Let's Read Tolkien 73: The Tower of Cirith Ungol

Sam roused himself painfully from the ground.

Frodo's loyal batman finds himself outside the tower in the title, with his master inside. He sets off to rescue Frodo, helped by the fact that, as foreshadowed last time, the orc-garrison has started fighting among themselves over the loot.

On the way, we get our first proper look into Mordor: jagged mountains, an ashen wasteland and the volcano, Mount Doom. To get to the tower, Sam has to make his way past two Watchers: statues that project some kind of force field that blocks the road. He does this by using the Phial of Galadriel.

At the tower, literally all of the orcs are dead, except for a small one called Snaga and Shagrat. The wounded Shagrat encounters Sam, but makes his getaway, bearing the items taken off Frodo which would later (but earlier to us) be shown to Aragorn and the others at the Morannon. Sam then finds Frodo, returns the Ring to him after Frodo flips out about it, and they disguise themselves in orc-clothes and leave.

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So, after a surprisingly long chapter, Frodo and Sam have escaped from the tower. I guess there's a bit of a disconnect going from the very epic scope of King Elessar and his army to Sam finding orc-pants for Frodo, and it took me a moment to adjust. Of course, the main theme of this chapter is Tolkien's notion that evil ultimately defeats itself, but if I'm honest, the notion of the entire garrison of an at least mildly strategically placed fortress conveniently massacring each other to the point where there's just two of them left stretches credibility. It also feels like the chapter just goes on for a really long time, and I'm not really sure what purpose a lot of it serves. Maybe I'm just being too negative.

It's easy to gloss over Sam's temptation by the Ring as a little bit silly and paternalistic "aw shucks" moment, which is basically what it is; it's the closest the Lord of the Rings ever comes to what Moorcock et al. claim is its dominant theme of "do what you're told and stay in your place". Of course the loyal subaltern has no dreams above his station! The ease with which he hands over the Ring also seems a bit exaggerated. But I was struck by Sam's ambition being defined as a garden of his own. I've talked about Tolkien's use of physical geography, and lately his corresponding lack of interest in human geography. Another juxtaposition is wholesome nature versus artificial evil, which is, of course, strongly present in this chapter, where Sauron's realm is depicted as an ashen wasteland.

But how does Tolkien actually conceive of nature? Good nature, to Tolkien, is basically a well-tended garden. Places like the Shire, Rivendell or Lórien, even Ithilien, are actually fairly bourgeois gardens. How often does anyone even encounter any wildlife anywhere? Even Beorn's animal friends behaved like well-trained servants or drilled soldiers. Outside of the various gardens and lawns, there's the desolate wilderness and scary, almost evil forests. Even when they're not actively hostile, they're very alien. Nature is only really idyllic and good when someone has mowed the lawn and clipped the hedges. Solidly, impeccably middle class!

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Next time: more singing.