The Lord of the Rings: Helm's Deep (Part Two)

The Lord of the Rings: Helm’s Deep (Part Two)

The Tale

The Riders are not yet in the Deeping Coomb ['short valley'] when they are attacked by wolf-riders, and scouts report a host of orcs and wild men coming behind them from the direction of the Fords, heading for Helm’s Deep. They have also found many of their folk slain, and no-one knows where Erkenbrand is. Gandalf has been seen riding here and there over the plains, and last seen going in the direction of Isengard. Wormtongue has also been spotted going north with a company of Orcs. The following enemy host is many times bigger than the Riders with Théoden. They must drive through whatever foes lay before them and trust to Helm’s Deep as a place to defend themselves in. They ride on.

The few bands of Orcs they find before them flee without fighting, but behind them the rumor of war grows louder, harsh singing and innumerable points of fiery light in the dark. ‘They bring fire … and they are burning as they come, rick [‘a large stack of hay, sometimes thatched’], cot [‘a small house, cottage’], and tree.’ The Rohirrim reach the breach in Helm’s Dike. They are only two furlongs from Helm’s Deep. The guard there welcomes them and urges them onward. On the sward before the Deep they find to their joy that Erkenbrand has left many men to hold Helm’s Gate, and that more have since joined them.

Gamling [‘old man’], the one in charge of this force, estimates they have about a thousand men fit to fight on foot. ‘But most have seen too many winters, as I have, or too few, as my son’s son here.’ He asks if they know where Erkenbrand is, but it seems that, if he is still alive, the whole army is between him and Helm’s Deep now. Theoden must bring his forces inside the Keep. Fortunately, there is a great store of food there, stockpiled in the caves behind, along with three fourths of the folk of Westfold, old and young, women and children. ‘If [the enemy] comes to bargain for our goods at Helm’s Gate, they will pay a high price,’ says Gamling.

Eomer quickly leads the men into Helm’s Deep and arrays their forces. The horses are led far up into the Deep; they cannot be used as yet. This will be siege warfare. The Deeping Wall is twenty feet high and so wide that four men can walk abreast on top. As Legolas and Gimli take their place upon it, they discuss their situation.

As a Dwarf, Gimli likes this place. ‘There is good rock here. This country has tough bones.’ Give him a hundred of his kin and they could make the Deep ‘a place that armies would break upon like water.’ Legolas does not care for it but finds Gimli’s stout attitude comforting. As for him, he could wish for a hundred Mirkwood archers; the Rohirrim have good ones after their fashion, but too few. Gimli says it’s too dark for archery and time for sleep. He feels the need for it; riding is tiring work.

‘Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!’

Bits and Bobs

I don’t know about you, but my head is whirling, trying to pin down exactly all the features of Helm’s Deep. The Coomb, the Dike, the Gate, the Deeping Wall, the Hornburg … when I see Diana Wynne Foster’s diagram [shown in Part One] I can see it all makes sense, but while I’m reading my head is whirling with terms (Helm’s this and Helm’s that), so that I’m rather in the position of Uncle Toby in Tristram Shandy who finally has to build a scale model of the Seige of Namur to explain exactly where he got his war wound.

Gamling displays the sort of terse, ironic humor and sarcasm which abounds in the Viking sagas, that makes light of grim situations, when he refers to the Orcs’ attack as ‘bargaining for our goods.’ Tolkien was of course very familiar with this kind of humor from his study of the old sagas. There will be further examples later in the story.

‘But you are a dwarf, and dwarves are strange folk,’ says Legolas, acknowledging the differences in their temperament, but finding his unusual outlook comforting in the circumstances. He is, of course, playfully echoing Gimli's earlier comment in Fangorn on Elves and their love of trees. As an Elf, he prefers mobility and freedom of attack, and less being stuck and possibly trapped amid lifeless rock. But Gimli’s sturdy presence at his side encourages him.