LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 02 - The Passing of the Grey Company

[Guinevere]

In this chapter a lot of things happen, some of which I remembered clearly (e.g. the scene with Eowyn) and others I had quite forgotten (eg that the rangers had brought Aragorn's horse Roheryn, and how their horses had such a love for their masters that they followed them into the path of the dead.)

I quite agree with Davem about Merry!

Aragorn becomes more and more a hero who is more than human. He even has the strength to wrench the palantír from Sauron! - yet this description is very touching

He looked like one who had laboured in sleepless pain for many nights

and shows that he is not a "superman".

originally written by Formendacil:
One thing that I find somewhat... annoying about this chapter, is the fact that Aragorn's confrontation with Sauron is just passed over, referred to after the fact.

This would be very difficult to describe - I think it is much more effectful to have just Aragorn tell about it, and show the effect it had on him.

I, too, wondered about Malbeth's prophecy. For how long had Aragorn known that he was the one it referred to ? Still, I think he was not constrained to go that way, it was just that he had that option, that nobody else had. The silver horn Elrohir gave to him (another fact I had forgotten) must have been Isildur's, and Elrond had kept it for that purpose.

The meeting with Eowyn is a very well known and beloved scene, and many girls I know sort of identify with her rebellious longing for freedom and great deeds.(not me, though, I'm more the stay-at-home-type ) It is quite exceptional for a woman in that time, and very brave, to reveal her feelings in that way!

Lhunardawen wrote:
Actually, I was under the impression that she was chasing death at the time.

I'm not quite sure here either. First, Eowyn was dismayed that Aragorn would choose the Paths of the Dead because she was convinced that he would not survive it. Then she offers, nay begs him, to take her with him. Did she mean to die together with him? If he would have ridden to battle with Théoden and Eomer, would she still have wanted to accompany him?

And here is this theme again (that I pointed out in the chapter "The stairs of Cirith Ungol", about Frodo):
to do one's duty is what is most important, not the striving after individual happiness (as it is in most modern novels.); even if one gets no renown for it. This has become a very rare virtue nowadays!

Eowyn: "....may I not spend my life as I will?"
Aragorn: "Few may do that with honour."
Aragorn: Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised."

Aragorn himself puts duty over what he would prefer to do:

"Because I must." he said. "Only so can I see any hope of doing my part in the war against Sauron."

Halbarad, too, does what he feels to be his duty, even if it may cost his life:

"This is an evil door" said Halbarad "and my death lies beyond it. I will dare to pass it nonetheless."

I have had discussions (in a German Forum) with people who critiziced Tolkien's style for being "not emotional enough", because the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists were not described elaborately. To them, the characters seemed somehow "flat" and "cold". I myself don't have that impression at all!
Of course, we cannot see into Aragorn's mind like into that of Sam and the hobbits, because he is an almost mythical hero to look up to, not to identify with. So we see him only "from the outside" , yet such descriptions like

And he turned and looked away to the North under the great stars, and then he fell silent and spoke no more while the night's journey lasted.

and

Then he kissed her hand, and sprang into the saddle, and rode away, and did not look back; and only those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore.

speak more than a thousand words and give a glimpse of emotion and character depth.


Something which makes me wonder, is the stone of Erech: a globe that has the heighth of a man, and has been brought from Númenor and set up by Isildur himself.. Surely there must have been a reason to take this heavy thing aboard a ship when fleeing from disaster? It must have had special power, I guess. And did that power have anything to do with the effect of the oath they swore upon that stone?

Lhunardewen wrote: What authority does Isildur have to keep the Dead from completely departing from Middle Earth? After all, he himself is merely a Man.

I wondered if it has anything to do with the stone of Erech.

Aragorn tells the Dead:

"...and when all this land is clean of the servants of Sauron, I will hold the oath fulfilled."

What exactly does he mean by "all this land"? Not the whole realm apparently, because he will release them after the battle with the corsairs at Pelargir. (Obviously, PJ had the opinion that this was too early! ) Perhaps he means the land that the oathbreakers had originally inhabited?