Chapter 7: Helm's Deep
Jacob's Thoughts (5/29/15)
I was initially excited for this chapter--battle, siege, battering-rams, thunder, lightning, cavalry charges, orcs and slaughter--what's not to like? In practice, however, Helm's Deep, like warfare in general, was kind of a slog to get through. I often had difficulty following the action. I don't necessarily mean that as a knock against it; having recently survived the Battle of Britain and the Nazi siege of England, I doubt Tolkien had a romantic bone in his body concerning war.
Here, all is confusion, chaos, darkness, doubt, and death. Yes, there is that friendly competition between Legolas and Gimli in how many orcs they can slay, but frankly their little rivalry smacks less of heroic gallantry than of the gallows humor soldiers must develop to keep their sanity. And yes, we also have Aragorn's grand-standing speechifying before the hosts of the Uruk-hai; but in that moment Aragorn draws his nobility from his defiance in the face of the senseless carnage, not from any intrinsic virtue in participating in it.
And yes, the battle does in fact end in a resounding, unambiguous victory for the good guys, the first we've encountered throughout this series, as the Riders of Rohan ride out gallantly at dawn and Gandalf arrives just in the nick of time with reinforcements. But what of that? America also entered the war at last and helped England defeat the Nazis once and for all--all of which did not make the whole ordeal any less traumatizing, destructive, or wasteful.
Even the absolute best case result of any battle, Tolkien seems to imply, is still a slog of madness and death. The relief at the end of the chapter is derived not just from the defeat of the orcs, but from the fact that war itself has paused. Because for all our bloviating about the duty and glory of warfare and supporting the troops, no soldier in actual combat spends more than 5 minutes in battle without wishing they were literally anywhere else.
Ben's Thoughts (7/9/15)
Again I turn in comparison to Jackson's film, because "Helm's Deep" is ever so bland. Where is the emotion, the danger, the tension, that Jackson managed to eke out of these sparse pages? Assuredly valid complaints can be made about the length of the battle scenes in the film. Yes, it dragged on too long. But in the film you can feel the bone-weariness of the soldiers who are defending this fortress, and the near-despair of Theoden that leads him to what amounts to a suicidal charge from the keep to face the armies of Saruman head-on.
It's also interesting that here, the charge doesn't seem that suicidal at all. The king and Aragorn manage to sweep the armies before them, to the point where they are "cowering" between the king's forces and the wood of Hurons that has crept up behind the orcs during the night. The text makes it seem like the orcs are all but finished even before their "final doom", Gandalf and Erkenbrand (an unintentionally hilarious name; small wonder Jackson dropped it from the film -- although he did keep the also ridiculous "Gamling") are icing on the cake, so to speak, of the orcs' destruction. They don't even have to get the heads a-rollin' -- the orcs in their terror flee into the woods where, we are told in an over-dramatic pronouncement, "from that shadow none ever came again." Sigh. I love Tolkien's prose, but perhaps the battle scene was too much for him.
Or perhaps I'm overlooking the fact that this battle chapter seems devoid of emotion because Tolkien had actually been part of a number of battles in World War I and couldn't bring himself to translate what he felt about the experience to the text. Despite Aragorn and Theoden's bleak predictions about how sour the battle is going, you just don't feel it from reading the chapter; in fact, Tolkien has his characters wisecracking throughout and even includes an interlude where Aragorn has a chat with some nasty rude orcs. The gloss perhaps hints at Tolkien's distaste for combat. You won't find drawn-out descriptions about exactly how Aragorn or Gimli hacked orcs to pieces, nor anything about spurting blood or screaming wounded. It's all quickly swept over in an oddly detached way.
It'll be interesting to see how I perceive the battle of the Pellenor Fields, found in Book 5, this time around. I will note that Tolkien skipped over the Battle of the Five Armies (inThe Hobbit) entirely (whereas Jackson spent the better part of 2 hours depicting it in his latest film, a true bastardization of The Hobbit if there ever was one. More on that of course if we ever get to those films). High fantasy novels, of which Tolkien is credited as a founding father, don't get very gory or bloody, but in this day and age it makes one pause when all of that is just sped over with barely the bat of an eyelash.
Or perhaps it's just because Saruman's orc army is just "The Dragon" to the ultimate "Big Bad" figure in this book -- Saruman himself. We'll get to him eventually. Of course, as Gandalf pointed out, Saruman, too, is just another stepping stone towards fighting with Mordor. I can just imagine Sauron observing this battle with interest, and knowing that the fate of Gondor might be sealed prematurely by Saruman's victory. Sadly for him, Saruman is utterly trounced, both here and on the home front, as we'll see in the next chapter.
Eric's Thoughts (7/28/15)
I remember the taste of chewing cardboard as a child. It tastes something like this disaster of a chapter on oh-so-many levels.
Eagerly, I began reading this chapter. I expected epicness--and left it scratching my head. This is where Tolkien's character development and POV is really lacking. I simply did not identify with any of the characters particularly. The result? Meh. I wasn't really invested in the battle.
There are logistical problems as well. The battle made no sense. Theoden suddenly decided to charge when they were apparently outnumbered and pushed into the caves. Then, suddenly--wait for it--the charge apparently was so successful that the orcs were routed.
But wait! Now there are trees to the rescue! And Gandalf! And Dinkerbell too, err, I mean, Erkenbrand with--wait for it--1000 troops! Apparently 1000 troops and some trees were all that was needed, in addition to a magnificent charge, to route this force that is previously portrayed (between lightning flashes) as a bottomless mass of orc-power.
Literary critics have a word for this. It's called god out of the machine. In other words, everything is suddenly fine because the author says it is! The trees were in no way foreshadowed, and the charge against this infinite molasses morass of orcs just simply isn't plausible. Very disappointing.
That isn't to say there aren't great moments. Legolas and Gimli's competition is the highlight of the chapter and builds on their friendly rivalry. To be honest, all you become interested in, rather than the survival of these people, is whether Gimli or Legolas chop off more heads.
I know the only thing I was counting was the number of pages remaining in this chapter.
I was initially excited for this chapter--battle, siege, battering-rams, thunder, lightning, cavalry charges, orcs and slaughter--what's not to like? In practice, however, Helm's Deep, like warfare in general, was kind of a slog to get through. I often had difficulty following the action. I don't necessarily mean that as a knock against it; having recently survived the Battle of Britain and the Nazi siege of England, I doubt Tolkien had a romantic bone in his body concerning war.
Here, all is confusion, chaos, darkness, doubt, and death. Yes, there is that friendly competition between Legolas and Gimli in how many orcs they can slay, but frankly their little rivalry smacks less of heroic gallantry than of the gallows humor soldiers must develop to keep their sanity. And yes, we also have Aragorn's grand-standing speechifying before the hosts of the Uruk-hai; but in that moment Aragorn draws his nobility from his defiance in the face of the senseless carnage, not from any intrinsic virtue in participating in it.
And yes, the battle does in fact end in a resounding, unambiguous victory for the good guys, the first we've encountered throughout this series, as the Riders of Rohan ride out gallantly at dawn and Gandalf arrives just in the nick of time with reinforcements. But what of that? America also entered the war at last and helped England defeat the Nazis once and for all--all of which did not make the whole ordeal any less traumatizing, destructive, or wasteful.
Even the absolute best case result of any battle, Tolkien seems to imply, is still a slog of madness and death. The relief at the end of the chapter is derived not just from the defeat of the orcs, but from the fact that war itself has paused. Because for all our bloviating about the duty and glory of warfare and supporting the troops, no soldier in actual combat spends more than 5 minutes in battle without wishing they were literally anywhere else.
Ben's Thoughts (7/9/15)
Again I turn in comparison to Jackson's film, because "Helm's Deep" is ever so bland. Where is the emotion, the danger, the tension, that Jackson managed to eke out of these sparse pages? Assuredly valid complaints can be made about the length of the battle scenes in the film. Yes, it dragged on too long. But in the film you can feel the bone-weariness of the soldiers who are defending this fortress, and the near-despair of Theoden that leads him to what amounts to a suicidal charge from the keep to face the armies of Saruman head-on.
It's also interesting that here, the charge doesn't seem that suicidal at all. The king and Aragorn manage to sweep the armies before them, to the point where they are "cowering" between the king's forces and the wood of Hurons that has crept up behind the orcs during the night. The text makes it seem like the orcs are all but finished even before their "final doom", Gandalf and Erkenbrand (an unintentionally hilarious name; small wonder Jackson dropped it from the film -- although he did keep the also ridiculous "Gamling") are icing on the cake, so to speak, of the orcs' destruction. They don't even have to get the heads a-rollin' -- the orcs in their terror flee into the woods where, we are told in an over-dramatic pronouncement, "from that shadow none ever came again." Sigh. I love Tolkien's prose, but perhaps the battle scene was too much for him.
Or perhaps I'm overlooking the fact that this battle chapter seems devoid of emotion because Tolkien had actually been part of a number of battles in World War I and couldn't bring himself to translate what he felt about the experience to the text. Despite Aragorn and Theoden's bleak predictions about how sour the battle is going, you just don't feel it from reading the chapter; in fact, Tolkien has his characters wisecracking throughout and even includes an interlude where Aragorn has a chat with some nasty rude orcs. The gloss perhaps hints at Tolkien's distaste for combat. You won't find drawn-out descriptions about exactly how Aragorn or Gimli hacked orcs to pieces, nor anything about spurting blood or screaming wounded. It's all quickly swept over in an oddly detached way.
It'll be interesting to see how I perceive the battle of the Pellenor Fields, found in Book 5, this time around. I will note that Tolkien skipped over the Battle of the Five Armies (inThe Hobbit) entirely (whereas Jackson spent the better part of 2 hours depicting it in his latest film, a true bastardization of The Hobbit if there ever was one. More on that of course if we ever get to those films). High fantasy novels, of which Tolkien is credited as a founding father, don't get very gory or bloody, but in this day and age it makes one pause when all of that is just sped over with barely the bat of an eyelash.
Or perhaps it's just because Saruman's orc army is just "The Dragon" to the ultimate "Big Bad" figure in this book -- Saruman himself. We'll get to him eventually. Of course, as Gandalf pointed out, Saruman, too, is just another stepping stone towards fighting with Mordor. I can just imagine Sauron observing this battle with interest, and knowing that the fate of Gondor might be sealed prematurely by Saruman's victory. Sadly for him, Saruman is utterly trounced, both here and on the home front, as we'll see in the next chapter.
Eric's Thoughts (7/28/15)
I remember the taste of chewing cardboard as a child. It tastes something like this disaster of a chapter on oh-so-many levels.
Eagerly, I began reading this chapter. I expected epicness--and left it scratching my head. This is where Tolkien's character development and POV is really lacking. I simply did not identify with any of the characters particularly. The result? Meh. I wasn't really invested in the battle.
There are logistical problems as well. The battle made no sense. Theoden suddenly decided to charge when they were apparently outnumbered and pushed into the caves. Then, suddenly--wait for it--the charge apparently was so successful that the orcs were routed.
But wait! Now there are trees to the rescue! And Gandalf! And Dinkerbell too, err, I mean, Erkenbrand with--wait for it--1000 troops! Apparently 1000 troops and some trees were all that was needed, in addition to a magnificent charge, to route this force that is previously portrayed (between lightning flashes) as a bottomless mass of orc-power.
Literary critics have a word for this. It's called god out of the machine. In other words, everything is suddenly fine because the author says it is! The trees were in no way foreshadowed, and the charge against this infinite molasses morass of orcs just simply isn't plausible. Very disappointing.
That isn't to say there aren't great moments. Legolas and Gimli's competition is the highlight of the chapter and builds on their friendly rivalry. To be honest, all you become interested in, rather than the survival of these people, is whether Gimli or Legolas chop off more heads.
I know the only thing I was counting was the number of pages remaining in this chapter.
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