[davem]

There seemed to be some understanding between Dernhelm and Elfhelm, the marshal who commanded the eored in which they were riding. He and all his men ignored Merry and pretended not to hear if he spoke....A tall figure loomed up and stumbled over him, cursing the tree-roots. He recognized the voice of the marshal, Elfhelm.

I think this is significant - not just Elfhelm, but his men also, studiously ignored the presence of Merry, even when they know he is there without the permission of Theoden - in fact that Theoden has forbidden his to accompany the Riders to Minas Tirith. Of course, it could be argued that this is a ‘dispute’ between Theoden & Merry & none of their concern, but it does make one question Theoden’s absolute control over his men. Maybe they believe Theoden is wrong. They know of Merry’s sworn oath of service to the King. They will, it seems, help him to serve out his oath. I think we see here a contrast between Rohan under Theoden & Gondor under Denethor - In Gondor Denethor’s rule is absolute & his word is law: to defy the command of the Steward is treachery. In Rohan there is a ‘higher’ law, & it has its roots in the Oath.

'I am not a tree-root, Sir,' he said, 'nor a bag, but a bruised hobbit. The least you can do in amends is to tell me what is afoot.'
'Anything that can keep so in this devil's mirk,' answered Elfhelm. 'But my lord sends word that we must set ourselves in readiness: orders may come for a sudden move.'

Elfhelm’s use of devil here is interesting - ‘devil’ comes from ‘deo falsus’ - ‘false god’. This ‘mirk’ is supernatural in origin & the Rohirrim know it well. They are caught up in a supernatural battle, of course, but they ride to it nonetheless. Sauron is a ‘false god’ to them - so does this imply that they have a knowledge (& if so, how detailed) of the real God? Theoden is later compared to Orome - by whom? Frodo who wrote the Red Book, Findegil, the King’s Copyist, Tolkien the ‘translator’, or by the storyteller of Rohan who must have supplied this account (unless that was Merry - which begs a greater question, about the Hobbit’s theological knowledge).

So we come to Ghan-buri-ghan:

Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as the beasts. They go not to war with Gondor or the Mark; but now they are troubled by the darkness and the coming of the orcs: they fear lest the Dark Years be returning, as seems likely enough. Let us be thankful that they are not hunting us: for they use poisoned arrows, it is said, and they are woodcrafty beyond compare.

Elfhelm’s words here ‘wild & wary as beasts’ are again interesting for what they half-hide, half-reveal, about the Rohirrim. Elfhelm comppares the wild men to ‘beasts’. A little later we hear Ghan-buri-ghan’s plea to Theoden:

'But if you live after the Darkness, then leave Wild Men alone in the woods and do not hunt them like beasts any more.

So, the Rohirrim don’t only think of the Wild Men as ‘beasts’, they hunt them like beasts also! This recalls the Elves’ hunting of Dwarves in the First Age. We see that the Wild Men are in many ways more decent & compassionate than our ‘heroes’. The Rohirrim are in trouble & the Wild Men come to their aid, though it would seem that they have so far recieved from them little better than they could expect from Orcs. It seems that Ghan-buri-ghan is a leader of a people on the edge of extinction, hunted by both sides, desperately looking to ensure the survival of his people - so desperate is he, in fact, that he will offer to help those who may well have hunted his own loved ones down like ‘beasts’. One cannot avoid a sense that Theoden’s attitude to his ‘(& the West’s) saviours in their darkest hour is a little condescending....

There sat Theoden and Eomer, and before them on the ground sat a strange squat shape of a man, gnarled as an old stone, and the hairs of his scanty beard straggled on his lumpy chin like dry moss. He was short-legged and fat-armed, thick and stumpy, and clad only with grass about his waist. Merry felt that he had seen him before somewhere, and suddenly he remembered the Pukel-men of Dunharrow. Here was one of those old images brought to life, or maybe a creature descended in true line through endless years from the models used by the forgotten craftsmen long ago.

To step outside the story for a moment, what we have here is something along the lines of what Tolkien did with ‘Ents’. Ents appear in anglo-Saxon peoms as ‘giants’ & are associated with ancient ruins. Tolkien knew they had once been part of English mythology, & so ‘knew’ that they belonged in Middle earth. Same with ‘Woses’. They too were part of English mythology & so belonged in Middle-earth too. Tom Shippey in the documentary ‘JRRT A Film Portrait of Tolkien’ mentions a road in Leeds, near the University where Tolkien taught, called ‘Woodhouse Road’. the usual interpretation of ‘Woodhouse’ is ‘House in the Woods’ but Shippey says that Tolkien, taking the local pronunciation of the name - ‘Wood’oose’ would very likely have interpreted it as referring to Woodwose (‘wudu-wassan’). The wild man of the woods is a common figure in medieval (& earlier) legend, & crops up in the Arthurian legend.

'Let Ghan-buri-Ghan finish!' said the Wild Man. 'More than one road he knows. He will lead you by road where no pits are, no gorgun walk, only Wild Men and beasts. Many paths were made when Stonehouse-folk were stronger. They carved hills as hunters carve beast-flesh. Wild Men think they ate stone for food. They went through Druadan to Rimmon with great wains. They go no longer. Road is forgotten, but not by Wild Men. Over hill and behind hill it lies still under grass and tree, there behind Rimmon and down to Din, and back at the end to Horse-men's road. Wild Men will show you that road. Then you will kill gorgun and drive away bad dark with bright iron, and Wild Men can go back to sleep in the wild woods.'

Putting aside Ghan’s (ironic?) reference to ‘Wild Men & beasts here, we have an example of folk memory - he is recalling times long past, when the Numenoreans came into Middle earth & began the building of Gondor. These ‘Stonehouse-folk’ were seen as more than human - they carved hills & ate stone. They were either monsters or divine - either way they were ‘unnatural’ beings, who shaped the earth to their own ends, rather than, as the Wild Men, living in harmony with it.

Many busy there. Walls stand up no longer: gorgun knock them down with earth-thunder and with clubs of black iron.
'But if you live after the Darkness, then leave Wild Men alone in the woods and do not hunt them like beasts any more.

Ghan knows about ‘gunpowder’ - he calls it ‘earth-thunder’. And it does come from the earth - Salt Peter, charcoal & sulphur make gunpowder. To him it is a thunder that comes from the earth not the sky & the gorgun control it - it serves them. Also interesting is his comparison of the ‘bright iron’ used by the Rohirrim with the ‘black iron’ used by the Orcs.

The final scene, of Theoden leading the charge, is pure ‘poetry’.

Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury
of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins,
and he was borne up on Snowmane
like a god of old, even as Orome the Great
in the battle of the Valar when the world was young.
His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone
like an image of the Sun, and the gr*** flamed into green
about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning
and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed,
and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them,
and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them.
And then all the host of Rohan burst into song,
and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them,
and the sound of their singing
that was fair and terrible came even to the City.

(Now, has anyone noticed how, because I bolded the 'gr' in 'grass' the censorship programme here in the Downs has turned the last three letters into asterisks - funny, or just sad?)