"The Riders of Rohan" - Ben's Thoughts

Both Eric and Jacob speculated that "Departure" was a more fitting beginning to Book 3 than we had originally thought. I think Jacob is probably right in that there seems to be no good place to begin Book 3. It's somewhat awkward to completely leave the urgency and menace of the Ring to follow secondary characters (Aragorn was always secondary in "Fellowship"; Gimli and Legolas were tertiary at best). But I stand by my belief that it would have been better to do what the movie did: leave us with Aragorn's decision to follow the orcs at the end of Book 2 and launch into the chase in "Two Towers."

This chapter is certainly long enough to have been split into two. The solution, I think, is place us a bit more into Aragorn's head in a preliminary chapter called "The Long Chase" or something similar, and clue us in a bit more as to what the decision to follow the orcs really means to him. I say this because, as Jacob points out, Aragorn begins to come into his own here with his declaration to Éomer that he is the heir of Isildur:

"'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!' Gimli and Legolas looked at their companion in amazement, for they had not seen him in this mood before."

What has brought on this sudden willingness in Aragorn to proclaim himself? Two things, of course: one was the death of Boromir and his promise to him that he would save Gondor and her people. And second, the fact that Aragorn is no longer fulfilling a role as leader of the Fellowship and guardian of the Ringbearer -- he has moved on to something else (and searching for Merry and Pippin is merely a step or even a distraction along the way; he mentions several times how he longs to go to Gondor and how he will likely end up before Théoden before all is said and done in Rohan). Aragorn has accepted that his role in the War of the Ring will be a leader of Men, and it would have been nice to get some contemplation about that realization and some reconciliation with his role in the last book.

Of course Tolkien gives us none of those things; I'm not sure if he believes the reader should figure it out for him or herself or if he believes it's just so blindingly obvious that there was no need for it. I suspect the latter; Tolkien apparently had everything so worked out in his mind ahead of time that sometimes his trajectory didn't quite translate onto the page as effectively as it did, no doubt, in his internal outline for the tale. In any case, that is what I would have liked to have seen at the beginning of this book rather than the awkward placement of Boromir's death followed by this over-long chapter: the chase coupled with Aragorn's perspective on (frankly) the differences between Books 2 and 3, which would also help the reader abandon Frodo and the Ring until we are ready to return to them at the end of this book (which is a fairly effective transition, if I remember correctly), followed by the more plot- and exposition-driving "Riders of Rohan" chapter, with the meeting with Éomer, the description of the present politics of the Gap, the investigation of the orc corpses, and the encounter with Saruman. Thoughts about how this split would have worked?

A couple of other things: Tolkien goes out of his way to discuss how the Rohirrim are supposed to be very different from the men of Gondor. He talks about how they have no writing system, for one, and sets them up to be more "wild cards" in that they could potentially side with Sauron over the West because of their ignorance (Vikings on horses, natch). But then we meet Éomer and he doesn't seem all that different from any of the other Men we've met, except in his immediate acceptance of Aragorn as his superior and his ignorance about Elves. Théoden and Éomer never fail to make the right choices regarding the war and who their allies should be, once the business with Wormtongue is cleared up in a few chapters. I just wish these supposedly "lesser" men could be, well, a bit more flawed than they actually turn out to be.

The narrator spends quite a bit of time inside Legolas and Gimli's heads in this chapter, but, sadly, I feel like they came out of it just as flat as before. Legolas gets to be all different and Elf-y, with his lack of need for sleep, great eyesight, and somewhat prophetic foreshadowing of the destruction of the orcs at the border of the forest. But what of his thoughts, his motivations? Why is he driven to follow Aragorn and find the hobbits? We don't get any of that. Similarly, Gimli's lack of hope and fatigue is touched on, but not his motivations, personality, background, etc. These characters remain flat. I suppose it could be to highlight Aragorn's transformations (he even gets some backstory in that he hints at serving as the Rohirrim in some other guise than he presently wears in years past, before "young" Éomer was born), but it seems an unfortunate oversight for characters that will be with us for the rest of the trilogy.

Finally, I enjoyed our Saruman cameo -- not sure why he chose to impersonate Gandalf here with the hat instead of the hood, but it adds a nice ambiguity to the end of the chapter. I'll probably discuss more about Saruman and his motives and actions in future chapters, but I wish we saw more of him. He's one of my favorite characters. Next up… Merry and Pippin and Fangorn Forest. Ugh.