"Cliff Notes - the hobbit & the lord of rings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

^^^^^^^^^^THE LORD OF THE RINGS: BOOK III, CHAPTERS 6-11

Satisfied that Merry and Pippin are safe, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli join the men of Rohan in battle against the evil wizard Saruman.

*

Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli now ride with Gandalf to Edoras, the palace of Theoden, king of Rohan.

NOTE: Rohan is also called the Mark of Rohan and the Riddermark, and the Riders of Rohan are sometimes referred to as the Rohirrim and the Riders of the Mark. They are warriors, and Gandalf says of them that they are unlearned but wise. Many readers have commented on their similarity to the Anglo-Saxons, the ancestors of the English. The most important difference between the men of Rohan and the Anglo-Saxons is that the Anglo-Saxons didn't have the Rohirrims' love for horses. Other than that, the two cultures are very similar. The language of Rohan is based on Anglo-Saxon. The song of Rohan that Aragorn sings in chapter 6 is modeled after a famous Anglo-Saxon poem, The Wanderer. This poem talks about how fleeting life is and how with time all traces of a man's life are erased. The Anglo-Saxons reacted to this awareness--as did the ancient Greeks in The Iliad and The Odyssey--by seeking glory so that their names would be remembered in song. The men of Rohan also show this awareness of death and desire for glory. And because they accept death as inevitable, they also accept the idea that it's not whether you win or lose that matters, but whether you act rightly. Thus, in their view, it's better to choose a noble death than to survive and compromise yourself. The courage of the Riders is an illustration of Tolkien's theme of heroism.

Gandalf and the others are at first met with suspicion in Edoras. At one point an argument breaks out when Aragorn refuses to leave his sword outside the king's hall. Gandalf gently reminds him that they're all friends--or at least should be; only Mordor will benefit if they quarrel. Aragorn reluctantly leaves his sword. In doing so, he's learned that sometimes he must swallow his pride in the interest of peace.

After Gandalf frees Theoden from the influence of his evil councilor, Grima the Wormtongue, the king agrees to do battle with Saruman. In Grima, a spy for Saruman, you can see Tolkien's ideas about evil. You are told that Grima wasn't always evil but was corrupted by Saruman. Given the opportunity to redeem himself, he refuses, but even so is treated with mercy. To kill or imprison him would itself be evil, and so could bring forth no good.

Notice the style of the writing. The sentence structure, or syntax, is very formal, as in "Never again shall it be said, Gandalf, that you come only with grief." Tolkien also uses old-fashioned words, such as hearken and behold, to help establish the mood and to add the flavor of ancient epics.

For the first time Aragorn meets Eowyn, Theoden's niece. She is very beautiful, but also appears to Aragorn to be cold, not yet come to womanhood. Eowyn sees in him a man of great power and seems to be falling in love with him. He reacts by acting troubled. As the army rides out, Eowyn stays behind to watch over her people. She wears mail and carries a sword like a warrior. Keep all of this in mind, for Eowyn will later play an important role in the story.

Theoden's army appears to have ridden to certain defeat. They hold the great fortress of Helm's Deep against Saruman's forces, but can't resist the foes' onslaughts much longer. Rather than give in to despair, Theoden and his men ride out in a last desperate attack. But the tide of battle is reversed when Gandalf arrives with reinforcements, and the orcs are driven into a mysterious and frightening forest that has appeared overnight around Helm's Deep. As the victorious forces set out for Isengard, Saruman's stronghold, they learn from Gandalf that the army of trees has been led here by the Ents.

At Isengard, the king and his company find Merry and Pippin relaxing in front of the shattered gates. The hobbits tell how the Ents, led by Treebeard, attacked Isengard and overthrew Saruman.

Gandalf speaks with Saruman, who is holed up in the tower of Orthanc with the traitor Grima. Gandalf offers Saruman an opportunity to repent and join the side of good, but Saruman scornfully refuses. Gandalf then breaks Saruman's staff, casting him out of the order of wizards and out of the White Council. Now a weak, pitiable figure, Saruman is sentenced to be kept prisoner in his tower, guarded by the Ents.

At the same moment that Gandalf breaks Saruman's staff, Grima angrily throws a heavy round stone at Gandalf but misses him. It is a palantir, a stone of seeing, perhaps the greatest treasure that Saruman had. Once again, evil intent has a good effect, for the stone is very valuable.

Pippin is drawn to the stone and sneaks a look into it later that night. Sauron appears in a vision and questions him, believing that Pippin is Saruman's prisoner. Sauron calls Pippin "it" and speaks of him as a dainty morsel, an object rather than an individual. It was amusing in The Hobbit when Gollum called Bilbo "it." But now this peculiarity of speech takes on evil significance. It shows Sauron's possessiveness and his denial of the individuality and free will of others.

Galfand presents the palantir to Aragorn, to whom it belongs as rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. As they speak, a Nazgul, one of the ringwraiths, passes overhead on his winged steed. It is a sign that war will come soon. Taking Pippin with him, Gandalf rides at once for Gondor, which will be the first country to be attacked.

^^^^^^^^^^THE LORD OF THE RINGS: BOOK IV, CHAPTERS 1-5

Frodo and Sam begin the tortuous journey to Mordor, guided by Gollum. They meet Faramir, a captain of Gondor's army, who is stationed just outside Mordor.

*

On their journey to Mordor, Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, who has been following them since the company passed through the mines of Moria. Frodo remembers his conversation with Gandalf long ago, when he told the wizard that Bilbo should have killed Gollum. But now that Frodo has the opportunity, he doesn't kill Gollum either. Why not?

There's a change in Gollum's voice and language when he seems to relive for a moment the torment he endured in Mordor, and laments the loss of his precious Ring. This is the first glimpse Tolkien gives you of another side of Gollum's personality. He reveals a soul in torment, struggling with itself. But the evil self is still stronger, and Gollum reverts to his usual manner of speaking.

Frodo makes Gollum swear to obey him and to lead them into Mordor. As if in a vision, Sam sees a physical change in Frodo, who appears for a moment like a mighty lord, with Gollum a whining dog at his feet. After swearing to obey Frodo, Gollum now starts speaking normally again, and calls himself Smeagol, the name he had before he found the Ring. Although he acts fearful, he's also pitifully eager to please and appears insanely happy whenever Frodo is kind to him. What do you think has caused this change in him? If you pay close attention to Gollum's speech in the next few chapters, you will find that it gives clues to the struggle going on inside him.

Gollum guides the hobbits through the Dead Marshes. They travel in darkness, and all around them they see what seem to be candles burning. The marsh is the scene of an ancient battle, and in the water the hobbits glimpse the faces of the long dead, both good folks and evil. The lights are actually based on fact; they are caused by gasses that escape the rotting muck of the marsh floor and spontaneously ignite. In folktales they are called candles of the dead or will-o'-the-wisps and are believed to lead travelers astray. Tolkien uses this folk belief to create a nightmarish landscape.

They next pass through another nightmarish landscape, worse than the marshes. The land around Mordor is desolate. Saruman's crime of cutting down trees pales next to what Sauron has done. Tolkien's descriptions are powerful: "The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands." Nothing lives there, "not even the leprous growths that feed on rottenness." This is a land that has been defiled beyond healing, and it shows not only the depth of Sauron's power but also the depth of his evil.

Tolkien's description of the desolation outside Mordor is reminiscent of modern wastelands caused by industries and strip mining: it is filled with mounds of poison-stained earth, gaping pits, and noxious fumes. Many readers believe that Tolkien is intentionally making a comment on the destruction of nature by technology. Remember that The Lord of the Rings was written more than thirty years ago. Seeing all the attention that the harmful effects of industry and pollution are now getting, we can acknowledge that Tolkien was ahead of his time.

NOTE: WASTELANDS IN LITERATURE Wastelands are often used in literature as a symbol of spiritual barrenness. Two good examples of this occur in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) and T. S. Eliot's famous poem, The Waste Land (1997). In The Great Gatsby, Nick, the narrator, passes through a wasteland of ashes on his way into New York City. In T. S. Eliot's poem there is no wasteland except in the title, which serves as a metaphor for the lives described in the poem. In both, the wasteland is interpreted as a symbol for the sterility of modern life: the ugliness of the city, the lack of caring relationships, and the lack of any sense of purpose. It's likely that Tolkien was aware of this tradition and either consciously or unconsciously drew on it when he described the wastes around Mordor. How does the wasteland as a symbol of inner barrenness relate to Tolkien's concept of evil?