"A Journey in the Dark" - Eric's Thoughts

What a great chapter. ‘Journey in the Dark’ is Tolkien-heroin at its best. This is exactly why I loved these books as a kid.

After the failure of scaling the mountain, the Company has essentially been boxed in and forced into the Underworld. They cross a creepy lake, and the ripples in the water foreshadow an unpleasant beast living in it. My first thought when I was reading was: ah, Tolkien, the monster was a nice touch to scare children, but there’s a plot hole. How would a giant 'watcher of the water' come to live in a lake that’s isolated from any moving bodies like rivers and streams? Gotcha there, Tolkien!

To my utter horror and delight, the text directly answers that question and says that the beast crawled up from Moria and has come to inhabit the lake. I felt like a fool—the creature simply crawled in after leaving Moria. Duh. Touche, Tolkien, touche.

And since we’re talking about fools, Gandalf of course has the best lines of the chapter, when he name calls Pippin for knocking a stone down a shaft. ‘Fool of a Took!’ Gandalf growled. ‘This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance. Now be quiet!’

There’s great snippets of imagery as well: “The last thing that Pippin saw, as sleep took him, was a dark glimpse of the old wizard huddled on the floor, shielding a glowing chip in his gnarled hands between his knees. The flicker for a moment showed his sharp nose, and the puff of smoke.”

I skimmed over Jacob and Ben’s thoughts on this chapter and they pretty well capture a lot of the thoughts I was having when I was reading it. So maybe something I could add is that this chapter represents a classic point in the Hero’s Journey, or Campbell’s monomyth.

In the monomyth, the hero must descend into the underworld, which is a classic story trope. For example, in the Odyssey, Odysseus goes into the underworld to seek information, giving blood in exchange for information. In Hercules the son of Zeus goes down to bring back someone from the dead. In Batman, Bruce Wayne descends into a cave to retrieve his toys and become Batman. (I jest, I jest.) In LOTR, the Company must descend into the Underworld to come out the other side. They are not seeking information, or resurrection, or even toys, but are instead overcoming (or should I say undercoming?) geography.

I guess there’s not really much to say about the monomyth except that here’s an example of it. The old Frodo dies down here when he’s stabbed, and a new hobbit will emerge, one that is willing to leave his friends. The Mines eliminate the handholder Gandalf, and force Frodo to come to terms that the Company will fail, and that he's going to have to become a hero on his own.

This chapter is all foreshadowing, to the tap-tap sounds of other creatures, to the hints of Gollum. It all ends with a cliffhanger of Balin being declared dead. “‘He is dead then,’ said Frodo. ‘I feared it was so.’ Gimli cast his hood over his face.”

The suspense here is real. Steven King once said that to scare someone you merely describe mundane reality for 95% of the time, all the while foreshadowing, and then suddenly bring out the ghost. This chapter is nothing but dark and quiet suspense, from the watcher of the water boxing them in, to the dark climb through Moria, seeing nothing except seven foot chasms that they have to jump across. While I was reading, I was wondering if I would have the nerve to jump a seven foot chasm that fell forever. This is exactly what a writer wants a reader to do: question if THEY would have the nerve to do it.

There were fissures and chasms in the walls and floor, and every now and then a crack would open right before their feet. The widest was more than seven feet across, and it was long before Pippin could summon enough courage to leap over the dreadful gap. The noise of churning water came up from far below, as if some great mill-wheel was turning in the depths. ‘Rope!’ muttered Sam. ‘I knew I’d want it, if I hadn’t got it!’

I think this is the first time that I authentically wanted to immediately read on to the next chapter, but of course I didn’t so I could write this blog post!