Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 2 Chapter 5

00:05 - Julia Golding (Host) Hello and welcome to Mythmakers. Mythmakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. Now, this is one of our Sidecasts where we take an author's journey through the Lord of the Rings, and we have reached chapter five in book two of the Fellowship of the Ring. This will probably be a chapter well known to almost everybody listening to this, because it is the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, the showdown between Gandalf and the Balrog, and it is a brilliantly written chapter. I'd just like to point out it's also one of the shorter ones, so before the last chapter we looked at, journey into the Dark, was an hour and a half or so of audio time. 00:55 This is far, far less, and it's a sort of little almost like a perfect little miniature of how to write action scenes, as we will see as we go on, even within a short chapter, though, we have four sections. The first part is preoccupied with the book which they find in the chamber of mazal bullets, the broken up volume of which accounts, which is an account of the uh, the dwarf kingdom, or attempt to re-establish a kingdom in the minds of maria. Then there's a section on a sort of skirmish in that room, with an escape down some stairs. Then there is the big special bit where we have the bridge over the abyss, a g Gandalf facing down the Balrog, and then we've got a very short section at the end which is the aftermath. Another thing just to point out before we get going is this chapter is very tidily from the point of view of Frodo. All the way through We've been seeing, as we've taken our author's journey, that sometimes we get other points of view popping in in the idea that Frodo and Bilbo, or Frodo mainly is compiling this after the end of the journey he brings in other people's points of view. This one, you'll see, is pretty much all in his point of view, much all in his point of view. So for a very consequential chapter, it's interesting and an excellent choice to start it in silence. The elegiac lament for balin, where we finished the last chapter, continues as you pick up the next one, with them standing around and acknowledging like a two minute silence, acknowledging that Balin and all those who were with him have gone, and then it moves into a search of the chamber. And I like the way this is written because if you follow it it is like you are looking through presumably Frodo's eyes. It goes from point to point, from the weapons and the bodies or the skeletons that are lying there to the empty iron-bound chests which have already been raided. 03:17 But the one thing the orcs had no use for was this book of records, which they have tried to destroy but has lingered in a fragmented form. Now just a little side note here that of course Tolkien knew well the state of old manuscripts. That was his job. He would know the close shave that the poem Beowulf had with fire, for example. So he is well used to dealing professionally with fragments. So he probably had extra fun thinking up what kind of fragmented form this book of records could be in. 03:56 It also is odd here in that they know they have to escape but Gandalf is delaying. And actually Gandalf asks himself the question a little bit later on why am I delaying? I think one of the answers is the attachment that he has to the dwarves and to Balin. He doesn't want to know what happens to them. So, even though it may have made more sense just to run for it, he is lingering to find out, and of course it means that they also find out some very useful tips as to what is happening, the fact that the orcs are in the mines and that kind of thing. So the delay has a purpose, even though it may have had other negative consequences. He doesn't need to stay to know. I suppose that the orcs have been there because he's got the evidence of the weapons around him, but he's picking up the the fuller story from the book. 04:48 Now the just want to point out again this from a if you're writing yourself from awful's point of view. The use of a partial manuscript is an excellent, clever way of summarizing the events of the past without going into excruciating detail. Imagine if he had found a pristine copy of all the years of the dwarf settlement. He wouldn't be able to summarize things like Barlin's death, the loss of different dwarves to the Watcher in the Deeps and then the final encounter if it hadn't been this kind of partly burned, hard to read manuscript. So it's doing two jobs here. It's giving a sense of the damage that was done to the colony, and this is the only thing left to tell of their presence there. But it also means that we quickly get the headlines. 05:41 There is just one little thing that's always bothered me to send in answers. If you've got that, which is it's clear that they are there for at least five years now. The fellowship have been walking from Rivendell for a couple of weeks. I wonder why no one sent word. Nobody seems to know that they had successfully set up there. It does seem odd that why didn't they say what was happening? Why didn't they send messages? But anyway, we'll go with the fantasy that nobody knew about them. Somebody may have an answer to that. 06:19 Some of the phrases from the manuscript are wonderfully used because they then emerge out of the book and are picked up by the members of the fellowship when they hear the same things happening again. And we've got the ominous drums, drums in the deep, which is a phrase which is like the drum beat all the way through this chapter. So if you're thinking of writing a sort of extended piece of action, having a thread like that helps hold it together. Gimli takes the book to return to Under the Mountain and it's not, to my knowledge, mentioned again and it's not, to my knowledge, mentioned again. So I am thinking that if this isn't of the size as of the jackson films, which is like an enormous tome, because how could he lug that around, no wonder he was finding it hard to run across the plains of rohan. I'm suspecting it's something a bit more. You know, book-shaped as opposed to volume, and it's described as a book, of course. So the next part is where we merge into the skirmish. 07:30 The events of the book are coming out of the into the present day, because they start by hearing the drums, and there isn't more than that, though. It's as though it's like they're infected by the sense of panic and fear that the dwarves experienced. At the end which, of course, is very vividly portrayed by the scrawling last words they are coming. So it means that the effect of the book isn't just informational, it's atmospheric and it carries over into members of the fellowship. There's some wonderful details here. 08:12 I've noted down this particular one. This is about the noise of the drums. Doom, doom. It rolled again, as if huge hands were turning the very caverns of moria into a vast drum. Now, of all the audio versions of this, when it's read by Andy Serkis, who is brilliant at action scenes do listen to his action scenes he makes the doom sound a wonderful sort of I can't do it, but a wonderful sound of a drum doom. He lets it really reverberate and I think that is what Tolkien is intending for us to pick up here. 08:43 So in this panic it's notable that Gandalf is the one who sort of tamps it down and he takes control in a more visible way than he has elsewhere. He breaks their panic by saying that happened to the dwarves, but I was not here then and he overrules Aragorn who says we must go, we must gotta leave. He's still in, you know, flight mode. Gandalf is much more methodical about let's. We've got to strategize our exit. When they hear people or orcs arriving in the corridor outside, gandalf goes out to have a quick look. It's interesting that it's done again primarily through sounds. Moria is a wonderful soundscape. It's very much I would say it's probably more sound than visual as a place which fits with the dark, empty spaces, and it also feels as though it reminds us that we're seeing this from the hobbit's point of view, because we don't see what Gandalf sees. 09:46 We hear what he reports, and then they get the people trying to come in at the door. People, orcs, they are people, but you know what I mean. They get an attack and Boromir is trying to shore up this rotten door and someone breaks through and here we get Frodo being far more heroic than he is in the film. I kind of. I was noting there was a poll of the favorite characters. This is IMDB had a poll of the favorite Lord of the Rings characters from the film and Frodo doesn't make it into the top five. I sometimes wonder if that's because they downplayed his initiative and courage that he shows in the barrow and here and elsewhere he seems more passive. More things happen to him than him actually taking initiative. So let's highlight those times when Frodo from the book steps up and here we get the lovely phrase suddenly, and to his own surprise, frodo felt a hot wrath blaze up in his heart and he goes forward and stabs the encroaching foot of the orc, and there's a reflection here on the relative strength of the weapon. So, whereas Boromir's sword has had no effect, sting is able to cut through the outer skin I suppose the scales of this orc. 11:19 And then, of course, there is the incursion into the chamber and they have to fight at close quarters. I just wanted to read the paragraph. That's the summary of that, because it's a very clever way. Tolkien is so good at controlling how we understand and follow action. Yeah, so the attack is preceded by arrows coming in, and then the orcs leap into the chamber. How many there were, the company could not count. The fray was sharp, but the orcs were dismayed by the fierceness of the defence. Legolas shot two through the throat, gimli hewed the legs from under another that had sprung up on Barlin's tomb, boromir and Aragorn slew many. When thirteen had fallen, the rest fled shrieking, leaving the defenders unharmed, except for Sam who had a scratch along his scalp. So it's quick and dirty. 12:21 I note here some of the differences from the film, much less extensive. No cave troll coming in, and there is mention of trolls, but we don't get that set piece of the cave troll coming in. We also hear do you notice that it's not Gimli on the tomb? An orc has leapt on the tomb. Gimli hewed the legs from under another that had sprung up on Barlin's tomb so he's using. In the film Gimli is shown standing on the tomb, whereas here he is cutting the orc off at the legs for daring to desecrate the dwarf's tomb like that. 13:00 So it's always good to go back to the book just to check what Tolkien had in mind, rather than those who are after the action scenes in a movie, which have different requirements from something in a book. Then of course we get the moment when Frodo is injured. It's not done with a cave troll, it's done by a larger orc chieftain who comes in and his broad, flat face was swart, his eyes were like coals and his tongue was red. He wielded a great spear and he throws Boromir aside and then he hurls his spear at Frodo and Sam it is who hacks off the spear shaft to break it off. And then, as the orc is approaching, aragorn comes in and Anduril comes down upon the helm and the orc fell with cloven head. So it's a kind of joint defense between Sam and Aragorn or Frodo. 14:00 There there has been some criticism of Tolkien sort of racially profiling his orcs. Not sure, that's entirely true. This does seem like sport does mean black, um, but I think what he's going for isn't to do with, you know, skin color in. In our sense it's more, just as the, the true color of the black riders is white, he's going for the kind of underground, traditional association of the sort of cave-dwelling dark creatures in the dark here. But I guess if he was writing it today he might have other thoughts about how he chooses to characterize his bad guys Anyway, but that's what I think he's going for there and so I hope people don't find that at all offensive. 14:51 So they now leave the chamber. Aragorn picks up the dazed frodo and gimli is described as being reluctant to leave it, kind of always think, really. But who knows, he knows it's the last time he's going to see barlin's doom and gandalf, all through this chapter, is really trying to get them to obey. So they've got a fellowship structure which is done by consensus and now he's having to overrule everybody to get them to behave and save their lives and he says do as I say, said Gandalf fiercely. Swords are no more use here, go. 15:28 And so the next confrontation where they go down the stairs and wait for Gandalf is we hear it from a distance so we can hear the sort of the cries above and the crack and the collapse of the chamber. But it's at a distance and just note what's going on here. He's talking is saving the big confrontation. He's not doing, not showing us a prelim of the fight, the balrog. It happens upstairs, out of sight. We just hear it. What we hear is its effect, but he's holding back the full horror of the baroque. Don't give us too much details, hold back, make, give us what, make us work for it, give us an appetite to see this monster. And gandalf says ominously when he comes down but I have met my match and have nearly been destroyed. So we know gandalf's on the back foot, but they seem to have escaped. For the moment. 16:29 He says that in order to stop the Balrog, he had to speak a word of command. Now, command seems like to have the stature of a world-founding power, like the music of the anor creation. It seems as though it's like the. That kind of magic isn't just lighting a fire, it's like digging deep into the structure of the world, which is why it's so, uh, meaningful. I haven't really um looked into the whole issue of words of commands. I'm going to have to see if I can find any other examples where that is referred to in that way, but clearly it's like Gandalf digging deep in his magic to prevent the Balrog following them. 17:17 And then we get the how did Frodo survive? Section, and it's not resolved here. We know, we know he's wearing the mithril coat and we were reminded, of course, last chapter. Aragorn is saying that thrust would have skewered a wild boar. Frodo says he feels like he's been between a hammer and an anvil. But then it's rather great here that Gandalf gets to say there is more about you than meets the eyes, as I said of him meaning Bilbo long ago. It's true, on many levels there's more to Frodo than meets the eye. He lasts longer with the ring than anybody else could. But also I think it's the tipping the wink that Gandalf knows that Frodo is wearing the mithril coat, which of course he doesn't get to see because he disappears down into the chasm before Frodo is given a chance to rest. Now, if you're interested in learning Orcish speech here, you've got another word to add, which is gash. They come down to find that the lower levels are on fire. Now there is no swaying rocks sculpture as in the peter jackson films. 18:34 This section in the film is propelled along by the music. I think tolkien is. He doesn't. He doesn't hang around at all in this chapter. As I've said, it's very short and I believe when I was watching the making of the reason why they did that swaying pinnacle of stone in the Peter Jackson film came down to a fact that a concept artist had drawn something which gave Jackson the idea. So it's not from the book at all you may like it, it has its own. I suppose what it shows in the film is this section is all about the fellowship working together. So they fight together, then they save each other together, and it's also a moment when Frodo and Aragorn have a time together. So I can see how it works in filmic terms. But anyway, the book isn't hanging around doing that kind of stuff. 19:29 Uh, it's going straight to what is the main point of this chapter, and there is the phrase some new devilry is here when they see, uh, the fire and the trap that's been set for them. There aren't really devils in Middle Earth, but we understand what it means. The book is said to be a translation, so it doesn't have to be a sort of devilry in the sense of our understanding of that. Now, it means evil doing, I think. Anyway, this is one of the few times when devils or demons is mentioned. He tends to avoid that kind of language, using things like orcish instead. Do note I haven't mentioned every time it's said, but do note there's still this doom, doom going on in the background, this heartbeat raising our pulses. 20:28 The whole part of this chapter is surely written to be read out. I was reminded of Dickens. Now, dickens made part of his living from reading out sections of his novels, things like the Death of Nancy or Scrooge, and from the Christmas Carol. Nancy is from Oliver Twist. Of course he wrote to perform and he was consciously listening for how it would later work out if he wrote it, if he declaimed it in front of an audience, and for all the accounts of it, he was a very good reader. This has that feel that Tolkien was reading it out aware of how it would strike a listener. It just begs to be read out loud, doesn't it? We have a reminder in the middle of in my section 343, that we are in frodo's point of view. Suddenly frodo saw before him a black chasm. It's quite a good idea to keep gently circling back to your main character point of view, just so we know where we are, and that is a good way of doing it. 21:45 But then we have the arrival of one of the most famous monsters of them all, the Balrog. I love the way it comes. So it comes in stages. We've got the fire, we've got the fear of the orcs, then we have Legolas, who then cries out ie, ie, a balrog, a balrog has come, he, he is the oldest race. Who knows the balrog from the days when the sons of yano fought them and many of the famous elven lords died at the hands of balrogs. And then it goes to gimli because of course it's partly the dwarf's responsibility in some way that the balrog is released and he calls it durin's bane. So another fell creature for their race and then the, finally gandalf sort of sums up the reaction. Now I understand this is what we've all been building up to. This is why in the end, he knows that he's come to the final confrontation. 22:58 It is so familiar to us, this section, and actually this is one of the bits in the Jackson film which I think is very, very well done. But it's worth going back to the book to look at the details. First of all, note it's a silent foe, doesn't shout or declaim anything. Presumably the noise of it moving around and the whipping, the crack of the whip and that kind of thing is, is a kind of noise, but it is dark and silent and menacing. It also has the way it's described. It comes more into focus. It's as though it's taking form because first of all it is followed by a shadow which is like wings, with fire from its nostrils and then a little bit later on, the wings are there. They're described as spreading behind him. It's as though he's almost taking shape, embodying, and it's very Miltonic. It feels like something out of Satan's book in Paradise Lost, and of course that is one of the underlying texts for any educated person writing in English, so it has that feel. It's also notable that silence is used again. There is a sort of lull and it's the oh no, the omg moment. 24:28 Everybody else in that place are minnows compared to the two main gunslingers, the balrog and gandalf, facing each other down on this narrow, thin bridge. Just want to point out the beauty of the architecture. It's like the high street in high noon. All the doors either side are shuttered, there's a chasm. I mean it's fantasy, so it's even bigger than that but it has that feel there is no other route they can take. It's a duel. They're forced to face each other by the architecture of the place and how perilous it is, which is going to prove absolutely key to defeating the balrog. Of course it's has one of my favorite bits of gandalf's speech. So I'm not as good as andy circus or or Ian McKellen, but I do love the way. There's like a formal challenge here. 25:29 Gandalf says you cannot pass. Now the film version which most people refer to when they say this is you shall not pass. That was a change suggestedan mckellen because he felt it fitted his understanding of the character better. You cannot pass means I'm not going to let you. You know you can't pass while I'm here is another way of putting it. You shall not pass is him saying you're not going to. So one is more. 26:09 It's a very subtle difference there, and Tolkien chose his words carefully and he repeats it twice. So he meant it to be cannot, you cannot pass while the wielder of the flame of Arnor is here. I think he meant it. Anyway, tiny difference, but let's put it back in Tolkien's words. You cannot pass. 26:34 He said I am a servant of the secret fire. Wielder of the flame of Arnor, you cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you. Flame of Udun, go back to the shadow. You cannot pass. Actually he says it four times. So Tolkien really meant it, didn't he? But I love that. 26:57 Wielder of the secret fire, the flame of arnor, just he's calling on his titles wonderful stuff. Might feel a bit mysterious, but those are the glimpses of the long history behind him, servant of the secret fire, so that's something to do with the beginnings of creation. He's a spiritual being, there's some power and magic behind him and I think the flame of arnor is put up against flame of udun, so you've got one sort of blade of fire against another. So here I want to bring your attention to the fact that when he does get on the bridge, he being the balrog or he should be saying it because tolkien says it he now has his wings embodied. It stepped forward slowly onto the bridge and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height and its wings were spread from wall to wall. 27:58 This actually was well done in the film. I thought that moment where he comes forward and the wings come out behind him. So I can't help, but sometimes I wish I could delete things I've got from films, but that is something I don't mind having in my imagination. But here is something to note from a craft point of view. So you've got this vastness. What do you do to bring home? You talk about the littleness of the person defying him. 28:27 Gandalf could be seen glimmering in the gloom. He seems small and altogether alone, gray and bent like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm. So we've got the sense of him facing impossible odds. Of course, aragorn and Boromir, being the brave souls that they are, want to rush to him, and I think that this is possibly might precipitate Gandalf breaking the bridge, because he wants to do it before they get to him, because he doesn't want them to be wiped out as well, because if they go, who's left to lead the company? And also he wants to preserve his friend's life. So he then smites the bridge and the bridge falls apart. 29:14 This is done better than in the film. In the film you've got gandalf kind of hanging on fly you fools and then dropping. Here it's all done in one smooth move. Uh, so that he doesn't he. He shouts that as he falls. It feels a slightly. The choreography of that seems a bit more convincing. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone and slid into the abyss. Fly you fools. He cried and was gone. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone and slid into the abyss. Fly you fools. He cried and was gone. So, in sum, the best thing you can do, rather than listen to me, is to go back and read that section and just have a look at how well it is written. 29:59 This section is visual. I've been talking about the soundscapes of Moria, but this bit on the bridge is very visual and each beat of it is just right. And it's accompanied by the drum beat as well, which is working to emphasize the doom, because the noise of the drums is Gandalf's doom that has come. Then there's a very short coda to this. Aragorn steps up very quickly. He realizes he has to lead Come, I will lead you now. 30:31 And in disarray the companions run out. Frodo heard Sam at his side weeping and then he found that he himself was weeping as he ran. Lovely description that he's so upset he doesn't realize he's weeping until he sees his companion is weeping and the doom modulates to a quiet beat which is beautifully musical, sort of fades away. It's the. Obviously the orcs are mourning the loss of their balrog and many of their number, but we are mourning the loss of gandalf. And if you've done a section in the dark for a very long time, of course when they reach the daylight it's going to be more than normal daylight. The archway is like an arch of blazing light and out they come into the light of day. They are through Moria I. This is one of my favorite scenes from the Peter Jackson film, just that moment when they are crying Elijah Wood, as Frodo does a very good job at just being so heart-rending. But anyway, here it is in the Tolkien. 31:39 They did not halt until they were out of bowshot from the walls. Dimral Del lay about them. The shadow of the misty mountains lay upon it, but eastwards there was a golden light on the land. It was one hour afternoon, the sun was shining, the clouds were white and high. Its nature carries on. 32:00 They looked back, dark yawned, the archway of the gates under the mountain shadow faint. And far beneath the earth rolled the slow drum beats doom. A thin black smoke trailed out. Nothing else was to be seen. The dale all around was empty. Doom, grief, at last wholly overcame them and they wept long, some standing and silent, some cast upon the ground. Doom, doom. The drum beats faded. It feels like a piece of epic poetry. That wonderful, wonderful chapter, possibly one of my favorites. I wonder if it's your favorite because actually it's got a lot of competition, because the next chapter we're going to reach Lothlorien, which also is a fave. So this is such a great section of the book. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed spending some time on the bridge of Khazad-dum with me today and look forward to meeting you again as we reach Lothlorien. 33:00 - Speaker 2 (None) Thanks for listening to Mythmakers Podcast, brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. Visit OxfordCentreForFantasy.org to join in the fun. Find out about our online courses, in-person stays in Oxford, plus visit our shop for great gifts. Tell a friend and subscribe, wherever you find your favourite podcasts worldwide. [MUSIC PLAYING]