Quick Review: The Two Towers

Well it has been a different experience reading volume 2 this time.

Some epic moments turned out to be only a few pages long (eg. Helm's Deep).  And the parts last time that felt like they were holding up plot developments were great this time.  This is especially true of some key conversations.  The best example would be Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas running through the plains of Rohan and encountering the Riders.  The suspicion gradually giving way to a recognition of noble hearts of similar cast, fighting one enemy, was great - as cultural barriers and the paranoia of the times gradually fall before a warm-heartedness.

This nobility of heart was largely lost in the movie, which tended to play relationships like buddy-movies where the protagonists fall out until united by need.  In TLOR Tolkien recognises sometimes people simply are noble-hearted.  Treebeard does not need to be provoked into action by the ecological disaster effecting him in his quiet safety: in the book, he knows Saruman is evil and has merely been taking time deliberating what to do.  Faramir does not have to struggle long and hard to resist the ring:  as written by Tolkien and not Peter Jackson, he soon works out what the situation is and is one of several characters (eg Sam) who seem largely unaffected by the ring.  Ah, a time when a true-heart was seen as possible.

But alongside this, one other thought that bypassed me last time.  25years ago Middle-Earth seemed like a wondrous place to live, and it is.  However, what I realise this time is that for the characters in the book these are difficult times and much that was great has passed or is passing.  The men of Gondor are not as their ancestors, the woods of the Elves have shrunk, the number of Ents who sleep has risen.  The Third Age is ending...and much that is golden will not be seen again.