The Tower and the red eye.
The dusk was deep when at length
they set out, creeping over the westward rim of the dell, and fading like
ghosts into the broken country on the borders of the road: The moon was now
three nights from the full, but it did not climb over the mountains until
nearly midnight, and the early night was very dark. A single red light burned
high up in the Towers of the Teeth, but otherwise no sign could be seen or
heard of the sleepless watch on the Morannon.
A. Why are there no patrols or outlying guard posts in the perimeter country
beyond the ‘sleepless’ Morannon?
For many miles the red eye seemed to stare at them as they
fled, stumbling through a barren stony country. They did not dare to take the
road, but they kept it on their left, following its line as well as they could
at a little distance. At last, when night was growing old and they were already
weary, for they had taken only one short rest, the eye dwindled to a small
fiery point and then vanished: they had turned the dark northern shoulder of
the lower mountains and were heading southwards.
B. Why did the hobbits feel it was an eye looking at them, if they were
facing away from it?
C. Where else have we seen this eye – and where will we see it again? Why does
Tolkien like this image so much?
The growing light revealed to them
a land already less barren and ruinous. The mountains still loomed up ominously
on their left, but near at hand they could see the southward road, now bearing
away from the black roots of the hills and slanting westwards. Beyond it were
slopes covered with sombre trees like dark clouds,
Mountains in Provence
It seemed good to be reprieved, to
walk in a land that had only been for a few years under the dominion of the
Dark Lord and was not yet fallen wholly into decay. But they did not forget
their danger, nor the Black Gate that was still all too near, hidden though it
was behind the gloomy heights. They looked about for a hiding-place where they
could shelter from evil eyes while the light lasted.
The day passed uneasily. They lay deep in the heather and counted
out the slow hours, in which there seemed little change; for they were still
under the shadows of the Ephel Dúath, and the sun was veiled.
D. What is the essence of Mordor’s influence upon Ithilien? What changes
would be made to Rohan, or the Shire, should they meet a similar fate?
Road repaired only 30 miles.
The road had
been made in a long lost time: and for perhaps thirty miles below the Morannon
it had been newly repaired, but as it went south the wild encroached upon it.
E. Sauron has controlled Ithilien for many lives of men. Why repair the road
only when it approaches the Morannon?
Orcs patrolling
Then they sought for a
resting-place, and a hiding-place: for this land, fair-seeming still, was
nonetheless now territory of the Enemy. They had not come very far from the
road, and yet even in so short a space they had seen scars of the old wars, and
the newer wounds made by the Orcs and other foul servants of the Dark Lord: a
pit of uncovered filth and refuse; trees hewn down wantonly and left to die,
with evil runes or the fell sign of the Eye cut in rude strokes on their bark.
The rangers seldom come so far afield, we will soon learn. Sauron has held
Ithilien for many years now. Defacing or cutting down trees and leaving open
pits of filth seems hardly in the same league with his usual landscaping style.
F. What does Sauron do or want to do with Ithilien up here by the high road,
where his folk are free to live and work almost undisturbed if they choose to?
Dreadful feasts.
Sam scrambling
below the outfall of the lake. smelling and touching the unfamiliar plants and
trees, forgetful for the moment of Mordor, was reminded suddenly of their
ever-present peril. He stumbled on a ring still scorched by fire, and in the
midst of it he found a pile of charred and broken bones and skulls. The swift
growth of the wild with briar and eglantine and trailing clematis was already
drawing a veil over this place of dreadful feast and slaughter; but it was not
ancient.
G. Whose charred and broken bones are they?
War? What war?
but though Orcs may shun the
sunlight, there were too many places here where they could lie hid and watch;
and other evil eyes were abroad: Sauron had many servants.
H. But where are the orcs, really? What other ‘eyes’ are abroad? Is this one
line enough to establish a sense of “menace” in this chapter?
Sardinia after a storm
At that moment he saw the sun rise
out of the reek, or haze, or dark shadow, or whatever it was, that lay ever to
the east,
I. Just what is that stuff in the Ephel Duath? (and who is saying “or
whatever it was”?)
`But there are no travellers in
this land: only the servants of the Dark Tower, or of the White.’
`We must learn more of this,' said Faramir, `and know what brings you so far
east under the shadow of yonder-,' he pointed and said no name.
I doubt not that the days of Gondor are numbered, and the walls of Minas Tirith
are doomed, so great is His strength and malice.'
they go ever more heedlessly, we learn, thinking that the power of their new
master is great enough, so that the mere shadow of His hills will protect them.
‘We shall be pursued as soon as news of our deed reaches the Enemy, and that
will not be long.'
It’s 60 miles to the Morannon, and we’ve seen not an orc or any other enemy
since then.
J. Pursued by whom?
K. Is Sauron’s power like that of the Black Riders: mostly Fear?
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
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