Nine Weeks in Middle Earth - Week 5
So pacing is an ongoing issue in my reading of this book. 100 odd pages to leave the shore and lots of slow walks but then we get to this section of just over 100 pages. It does a lot but possibly too much?
Chapter 7 - Helm’s Deep aka Blink and You’ll Miss It
I remember I liked this section long ago when I read it but coming back 20+ years later I’m a bit disappointed an entire mammoth battle is just one chapter. There is amusement that Gandalf conveniently scarpers again. We get a sense of foreboding - I liked that this unusually is a tale of defence not attack and it feels on the edge. But it’s too fast very much a skimming scene and overall I felt lacked spectacle. The amusement of Gimli and Legolas’ body count game was amusing though.
Chapter 8 - The Road to Isengard aka insert that song
Poor Hamas you did the great door scene and then cruelly taken away before we saw you as a character. Overall I feel a breather chapter but refreshing to see aftermath of war not as victory but hard work. Magic forests conveniently clear up and we get the sense of Saruman’s devastation of nature but that’s about it.
Chapter 9 - Flotsam and Jetsam aka The Recap
Well the gang get back together. We get some mild comedy of hobbitses in charge and then an entire Ent battle scene told as a story told to the group. Tolkien really hates the idea of plunging people into the story. It’s interestingly done and watching Ents go mad to attack is a nice idea but it’s again skimping on the plot.
Chapter 10 The Voice of Saruman aka You’re Fired!
Well it’s interesting to see Saruman the charmer but as he’s hardy used this power to now it’s a bit redundant and it fails to work here too. We get to see Gandalf put his old boss down but it is overall a bit of an anti-climax for this entire stretch of the book.
Chapter 11 - The Palantir aka Mordor Calling
It’s a weird bridge chapter to the next book and bar Pippin’s chat with Mordor (didn’t feel like Sauron on the other end) I felt this didn’t do much.
Chapter 1 The Taming of Sméagol
It’s an odd choice to just park your main plotline for half a volume but that’s what JRR likes to do. Overall a lot of walking again but Gollum’s arrival does spice things up a little and he is unusually complex for the characters seem to date.
Chapter 2 - The Passage of the Marshes
The haunting scene of a marsh that is ancient battle field where the dead rest uneasily is a highlight. It feels horribly real and as many have said has a WW1 feel to it. Those dead lights are eerie.
Two interesting concepts arise here that Frodo is falling under the ring’s power and weakening and that Gollum has two sides to their personality and indeed two voices. It’s refreshing complexity the book will return to.
More to come next week!
