Book V, Chapter 1: Minas Tirith
Well, I’ve crossed into my last of the Houghton Mifflin volumes -- as you can see from the cover image, it’s yet another Alan Lee painting, this one of course depicting the city that also serves as the title of this chapter, Minas Tirith (pedants among us -- of whom I am one -- will be quick to remind us that Minas Tirith, the Tower of Guard, was originally named Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun: yes, as in “wielder of the flame of Anor” from Gandalf’s challenge to the Balrog). I flat out love this chapter, and most of the events of Book V -- everyone has their own preferences about The Lord of the Rings, and personally the build-up to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the battle itself are tied for my favorite stretch, I think, with Frodo and company’s journey from Bag End to Crickhollow.
I love anytime Pippin and Gandalf are together -- we get the fun of exposition Gandalf (shades of his conversations with Frodo back in Fellowship) along with the fun of cantankerous Gandalf (because Pippin Took gets right under his skin in a charming way), and to me it’s just about perfect. Pippin is also a livelier fellow than Frodo -- I dig Frodo, but he’s less likely to do or say anything impulsive, and it’s a fun element in the story to not really know what will happen next. That impulsiveness is most famous when he’s screwing something up, like him babbling about Boromir’s death to the guard at the Rammas Echor, but I love it just as much, personally, when it’s just him wearing his heart on his sleeve, as when he gasps at the sight of the Tower of Ecthelion in the gleaming sunlight like a spike of pearl and silver. The physical details here about Minas Tirith are very extensive and the narrator seems almost loving in reference to the city and its surroundings -- the explanation is probably Tolkien’s sentiment, of course, but personally I attribute this to the fact that Peregrin Took himself ultimately carries the manuscript of what we now know to be The Lord of the Rings from The Shire to Minas Tirith late in life -- I have always felt (without much evidence in the text, I’ll admit) that an aging Pippin tried to make sure certain details were added to the manuscript, and that one of his little additions to a tale largely constructed by Bilbo, Frodo, and Samwise was some added description of his first encounter with a city he came to love.
Denethor, like his eldest son, tends to get a bad rap -- he does, after all, lose his composure at a critical moment so completely that he nearly loses the city (and nearly immolates his only surviving child), a level of collapse that does seem to echo Boromir’s failure at Rauros, but without the opportunity to redeem himself. But there’s a lot weighing on the old man, and in an attempt to defend his people, he’s made some bad choices that he’s rationalized to himself. I think there’s something admirable about his strength, though, and I think the part of his heart that is moved by Pippin’s rash and generous offer of loyalty and service is evidence that, like Boromir, there was a good man in there under the frailty and the excess of ambition. He praises Pippin’s “courteous speech”, which is nice -- though Beregond also calls Pippin “fair-spoken”....is this some kind of back-handed compliment, as though the men of Gondor think an “articulate” halfling is some kind of racial marvel? I do like the grim qualities in the oath he makes Pippin swear -- that Pippin’s service will be considered fulfilled if the world should end (which makes me laugh, honestly), for instance, and Denethor’s choice to conclude his own promises not with a positive affirmation but instead with a threat to exact vengeance if the oath is broken. Denethor is a suspicious and terrified man, and it shows.
His maneuvering to ensure that he can talk to Pippin and not Gandalf is significant, but Gandalf doesn’t really get into why -- even now, I’m not sure it’s totally clear to me why Gandalf is being shut out. Maybe Denethor thinks he can get more out of Pippin (as he surely can), but even then, his ignoring Gandalf strikes me as a tactical error. Their standoff is different in quality than Gandalf confronting Theoden -- Gandalf knew there was a man of action to waken in Theoden, and he shook him to consciousness. Denethor is a different sort -- more devious, more tactical in conversation, etc. -- and cannot be reached so simply. It’s great to see him and Gandalf tangle from such a close vantage point, through Pippin’s eyes. His sympathies (and ours) are with Gandalf, but it’s undeniable that Denethor brings a lot to the table -- he’s not just some aging relic.
Don’t get me wrong, though -- Gandalf is just completely on fire throughout these exchanges, and I’ve never loved him more, I think. He gets some good shots in the whole way, but his flourish as the audience with Denethor is ending is just splendid -- “The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know?” MIC DROP. Gandalf turns and strides away from a dunk that would make Michael Jordan green with envy. What is so powerful about this moment is that Gandalf’s rebuke to Denethor is just brimming over with love -- love not of Denethor, of course, but of his mission. Gandalf is an angel set on fire with righteous purpose. And from that great height he almost pities Denethor, whose petty jealousies and gamesmanship is aimed towards so small an aim as the defense of a single nation. Gandalf has a world to save. And he’s so full of joy that this is his work, it almost bursts out of him -- Pippin sees it glowing in his face just moments later. “For I also am a steward. Did you not know?” Whew. Who wouldn’t follow him into battle?
Oh man, this post is going to go on forever -- I haven’t even gotten to Beregond yet, let alone Bergil. I’ll try to be a little swifter: Pippin’s whole experience with Beregond is just wonderful to me. Tolkien takes time to really develop a connection between them, and to give added time to build this image of Gondor and of Minas Tirith -- not just the people of the country but the kind of folk who serve proudly in a guard that expects to die bravely at their posts. Everybody has favorite meals in fiction (don’t they?), and one of my absolute favorite meals -- one I would so gladly have been a third guest at -- is the picnic Pippin and Beregond take to the walls of Minas Tirith. “Bread, and butter, and cheese and apples: the last of the winter store, wrinkled but sound and sweet; and a leather flagon of new-drawn ale, and wooden platters and cups.” That bounty, plus their position high above the Pelennor with Beregond there to interpret and explain, would make for a really lovely meal -- a second breakfast, as Pippin might have called it. I do really love the moment when the Nazgul’s cry is heard -- Pippin and Beregond immediately despairing of victory and yet somehow not being scared out of doing their duty. And then because they were shaken but not shattered, they muster their courage and believe that all is not lost. This moment, especially occurring in the aftermath of Gandalf’s incandescent joy in his readiness to fight for every little flower growing in Middle-earth, is really heartening. There are long nights, goodness knows, and there are terrors that stalk. But there are friends, too, and hope -- the latter because of the former, in many ways.
Pippin’s time with young Bergil is sweet also, though more ominous -- the slow arrival of troops, always less than the people have hoped for. The increasing sense of doom as night falls. Tolkien’s rich environmental detail is back here, of course -- “in the West the dying sun had set all the fume on fire, and now Mindolluin stood black against a burning smoulder flecked with embers.” Really rich stuff. I love the way the moment plays differently for Pippin -- who, though young, has seen plenty of trouble in his brief years -- and little Bergil. Pippin comments about the day ending in wrath, a little haunted by the way the light is getting eaten up by this Shadow reaching out from Mordor -- and, I think, worried about the battle to come. But all Bergil hears in those words is the possibility that his father will be outraged if he’s not home by dark -- ah, childhood. Little Bergil will have to grow up fast in this city that’s about to be besieged by an army that’s going to make the Uruk-hai assault on Helm’s Deep look like a Sunday School picnic in a city park. We’ll see what comes.
The ending of the chapter really encapsulates all these little threads -- Pippin returns to the rooms he’s been given (for now), sinks into a gloomy sleep, but then wakes to find his friend Gandalf returned. There’s a comfort there, but Gandalf certainly doesn’t speak any to him -- just as Pippin saw something more ominous in the sunset than Bergil did, here in the wee hours of the morning Gandalf is grimmer yet. “The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn,” he says. The certainty there is foreboding, of course -- a day without light is pretty darn ominous. But there’s something powerful about the echoes we’re getting -- Gandalf the White as a light returned for moments like this one. The memory we have as readers of the end of Book IV and Frodo and Sam wielding the faint glimmer of the light of Earendil against an awful, supernatural darkness. Gandalf and Pippin have a real challenge ahead of themselves -- one of the most unlikely pairings from the Fellowship to have been set the task of defending Minas Tirith against assault from without and within. But they’re ready, and I feel heartened by that readiness.
I’m excited for what’s next for them, but of course first we have to back-track to the members of the Fellowship left behind in Rohan by Shadowfax’s hurtling form -- what of them? We’ll look at The Passing of the Grey Company and The Muster of Rohan in Book V, Chapters 2 & 3 in my next post.