The Lord of the Rings: Journey to the Crossroads (Part Three)

The Tale

‘The red glare over Mordor died away.’ The morning twilight grows darker as vapors rise over the mountains in the east [the Ephel Duath, ‘Mountains of Shadow’], blocking the sun. Frodo and Sam eat a little, but Gollum is restless and will only take a little water. He does not settle down but searches around a bit, then suddenly disappears.

It’s Sam’s turn to sleep first, and he falls into a fitful, fretful sleep, plagued with dreams of looking for his pipe in a strangely wretched version of Bag End. He wakes up, realizing his pipe is in his pack, but of course he has no leaf. He looks around. It is almost dark, it seems. How long has he been asleep? Only about three hours, Frodo replies. It’s not even noon. But it’s getting darker and darker.

Sam wonders if a storm is coming. He hears what sounds like thunder, or drums. Frodo says that’s been going on for hours, and the earth is trembling. There’s been no sign of Gollum. Sam hopes he hasn’t gotten lost, though he can’t abide the wretch and he’s never been of any use. Frodo reminds him of the Dead Marshes. Still, Sam grumbles, he might be up to some sort of tricks, and if Gollum himself gets caught he’d likely rat them out in a minute and then they’ll be in trouble. The ground rumbles even louder and trembles. Frodo thinks they’re in trouble already.

‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say, and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’

The afternoon wears on, getting darker and darker in a colorless gloom, stifling but not warm. Sam watches Frodo’s unquiet sleep as his master tosses and turns and sometimes murmurs Gandalf’s name. Suddenly he hears a hiss, and Gollum is with them, crawling on all fours, eyes gleaming. ‘Wake up, sleepies!’ he whispers, excited or frightened. They must leave at once!

Sam is suspicious; it isn’t even teatime yet, at least in decent places where they have tea. As Gollum points out, however, they aren’t in decent places, and must get going.  He claws at Frodo, who starts up and grabs him in alarm. Gollum backs away and insists they must move now and gives no further information. Frodo sighs and prepares to journey out into the deepening darkness.  Gollum leads them carefully and quietly, running almost bent to the ground. The hobbits, with their elven-cloaks and hobbit stealth, pass almost invisibly through the shadows.

They walk for an hour or so across a broken slope that leads south, the quiet of the land troubled only by the drumming thunder that rolls mysteriously far away. At last, they approach a belt of trees, ancient and vast, their tops gaunt and broken. Gollum breaks his silence to announce that they are at the Cross-roads. There are no other paths; they must go that way if they are to proceed.

They move along, as ‘soft-footed as hunting cats’, until they come to a great ring in the middle of the trees, where four roads meet, north, south, east, and west. The trees surround it like the pillars of an ancient hall. To the east, plunging into darkness, is the road they must take.

Standing there, Frodo suddenly becomes aware of a light on Sam’s face. It is the sun in the west, which has finally sunk low enough to escape the pall of clouds. The brief glow illuminates an ancient statue of some old king, ’still and solemn as the great stone kings of Argonath.’ It has been beheaded and defiled with graffiti by the orcs, and a one-eyed stone placed in travesty on its broken neck.

But Frodo notices the old king’s head rolled away by the roadside, lit by the setting sun. It gleams, crowned by trailing flowers like small white stars, golden stonecrop in its hair. The old king has a crown again.

‘They cannot conquer forever!’ said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.’

Bits and Bobs

Abide means "to be able to live with or put up with." If you can't abide something, it means you can't stand it. If you can abide it, it means you can live with it. Sam has so far actually been able to abide with Gollum; it just hasn’t been comfortably.

The earliest example of the saying 'Where there's life, there's hope' has been traced to the Roman playwright Terence (died 139 BC).  Such 'gnomic' sayings sprinkled all throughout the LOTR give the impression of a continuity of folkloric wisdom. 

‘Vittles’ is, of course, the lower-class way of pronouncing ‘victuals’ (though I don’t know if anyone ever actually pronounced it as it is spelled), meaning food supplies or provisions. [Alteration (influenced by Late Latin vīctuālia, provisions) of Middle English vitaille, from Old French, from Late Latin vīctuālia, provisions, from neuter pl. of Latin vīctuālis, of nourishment, from vīctus, nourishment, from past participle of vīvere, to live]. The fact that the Gaffer uses it suggest his rough-and-ready nature; the word in now most associated with hillbillies and cowboys.

The word coronal (here used in relation to the wreath of flowers around the old king’s head) means a binding or an encircling of the head like a crown.

And of course, Gollum’s use of the childlike, nursery word sleepies just makes him more endearing and tragic.

Illustrators seem to love the image of the King at the Cross-roads. It is one of those moments (like Sam spotting the star high above the reeks of Mordor) that suggests ‘They cannot conquer forever!’

 

The Lord of the Rings: Journey to the Crossroads (Part Two)

The Tale 

The next day is much as the one before, except it seems even quieter and the stifling atmosphere heavier as they pass under the trees. Gollum pauses to sniff the air quite often, and then urges the hobbits to go faster.

By afternoon the trees (ilex, oak, and ash) spread out and the cover becomes scattered over the long launds (glades or grassy areas between trees) between them, sprinkled profusely with celandine, anemones, and woodland hyacinths. They see no birds or beasts, which makes Gollum nervous. They move quickly and cautiously from one shadow to the next.

By the end of the day, when the light is fading, they come to the end of the forest. Before them is a deep dim valley. The road ahead leads to woods again. To the right the Mountains of Gondor glow in the sunset; to the left are the dark walls of Mordor. Frodo seems to see ‘dim tops and broken pinnacles of old towers forlorn and dark.’ He asks Gollum if he knows where they are.

Gollum answers they are in dangerous places. On the left is the valley of Minas Morgul, the tower of the Moon; a road leaves from there to Osgiliath, a ruined city ‘full of enemies.’  He says they shouldn’t have taken the nasty Men’s advice; they’ve come far off their path and must turn east. They can’t use the road either. ‘Cruel peoples come this way.’ Frodo looks at the road; though empty it feels ‘as if things might indeed be passing up and down that eyes could not see.’

Frodo decides not to decide what to do just yet. They’ve walked long and far. Perhaps they should just rest at the edge of the wood. Gollum says they shouldn’t rest at night anymore. They should press on. Sam objects they have to rest, even if the get up to march in the middle of the night; there’ll still be plenty of dark left. Gollum reluctantly agrees.

They climb up into the branches of a holm-oak. Gollum curls up and goes to sleep right away. The hobbits eat but do not sleep.

A little after midnight Gollum wakes up and sniffs the air (which seems his usual method of determining the time of night. He asks if Frodo and Sam have rested and slept. Sam growls they’ve done neither. Gollum drops right out of the tree onto all fours. Frodo and Sam follow more slowly.

They head out eastwards. The land slopes upward and becomes broken and hard. The fact that they can hardly see anything doesn’t help. In fact, a looming darkness is coming from the East, eating up the dim stars. The sinking moon ‘is ringed all about with a sickly yellow haze.’ Gollum turns and announces it will be day soon and they must hurry and find a place to hide.

They follow him wearily. He leads them at last to a hogback of land, covered with ancient and thick gorse bushes, burned here and there. The bushes are so tall the hobbits can walk upright under their cover.

They reach the further edge of the hill and hide under ‘a tangled knot of thorns’, where there is a hollow hall roofed with new spring growth. They sit and rest, too tired to eat, and wait for the day to dawn.

But dawn never comes, ‘only a dead brown twilight.’ In the East there is a red light that is not the sun. The mountains before them loom blackly. Frodo asks which way they should go and Sam asks if they have to think about it just yet.

‘Perhaps not, perhaps not,’ said Gollum. ‘But we must go soon, to the Cross-roads. Yes, to the Cross-roads. That’s the way over there, yes, Master.’

Bits and Bobs 

A ‘hogback’ is a long hill or mountain range with steep sides and a narrow crest.

Anemone

Gorse

Celandine

Holm-oak

Ilex (Common Holly)

Wood Hyacinth

By a strange coincidence, we come to this part about the Dawnless Day on the same day we're due an eclipse here in Texas.

The Lord of the Rings: Journey to the Crossroads (Part One)

 

The Tale

Frodo and Sam return to their beds in the camp behind the waterfall and rest a bit, while around them the men are stirring and preparing for the day. Water is brought for them to wash, then they are led to a table where they join Faramir for breakfast. He hasn’t slept since the battle the day before but doesn’t look tired at all.

After they stand up after their meal, Faramir begins to advise them. He has provided the hobbits with some food for their packs. There’s plenty of water while they walk through Ithilien, but they shouldn’t drink any that flows from Imlad Morgul, ‘the valley of Living Death.’ And the scouts report a strange thing: the land is empty all the way up to the mountains of Mordor. There is no movement or sound, but a brooding silence is over the land, like something is waiting to happen. They should hurry while they can before the sun rises.

‘The hobbits packs were brought to them … and also two stout staves of polished wood, shod with iron, and with carven heads through which ran plaited leathern thongs.’

Faramir has no fitting gifts to give them, but he gives them these staves as help while walking or climbing through the wild. They have been cut down to hobbit-size and reshod. They are made from the wood of the lebethron tree, ‘and a virtue has been set upon them of finding and returning.’ He hopes that virtue won’t fail under the Shadow where they are heading.

They prepare to leave, and Gollum is brought to them, who seems ‘better pleased’ but avoids Faramir’s eyes and stays close to Frodo. Faramir says that Gollum must be blindfolded. Gollum squeals and squirms until Frodo declares that he and Sam must be blindfolded as well, to show that there is no harm intended.

Their eyes are covered and they are led out. When Faramir finally orders that they be uncovered, they are at the edge of some woods, and they cannot even hear the waterfall of Henneth Annun where they stand.

Faramir gives some final advice. He thinks they can travel by daylight a while, ‘while all evil is withdrawn.’ He advises them to go straight on, not turning East yet. They will have the cover of trees for miles and avoid climbing up and down some sheer hillsides. He embraces the hobbits and stoops and kisses the hobbits’ foreheads. ‘Go with the goodwill of all good men!’ He and his men turn and fade into the forest. It is as if ‘a dream had passed.’

Frodo sighs and turns to find Gollum already scrabbling in ‘the mould’ under a tree. Sam notes that he’s hungry already, so they’re back to that worry again. Gollum asks if the nasty wicked men are gone at last, and if they can get going. Frodo rebukes him for speaking ill of those who showed him mercy; he should rather stay silent.

‘Nice Master!’ said Gollum. ‘Smeagol was only joking. Always forgives, he does, yes, yes, even nice Master’s little trickses. Oh yes, nice Master, nice Smeagol!’

The hobbits hoist their packs and start walking. They go all day through the silent land, stopping twice to eat their supplies from Faramir: bread, salted meat, and dried fruit. Gollum eats nothing. At last they stop in the evening, having walked ‘seven leagues’ during the day. Frodo cast himself down to sleep in the mould  under an ancient tree, Sam’s rest is more uneasy, waking now and then to note the absence of Gollum, whether he rest somewhere nearby on his own or prowls the night. Gollum returns at the the first sign of light and rouses Frodo and Sam.

‘’Must get up, yes they must!’ he said. ‘Long way to go still, south and east. Hobbits must make haste!’

Bits and Bobs

‘Lebethron’ was a hardwood, rather like mahogany; it translates to ‘Finger + Tree’. Tolkien first called it melinon, then lebendron, then lebethras, before finally settling on lebethron. Sounds rather like Lebanon and its famous cedars, doesn’t it? 

One wonders how 'a virtue' is set upon the staves by the carvers; it sounds much like a spell or a blessing. In the original draft, they were described as being like 'shepherd's crooks': Tolkien changed them to having leather thongs to solve a later problem of the hobbits having to carry too many objects with only two hands each. 

The blindfolding episode recalls something similar that happened with Gimli and Lothlorien.

'Staves' is the plural of 'staff'. A 'woodwright' is some one who works with wood. ‘Mould’ is a British spelling; in this context it does not mean a fungus or mildew, but the soft moldering collection of old leaves that are turning to earth under the trees. “Mould” was also used in Middle English as a synonym for earth or dirt, as in ‘man upon mould’, or humans upon the earth.

Seven leagues equals 21 miles; the same distance you can take in one step if you have the fairy tale ‘seven league boots.’

While Gollum’s speech seems fawning at first, there might be a sting underneath. Referring to ‘Master’s little trickses’ reveals his less than charitable interpretation of Frodo’s actions among the men, and ‘nice Master, nice Smeagol’ implies that if the Master is not so nice, Smeagol won’t be so nice either. As Sam says, ‘Well, now for it again!’