The Lord of the Rings: The Riders of Rohan [Part Three]

The Tale

Eomer and the Riders leave Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, and are soon out of sight. The three ride off on their new mounts, with Aragorn bending low to observe the trail. They come to the river Entwash, and they see where that new group of Orcs joined the band they were following. Aragorn dismounts and searches the area but can discover little. He judges that the Orcs knew they were being pursued at this point; the Hunters must go slower, in case some effort was made to get their captives away before  they were overtaken.

As they ride forward the day is overcast and misty. As they grow closer to Fangorn Forest, they pass single corpses felled by the Riders’ arrows. Late in the afternoon they come to the eaves of the forest and an open area where trees were felled to make the pyre for the fallen Orcs. The ashes are still smoldering. Nearby is a pile of their armor, helms, shields, weapons, and other gear of war. In the middle of this pile, on a tall stake, is impaled the head of a great goblin; it still wears the helm with the badge of the White Hand.

Further away, near the river is a mound, covered with green turves and planted with fifteen spears. This is the grave of the fallen Riders.

While the light lasts, the three search for any trace of Merry and Pippin but find none by nightfall. Gimli sadly concludes that the burned bones of the hobbits are mingled with the ashes of the Orcs. It will be hard on Frodo and Bilbo if they ever hear of it. Elrond never wanted them to come at all.

Gandalf did, Legolas points out. But Gandalf came himself and fell, Gimli counters. His foresight did not see that coming, either.

‘The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or others,’ said Aragorn. ‘There are some things that are better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.’ But they’ll stay the night and search more in the morning light.

They make their camp not far from the battlefield under a spreading tree. It looks like a chestnut with broad brown leaves like dry hands with spread fingers. As it is growing cold, Gimli decides to build a fire, even if it draws any enemies left to them. Legolas hopes if the hobbits are still alive, it might help draw them to them.

Aragorn says they are almost under the eaves of Fangorn, and it is said to be perilous to touch the trees of that land. Gimli points out the Riders felled many trees to make the Orcs pyre and were not harmed, but the ranger points out that they were many and did not enter the forest. They might have to, so touch no living bough. Gimli says there are enough chips and branches and dead wood aplenty, and he builds a fire near the tree.

As they sit huddled around the little blaze, Legolas looks up into the boughs overhead and cries out. They look at the tree in wonder.

‘It may have been that the dancing shadows tricked their eyes, but certainly it seemed to each of the companions the boughs appeared to be bending this way and that so as to come above the flames, while the upper branches were stooping down; the brown leaves now stood out stiff, and rubbed together like many cold cracked hands taking comfort in the warmth.’

Suddenly the night and the foreboding forest at their backs seems uncanny. Legolas asks Aragorn about the stories Boromir mentioned about Fangorn, whether he thinks they are true. He replies that if an Elf of the Wood doesn’t know, how shall a Man answer? Legolas says all he knows from old songs is that the Onodrim, that men call Ents, dwelled their long ago. Aragorn says it is very old, as old as the Old Forest back in the Shire, both remnants of a greater ancient wood. But Fangorn has some secret of its own.

They settle down to sleep, with Gimli taking the first watch. Aragorn warns him not to stray far if he needs more wood; rather let the fire die out. He falls asleep. ‘Legolas already lay motionless, his fair hands folded upon his breast, his eyes unclosed, blending living night with deep dream, as is the way with Elves.’ Gimli sits hunching by the fire, running a thoughtful thumb over the edge of his axe.

‘Suddenly Gimli looked up, and there just on the edge of the firelight stood an old bent man, leaning on a staff, and wrapped in a great cloak; his wide-brimmed hat was pulled down over his eyes.’ Gimli springs up, thinking that Saruman has caught them, and his movement rouse Aragorn and Legolas, who sit up and stare.

Aragorn leaps to his feet, asking the old man what they can do for him and join them at the fire. But then the old man is gone (stepped out of the light? vanished?) and no sign can be found of him. They dare not go far from the fire. Suddenly Legolas cries out. The horses are gone!

They stand still, struck by this new stroke of bad luck. The distant sound of whinnying and neighing come to their ears, then all is silent again. At last Aragorn says they must accept their disappearance if they don’t come back again. They started this hunt on their feet and can end it on their feet. Gimli grumbles that they cannot eat their feet as they might the horses, if it comes to that. Legolas laughs that a few hours ago the dwarf would not even sit on a horse; they’ll make a rider of him yet.

Gimli thinks there’ll be no further chance of that. He thinks the old man was Saruman, wandering as Eomer said he did, hooded and cloaked, and that he scared away the horses. Aragorn notes that he was wearing a hat, but nonetheless believes that it was Saruman, too. Still, there is nothing they can do now but rest. He takes the next watch. He needs to think.

‘The night passed slowly. Legolas followed Aragorn, and Gimli followed Legolas, and their watches wore away. But nothing happened. The old man did not appear again, and the horses did not return.’

[End of Part Three]

Bits and Bobs

This last little bit is only the last five pages or so of the chapter. I couldn’t find any appropriate illustrations, but I always thought the appearance of the old man by the Three Hunters’ fire would be a good one, or even of the tree ‘warming its hands’. These incidents may have inspired pictures somewhere, but I haven’t found them. But anyway, all the notes for the whole chapter appear here.

As has been pointed out by Tom Shippey in The Road to Middle-earth, the Riders of Rohan are essentially described as Anglo-Saxon warriors, except for a few details. The most important, of course, is that they are horse-riders, with battle skills more akin to warriors of the steppes, like the Huns in our world. Eomer’s horse-tail ‘panache’ on his helmet is particularly reminiscent. Anglo-Saxon armies had few mounted riders. Most Rohirric names and special terms are from Old English; all the names of their kings translate as some word meaning ‘ruler’ or ‘warrior’ (‘Eorl’=’Earl’, ‘Theoden’=’King’) and ‘Eo-‘ names contain the word for ‘horse’.  Of course all these words are feigned to be translated into Old English from the ‘true’ language of Rohan.

I wish I could easily reproduce all the accent marks used by the Rohirric terms. Tolkien had a typewriter set in Anglo-Saxon typeface for his work. 

It has also been noted (I forget where) that much of the savagely stoic character of the Riders recalls the actions and nature attributed to native Americans in popular literature. Tolkien himself (in On Fairy Stories) states that he enjoyed tales of ‘Wild Indians’ when he was young, especially in the tales of James Fennimore Cooper, with their deep, primordial woods.

Through the actions of Legolas we are given insight into the relation of Elves to their minds and bodies, especially of the connection of their dreams and memories to waking life. It seems their mind can rest while their body jogs along, and vice versa. It is Legolas who has visions of the spiritual nature of things, like the crown flickering on Aragorn’s brow.

While the Elf has generally a more hopeful outlook on life, Gimli takes a more … well, I don’t want to say pessimistic, but certainly a more distrustful attitude. He is quick to see and warn against the downside of every situation. Gimli is stern, ‘dour’, like most Dwarves, and a little quick to take anger, but also can set it aside. His defense of Galadriel has been seen as a ‘chivalric’ devotion to the Lady, a high respect and dedication that lifts his spirit above the personal prejudices of his people.

In this chapter we learn some more about Tolkien’s view of stories and morality. Aragorn says not to scorn the stories of the past, for we will ourselves be the stories of the future, to be judged by those who come after. The Riders themselves might come to seem an unlikely tale to later generations. Meta! Also, that morality, good and evil, is not relative, changing with the times, or different between different folk.  And ‘There are some things that are better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.’

The appearance of the Ents is teased, both in speaking their name (without much detail about what they are) and in the unusual actions of ‘the chestnut’ to the fire. This tree is apparently not an Ent itself, but possibly a ‘Huorn’ that is approaching sentience and mobility.

Much time is spent discussing the machinations of Saruman, which will soon become very important to the story. For a long time I thought the appearance of the old man at the fire was just an appearance or a ‘sending’ of Saruman’s awareness, like an astral projection. But according to the Scheme written by Tolkien, reported in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, it is indeed Saruman grown impatient for the Ring and gone out to meet his troops. Just a little too late. That he was wearing a hat rather than a hood might have been meant to obscure his identity.

The incidence of the missing horses in the night will later be shown to have a different significance than they surmise.