Three Chapters of ROTK

[Valandil]

In my 2026 Reading Project of the Principal Works (Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, and UT), I’m now at possibly the most gripping, exhilarating, inspiring three chapters of all: The Siege of Minas Tirith, The Ride of the Rohirrim, and The Battle of the Pelennor Fields!

Wonderful stuff! Everything coming together. I feel like I could read these chapters forever!!!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

The description of the confrontation between Gandalf and the Witch-king at the gate gives me goosebumps every time I read it.

 

[Starbrow]

I agree that these are the most enjoyable chapters in LOTR.
I get goosebumps at the part where Eomer realizes it is Aragorn in the ships.

 

[Valandil]

The description of the confrontation between Gandalf and the Witch-king at the gate gives me goosebumps every time I read it.

It’s always Pelennor Fields for me. What a climax! Pelennor Fields Forever!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Wasn't that a Beatles song? 🤔

 

[Valandil]

Wasn't that a Beatles song? 🤔

Yes, it was! But it should have had a much faster tempo. To reflect the battle itself. A rare miss by the Fab Four.

 

[Valandil]

The description of the confrontation between Gandalf and the Witch-king at the gate gives me goosebumps every time I read it.

I just got some goosebumps. Last page of Ride of the Rohirrim. Theoden’s ride to the battle. Wow!

I have so much sympathy for those who know this story only through the movies, not through the books.

 

[Valandil]

I just read the blessing of Theoden on Widfara - who lives on the Wold and confirms Ghan-Buri-Ghan’s statement that the wind is shifting to the south. Theoden replies, “If you speak truly, Widfara, then may you live beyond this day in years of blessedness!”

I checked the rolls of the fallen at the end of the next chapter and didn’t see Widfara’s name. Perhaps he was too unimportant to list. But I like to think it’s Tolkien’s intention that he survived, and lived out the blessing of his King!

 

[Ent]

Aaahhhhh... thou dost but make Ent want to hurl keyboard and mouse into the refuse, and read..! How cruel of thee.
Though Ent can't get 'goosebumps,' leaves are sent a-quiver, twigs tingle, and branches may even sometimes sway - though almost imperceptably..!

He thanks thee for the aside, this "most interesting" day. (Spoken with cambium in live and dead bark layer.)

 

[Valandil]

Aaahhhhh... thou dost but make Ent want to hurl keyboard and mouse into the refuse, and read..! How cruel of thee.
Though Ent can't get 'goosebumps,' leaves are sent a-quiver, twigs tingle, and branches may even sometimes sway - though almost imperceptably..!

He thanks thee for the aside, this "most interesting" day. (Spoken with cambium in into live and dead bark layer.)

I’ve got more!

Three and a half pages into Pelennor - and the Witch-King is no more!!!

You people oughta read this stuff. 😉

 

[Valandil]

I agree that these are the most enjoyable chapters in LOTR.
I get goosebumps at the part where Eomer realizes it is Aragorn in the ships.

Just read it. Yes! And just before, when Eomer sees the ships coming up Anduin, before he sees Aragorn’s standard, and says:

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising,
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

You people oughta read this stuff. 😉

Gee, I've been meaning to get around to reading LOTR for years.

 

[Starbrow]

Just read it. Yes! And just before, when Eomer sees the ships coming up Anduin, before he sees Aragorn’s standard, and says:

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising,
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

more goosebumps! I just love that whole scene on the hillock.

 

[chocolate]

At the risk of being outcast I've never loved that part of the book! He goes into William Morris mode and it feels off to me, compared with the rest. I'd rather read the travel stuff. The narration gets pretty fast by the time they meet the woses and the dead men - too fast I think. Then it gets a bit repetitive and I think he could've communicated the battle stuff a bit more effectively, the reader does a lot of work there. I'd rather read Book 5 if it was written with the attentiveness of Book 1 & 2 (my favourite parts).
That said it picks up again in Book 6 with Frodo and Sam. But I don't think battle scenes are Tolkien's strength. He goes into a heroic, archaic style with too much hyperbole and it's at that point (though only there) that I can begin to agree with some of the snobby reviews from the 50s and 60s.

 

[Valandil]

At the risk of being outcast I've never loved that part of the book! He goes into William Morris mode and it feels off to me, compared with the rest. I'd rather read the travel stuff. The narration gets pretty fast by the time they meet the woses and the dead men - too fast I think. Then it gets a bit repetitive and I think he could've communicated the battle stuff a bit more effectively, the reader does a lot of work there. I'd rather read Book 5 if it was written with the attentiveness of Book 1 & 2 (my favourite parts).
That said it picks up again in Book 6 with Frodo and Sam. But I don't think battle scenes are Tolkien's strength. He goes into a heroic, archaic style with too much hyperbole and it's at that point (though only there) that I can begin to agree with some of the snobby reviews from the 50s and 60s.

Personally I’ve never been over-fond of blow-by-blow battle descriptions. In the same way I’m not crazy about protracted battle scenes in movies (Battle of Five Armies and other sequences in The Hobbit trilogy). Give me a few scenes, the overall flow, and tell me how it came out. I like Tolkien’s depictions and descriptions of battle scenes.

So, OUT you go!!! 😉😆 (just kidding, of course)