Book IV, Chapter 2: The Passage of the Marshes & Chapter 3: The Black Gate is Closed
The sequences in these two chapters are fun to think about and write about, not because they are always the most cinematic or pivotal moments in this immense novel, but because I think they leave a lot open to interpretation that’s interesting to explore. I know there aren’t many of you along for this adventure anymore -- June is not like May, as society begins to opens up and the news fills with images of protest and police violence, and time is in short supply for my stem-winding posts about the minutiae of a novel you either already are well familiar with or else have no interest in revisiting. But you, dear reader, are here, and we are standing before the closed Black Gate of the Morannon along with Frodo and Sam (and Smeagol/Gollum, poor creature) -- as Alan Lee beautifully depicts http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/File:Alan_Lee_-_The_Black_Gate_is_Closed.jpg -- and the question is, how did we get here and where are we going? Both of these are pretty rich questions.
How we got here has a lot to do with a lot of decisions made by people who aren’t Frodo -- Gandalf urging him to Rivendell, Elrond orchestrating the composition of the Fellowship, the dwarves of Moria for delving too deep, Denethor for being a really, really lousy father, I could go on -- but even though we know that, we also don’t really know how we got here. I mean, Frodo is absolutely determined to reach his goal: in Chapter 2, he gently points out to Sam, after all, that there’s no point trying to work out lembas rations for the return journey because there ain’t gonna be no return journey, friend of friends. That kind of self-sacrifice would feel over the top, I think, if it wasn’t handled with such calm by Frodo himself -- he seems neither tortured nor resigned to the fact, but rather resiliently committed to it. He and Sam are going to do something so impossible that the only kind of hope accessible to him is dreaming that they will do it and die. To do it and live? I don’t know that anyone could stand up under the weight of a hope that heavy. So Frodo is committed to a course of action, and when he finally sees the pass of Cirith Gorgor and realizes there’s no way through it without being seen by 10,000 orc guards, he just buckles his belt and says “it was nice knowing you both”. He’s got to go to Mordor and if this is the only way in, well, this is how he will fail and die, and he’s been expecting this so confidently that he seems perfectly at peace with the moment.
But this moment is nonsense -- the narrator tries to smooth things over by noting that Gandalf had no way of knowing he would be lost in Moria, but that doesn’t really excuse things. Surely there would have been conversations about this that Frodo could have been privy to, especially since Elrond made such a big deal about not binding anyone by oath to accompany him. If that was the case, why wouldn’t Frodo know the plan? This is a tricky question to answer, and before I offer you mine, I’d like you to pause and think about it. What was supposed to happen, in your opinion?
So, my theory is this -- had the Nine Walkers all made it to Rauros, Boromir and Aragorn had planned from the beginning to turn for Minas Tirith. I think they would have done so, maybe peeling off GImli and Legolas, maybe not. Gandalf and the hobbits head east. Gandalf and Aragorn had, I presume, discussed this a little, and Aragorn was going to reveal himself as Elendil’s heir from Minas Tirith, distracting Sauron by basically calling him out. Mordor would boil over with armies, flung against Minas Tirith to weaken and destroy Aragorn before he could gather sufficient allies. Once Mordor has basically emptied of its armies, Gandalf sneaks the hobbits into Mordor (maybe with some magic) via this Black Gate here, and bim bam boom Sauron’s dead. Well, maybe not that easily. Anyway, I like this theory and I don’t. I like the theory because it helps explain how torn Aragorn is at Rauros -- he knows this plan only works if the hobbits have a mature guide to get them across the Marshes and into Mordor AND if Elendil’s heir is revealed in Minas Tirith. So, how can he pull this off without Gandalf? Boromir sure isn’t taking them to Mordor. Are Legolas and/or Gimli up to the task? Or maybe Gandalf’s death has so shaken Aragorn’s resolve that he now doubts that the plan could work at all? That’s where my “I don’t like this theory” comes in, because these folks would have to coordinate across massive distances, ensuring that the distraction of Mordor happens at exactly the right time to get Frodo inside the Black Gate. It feels totally implausible to me. But I guess when the impossible is eliminated, you take whatever option is left? Certainly if this was the plan, a) even if Frodo knew about it, he knows it’s impossible now, since no coordination of any kind took place and his only guide is a homicidal senior citizen who’s battling an addiction and losing, and b) Frodo may well not have known much about it, since if they genuinely thought this was the only way in, they may not have really had a backup plan for “how does Frodo get in on his own?” Though they really needed one.
What we’re going to do now is a two-pronged problem, involving both Samwise and Frodo. Let’s start with Sam. Unlike the Jackson film (which admittedly does a genius job depicting the Smeagol/Gollum argument), in the novel Sam hears the entire exchange between Smeagol’s better and worse sides. This creates a problem -- should he say anything about it to Frodo? There’s no real opportunity to talk alone with each other between this conversation and the point at which they arrive at the Towers of the Teeth. If Sam’s going to tell Frodo about what he heard, he’ll have to do it in front of Smeagol -- but he doesn’t. Now, again, ask yourself, why? I’ve got three rationales and I’m not happy with any of them. Maybe Sam just trusts Frodo’s judgment more than his own and doesn’t want to disrupt his process -- but this piece of evidence is exactly the sort of thing Frodo might need to reach a decision. Maybe Sam is taking the Gildor option here, where he figures if he gives Frodo too much information, he’s not doing enough to help build Frodo’s leadership and decision-making capacity -- although that requires a paternalistic relationship between the two of them that really doesn’t fit the dynamic we have seen. Or maybe Sam doesn’t think it’s relevant, since Smeagol/Gollum’s risks and character traits are well known by now and therefore hearing this doesn’t add anything -- though I think just the phrase Gollum mutters about “She” and how “She” could handle things is pretty significant and clearly relevant to any directions he ends up giving the group about their next charted course. Which of them is most appealing to you? I’m genuinely torn (as Ednaswap once sang; and as Natalie Imbruglia more famously once covered).
But we have to finish with Frodo, since that dynamic I talked about in Chapter 1 between him and Smeagol/Gollum is still here and growing. When S/G realizes that Frodo is about to march the Ring into Mordor and certain capture, he loses his marbles and starts shrieking, imploring the hobbit to take literally any other course of action. In doing so, he both succeeds in seizing Frodo’s attention and fumbles the mask he’s carefully kept in place, revealing his desire to possess the Ring again. And so, after much thought, he gets a reply from Frodo that I think is really significant -- I had a good discussion about this with a friend recently, since he and I read the moment very differently, and so I’ll present both sides of the question here. The salient passage, both he and I feel, is the moment in which Frodo tells Smeagol/Gollum that fate has guided them to this point, and that he will trust his fate to the creature one more time, but then he warns Gollum of the danger he’s in due to the Ring and the promise he swore on it.
The first thing to get out of the way is that neither my friend nor I think we can dismiss this moment as one in which the One Ring is possessing Frodo and speaking through him or governing his reaction -- Frodo seems very in command of himself the whole way through, he never seems to feel regret or confusion thereafter, etc. But that still leaves things a little uncertain, and so much hinges on how we read the sentence “But I warn you, Smeagol, you are in danger.” My friend’s reading goes like this -- Frodo is breaking an egg to make an omelette here. He reads that sentence as Frodo talking like a mob boss -- “ya gotta be careful, Mr. Smeagol, it’s easy for a man ta get hurt on these streets, ya know” -- because Frodo’s realized that this is the price of being one of the Wise. Sometimes terrible decisions have to be made -- decisions that are not nice or good, they’re just right. He reads Frodo’s later comment -- that if pressed he could send Gollum straight off a cliff because he could literally reach inside his mind and command him -- as being genuinely unsettling and almost monstrous. It’s one thing to threaten Gollum with Sting when Sam’s about to be throttled, he argues, but mildly telling this fellow you’ve been journeying with that, if necessary, you will literally just hypnotize him into burning himself to death is wildly beyond the bounds of decency. But that it’s a lesson Frodo has to learn -- to save Middle Earth, he needs this kind of resolve and this kind of willingness to cross boundaries that he otherwise wouldn’t (and shouldn’t).
My reading is very different -- maybe too generous to Frodo, maybe not -- since I take that sentence about danger to be simply honest. Frodo knows the danger Smeagol is in. The reason is Frodo’s empathy, which I mentioned in my last post -- he knows what kind of toll the Ring has taken on Smeagol. He also knows the toll it’s taken on him. So I see this as one wounded man speaking to another fellow with the same injury, warning him of their shared danger. This is Frodo beginning to reckon with the power of the Ring -- in the moment that Smeagol asked for the Ring back, he could see where this would end. Frodo’s own lust for the Ring would become too powerful, as Smeagol/Gollum ought to know. And if Frodo’s will was taken over by the Ring, the consequences for Gollum would be horrifying to contemplate -- Frodo would order him, and Gollum would obey. This is a worst case scenario for them both, and therefore, Frodo wants to explain as clearly as possible that it cannot be contemplated -- Frodo needs to destroy the Ring to set all of Middle Earth free, Smeagol included. If Smeagol thwarts him, and forces Frodo to use the Ring’s power in self-defense, thereby alerting Sauron to his presence, all is lost. So this isn’t a lesson Frodo has to learn so much as it’s one he needs to teach -- to teach Smeagol most of all, and also a little to teach Sam -- that his insight into the situation is keener than either of theirs, and also that this isn’t a fair power dynamic. He and Smeagol are not equals, and cannot be -- the same goes for him and Sam. He carries a special burden and a special power, and they will have to accommodate themselves to his purpose and course as a result.
There are problems with both reads, I think. My friend’s demands a level of moral ambiguity from Frodo that I think doesn’t quite fit with the fellow we see elsewhere. My read demands us to take a sentence like “I could order you to die in a fire and you would do it” as being a sort of friendly reminder, and I think it’s pretty hard to do that. So how do you take this dynamic? Is the stern quality in Frodo’s voice, which Sam hears, a demonstration that he’s learned how to make the tough calls, as my friend would argue, or an attempt to steer Smeagol away from disaster, as I would argue? Or is something else entirely at work? I would be glad to hear your ideas.
Man, these chapters were packed -- I didn’t get to do a deep dive (pardon the sort-of pun) into the Dead Marshes, I didn’t grapple with the Nazgul at all, I didn’t even dig more deeply into how Smeagol is thinking and feeling in this situation, which I would have been glad to do. Well, tomorrow I’ll dig into a culinary exploration of Tolkien (at least for a little bit) as we speak Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit in Book IV, Chapter 4.