1.Who carved this door and its symbols and why? Did you find yourself wondering
this as well?
I guess it was the Men whose spirits now haunt the paths, men who were left
behind when the Edain left for Numenor and who worshipped Sauron at one
time.
2. Now to the very first question I ever asked on TORN: Why is only Legolas
singled out as not fearing the ghosts of men? Surely the sons of Elrond, who we
know had the life of the elves while Elrond was still in ME, would also not
fear the spirits. My own theory was that because they had the potential to be
mortal, and presumably they knew their sister’s intentions, the ghosts of
humans would strike a bit close to home.
That sounds like a reasonable theory to me about Elrond's boys--they are
after all only Half-elven.
3. Why the switch to Gimli’s perspective here? This is a rare occurance. Is it
because, of the characters in this scene we’re familiar with, he’s the one we
can relate to most in this situation?
We always seem to get the perspective of the smallest person present! The
hobbits are our usual narrators, and when they are not there we get either the
tale as told to them or a more distant narrative voice. Here, I think Tolkien
switches to the perspective of the one who feels the most devastatingly
terrified--and that's Gimli.
4. When I read this passage the first time, I couldn’t wait to find out what
the story was behind that skeleton…but in the course of the book you never do
learn about him. Why leave this ambiguous? Was this just another facet Tolkien
left vague in LOTR to add realism? (Like Queen Beruthiel’s infamous cats.)
In the next chapter Theoden tells Merry the story of Baldor, son of Brego
(son of Eorl, IIRC), who took a drunken vow at a feast to pass the door of the
Dead and never returned. That gives Aragorn's comment about simbelmyne as well
as the nine and seven mounds of the Kings of Rohan added significance. I
think we can safely say that's Baldor's
skeleton.
PJ and the boys are thrilled to run into a group of
TORnsibs at the Applebee's in Maumee, Ohio.
