This is one of those in-between chapters where I don't have a lot to say. Legolas and Gimli's reunion is quite funny, and I love their plan to show each other Fangorn and the Helm's Deep caverns when the war is over. And the reunion of Merry and Pippin with their would-be rescuers is always amusing.
Theoden says of the Ents that "the songs have come down among us out of strange places, and walk visible under the Sun" (p. 537). This seems to be a theme with the Rohirrim, that characters in songs or stories can come alive. A guard at Meduseld (was it Hama?) told Aragorn, "It seems that you are come on the wings of song out of the forgotten days" (p. 500), and Eomer started this whole theme by saying, "Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass" (p. 423), while good old Eothain the Courteous scoffed, "Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?" (p. 424) when Gimli said they were searching for Halflings. I wonder why this is such a repeated theme while we're in Rohan, but not with the Elves or in Gondor? Okay, that's the discussion question for this chapter.
Favorite Lines:
"These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience" (p. 545).
"For however the fortune of war shall go, may it not so end that much that was fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle-earth?" (p. 537)
Book reviews by a Christian writer/wife/mother
Merry and Pippin have always been my favorite. Both in the books and the films.
ReplyDelete-Dale
Really? Neat! My favorite is Boromir, followed by Sam, and then Gandalf and Eomer tie for third.
DeleteWhat a sad quote that second one is, but how true and poignant as well. It reminds me of the end of the trilogy, which, while 'all's well that ends well' is still a bit sad, because of the departure of Frodo and the High Elves.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Even though they save the world, nothing can ever be the same.
DeleteOr, as Steve Rogers says in The Avengers, "They told me we won the war. They didn't say what we lost."