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

 

The Tale

The skies are now clearing after the rain, but in the light of the sinking moon the defenders can see that despite the numbers of the enemy that have been killed, the host of Orcs and hillmen is growing greater every moment. They roar against the Deeping Wall, climbing with grappling hooks and ladders, many of which are cast down only to be replaced by more, ‘and Orcs sprang up them like apes in the dark forests of the South.’ The piled dead at the foot of the wall grows ever higher and higher but the enemy keeps coming with no slackening.

The men of Rohan grow weary. All their arrows are used up and their weapons and shields are notched and battered. Three times Aragon and Eomer lead them in driving the Orcs from the top of the wall. Then a clamor arises in the Deep behind them: Orcs have sneaked in through the culvert in the Wall through which the Deeping Stream passes. They gather quietly then spring out, attacking the horses and their defenders. The people fighting hotly on the Wall at first don’t notice, but Gimli does, and he leaps down shouting his war cry, alerting others to the Orcs’ presence and challenging Legolas to join him.

On the Wall, Gamling hears Gimli’s deep voice and leads a contingent of his Westfolders to meet the threat. While some Orcs flee towards the caves, they are killed by the guards there; the rest are hemmed back towards the culvert, either dying or forced back shrieking through the hole in the wall. Gamling asks Gimli, since ‘Dwarves are said to be cunning folk with stone’, if he will help them block up the culvert. Gimli, who is pleased that he has now killed 21 Orcs and surpassed Legolas’ count, says that though he can’t shape stone with an axe or his fingernails, he will do what he can. Under his direction the Westfolders use what broken stone is at hand to plug the culvert. The dammed water rises and spreads against the wall.

The warriors return to the walkway above, and Gimli proudly boasts of his new count.

‘Good!’ said Legolas. ‘But my count is now two dozen. It has been knife-work up here.’

Aragorn and Eomer lean on their swords. On the Rock there is a rising clamor, but the Hornburg holds fast. Though the gates lie in ruin the barricade is holding up and none of the enemy has passed it.  Aragorn looks wearily at the pale stars. The night seems to last forever; when will the dawn come?

Gamling says even when it does, it might not be much help. The half-orcs and goblin-men of Isengard do not quail in the sun. Neither will the wild hill men, whom Saruman has maddened with their old hate and envy of the Rohirrim, who were given the Mark by Gondor of old. Gamling knows their old language and understands their cries, calling death upon Theoden and the Forgoil, ‘the Strawheads’ as they call the blonde-headed Riders. Aragorn says that nevertheless dawn will bring him encouragement.

“Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornburg, if men have defended it? … Then let us defend it and hope!’ said Aragorn.

Suddenly there is a blare of trumpets and a crash and a flash. A gaping hole has been blasted through the wall and the waters of the Deeping Stream go flowing out while the enemy host comes rushing in. ‘Devilry of Saruman!’ cried Aragorn. ‘They have crept in the culvert again, while we talked, and they have lit the fire of Orthanc beneath our feet!’ He jumps down into the breach. But at the same time hundreds of ladders are raised to the rampart. ‘Over the wall and under the wall the last assault came sweeping like a dark wave over a hill of sand.’

The defenders are swept away. Some are swept further into the Deep, while others cut their way to the citadel. Aragorn alone holds a broad stairway up from the Deep to the rear-gate of the Hornburg. When Legolas calls to him that the last have entered safely, Aragorn turns to come in. But he stumbles in his weariness and the Orcs leap upon him. Legolas uses his last arrow to kill the first Orc, but Aragorn is only saved by a boulder cast from above that shatters the stair below him. He reaches the door, and it clangs shut behind him. ’Things go ill, my friends.’

Ill enough but not hopeless as long as you are with us, says Legolas. Has he seen Gimli? No, the Ranger last saw him fighting under the wall. Perhaps he has escaped to the caves; such a refuge would be to the liking of a dwarf. Still, Legolas would like it better if he were with them, if only so he can tell him that his count is now 39.

Aragorn smiles. If Gimli makes it to the caves, the dwarf’s count with surpass his again. Never has he seen an axe wielded so mightily.

‘I must go and seek some arrows,’ said Legolas. ‘Would that this night would end, and I could have better light for shooting.’

Bits and Bobs

Okay, I don’t know why but it just fascinates me that the people of Middle-earth seem to know about apes ‘in the South’. Perhaps because what we know about the ‘Great Apes’ was not known in the Middle Ages; what they called ‘apes’ tended to be Barbary apes and baboons. Though I suppose those referred to might be the same.

We are given a reminder here about Saruman’s fiddling around with hybrids, with his ‘half-orcs and goblin-men’, though again evil troops also include humans stirred up from ancient enmity to present hatred. What exactly the blasting ‘fire of Orthanc’ is, is not made clear, though it is apparent Saruman has started some modernized weapons of warfare. The Jackson movie assumes it is some kind of explosive, planted in bombs, while the Bakshi film simplifies it into magical blasts of ‘fire of Isengard.’ Sauron is later shown to have a similar weapon. 

'Forgoil' is apparently the only Dunlandish word recorded in LOTR. The Dunlendings, or wild hill folk, are apparently a sort of expy for the Pictish people, driven by the Romans and later by the Anglo-Saxons to the edges of the British Isles.