When last we saw our heroes at the end of Book III, Gandalf the White was racing across the night on Shadowfax, Pippin in tow, the latter traumatized by a vision of the Dark Lord. It was a well-calculated cliff-hanger that had me excited for more, a narrative master-stroke that suddenly had me slightly resentful to rejoin Frodo and Sam after waiting a whole half-a-novel to find out what happened to them.
And now, nearly a full-year later on our dilettante reading schedule, having beheld Frodo succumb to Shelob and Samwise become the steward of the Ring, with all the fate of Middle-Earth dangling by a thread, I at last return to Pippin to find out...he's fine. A-OK, in fact. Even swears an impromptu, impulsive oath of fealty to the Steward of Gondor, in a semi-humorous, supposedly heart-warming(?) scene of sorts. It actually wasn't a chore to follow him around the titular Minas Tirith, meet the locals, see the sights, breath in the calm before the storm. This was yet another table-setting chapter, I get it.
Nevertheless, there was for me an inescapable sense of deflation, a rather anti-climactic wrap-up of a cliff-hanger I waited 10 months and 10 chapters to learn the resolution to. Not every narrative-thread requires some grand denouement, I recognize that, but it seems like the chapter could have at least gestured towards the fact that Pippin has just beheld the Eye of Sauron, and mayhaps has a wee bit of PTSD after it. Maybe this is all just a subtle commentary on the native resiliency of Hobbits, how these doddering little domesticates can stare straight into the heart of Evil Incarnate and still just shake it off like a bad dream--more worried about getting a good breakfast than the potential extinction of Middle-Earth--a secret source of strength that will yet prove to be the salvation of all. But Pippin's easy stroll into Minas Tirith still felt like a missed opportunity.
Yet I will also admit that I was still happy to see Pippin OK (hardly a personal favorite!)--just as it is good to be back here in Middle-Earth altogether, no matter the gathering Darkness. Chalk one up to the Professor, that he still had me quietly caring about these characters, almost in spite of myself. There's only one novel left, so I'd better make the best of my last time here.
