Let's Read Tolkien 66: The Siege of Gondor

Pippin was roused by Gandalf.

Meanwhile, at Minas Tirith, Peregin is waiting on Lord Denethor. As the city prepares to defend itself against Sauron, the Steward of Gondor argues with Gandalf and bullies Faramir, who brings news of Frodo for Denethor to bicker with Gandalf and abuse Faramir over. The enemy is coming, though, so Denethor browbeats Faramir into heading back out to command the defense of Osgiliath, all the while complaining about how he wishes Faramir had died instead of Boromir. I mean to be honest, Denethor is just a complete asshole.

Soon enough, Sauron launches his assault, and Faramir is badly wounded leading the retreat. Denethor finally snaps and orders a pyre built for him and Faramir, and Pippin runs off to find Gandalf. The chapter ends very dramatically with the Witch-king blasting open the gate of the city with magic (and a battering ram), and confronting Gandalf as the horns of the Riders of Rohan sound in the distance.

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So here we are: the War of the Ring is definitely underway. Tolkien isn't very interested in the practicalities of warfare, and I'm grateful: fictional military history is invariably murderously boring. Sauron's armies advance through sheer attrition, and psychological warfare is far more important to the narrative than maneuver or stratagem.

A more interesting military practicality that's missing here is the barrack-room: although Peregrin is now a soldier in the army of Gondor, he only really interacts with Beregond. We barely get any glimpse at all of anyone else or what they get up to in their spare time. Of course this is partly because of Pippin's unusual duties, and admittedly I only ever spent a very brief time in uniform, but I still think it's a little weird that he leads such a solitary existence. Tolkien, of course, was an officer, who earlier referred to soldiers as "Uruk-hai", so it doesn't seem much of a stretch to suppose that barrack-room life was alien and repulsive to him and therefore elided. For particular contrast, look at the descriptions of barracks life in the Deed of Paksennarion by Elizabeth Moon, who was a US Marine.

As in the previous Gondor chapter, the shadow of war is very strongly present, this time even more literally: the sun is completely obscured. The Nazgûl fly around screaming and wear down morale even before Sauron's armies actually show up. They cross the Anduin: "in secret they have long been building floats and barges in great number", echoing both Napoléon's and Hitler's planned invasions of Britain with masses of smallcraft.

I can't entirely decide if the decision to defend the walls of Rammas Echor and the crossings at Osgiliath was a mistake or not. Faramir points out that even if they lose one man to the enemy's ten, they're still the losers of the exchange, which is undoubtedly true. Delaying actions are among the most difficult military operations, and I'm not even really sure how you'd actually go about fighting one with essentially medieval infantry against a massive horde of orcs. Still, though, Rohan only shows up in the nick of time, so arguably had the enemy not been delayed, they would have been too late.

Thematically, the strongest contrast in the chapter is between Denethor and Gandalf. Where Gandalf has throughout been humane and compassionate, Denethor is spiteful and abusive, especially of Faramir, who he practically drives to his death. I'll talk more about Denethor at the denouement of his story, but in the military history vein, I wonder if there's some commentary here on British military leadership in the Great War. Pippin misunderstands Gandalf's report of the Witch-king of Angmar and thinks that Sauron himself is coming, and Denethor laughs this off, pointing out - quite correctly - that Sauron acts through others, and will only show up to gloat when the battle is over. Gandalf, meanwhile, visits the soldiers on the ramparts (very directly analogous with trenches here!), and leads the cavalry sortie - while for all his boasting about his sword and hauberk, Denethor hides away in a tower, snipes and moans and complains, and eventually abandons his duties completely. So he, like Sauron, also sends others to do his work.

The obvious contrast between Gandalf and Denethor is that one has faith while the other despairs, but one leads by example and personal touch, while the other hides away in the rear. No 20th-century general really "led from the front" - when Erwin Rommel went charging about in his command vehicle, he effectively abandoned overall command to his tremendously competent staff officers - but British generals of the Great War received heavy criticism from some quarters for setting up in luxurious chateaus far from the front line and commanding by missives from their comfortable surroundings, entirely detached from the reality of the front. I don't recall Tolkien commenting on this in his letters, but now that I was thinking about this chapter in military history terms, the thought occurred to me that Denethor and Gandalf do have very distinct leadership styles, and there is a possible analogy to the First World War there.

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Next time: horses.