In contrast to the refreshingly clipped pace of events that lead up to the Battle of Helm's Deep (seriously, every chapter seemed to have some new, grand development that kept me engaged), Tolkien is now certainly taking his sweet time building up to the climactic confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman.
It's an anxious balancing act Tolkien's trying to pull of here: string the audience along just long enough, and the final show-down will pack just that much more oomph; but string it along for too long, and the tension crosses the line into tedium. Seeing as how the Table of Contents assures me that I'm still at least 2 chapters from Book III's ostensible climax, Tolkien frankly has me a little nervous.
For how should I engage with this chapter? Is this like in an RPG, wherein half the purported fun is just running around exploring this world, having conversations with the various characters? Because that's what Gimli and Legolas' wistful conversations of old haunts feels like; same with Merry and Pippin recounting the discovery of Tobacco amongst the Hobbits before Gandalf thankfully saves Theodun from the tedium. I know Ben hasn't been a fan of Merry and Pippin in Book III, and for valid reasons; nevertheless I did find their laid-back reunion with the remainder of the old Fellowship, smoking pipes and sipping wine amidst a devastated yet victorious battle-field, to be just too darn charming to hate on. This was humor that felt well-earned.
Nevertheless, the question arises again: what is the raion d'être of this chapter? Is this just a break after the break-neck pace of the preceding chapters? Some long-delayed character development? A release of the tension? Some world building? A reminder that no one seems to know what Hobbits are? So much of this prose, while pleasant enough, feels a little extraneous, obstacles to getting to the good stuff. This chapter's most charming moments feels like it could have easily been merged into the following chapters without much of a loss.
Also, it just now occurs to me: I know part of the joke of Merry and Pippin in this chapter is that they are so blase around these earth-shattering events, but how are they so blase about seeing Gandalf again? Gandalf has basically come back from the dead, transformed into a being even more powerful than before; shouldn't the import of that strike to the heart of even Merry and Pippin? Not that I need a constant string of characters swooning over a resurrected Gandalf, but at least an acknowledgment, or even a flippant "Aren't you dead?", feels merited here.
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