Let's Read Tolkien 48: Helm's Deep

The sun was already westering as they rode from Edoras, and the light of it was in their eyes, turning all the rolling fields of Rohan to a golden haze.

The action opens with our heroes heading west, toward the fords of the Isen. They soon learn that Saruman's army is on the march, and has shattered the forces of Rohan at the fords. Saruman's forces are making for the great fortress of Helm's Deep (the most sensible opening move for Isengard in War of the Ring), so Théoden leads his army there as well, while Gandalf rides off and announces he'll meet them there.

To be specific, Helm's Deep is a narrow mountain valley, blocked by the Númenoran fortress of Hornburg and a wall. The Riders of Rohan deploy on foot to defend it, and soon enough the enemy is there. They fight a bunch: Éomer and Aragorn lead a sortie to stop a battering ram, and Gimli and Legolas have a contest to see who kills the most orcs. Saruman's guys blow up part of the wall with like wizard dynamite or something, there's a bunch more fighting, and eventually Théoden leads his riders out on what they figure will be a last cavalry charge just before dawn. As dawn breaks, Gandalf arrives, leading the Rohirrim who were scattered at the Isen, and also some trees are suddenly there. The enemy is routed.

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Helm's Deep is the first major battle scene in the Lord of the Rings, and probably where Tolkien comes closest to glorifying, even carnevalizing war with Gimli and Legolas and their orc-killing contest.

It feels necessary to point out that neither Gimli nor Legolas are supposed to be moral exemplars. Would you trust either of then with the Ring? If you answered yes, you really haven't been paying attention. As fallen creatures, they can take pleasure in killing, even if it's wrong. I mean, you may remember that one time when Gimli's dad and his pals nearly started a war with the Woodland Realm over a gemstone.

But in the end, Tolkien doesn't portray killing as wrong. To me, this is another case of the Nordic saga traditions winning over Christianity. Incidentally, if you haven't experienced the Geoffrey Chaucer version of Snakes on a Plane, do. There's a Christian action story! The battle of Helm's Deep isn't.

There's also a strong real-life parallel to Legolas and Gimli's killing competition in modern snipers. There are rankings online and in literature that list military snipers by their "confirmed kills", as if it was a sports statistic or an arcade game high score. Some of them, like Simo Häyhä, shunned publicity; figures like Chris Kyle reveled in it. Some people have always experienced war as fun. Given the nature of Tolkien's military service, I highly doubt he was one of them; but in judging his depictions of war, it really is worth remembering that he was a veteran of one of the most bloody and senseless wars in human history. And once again, if you ever come across texts that really do glorify war, you'll find Tolkien does no such thing.

Having said that, the orcs and "wild men" are fairly dehumanized enemies here, so it's hardly likely to occur to most readers to question killing them. Here, also, the sagas win out over the gospels.

I find Théoden's variable moods quite convincing: while Gandalf is still around, he's upbeat, but then basically resolves to commit suicide by cavalry charge after stewing in the Hornburg.

Finally, the end of the chapter has Tolkien's revenge on Shakespeare, so to speak: Great Birnam wood did march to war.

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Next time: road trip.