CotW; LOTR BK3, Ch1, The Departure of Boromir

The Departure of Boromir
Book III,
Chapter 1
The Two Towers

This being the first chapter of "The Two Towers", any discussion on the
title itself can be thrown in here.


This chapter starts and ends with Aragorn trying to find out what
happens, and to figure out what course of action to take. Everything he
has done so far, and in that day in particular, seems to have been
"ill-fated." This despair continues in him until he decides to pursue
and save Merry and Pippin, for then his heart "speaks clearly" to him.

The chapter begins when Aragorn follows the hobbit's footprints, and
sits on the same high seat that Frodo sat upon, but he sees nothing that
would help him. One small note: Tolkien informs us that Aragorn would
(if he could) have seen an eagle slowly descending, far in the North. [1].

Suddenly he hears cries and orcs in the woodlands below, and then the
horn of Boromir blows, and 'smote the hills.' [2] Aragorn rushes down
the hill headlong ready to do battle with the cry "Elendil!"

When he found Boromir, he was sitting against a tree with orcs lying
dead all around him. (Cf. the film version of this event, with
fighting). Aragorn praises Boromir, who was in despair for what he did
to Frodo. Aragorn informs him that he has really "conquered" (himself),
and few had gained such a victory (over themselves.) He tells him to
not worry about Minas Tirith. [3]

Aragorn now weeps, perplexed, trying to figure out what to do now that
everything he had been striving for had ended in ruin. By this time,
Legolas and Gimli silently creep through the trees as if they are
hunting (i.e. moving by stealth, in silence.) They had fought, all
Legolas' arrows were spent. They quickly decide that they don't have
time to bury Boromir, and they must try to rescue Merry and Pippin.

They search the orc bodies, finding the knives of Merry and Pippin. They
find goblin soldiers who were bigger than orcs [4] and had differnt
swords, and a white hand on their sheilds, and an "S" rune on their
helms. They quickly guess that this means Saruman. [5]

They lay Boromir in the water, with the swords of his enemies at his
feet, and place him in the river, letting him go. The book says rumour
has it that his body was washed out into the Great sea. [6]

They go back to their camp, deduce that Sam and Frodo have left for
Mordor, and then follow their own way, going after the orcs who captured
Merry and Pippin. [7]

Aragorn remarks that all three races will remember this chase.


Comments/Questions


[1] Is this eagle Gwaihir, who was going to pick Gandalf up from the
mountain after he killed the Balrog? What do we know about which days
these events occured on?


[2] This was not meant to be taken literally, but what else could "smote
the hills" mean besides "splitting them?"

[3] The goblins are described as "swart." What does that mean?

[4] Aragorn makes a simple mistake here, by not asking Boromir about
whether Frodo was taken by the orcs or not.


[5] What does a "black field" look like?

[6] "he will not return from mountain and sea." What is the
significance of this? There might be some poem or words from which this
phrase is derived, bt what could it be?


[7] Whenever I think of this trampling in the wild, I always imagine
this Bible verse about the Messiah, "A broken reed He will not break,
and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully
bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until He
has established justice in the earth. (Isaiah 42:1-4)" The contrast
with orcs is obvious. As I have said before, some of these verses must
have meant something to Tolkien, if he was literate in Christianity.


Other comments, go right ahead.

Hasan

In rec.arts.books.tolkien Hashemon Urtasman <none.DeleteThis@nospam.org> wrote:

: [3] The goblins are described as "swart." What does that mean?

Swart means dark skinned.

Stephen