The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2) in J.R.R. Tolkien Epic Reads

Mar 27, 2022 Tara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, audible-owned, fantasy, tolkien

Sam, Sam, Sam. Long my favorite character in The Lords of the Rings story (and of course there are no storage of great options to choose from here), I tried to attune myself in particular to his storyline in this reading. As the fellowship has broken up at this point, we only catch up with him in the latter half of the book. In the first half, we follow Aragon, Legolas and Gimli on their quest to rescue the hobbits. Pippin and Merry, on their own journey with the orcs, and then through Fangorn f Sam, Sam, Sam. Long my favorite character in The Lords of the Rings story (and of course there are no storage of great options to choose from here), I tried to attune myself in particular to his storyline in this reading. As the fellowship has broken up at this point, we only catch up with him in the latter half of the book. In the first half, we follow Aragon, Legolas and Gimli on their quest to rescue the hobbits. Pippin and Merry, on their own journey with the orcs, and then through Fangorn forest. We meet the Ents (Treebeard!) and the Rohirrim. And I don't mean to diminish those elements of the story--they are wonderful all. But as with my recent reading of The Fellowship of the Ring, I was again struck by Sam's insight and intelligence, something that he is not necessarily known for. He is simple, maybe a bit slow. But perhaps it is the fact that his mind is so uncluttered that he is able to see so clearly. His journey, along with Frodo, is through truly dark and terrible places. But in some way, this feels the most real. My favorite passage:
‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?'

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