Today I want to talk about three “Themes” that run through this entire chapter,
in the background. But no matter how many questions I come up with, there are
many others that I’ve passed over for lack of space. Please feel free to
comment on any aspects of these texts and themes that interest you.
“The War of the Ring” is one of the subtitles of LotR in Frodo’s history.
Since the previous June, we know, Gondor and Mordor have been openly at war. We
heard rumors of this back in the Shire, and confirmation from Boromir at the
Council of Elrond. We readers have since seen much of another war, between
Rohan and Isengard. But only now do our hobbit heroes finally get caught up in
one small skirmish in this great war, fought in the borderland of Ithilien.
I want to consider here what we can learn about this War, and about Tolkien’s
approach to writing about war.
The Rangers of Gondor
Suddenly he halted and listened.
Had he heard a whistle or not? Or was it the call of some strange bird? If it
was a whistle, it did not come from Frodo's direction. There it went again from
another place!
'Did you hear a whistle, and what sounded like an answer? ' he asked. `A few
minutes back. I hope it was only a bird, but it didn't sound quite like that:
more like somebody mimicking a bird-call, I thought.
A. This is not the first time Tolkien has used the old “bird call” trick.
Outside of movies and pulp adventure fiction, who does this, really?
Four tall Men stood there. Two had
spears in their hands with broad bright heads. Two had great bows, almost of
their own height, and great quivers of long green-feathered arrows. All had
swords at their sides, and were clad in green and brown of varied hues, as if
the better to walk unseen in the glades of Ithilien. Green gauntlets covered
their hands, and their faces were hooded and masked with green, except for
their eyes, which were very keen and bright. At once Frodo thought of Boromir,
for these Men were like him in stature and bearing, and in their manner of
speech.
B. Any mention of cloaks, as certain dim-ish illustrators would have them?
Was camouflage an accepted device in legendary or medieval times – or in World
War I?
With his keen hobbit-eyes he saw
that many more Men were about. He could see them stealing up the slopes, singly
or in long files, keeping always to the shade of grove or thicket, or crawling,
hardly visible in their brown and green raiment, through grass and brake. All
were hooded and masked, and had gauntlets on their hands, and were armed like
Faramir and his companions. Before long they had all passed and vanished.
C. What is the command structure of this very dispersed Ranger force? How
many are there in this attack, do you guess? Is this a larger than usual
operation for Faramir?
D. We’ve seen it time and again in The Silmarillion; we’ve seen it in
the Wild around Bree; now we see it here. Why is Tolkien so interested in
guerilla/ranger/bandit forces?
Mumak in Ithilien, by John Howe
The Haradrim come North
'But we have a new errand on this
journey: we come to ambush the Men of Harad. Curse them! '
‘Aye, curse the Southrons!’ said Damrod. ‘’Tis said that
there were dealings of old between Gondor and the kingdoms of the Harad in the
Far South; though there was never friendship. In those days our bounds were
away south beyond the mouths of Anduin, and Umbar, the nearest of their realms,
acknowledged our sway. But that is long since. 'Tis many lives of Men since any
passed to or fro between us. Now of late we have learned that the Enemy has
been among them, and they are gone over to Him, or back to Him—they were ever
ready to His will—as have so many also in the East. 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.’
E. Why can Gondor no longer control or dominate the Harad kingdoms?
F. “I doubt not the walls of Minas Tirith are doomed.” What kind of
attitude does Damrod have about this war? What makes him fight?
‘But still we
will not sit idle and let Him do all as He would,’ said Mablung. ‘These cursed
Southrons come now marching up the ancient roads to swell the hosts of the Dark
Tower. Yea, up the very roads that craft of Gondor made. And 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 come to
teach them another lesson. Great strength of them was reported to us some days
ago, marching north. One of their regiments is due by our reckoning to pass by,
some time ere noon-up on the road above, where it passes through the cloven
way. The road may pass, but they shall not!’
G. Why do the Gondorians attempt an ambush at high noon? How big is a
regiment? Wouldn’t a surprise attack on the Haradrim’s camp at night be more
effective? How does this scene contrast with Aragorn’s expedition through here
two weeks later?
a man fell, crashing through the
slender trees, nearly on top of them. He came to rest in the fern a few feet
away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a golden
collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen
plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were
drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword.
H. Do you perceive any kind of racism in Tolkien’s portrayal of the
Haradrim? Why the emphasis on color—and gold? (Refer also if you can to
Gollum’s characterization of them in the previous chapter—are these the same
Swertings that Gollum warned us about?)
Mumak by Edelfeldt
Swordfighting vs. Bows and Arrows
He woke, thinking that he had heard
horns blowing. He sat up. It was now high noon. The guards stood alert and
tense in the shadow of the trees. Suddenly the horns rang out louder and beyond
mistake from above, over the top of the slope. Sam thought that he heard cries
and wild shouting also, but the sound was faint, as if it came out of some
distant cave. Then presently the noise of fighting broke out near at hand, just
above their hiding-place. He could hear plainly the ringing grate of steel on
steel, the clang of sword on iron cap, the dull beat of blade on shield; men
were yelling and screaming, and one clear loud voice was calling Gondor!
Gondor!
I. Why do the horns blow? What part do horns play in Tolkien’s story as a
whole?
Will we ever hear the sounds of battle so vividly again in the story? How and
when does Tolkien use sound as part of his descriptive palette?
For a moment he
caught a glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with
green-clad warriors leaping after them, hewing them down as they fled. Arrows
were thick in the air.
J. The Haradrim have armor and shields and march in formation, according to
the text. Why are they defeated by the lightly dressed Rangers once the
Gondorians close for hand-to-hand combat?
He came to rest in the fern a few
feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a
golden collar.
Ah, the cinematic beauty of death by arrow-shot! (bravo, Sean) Ah, the
cinematic impossibility of showing a dead man that has been hacked into pieces
by a broadsword!
K. How does Tolkien balance the gruesome reality of sword combat with the
romance of his story? Are his battle scenes believable?
It was Sam's first view of a battle
of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not
see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from;
and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the
long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there
in peace-all in a flash of thought which was quickly driven from his mind.
L. What does ‘evil of heart’ mean in this context?
M. Will the Rangers carry away their dead? Will the Haradrim or other forces of
Mordor bury this man and his other fallen companions?
Oliphaunt by Alan Lee
The Oliphaunt
For just as Mablung stepped towards
the fallen body, there was a new noise. Great crying and shouting. Amidst it
Sam heard a shrill bellowing or trumpeting. And then a great thudding and
bumping, like huge rams dinning on the ground.
Big as a house, much bigger than a house, it looked to him, a grey-clad moving
hill. Fear and wonder, maybe, enlarged him in the hobbit's eyes, but the Mûmak
of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and the like of him does not walk now
in Middle-earth; his kin that live still in latter days are but memories of his
girth and majesty. On he came, straight towards the watchers, and then swerved
aside in the nick of time, passing only a few yards away, rocking the ground
beneath their feet: his great legs like trees, enormous sail-like ears spread
out, long snout upraised like a huge serpent about to strike, his small red
eyes raging. His upturned hornlike tusks were bound with bands of gold and
dripped with blood. His trappings of scarlet and gold flapped about him in wild
tatters. The ruins of what seemed a very war-tower lay upon his heaving back,
smashed in his furious passage through the woods; and high upon his neck still
desperately clung a tiny figure-the body of a mighty warrior, a giant among the
Swertings.
O. Why is Tolkien’s mumak so much larger than a modern-day African
elephant, such as Hannibal used against Rome or Alexander used to build his
empire?
P. Why such detail lavished on this description? What imagery does Tolkien
conjure up with his words here?
On the great
beast thundered, blundering in blind wrath through pool and thicket. Arrows
skipped and snapped harmlessly about the triple hide of his flanks. Men of both
sides fled before him, but many he overtook and crushed to the ground. Soon he
was lost to view, still trumpeting and stamping far away. What became of him
Sam never heard: whether he escaped to roam the wild for a time, until he
perished far from his home or was trapped in some deep pit; or whether he raged
on until he plunged in the Great River and was swallowed up.
Thus the payoff to the funny rhyme from the previous chapter.
Q. Comment on the change of tone between Sam’s recital and his actual
sighting of the animal. What is the difference between an Oliphaunt and a
Mumak?
Mumak by Ted Nasmith
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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