The Lord of the Rings: The Siege of Gondor (Part 11)

The Tale

‘Pippin left him and called for the servants[.]’ Six men come, trembling at the summons. Denethor has them lay warm covers over Faramir and bids them take up his bed. They proceed slowly out of the chamber, followed by Denethor, ‘bending on a staff’, and last of all Pippin.

They leave the White Tower like a funeral procession, the overhanging clouds flickering red with the fires below. They pause for a moment by the withered White Tree, the fountain’s dripping water from its dead branches dropping like tears into the pool below. They pass out of the Citadel gate, and those they see them pass look on in wonder and dismay.

Going westward they come to a door in a wall towards the rear of the sixth circle. This gate is called Fen Hollen [Fen=Door, Hollen=Closed], and was only opened at times of funeral. This takes a winding road to the ‘mansions of the dead Kings and of their Stewards.’ Denethor bids the porter open the gate and they take the lantern from his hand. They pass down to Rath Dinen, the Silent Street, past pale domes and empty halls and statues of men long dead, until they come to the House of the Stewards. They enter in and lay down their burden.

In the little light of the lantern Pippin sees they are in a huge, shadowy vaulted room, filled with tables on which lay silent forms with folded arms. There is one table nearby, ‘broad and bare.’ Denethor has them put Faramir there and lies there with him. He commands the bowed servants to bring wood and oil. They will not be embalmed but burned at his command. Speak to him no more.

Pippin takes his leave of Denethor and flees from that deadly place in terror. His only thought is of Faramir, about to be burned alive, and of Gandalf, who might be able to save him. In passing the servants he asks them to go slow and set no fire until Gandalf can get there.

‘Who is the master of Minas Tirith?’ the man answered. ‘The Lord Denethor or the Grey Wanderer?’

‘The Grey Wanderer or no one, it would seem.’ Pippin speeds on out from the tombs and out into the Citadel again. At the gate he is hailed by Beregond, who has heard that Denethor and Faramir have passed through the Closed Door. Pippin confirms this and Beregond despairs that Faramir is dead, then.

But Pippin affirms he is not dead yet, and even might yet be saved, if he can find Gandalf. He has Denthor’s leave but calls the Steward ‘fey and dangerous.’ Beregond directs him down to the battle, and Pippin asks him to go back and do something to stop ‘any dreadful thing happening.’ Beregond replies that he cannot leave his post save at Denethor’s command. ‘Well, you must choose between orders and the life of Faramir.’ Denethor’s loony, I tell you. [Well, he doesn’t use these exact words, but he says this in the Rankin/Bass adaptation, and I thought it one of their more grievous choices of dialogue.] He must go, but the hobbit will return if he can.

Pippin runs down to the Second Gate, past fleeing men who, seeing his livery, urge him to turn back. At the Second Gate he sees great fires flickering over the wall, but all is strangely silent.

‘Suddenly there was a dreadful cry and a great shock and a deep echoing. Forcing himself on against a gust of fear and horror that shook him almost to his knees, Pippin turned a corner opening on the wide place behind the City Gate. He stopped dead. He had found Gandalf; but he shrank back, cowering into a shadow.’

Bits and Bobs

Denethor’s walking ‘bending on a staff’, where before he stood tall and tough, shows his spirit is broken and age fallen upon him.

Rath Dinen features some buildings with balusters, which means ‘pear shaped columns.’

The shadowy forms on the tables in the House of the Stewards seem to be the embalmed bodies of past Stewards. The book has already mentioned that Gondor had long developed such skills in an effort to cheat death, if only in form. But Denethor says no long embalmed sleep for him and Faramir. It may be noted that fire is not only quicker, but it will also keep the conquerors of the City from desecrating their bodies.

Beregond is once more faced with the dilemma: follow orders to the letter, or do the right thing? You may remember Hama, Theoden’s doorward, was faced with the same kind of choice when debating whether to let Gandalf bring his staff into Edoras. Although Pippin has Denethor’s leave, people seeing him racing down to the gate know that guards in his uniform are not supposed to leave the Tower and try to stop him, if not too effectively.

There are only three more pages of this chapter to go; I seem to have lingered over it for months now. But those three are very dramatic and important, well-illustrated many times. Not so this interlude among the tombs.