the Ring so that says better than I can the land in
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  which the two towers occupies. So chapter 1 is the departure of Boromir. Now let's think about
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  that first the choice that Tolkien made here is to hold back on the main members of the quest
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  who are of course Frodo and Sam and decided to go with the others. That is a good lesson on
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  suspense. If we went straight to Frodo I think the effect would be we would find all these stories
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  being much less important. Film versions of this interlace they chop it up so you see the stories
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  happening concurrently. This this version of it is Tolkien tells it in chunks as you as you know
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  don't know. Anyway so this particular chapter is notable for being incredibly short. Thinking back
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  to the Fellowship of the Ring we were he sapped through enormously long chapters like the Council
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  of Elren for example this one is only seven pages and stylistically it's also quite different.
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  It's in three very brief sections. The first is Aragorn searching for Frodo which intersects with
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  the Ork attack. Then we have the middle section which is the death of Boromir and the funeral rights
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  and then the third part of it is the decision about what to do next. They all are also on the heels
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  of each other as I said this is a very very quick chapter and really what this chapter is about
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  is the movement within Aragorn's psyche his decision making process where he goes from hesitation
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  to resolve. In fitting with the fact that it's only seven pages long it also stylistically is
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  snappier. There's lots of dialogue and there's lots of let's get on with it and there's lots of
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  short sentences so when you're thinking about starting a new book it's obviously quite good to
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  up the pace a bit. It might be a Victorian thing to feel like you've got a whole canvas in which
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  you can do a long sort of Dickensian introduction to a theme. Here we are right into the action
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  we're into a battle and we're into Aragorn running very action packed but notice the short
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  sentences Aragorn sped up the hill he stiffened as two word sentence Aragorn hesitated another two
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  word sentence. There is a kind of interlacing happening here which I can't help but see now in film
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  terms because of having watched the films but you've got Boramir his presence is made felt by the
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  horn which Aragorn hears when he's standing up on the top of the hill at the place which was
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  visited by Frodo at the end of the friendship with the ring and there's another connection here
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  which you probably might you could miss quite easily which is to the eagle he sees a bird flying
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  in the sky we don't know yet who is sending the eagle so there's actually suggestion later on
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  that it could be Saruman is spying on them. It's one of those misdirects which is disguising the fact
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  that Gandalf later says that he had word brought of them by the wrought of them by the eagle.
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  One thing which I've always puzzled about here which is that Aragorn is oddly negligent
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  he runs up the hill knowing this is a dangerous situation tell Sam follow me but makes
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  their allowances for hobbit legs doesn't seem to notice Sam isn't with him for a very long time
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  it could be that he's just not a regular leader at this point but I was thinking that this
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  feels to me as though Tolkien is imagining the panic coming out of this crisis point and I don't
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  think it's a panic generated by the ring which could be one explanation for it it seems to me
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  it's one of those fortuitous accidents that the presiding fate of this world needs to have them
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  scatter at this point because they all got vital roles to play it's that sense there is a greater
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  plan beneath it and it could be why Aragorn is acting in an un-Aragorn like way of not noticing
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  that he's left Sam behind. I suppose that gives you the sense that something fate is driving
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  them at this point they're not quite in control of their choices and also Aragorn is shown to be
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  I suppose a little bit unheroic in that he jumps in shouting a lendil a lendil but he's missed the
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  battle so there's a lot of misfiring misdirection misunderstandings all part of this frenetic activity
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  but of course the blade may be empty of enemies but it's not empty of everybody because he comes
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  upon Boromir lying on his deathbed the language around Boromir begins to change a bit
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  we are moving into the Aragorn register of heroic deeds and kings and queens that kind of world
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  as opposed to the Hobbit every day sense they have a moving exchange and that exchange masks
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  some suspense that Tolkien is slipping in there the suspense about which Hobbits have been taken
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  if we remember the end of the Fellowship of the Ring we know but the
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  Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas don't know so it makes their decision even harder
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  after Boromir has allowed his sort of grandeur of passing in that he makes his confession he sort
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  of puts things as right as he can at that point so he ends up as a hero rather than a villain
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  Aragorn is given a brief cililiquity it does feel like something from a stage convention
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  where he's lamenting he's the fault that he has committed by making mistakes
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  I suppose here we are reminded of the sort of heraldic speeches of the Wathurian nights those
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  kind of things so it is it is quite a stage scene with Boromir lying surrounded by hit the
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  bodies of his foes it's a sort of end of hamlet feel to it so that could be going on somewhere in
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  the back of Tolkien's mind. Legolas here is the one who has the idea because Aragorn is
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  flawed flummoxed his hesitating and Legolas is the one with the plan he says that they must
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  bury Boromir or do his funeral rights and then follow and he sums it up is as let us do first what
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  we must do so very sensible. Note that it's by doing what they must do is where they start to get
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  their answers they find two hobbit knives and no more so they're beginning to piece together what
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  might have happened. It's also important this chapter brief though it is to establish how these
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  three work together they do work very harmoniously together joining together in creating a funeral
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  which they all agree on their decisions about which way to go are debated openly there isn't much
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  rub between them there is obviously the rivalry between Elf and Wolf but they have created a little
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  threesome band which is how they travel together going on from this even when more people join them.
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  We also get here an explanation of the three kinds of Orcs that we have to put in our heads for
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  this particular part of the story. We have the Misty Mountain Orcs who have already met who have
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  come to revenge their leader. We have the new arrivals who are Saramans Orcs which are the ones
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  of the White Hand and they are distinguished by the fact that they have managed qualities and
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  one of the ways this is picked out by Tolkien is to talk about them having a Simiter like a short
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  sword but also a long U-bow longbow which the sort of Robin of Sherwood longbow.
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  So they obviously tall a stature to fire such a bow so there's somewhere between Orcan Man which
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  is one of the things they debate about Saramans how we know that he has really gone to a very
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  dark side by crossbreeding and then later in the next chapter we'll meet some Mordor Orcs
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  who are the ones coming over the river the original flavour of Orcs.
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  So they carry on puzzling out the signs and it is actually a shock to find that Saramans
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  has Orcs when you think about it he was the leader of the White Council he was Saramans the White.
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  It's quite extreme to go to using the servants of the enemy.
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  And whilst they're puzzling out the signs preparing for Boramir's funeral,
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  Gimli makes the statement which is in all of their minds which they're facing a decision but
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  maybe there is no right choice. Tolkien is very good at these moments of crisis that you reach
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  in life that sometimes there is no right choice you just have to pick one. Unfortunately in this
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  case it turns to be the right one but they don't know that at this point in the story.
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  The pace slows a little when we actually get to the funeral is beautifully described the way
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  they lay out Boramir and of course it's one of the times when a poem is actually seemingly composed
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  there and then but let's just dip into a little bit of the description of Boramir.
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  Now they laid Boramir in the middle of the boat that was to bear him away.
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  The grey hood and elven cloak they folded in place beneath his head. They combed his long dark
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  hair and eroded upon his shoulders. The gold and belt of lorien gleamed about his waist.
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  His helm they set beside him and across his lap they laid the clove and horn
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  and hilt and shards of his sword. Beneath his feet they put the swords of his enemies.
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  Then fasting the prowl to the stern of the other boat they drew him out into the water.
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  They rode sadly along the shore and turning into the swift running channel they passed the
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  green sword of path-gallon. The steep sides of tall brandy were glowing. It was now mid-afternoon.
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  As they went south the fume of Rauros rose and shimmered before them a haze of gold.
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  The rush and thunder of the falls shook the windless air and then they let go of the boat
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  and he swept out to sea out into the great sea where they think he may have arrived at night
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  under the stars. Beautiful description but it slows things down. They're going to take a breath
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  to mark the passage of a problematic but important member of the fellowship.
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  And then we get this poem which is three verses in couplets of ten lines each
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  thinking of the different winds and they and Gimli mentions they don't sing the east wind
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  because that's where Mordor is of course. Notice also it's in a question and answer format.
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  So the first part of the verse is question the second is the answer.
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  It's pretty polished for something on the hoof but one assumes they're all part of
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  poetic cultures so the idea is they can create these things using the language of their
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  traditional poetry. Okay so now we move into the last section and Argonne is basically saying
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  quite everybody and now may I make the right choice and change the evil fate of this unhappy day
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  and he digs deep and at that point he gets a revelation. All that hesitation the
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  he's been driven to the point where he makes the right decision basically. My heart speaks
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  clearly at last and he decides to follow the hobbits that that's his priority and the tempo picks
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  up and they have their cry for the three hunters and I just want to point out the last paragraph
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  talking has a wonderful way of exiting from his chapters like a deer he sprang away
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  through the trees he sped still short sentences on and on he led them tireless and swift now that
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  his mind was at last made up the woods about the lake they left behind long slopes they climbed
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  dark hard edge against the sky already red with sunset dusk came they passed away gray shadows
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  in a stony land so thematically they're also passing this is a chapter about passing people
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  moving on and even though they're just going to be there in the next chapter there is a sense that
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  it keeps with that feeling of energy the tone hasn't been wrenched in a new direction after
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  sending Boromir over the falls of Rauros so an excellent little jewel of a chapter
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  gets us going eager to find out what happens in the rest of the adventure so that's chapter one
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  and we look forward to the writers of Rohan in chapter two
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  in
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  you