"The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" - Eric's Thoughts

I can never remember how to spell Pelennor. Hopefully Ben did, because I copied/pasted his title into this post.

As the tardy reader now among the group, I get to have the pleasure of analyzing Ben and Jacob's analyses -- and critiquing them! Ben it looks like thought this chapter was "masterful," while Jacob found the chapter as a good teaching example of the term "anti-climax." I tend to agree with Jacob. For what should have been an epic war scene, I found myself for the most part disengaged. Now, let's be clear: the chapter wasn't bad. Stuff certainly was happening. But I think the chapter could have been a lot better than it was -- and it needed some more work. It could have been an amazing chapter. Instead it's only ok.

While I was reading, I asked myself: why is this stuff not grabbing me? Ben previously talked about how he thought Tolkien's prose was some of the best fantasy writing ever. It's hard to disagree that Tolkien uses some brilliant descriptions and turns of language. But the parts don't necessarily add up to the sum. The text often reads dry (this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened). There just aren't any compelling moments that put you inside the a character's head. I think that's the primary problem here -- stuff happens, sure, but the stuff is meaningless without a compelling character to guide us through the battle.

Tolkien tries to guide us through the chapter through the eyes of Dernhelm (oh wait! Eowyn), but she's sadly an extremely undeveloped character that only previously made one or two cameos. (As for Merry, well, ya'll know my thoughts on Merry.) Further, there doesn't really appear to be any consistent POV throughout the chapter, and Tolkien instead seems to take an omniscient narrator role in saying this happened, and then this happened.

For me, the most interesting part is when Aragon raises his banner in the ships -- I found it intriguing that Aragon had stars on his banner in addition to the tree of Gondor. A good little detail. However, then the chapter went back to the "then this" flow. And then I was drumming my fingers again.

So, my verdict is the chapter had a few moments that made me forget I was reading. And the chapter wasn't bad. I just think Jacob is right that Tolkien seems to be rushing here.