Chapter 2: The Riders of Rohan

Jacob's Thoughts (2/21/15)

Early in this gargantuan chapter, as the tattered remnants of the Fellowship start to lose the Orc trail in the dark, Gimli exclaims, "Would that the Lady had given us a light, such a gift as she gave to Frodo!"

Aragorn swiftly responds, "It will be more needed where it is bestowed...With him lies the true Quest.  Ours is but a small matter in the great deeds of this time.  A vain pursuit from its beginning, maybe, which no choice of mine can mar or mend."

The question then naturally begs itself: if this quest is so small and vain, why are we following them in the first place?  Wouldn't we rather learn the fate of the Ring Bearernow, instead of in Book IV?  If Aragorn thinks so little of his role, then why should we?

The first, most obvious answer is that Aragorn is plain wrong: this seemingly-little sidequest actually purports great things.  Pippin and Merry's escape to the Ents, as we all know, will serve as the catalyst and decisive factor in the eventual victory over Sarumon.  The titular Riders of Rohan, too, will turn the tides in the Battle of Helms Deep.  And this side-quest is what will put them into direct contact with Gandalf the White.  From small events come big results.  And other cliches.

But before Aragorn can realize this, he must first learn something about Aragorn.  And Aragorn's regal demeanor before the Riders (a sudden transformation where he almost appears already to be wearing a crown), wherein he demands that they choose and choose quickly which side they will take, is our first hint that Aragorn will not just let things happen to him anymore, that he is not quite so resigned and hopeless as he has been since Moriah, that almost in spite of himself he will claim the throne of man.  He almost wants to be hopeless, but something won't quite let him.  In a weird sense, Aragorn is right: no choice of his can mar or mend this quest, he just doesn't realize yet that destiny is actually moving with him, not against him. 

Our little trio of Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas seem to slowly be realizing that they are in a bigger story than they think they are--Lord of the Rings is certainly not a meta-narrative by any stretch of the imagination, but our trio here do seem to be learning how to read the novel they are already in.  First they are reading the tracks of the Orcs; then the clues left by Pippin and Merry (and the author); then from the Riders they learn the political situation in this land; these three are our stand-ins, as this novel slowly opens up to them at the same rate it opens up to us.  Perhaps that is why we must follow Aragorn et al for this Book--they are Tolkien's ideal readers, training us to read this novel as carefully as they are learning to.  Perhaps the ultimate Quest of LotR here is not to destroy the Ring or restore the King or save all Middle-Earth--the actual Quest is to learn how to read, specifically to read how the story we inhabit is far more hopeful than we realize.

Ben's Thoughts (3/1/15)

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.

Eric's Thoughts (4/3/15)

Ben and Jacob seemed to have a gloomy take on this chapter, criticizing the lack of character development, the length, the pacing, and relevance to overall plot.

I actually found this chapter to be pretty engaging (though I read it on a Florida beach, so maybe the relaxed environment gave me greater patience). I also don't think it's that much of a diversion from overall plot because the chase results in an important alliance between Eomer and Aragon. (And chasing after the Hobbits themselves tells you something about these characters--they do not easily abandon their friends.)

The descriptions of the hills and ravines, and the weather added the right touch of mood. You immediately sympathize that theirs is quest doomed to fail. The orcs seem to not slow and have a significant head start, but catching the orcs may result in something even worse. Three against a hundred? That's the tension that exists here.

Of course, the Riders of Rohan intervene, and there's a beautiful confrontation between Eomer and Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas. Gimli gets depth by standing up for the Lady of the Wood. You can tell it is rare that a dwarf if complimentary of an elf.

And while Gimli and Legolas aren't three dimensional at this point, the lack of focus on them merely focuses Aragon's change from a Striding Woodsman to a king. The other two trust Aragon's judgment. And while characters in fantasy novels certainly seem to always want to fight just because someone said something a little offputting (Gimli threatening Eomer because he said he heard rumors about the Lady that she might be evil), Aragon seems to have a little bit more sense by stopping the fight.

No comments:

Post a Comment