A great chapter: the best in book IV in my opinion. Having dealt with
Gollum,
Sam turns to find
Frodo lying prone with
Shelob bending over his beloved master: his elven-blade fallen from his grasp. The fight with Gollum was the mere taster for this one. Shelob doesn't have a soft spot (actually and metaphorically) though she doesn't like being slashed by
Sting. In revenge, Shelob tries to squash Sam with her great bulk but it works against her as she only squashes against Sting - ouch!
What I find remarkable about this short wonderful passage is that
Tolkien writes about the fight from both Sam and Shelob's point of view. I wonder if JRRT is a member of the MESPLS? (A little puzzle there dear readers). Hammond and Scull point out in their Reader's Companion that
spiders don't have compound eyes but I think we can allow poetic licence for greater effect here.
Galadriel's phial comes in useful again and poor Shelob retreats to her lair to lick her wounds.
Now the big decision for Master Samwise: finding Frodo paralysed and not unreasonably thinking him dead, Sam makes the agonising decision to take
the Ring, leave Frodo and head to Mt Doom alone. Just the decision Mr Spock would endorse. It isn't long before Sam hears orc-voices and Sam puts the Ring on! We aren't told Sam's reasoning but surely, in this case, it is the right thing to do. Sam has just seen off Shelob but two troops of
orcs - no. The best move is to avoid detection so I think we can surmise Sam decided to put the Ring on rather than was forced to by the Ring. Sam finds the world changed and his senses sharpened. The orcs find Frodo and carry him back to the tower.
We then have a tremendous passage featuring a fascinating conversation between two
orc commanders: Gorbag from
Minas Morgul and Shagrat of the
Cirith Ungol tower. And what do we discover? They are much the same as soldiers of any army, human or orc. They have a moral code such that cowardice is thought shameful. They moan about the lack of discipline of their troops. They resent
Sauron's favouritism of the
Nazgul. They would like to set up on their own in a place where there is good loot and no "Big Bosses". They don't live up to their ideals leaving poor old Ufthak hung up by Shelob but rather than rescue him they laughed at him and left him there!.
James Bond Sam overhears that Frodo is not dead and climbs over the heavy stone door barring the tunnel but can't stop the orcs take Frodo to the tower and is locked outside.
End of book IV
