Re-reading the Lord of the Rings, Chapter 29
The 29th chapter is like a wave, events unfold unforeseen and little can King Théoden do to steer their course.
There's only the vague hope that Gandalf is assembling scattered men and that Erkenbrand is still out there somewhere. And Aragorn has heard that the Ents are going to march. That's all in all the chaos the defenders are in.
I can see no strategical sense in delaying the bombing, and neither have any men commanding bombers ever seen, so if a bombing comes late in a war, it must be, because the bomb wasn't available any earlier. That does make some strategical sense here, because it would've been bad for Saruman, if the bombs would have been captured, because they were transported through contested territory. And it is believable that a wizard like Saruman might be a little overcautious in this regard.
It would appear that Aragorn already saw the forest, when he issued his warning, and in that case he certainly would have told Théoden as well.
So, why didn't Tolkien report it?
The situation is clear enough, for the enemies are already fleeing when Théoden charges, after rumours, which have been spread before.
The same with Helm's horn. Is it an endless echoe or is it Erkenbrand answering?
I think the latter is more likely. The signs of the coming relief are already there, but Tolkien narrates it in such a way as if his mind was shaken by hysteria and couldn't believe it.
Probably, if you wanted to translate this feeling into film, you had to show the truth in the background and the hysteria on both sides in the foreground.
Speaking of which... Erkenbrand comes on foot and the Uruk-hai were fleeing instead of charging in the manner of the Macedonian army under Alexander the Great.
I wonder why Jackson is doing this. No rider would have come through that. It's silly and unbelievable every step of the way, a continuous suspension of the laws of physics. Some kind of protest of the sort: You tell me to be a hero! What do you know of the world? In real life, nobody could beat the Uruk-hai! ? Jackson's cameo in Bree, biting on a carrot, sort of suggests that (by the equation carrot eater = hare = coward). But then again, looking at all the other changes he made, turning the battle at Helm's Deep into a genocidal affair, whereas in the book the besiegers call for Théoden's death, and making everything as in a nightmare as opposed to as in the chaos of war, I wonder what really went through Jackson's mind. Also the casting of Éowyn, hardly a woman who hasn't come into womanhood yet, always crying, never dashing and fool-hardy like her whole people is. On the one side sobbing and doom and on the other haughtiness and discipline. The Uruk-hai talk like war-hogs in the book, but they are still undisciplined, and their pride is in their fighting skill and not in their physical condition. They are not narcissistic.
Tolkien describes a bold people, who have gotten themselves into a bigger mess, then they had imagined and Jackson's made a torture porno out of it.
There's only the vague hope that Gandalf is assembling scattered men and that Erkenbrand is still out there somewhere. And Aragorn has heard that the Ents are going to march. That's all in all the chaos the defenders are in.
I can see no strategical sense in delaying the bombing, and neither have any men commanding bombers ever seen, so if a bombing comes late in a war, it must be, because the bomb wasn't available any earlier. That does make some strategical sense here, because it would've been bad for Saruman, if the bombs would have been captured, because they were transported through contested territory. And it is believable that a wizard like Saruman might be a little overcautious in this regard.
It would appear that Aragorn already saw the forest, when he issued his warning, and in that case he certainly would have told Théoden as well.
So, why didn't Tolkien report it?
The situation is clear enough, for the enemies are already fleeing when Théoden charges, after rumours, which have been spread before.
The same with Helm's horn. Is it an endless echoe or is it Erkenbrand answering?
I think the latter is more likely. The signs of the coming relief are already there, but Tolkien narrates it in such a way as if his mind was shaken by hysteria and couldn't believe it.
Probably, if you wanted to translate this feeling into film, you had to show the truth in the background and the hysteria on both sides in the foreground.
Speaking of which... Erkenbrand comes on foot and the Uruk-hai were fleeing instead of charging in the manner of the Macedonian army under Alexander the Great.
I wonder why Jackson is doing this. No rider would have come through that. It's silly and unbelievable every step of the way, a continuous suspension of the laws of physics. Some kind of protest of the sort: You tell me to be a hero! What do you know of the world? In real life, nobody could beat the Uruk-hai! ? Jackson's cameo in Bree, biting on a carrot, sort of suggests that (by the equation carrot eater = hare = coward). But then again, looking at all the other changes he made, turning the battle at Helm's Deep into a genocidal affair, whereas in the book the besiegers call for Théoden's death, and making everything as in a nightmare as opposed to as in the chaos of war, I wonder what really went through Jackson's mind. Also the casting of Éowyn, hardly a woman who hasn't come into womanhood yet, always crying, never dashing and fool-hardy like her whole people is. On the one side sobbing and doom and on the other haughtiness and discipline. The Uruk-hai talk like war-hogs in the book, but they are still undisciplined, and their pride is in their fighting skill and not in their physical condition. They are not narcissistic.
Tolkien describes a bold people, who have gotten themselves into a bigger mess, then they had imagined and Jackson's made a torture porno out of it.
Eingetragen Am/um
11:14
