[davem]

The first thing that struck me on re-reading this chapter is that it is the culmination of Merry’s story. He began as, in many ways, the leader of the expedition, he organised everything, he wanted to go on an adventure & see the world. Over the course fo the story he goes through many experiences which change him. When he emerges from the Barrow he has had a strange dream where it seems he entered the mind of one of the Arnorien warriors slain by the men of Carn Dum. He is drawn to follow the Black Riders in Bree, he swears his oath of alllegiance to Theoden. He has come face to face with a larger world & felt the oppressive weight of it:

Merry looked out in wonder upon this strange country, of which he had heard many tales upon their long road. It was a skyless world, in which his eye, through dim gulfs of shadowy air, saw only ever-mounting slopes, great walls of stone behind great walls, and frowning precipices wreathed with mist. He sat for a moment half dreaming, listening to the noise of water, the whisper of dark trees, the crack of stone, and the vast waiting silence that brooded behind all sound. He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.

He has faced the most terrible foe imaginable & found his courage. Then, after all that, he, symbollically at least, ‘dies’. He even asks Pippin if he has come to ‘bury’ him. In the Houses of Healing he is ‘called back’ by Aragorn, & on awakening he is changed - all his experiences have made him someone different. He no longer thinks of high adventure, Middle-earth is no longer a fantasy playground for him:

We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.'
'No,' said Merry. 'I can't. Not yet, at any rate. But at least, Pippin, we can now see them, and honour them. It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep.

‘It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I supppose’. That sums up Merry’s realisation, his insight gained after alll his adventures. It echoes the words of Bilbo at the end of The Hobbit, & Smith’s at the end of SoWM. But its not the whole story: ‘Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not. I am glad that I know about them, a little.’ In Jungian terms Merry has achieved Individuation. He has grown up & is ready to go home. I think that’s why he has no need to go to the Black Gate - as Pippin does. If Gandalf is correct that the returning Hobbits will not need him too help them save the Shire, because they have been ‘trained’ I think Merry’s words here sum up the nature of that ‘training’ - not training in arms or strategy, but in ‘humanity’. They have all ‘grown up’ by the end of the story, & in many ways Merry is the first one to do that. The Merry we meet at the beginning of the story is not the one we encounter in the Houses of Healing. He has met, faced down & survived horror, grief & death & awoken to a new life. As Aragorn says of him: ‘His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.'

The Athelas is a subject worth returning to. It seems to have more than natural healing power. The words used to describe its effect are odd:

For the fragrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeting memory.

It s effect is to arouse the memory of a memory of some place not of this world. The memory of this fair world in spring is merely the ‘memory’ of some other place - perhaps somewhere beyond the Circles of the World - but then why refer to that place in terms of something remembered?

Aragorn humbles himself to go unknown into his city. He could have rode in in triumph, but he goes as a simple Ranger on a mission to heal the sick. It is this aspect of Aragorn’s character which I think draws us to him in a far more powerful & deeper way than to the confused & self doubting movie-Aragorn. Book Aragorn knows & accepts his responsibility to his people & puts them first in everything. He will accept suffering, abuse, mockery & condemnation on their behalf. He will put aside his ‘glory’ out of love for his people (& if anyone wants to find ‘applicability’ in that I won’t argue with them.

Faramir recognises his king immediately on awakening & offers his service to him. ‘Logically’ this is not possible, but for some reason we accept it, because it seems right. Faramir is the last of a House of Stewards who have been (with some notable exceptions) awaiting the return of the King. Faramir has been rewarded for his long wait, for the sacrifices he has made. His service, albeit in love, to a false ‘king’ is now to be given to the true King. Like Sam later, all Faramir’s dreams have come true on his awakening.

Eowyn’s awakening is different - it is as if she will not allow herself to hope & be happy - when she first comes around she seems to have left behind her despair:

'That is grievous,' she said. 'And yet it is good beyond all that I dared hope in the dark days, when it seemed that the House of Eorl was sunk in honour less than any shepherd's cot. And what of the king's esquire, the Halfling? Eomer, you shall make him a knight of the Riddermark, for he is valiant!'

‘It is good beyond all hope’, ‘Merry shall be made a knight’, from these first words we could get the impression that Eowyn has found hope & joy in her awakening as did Faramir, but then she is ‘reminded’ by Gandalf’s words that she wants to die & slips back into her old ways of thinking. Its as if she had originally forgot to be depressed & had to be reminded of it.

Aragorn goes on to heal others. He labours all through the night to the point of exhaustion. Again we are shown a king who puts his people first & seeks no honour or reward for it. He doesn’t even seek recognition. In order to avoid any kind of risk of confusion & upheaveal that his open presence might engender he removes all signs of his presence:

And when he could labour no more, he cast his cloak about him, and slipped out of the City, and went to his tent just ere dawn and slept for a little. And in the morning the banner of Dol Amroth, a white ship like a swan upon blue water, floated from the Tower, and men looked up and wondered if the coming of the King had been but a dream.