Rivendell_librarian
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This is a short linking chapter similar to the Flight to the Ford in book I.
As an aside there is a beautiful sentiment expressed by Faramir at the end of the previous chapter:
"If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then. Until that time, or some other time, or some other time beyond the vision of the Seeing-stones of Numenor, farewell"
Faramir was speaking about how Smeagol became possessed of "the Thing" and how he lost it: thing rhymes with ring! This is the kind of trope which usually means the speaker is killed before the end in old fashioned westerns. There is another trope in operation in this chapter: "it's too quiet". There is something in the air - a darkness and it spells something very bad is coming.
"The land is empty. Nothing is one the road, and no sound of foot of foot, or horn, or bowstring is anywhere to be heard" Faramir told Frodo and Sam of the reports of his scouts. Faramir has no valuable gifts to give them but he does provide them with provisions of salted meat and dried fruit and two metal tipped walking staves of lebethron wood: practical gifts indeed.
There is a lot of topographical description in this chapter and description of the flora: the fauna is absent. "Nice" Smeagol is happy to leave the Gondorians with his cunning plan still intact: well they did threaten to kill him. He also wanders off without being questioned by Frodo. And Gollum is keen they head east asap - I wonder why!
The chapter ends with a beautiful image:
“The brief glow fell upon a huge sitting figure, still and solemn as the great stone kings of Argonath. The years had gnawed it, and violent hands had maimed it. Its head was gone, and in its place was set in mockery a round rough-hewn stone, rudely painted by savage hands in the likeness of a grinning face with one large red eye in the midst of its forehead. Upon its knees and mighty chair, and all about the pedestal, were idle scrawls mixed with the foul symbols that the maggot-folk of Mordor used.”
Suddenly, caught by the level beams, Frodo saw the old king's head: it was lying rolled away by the roadside. 'Look, Sam!' he cried, startled into speech. 'Look! The king has got a crown again!'
The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed.
'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.
Despite there being little overt religion in the story, there is in the background a sense of the numinous.
As an aside there is a beautiful sentiment expressed by Faramir at the end of the previous chapter:
"If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then. Until that time, or some other time, or some other time beyond the vision of the Seeing-stones of Numenor, farewell"
Faramir was speaking about how Smeagol became possessed of "the Thing" and how he lost it: thing rhymes with ring! This is the kind of trope which usually means the speaker is killed before the end in old fashioned westerns. There is another trope in operation in this chapter: "it's too quiet". There is something in the air - a darkness and it spells something very bad is coming.
"The land is empty. Nothing is one the road, and no sound of foot of foot, or horn, or bowstring is anywhere to be heard" Faramir told Frodo and Sam of the reports of his scouts. Faramir has no valuable gifts to give them but he does provide them with provisions of salted meat and dried fruit and two metal tipped walking staves of lebethron wood: practical gifts indeed.
There is a lot of topographical description in this chapter and description of the flora: the fauna is absent. "Nice" Smeagol is happy to leave the Gondorians with his cunning plan still intact: well they did threaten to kill him. He also wanders off without being questioned by Frodo. And Gollum is keen they head east asap - I wonder why!
The chapter ends with a beautiful image:
“The brief glow fell upon a huge sitting figure, still and solemn as the great stone kings of Argonath. The years had gnawed it, and violent hands had maimed it. Its head was gone, and in its place was set in mockery a round rough-hewn stone, rudely painted by savage hands in the likeness of a grinning face with one large red eye in the midst of its forehead. Upon its knees and mighty chair, and all about the pedestal, were idle scrawls mixed with the foul symbols that the maggot-folk of Mordor used.”
Suddenly, caught by the level beams, Frodo saw the old king's head: it was lying rolled away by the roadside. 'Look, Sam!' he cried, startled into speech. 'Look! The king has got a crown again!'
The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold. A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed.
'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.
Despite there being little overt religion in the story, there is in the background a sense of the numinous.
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