Amph One Thread To Rule Them All: The Rings of Power, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings & Middle-earth films

Book 5, Chapter 5, The Ride of the Rohirrim. A surprisingly short chapter, the only incidents of note are Rohan's forces being guided by the Wild-Men through the woods, and the initial charge against Mordor's forces. Still, when combined with Howard Shore's score, it never fails to stir the heart:


Chapter 6, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields. This one carries right on from the previous one, so it feels more like these two are just one long chapter. Compared to the all jumping around in Book 5 so far, it's nice to stick with one POV for a little longer.

Also, this is the chapter that gave us the Witch-King's 'mighty knee', which is a description I will never not find hilarious


The way the Witch-King is otherwise described is great though, particularly how there's nothing to be glimpsed beneath his robes or armour, and his crown floats above no head. I bet if the movies were made now, the CG would have advanced to pull that off more convincingly, though I do like the design they used as well.

One of Theoden's final lines in particular got to me: "For never now shall I sit with you in Meduseld, as I promised, or listen to your herb-lore." A very touching callback to their first meeting in the ruins of Isengard all that time ago.

Chatper 7, The Pyre of Denethor. The chronology's a little weird in this one, as we jump back to the end of The Siege of Gondor, despite the great battle having just ended in the previous chapter. I once again wonder if this chapter might have fit better in-bewteen The Ride of the Rohirrim and The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, or before both of them. I dunno, it just feels a little odd for the battle to come to a full conclusion, including the death of the Witch-King who Gandalf has to leave to go save Faramir. Kinda takes the punch out of his dilemma to stay and fight. Although then the chapter does later reveal the fate of the Witch-King after all...

The reveal that Denethor has a Palantir makes all of his prior characterisation click into place. I really like the way Sauron used the Stone to warp what Denethor saw of the world, casting everything in a pessimistic light. It makes Denethor simultaneously wise beyond his means, while also having huge blindspots and biases.

And it was said that ever after, if any man looked in that Stone, unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering in flame. - Ooh, love that detail, makes Denethor's final moments so distinctive.

 

It's funny that "Uruk" is supposed to be equivalent to 'orcs' in the Black Speech, but the Appendix points out that this was usually only given to the super-orcs, and the lame ordinary orcs were derisively called "snaga" (slave) by the Uruks.
What's interesting is that re-reading the section in the Appendix, apparently the orcs preferred to use Westron, and when Sauron was out of the picture, no one used the Black Speech except the Nazgul, and Sauron made his officers use it again. The orc's boss made Evil Esperanto and his minions were going to use it!

 

Book 5, Chapter 8, The Houses of Healing. Merry and Pippin reuniting in the city, both haggard and exhausted from battle, is just so wholesome. The two of them finding each other after going through so much apart really raises the spirits.

Aragorn not wanting to enter the city while the matter of the War looms over him, only entering so that he might heal those in need, and then slipping quietly back out to his tent, is a lovely character detail for him. He's very humble about the whole thing.

This chapter feels rather like Flotsam and Jetsam from Book 3, where the two major strands come back together and all our heroes meet again (and the chronology goes back to being linear, apart from Sam and Frodo). Interesting how both Books 4 and 5 resolve one large threat (Isengard, the Siege of Minas Tirith), then spend the remainder of their chapters resting and recovering, while building up to a greater threat.

Chapter 9, The Last Debate. There's a conversation between Legolas and Gimli early in this chapter I found interesting:

"And doubtless the good stone-work is the older and was wrought in the first building," said Gimli. "It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise."
"Yet seldom do they fail of their seed," Legolas. "And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for."

I think this conversation really outlines Tolkien's fundamental views of Men as a people, and what really sets them apart from the other races of Middle-Earth. That sense of picking themselves back up no matter what, failing, but still carrying on to try again once more. It's a message that doesn't shy away from the faults of humanity, while still acknowledging a general hope in the future.

A surprising amount of this chapter is taken up by a step-by-step recounting of Aragorn's company's journey after the Paths of the Dead. Each town they passed through, each skirmish they fought in. Honestly, I didn't really think that part of the tale needed expansion, it was all pretty understandable with what we were given in the previous chapters, so a more thorough coverage didn't add much besides the scene where Aragorn releases the dead from their oath. I suppose it's a mirror to Merry and Pippin recounting what happened in Isengard back in Book 3, but that felt more essential to the narrative.

Chapter 10, The Black Gate Opens. I like how the company rides back through the same lands covered in Book 4, but in reverse, reminding us of the journey the Hobbits undertook. Great imagery of the gathered Nazgul sitting high atop the Towers of the Teeth, hovering like vultures but never moving to strike, just waiting.

The Mouth of Sauron bearing Frodo and Sam's possessions is such a stunning moment in the book, since Book 4 ended on such a tentative note for their fates that it genuinely feels like they might have fallen and failed in their quest. The movie, by dint of playing out chronologically, necessarily lacks the same impact, although the design of the Mouth is fantastic, a being so enmeshed in Sauron's web that he's become nothing more than an extension of his words.

The chapter ends kinda suddenly, though I guess after the Siege of Gondor it makes sense not leap straight into another massive conflict just yet. Next time I'll be back over Sam's side of the story.

 

Finished the deep read of The Hobbit!

The Battle of the Five Armies is a wonderfully epic climax that pretty much ties in everything that happened along the way. Beorn showing up and just beating the living daylights out of the goblins and killing their leader is epic.
I don't think I realized when I read it as a kid that, even though the Lake-men beat Smaug, they were in serious trouble - winter was right around the corner, and they had no place to live or food to eat. The Wood-elves really saved them.
Bilbo's dad, Mungo - who built Bag End - was full of pithy sayings, because towards the end of the book Bilbo cites his dad at least three times. Including, as we have it, a saying about dragons having weak spots! With an earlier comment about how hobbits had wisdom and legends that regular humans had long since forgotten, one has to wonder if these sayings came from the experiences of hobbits rather than something they picked up. It's interesting with Bilbo's earlier reference to hobbit legends about dragons in the Far East.
The mysterious South that is doing well and apparently full of Men was something that always intrigued me when I first read it, but even in LOTR we never really get to hear much about them. Dorwinion, the land that the Elvenking's best wine comes from, was personally placed on an official map by Tolkien shortly before his death, but never was actually expanded upon.
I remember being disappointed about Bilbo's trip home, because it's a 'instead of the dangerous journey through Mirkwood we'll just go round it', but in all fairness the goblins were decimated, and he does have Beorn and Gandalf with him. Still, we don't get much description of land along the way back to Beorn's.
Tolkien does a weird thing with dates - we are given precise months and days for beginning of the adventure, but after Rivendell we only have vague seasons until Bilbo returns back to Rivendell again. We have precise dates for when Bilbo leaves and returns home, but not the Battle of the Five Armies. (I know that in part, it's also to strike home the idea of Bilbo leaving and returning to civilization, but it makes dating events rather hard).
The hobbits have a professional auction house at the end. I'm guessing that the auction house organization is based in Michel Delving, the only real town in the Shire, and probably derived from the culture of Arthedain (like the mail service) rather than being an invention of the hobbits.
The village of Hobbiton only gets a name-check at the very end of the book, and on the map of Wilderland.

On to Fellowship of the Ring!

 

Book 6, Chapter 1, The Tower of Cirith Ungol. "Sam roused himself painfully from the ground. For a moment he wondered where he was, and then all the misery and despair returned to him. He was in the deep dark outside the under-gate of the orcs' stronghold." That's a kinda funny way to open up the book, since it carries on straight from the end of Book 4, with no time interval whatsoever. It's like Sam had momentary Ring-based amnesia. Acts as a pretty swift way to reintroduce this strand of the story though.

We get another time setting crossover to Book 5 not long after, showing at that very moment Aragorn and Merry's parties still hadn't reached Minas Tirith, and Pippin is with Denethor. Not a very specific reference, though I wonder if there's any way to piece together when exactly that would fall in the previous book. Shortly after in the next chapter, Theoden lying dead is said to occur as they escape the tower too.

All the orc infighting reminded me of the Shadow of Mordor games, which detailed many orc tribal conflicts. It helps that there's even a use of one of the Shadow games' favourite epithets, 'filthy tark', in reference to Men.


Chapter 2, The Land of Shadow. A Nazgul showing up at Cirith Ungol and forcing the hobbits to flee is a tense opener I'd completely forgotten about. Starts off this chapter at a fast pace, although the rest is a slower trudge across the road north in Mordor. Later on, one of the orcs says that a Nazgul is now in charge of Cirith Ungol, which is funny to imagine. He was king of the tower for a few days at least, before Sauron was beaten

Another reminder of Shadow of Mordor is a mention of the fortress of Durthang, in Udun. I died many a time there to orc hordes in my playthroughs of the game

It's certainly one of the chapters of the books where the characters feel at their weariest. Both Sam and Frodo are barely holding together, and even finding bare trickles of water in the rock feel like a relief.

Chapter 3, Mount Doom. One cool detail, it's stated that the only reason Gorgoroth is free of orcs when the hobbits pass through is because Sauron's been so efficient in moving (or slave-driving) his forces up to the Morannon that the area's already cleared out. In a way, his own overextension and desire to smite his enemies leaves his own defences wanting. For all that he's cast as the great Eye, ever watchful, his vision is as fallible as Denethor's in the Palantir.

Some of Tolkien's best descriptions in this chapter, the wastes of Mordor are so well written. Every step becomes a struggle, and you really feel the weight of the quest bearing down on Frodo. Right at the end when he walks out of Sammath Naur, free of the Ring and suddenly looking as if his burden was lifted is such a beautiful and uplifting moment, made all the stronger by the absolute hell he went through to get this far.

 

One of the best passages is when we get in Sauron's head towards the end of that chapter.

 

Where there is a whip, there is a way.

 

Of the many fascinating side characters we encounter in Tolkien, Beorn is one I’d really like to know more about. Tolkien never did spend much time going back and trying to figure out exactly who he was and how he fit into the larger mythology.

 

The One Ring RPG made a logical deduction that he was a follower of the Vala Orome, IIRC, which is where he gets his powers from.

The Hobbit hints at more of a backstory - that he had been driven from the mountains by the goblins and wished to return - but by the end of the book, he's content to rule his new chiefdom instead. I guess killing the head of the Misty/Grey Mountain orcs was enough.

 

In the end, all Beorn really wanted was bloody vengeance and undisputed rule of a territory. #relatable

 

Don't we all?

 

I haven't, but that is my current intention, when I finally get that far. Been distracted lately, stuck on A Knife in the Dark.

Speaking of chronology, there's a locked thread here that tried to arrange the text chronologically... IIRC two chapters from TTT had to overlap (The Riders of Rohan and The Uruk-Hai). Can you confirm?

 

I think the vast majority of The Uruk-hai takes place before Riders of Rohan, but it's hard to tell completely. Aragorn finds Pippin's fallen leaf broach, and Eomer reports the defeat of the orc camp, which happens near the end of The Uruk-hai. I'd say there are parts that are probably concurrent, Legolas sees the orc troop marching off in the distance ahead of them, meaning they're still on the move. But going Uruk-hai->Riders would be easiest from a chrono attempt.

Treebeard would be tricky chapter to place I think, since it starts right after the Riders of Rohan (or during?), but ends much later, with the implication that much of the rest of Book 4 has already elapsed.

 

Book 6, Chapter 4, The Field of Cormallen. It's a genuinely striking moment when Gandalf flies off to Mount Doom near the start of this chapter, and then we immediately cut back to Sam and Frodo again. For so so long now the two story strands were kept separate. It's here, with the Ring finally gone, that they merge back together again (though it's not the end of Tolkien's chronological conundrums).

"Praise them with great praise!" - I can't help it, but this statement has always sounded super goofy to my ears. It's probably some old English mode of speech, but it does make me laugh.

Not a long chapter, but a nice rest after the ordeal the hobbits went through. Some nice details like Sam wishing to hear about Frodo of the Nine Fingers in some distant retelling, and then a Gondorian minstrel putting the tale into song mere minutes later.

Chapter 5, The Steward and the King. The last blip in chronology comes here, jumping back to Minas Tirith during the last few chapters' events. Faramir and Eowyn's burgeoning relationship is honestly so sweet. They're probably my favourite romantic couple in any of Tolkien's works. I love Eowyn chafing at the bit to get back out into battle as soon as possible.

The description of her as if standing upon the brink of an abyss, with only darkness ahead, reminds me of Frodo's dream in Bombadil's house. I think this dialogue in the films(set in Edoras near the start of Movie 3) might have added a some of that dream material to Eowyn's speech, they fit pretty well together. Faramir equating the great expansion of dark clouds (caused by Orodruin's eruption, but he doesn't know that yet) to the wave that covered Numenor is a nice touch too.

The rest of the chapter is a pretty nice rundown of Aragorn's new kingship, the rebuilding of Gondor, how everything and everyone will shake out afterwards. Kinda feels like Aragorn having to complete a bunch of chores before Elrond will let Arwen come over to visit, which is a funny way to look at it. Honestly, it does feel like a 'we wrapped everything up in a nice bow' kind of ending, though of course there's lots more to come.

 

Book 6, Chapter 6, Many Partings. "You have chosen the Evening; but my love is given to the Morning. And my heart forebodes that soon it will pass away forever." - Lovely resolution to the little rivalry between Eomer and Gimli they've had since Book 3, where the dwarf had the stance that Galadriel is fairest in all the world, and Eomer disbelieved him. Having him choose Arwen as the fairest is fun, especially because we get Gimli going 'bring me my axe' when Eomer says Galadriel isn't his pick

I like Theoden being laid to rest at last in the barrows beside Edoras, resting now with his forefathers. Though it does go on a bit long when Tolkien deigns to list every king of Rohan in order. Save it for the appendices

Also, here had one of Tolkien's most notable outdated words: Trothplighted. Was completely baffled when I saw that word on the page, it's apparently to do with the pledging one's troth, or betrothal to use a more common modern term. It's in reference to Eowyn and Faramir's marriage. Anyway, up to this point most of Tolkien's language didn't feel too archaic, but this one caught me off guard a little. Although, a sentence soon after surprised me even more. Anyone who's familiar with the book might know it, but it's an archaic word for cheapskate that feels... well, I wouldn't say it out loud, that's for sure

None saw her [Arwen] last meeting with Elrond her father, for they went up into the hills and there spoke long together, and bitter was their parting that should endure beyond the ends of the world - Beautiful stuff, as we get closer to the end of LOTR there's more of that heartbreaking gulf between the old ages and the new world of men. There's another moment that evoked a similar emotion when Galadriel, Celeborn, and Elrond are conversing together while the hobbits sleep: If any wanderer had a chance to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands.

Finding Saruman dressed as a beggar on the road, so petty and defeated that he steals Merry's weed bag, is a great scene. Seeing him brought so low would almost be tragic, if he wasn't such a huge jerk about the whole thing, constantly snarling at those who offer him pity and a chance for redemption. There's still a fire of the old Saruman in him, despite his current condition.

Chapter 7, Homeward Bound. This is where the long journey back home finally starts to wear on me a bit. See, I really like the elegiac tone of the previous chapter, travelling slowly back through the lands crossed previously, and saying goodbye to everyone. But here, revisiting Bree, it all gets a bit too much. The tone starts to go back to tension-building again, there are hints of more doom and gloom.

"We thought we'd left trouble behind us."
"Ah, that you haven't, Master, and more's the pity" - My thoughts exactly

I do like that part of the reason for the growing troubles in Bree is because all the Dunedain rangers rode off to war to join Aragorn. The moment when Barliman Butterbur disparages the high and mighty far off King, before finding out he's Strider all along is priceless.

I'm gonna keep reading now, but I've still got two chapters left, so I'll just post these ones for now.

 

Let's talk about that Shire map, shall we?

There's no place in Middle-Earth that gets as much geographical detail as the Shire. In fact, there's nothing really like it - for the most part, all the other official maps only include geographical points that are mentioned in the stories. The Shire has over a dozen places that never get a mention. When I was a kid, I pored over it, trying to figure out what each of those mystery villages might be. Of course, not being the linguist that Tolkien was, I didn't know what most of it meant. And it didn't help that the maps had weird errors that were corrected in later additions - the village of "Catbarion", which should have been "Oatbarton".
I also didn't recognize that we got a little bit of knowledge of Arnor there - the Shire's name, for instance, was defined closer to modern (relatively speaking) England - an 'orderly' district with a central town. In this case, the town of Michel Delving, which we are told is the only town in the Shire. The suggestion, of course, is that Arnor itself was organized into 'Shires'.
Also of interest is that the lands were apparently directly under the control of the crown of Arnor, and later Arthedain. Why that was becomes apparent - other sources indicated that the local inhabitants of 'Middle-Men' didn't settle beyond the Brandywine, and therefore the district would've been only the Dunedain. When Annuminas was abandoned, the remaining Dunedain probably removed to Fornost, with perhaps a few fortifications (the Bridge, I'd imagine, and at Sarn Ford).

 

Chapter 8, The Scouring of the Shire. I'm not much fond of this chapter really. It just feels so small-scale and trivial after all that's transpired. Though I do like how the four hobbits all laugh uproariously when they're first put under arrest by the shirriffs. They understand perfectly how petty the whole conflict is. That's one nice thing about it, the leads feel like this is beneath them too, like it's something they can clean up in afternoon after all they've been through.

It's funny how short a period Saruman had for setting up his whole plan in the Shire. Sure, there are hints he'd been inveigling spies in the area for some time, but the hobbits passed him on the road not long ago. While they were lounging in Rivendell, Saruman was becoming a low-level mob boss in less than a month. I know, I know, Lotho did a lot of the preliminary stuff, but it still feels like the wizard just rolled into town and took over like that.

Maybe that's why it's not all that satisfying to me. Saruman took over so easily, but his fall is just as swift. Frodo acting to try and keep the casualties low is nice, he understands the struggles of war more-so than anyone else.

To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing. - Ooh, these descriptions after Saruman's death are fantastic. Like he's giving one last hope to return to the West, before the Valar shut him down completely. Very evocative imagery, especially given the next chapter.

Chatper 9, The Grey Havens. Frodo falling ill in March each year, during the stretch of time when he bore the Ring most heavily through Mordor, is such a tragic little detail so near to the end of the tale.

There's an interesting moment when Frodo is actually writing out the Red Book of Westmarch (AKA, the combined Hobbit and LOTR text). Apparently the book has 80 chapters, and he's having trouble with the ending of the last one. Adding 19 from The Hobbit, there are in fact 81 chapters included in the four books. I suppose that means that the final chapter must have been written by Sam, and that's why Frodo was so troubled by the ending. Because he was still living in it, unsure of what his fate would be.

The rest of this chapter has always been one of my favourites (and not just cause such a long story is finally over ). That bittersweet ending, with the elves, Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo all departing into the West is so perfect. I particularly love the detail of Merry and Pippin arriving, and telling Frodo off for trying to give them the slip again as he tried to at the start of his quest. I shall leave the Appendices for now, they're long enough that it'll take a while to get through them on their own. But for now the story's come to lovely end.

 

Tolkien originally had more of an ending, where Sam's kids ask him a million questions about the story - basically answering questions that the reader had. But he thought better of it, and cut it out. Of all the editorial decisions, I think that was the best one - "I'm back" was probably one of the best endings the story could've had.
(It also highlighted that the real hero of LOTR - which Tolkien has mentioned in letters - is Sam).

 

I always thought the Scouring would play more effectively w/o the beggar on the road scene

let it be known that in the time it took you to read the entire book, I traversed from Moria to Lorien.

 

Reading the appendices now, it's interesting how the first section is largely just the entire abridged rundown of the Silmarillion. Lots of lore that has quite a large, if subtle, impact on the backstory and lore of LOTR, I'm glad Tolkien got to include the barest bones of his great tales right at the end. Then there's a slightly more fleshed out retelling of the Akallabeth, which is one of my favourite of Tolkien's tales. Maybe someday the fall of Numenor will be part of the Amazon show or something, idk.

Though, it does drag a bit whenever the narrative pauses to recount lists of rulers and their heirs. It's particularly egregious when one section has a list of near identical names, all beginning with the prefix 'ara' (eg. Arathorn, Aragorn, Aravorn). Doesn't really convey much actual meaning to me, even if, for instance, I could remember that Aranuir was a chieftain of Arnor who died in the year 2247 of the Third Age

Edit: I also find it amusing that thanks to the long stretches of the Third Age of Middle-Earth, we get such sentences as 'In 1974 the power of Angmar arose again,' which can only make me imagine Ringwraiths in flared trousers singing ABBA songs

 

I live for those things.
I mean, it's more fun to have the context, like with the story of Gondor where we get the lowdown of pretty much every ruler; same with Rohan. Meanwhile, with poor Arnor we're never given an adequate explanation about why its capitol was abandoned and the kingdom split into three parts.
But yeah, I remember drawing immense family trees and taping them together for a very long family tree.

 

In that case you'd probably enjoy the Myst series of games, in particular Uru, in which the writers went to the trouble of writing biographies of every single one of the dozens of historical D'ni kings, what they did during their lives, including additional mythical tales about the kings, and mounds of cultural and societal essays

 

After the tales of the Stewards of Gondor, a pretty interesting section in the Appendices, there's the tale of Aragorn and Arwen. It honestly feels like a section that really should have been included somewhere within the main narrative itself. It informs a lot of Aragorn's character motives, as well as clarifying his early life in Rivendell.

The end section, detailing their final moments together is one that wouldn't have really fit anywhere in the main body, but it makes for a beautifully tragic coda to the relationship. The movie adaptation actually includes a pretty accurate rendition of the scene, as told in a vision of the future: