LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 01 - Minas Tirith

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Firefoot

I'm not sure that impulsive is the right word to use. Certainly, Pippin is curious and outspoken, but he has come a long way from the "ridiculous young Took who was giving a comic account of Bilbo's farewell party" at the Prancing Pony. Pippin is now much more wary of his own speech and actions. He must be careful in talking to Denethor, and he is mindful of himself during his meal with the Third Company. He has matured a great deal, and I think his encounter with the Palantír helped a great deal with this. To me, your examples seem more like the normal actions of his personality: friendly, outspoken, almost too bold, but impulsive? I'm not so sure. The one action of his that I might call impulsive is his swearing of service, but he seems to have thought about this already, as he states to Ingold.

Pippin certainly seems driven to speak or to act when his pride is slighted. He is laughed about by the men at the Rammas Echor when Gandalf refers to him as a Man. He is at first referred to as a Dwarf, and then his bravery in relation to his size is questioned. This slight on him certainly leads him to be impulsive enough to reveal that Boromir is dead, which Gandalf is not pleased about (though it seems that the men of Gondor are suspicious of this in any case).

Pippin is stirred to speak by his pride, which is not misplaced if we remember what he has been through; he is indignant at the suggestion he is not as brave as any Man. The encounter with the Palantir has not entirely humbled him or he would not act and speak in this way. This is a good thing or Pippin would not have had the sense of pride to be hurt, the memory of having been in great peril, that would eventually prompt him into swearing his oath. Seeing the broken horn seems to stir some great emotion within him and even though he may have had the idea of service, of paying something back for Boromir's death in mind, it takes the catalyst of seeing the broken horn to prompt his oath. I think his growing maturity is more of a process, brought on not just by the Palantir, but by learning just what it means to take an oath and enter into service.

Maybe impulsive is too strong a term, certainly seen in the light of Gollum's impulsiveness in the previous book, but Pippin is certainly not cool and calculated. He is emotionally moved by the sight of Boromir's broken horn in the hands of Denethor, moved by the sight of a father in grief, and coupled with the sense that his own bravery is being questioned, he is prompted to speak and act. In this chapter I think we see that Pippin is very much the young man, in that he wishes to appear capable and brave, but he also wears his feelings on his sleeve and has a great intelligence. Probably more than being impulsive, I think he is simply a little unpredictable, as Gandalf finds out to his pleasant surprise.

a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east.

those in the Citadel might, like mariners in a mountainous ship, look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below.

the White Tower: tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the pinnacle, where the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain.

their helms were of strange shape, high-crowned, with long cheek-guards close-fitting to the face, and above the cheek-guards were set the white wings of sea-birds;

With that Gandalf went out; and as he did so, there came the note of a clear sweet bell ringing in a tower of the citadel. Three strokes it rang, like silver in the air, and ceased: the third hour from the rising of the sun.

I noticed the maritime images in this chapter as being quite curious. Does this hark back to the maritime Numenorean heritage of Gondor? Minas Tirith seems to be described as though it is a great ship, moored to Mindolluin. There is no sea for it to sail off into, and its inhabitants do not have the urge to leave it, but it seems as though one of their ancestors' great ships has been moored here for the future generations to dwell in.

Even the ringing of the hourly bell echoes maritime tradition and the uniforms of the guards include sea bird emblems. Is this tradition intentional, to remind them of their past? We even get a hint here of the shape of Numenorean ships; they are not swan-prowed like Elven ships, but are of the shape we are more used to.