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

Jun 14, 2017 Beth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, book-group-2017, favorites, have-reread, 20th-century, classics, fantasy, tolkien-challenge-2017

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. **12/31/2021: Finished reread of TTT; I'll be writing a review of LotR as a whole when I finish it. I'll link to it here**

TTT is significantly faster paced than the previous volume, I think.

A list of my favorite bits from this volume:

- Meduseld! I think people sometimes overlook the aesthetic side of the Rohirrim:
"the floor was paved with stones of many hues; branching runes and strange devices intertwined beneath their feet. They saw now that the pillars were richly carved, gleaming dully wit **12/31/2021: Finished reread of TTT; I'll be writing a review of LotR as a whole when I finish it. I'll link to it here**

TTT is significantly faster paced than the previous volume, I think.

A list of my favorite bits from this volume:

- Meduseld! I think people sometimes overlook the aesthetic side of the Rohirrim:
"the floor was paved with stones of many hues; branching runes and strange devices intertwined beneath their feet. They saw now that the pillars were richly carved, gleaming dully with gold and half-seen colors. Many woven cloths were hung upon the walls, and over their wide spaces marched figures of ancient legend, some dim with years, some darkling n the shade. But upon one form sunlight fell: a young man upon a white horse…"

(This essay by Michael Martinez has an interesting analysis of the etymology of "Meduseld":
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/mead-e...)

- The subplot with the Ents and the breaking of Isengard is possibly my favorite part of this volume.
"It is a lovely language,but it takes a very long time to say anything in it,unless it is worth taking a long time to say,and to listen to."

The story of the Ents & Entwives is basically a version of the romantic/rationalist divide. The other thing it reminds me of is Aule/Yavanna from The Silmarillion; yes, technically both are Yavanna’s creations, but it’s not that surprising that the Ents & Entwives end up like this when Aule & Yavanna are clearly the most contentious couple among the Valar. (They can't help it - there's an inherent tension between the natural world, which is Yavanna's domain, and Aule's associations with crafts and invention. The Entwives’s interest in practical improvements & their reluctance to take things as they find them reminds me of Aule, as well…

- Ithilien! A wonderful respite from the bleakness of the journey to Mordor chapters. I love how specific Tolkien’s descriptions are here: "Many great trees grew there, planted long ago, falling into untended age amid a riot of careless descendants; and groves and thickets there were of tamarisk and pungent terebinth, of olive and of bay; and there were junipers and myrtles; and thymes that grew in bushes, or with their woody creeping stems mantled in deep tapestries the hidden stones; sages of many kinds putting forth blue flowers, or red, or pale green; and marjorams and new-sprouting parsleys, and many herbs of forms and scents beyond the garden-lore of Sam. The grots and rocky walls were already starred with saxifrages and stonecrops. Primeroles and anemones were awake in the filbert-brakes; and asphodel and many lily-flowers nodded their half-opened heads in the grass: deep green grass beside the pools, where falling streams halted in cool hollows on their journey down to Anduin."

- Gollum! In "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol" (pt II, chapter 8) I think it's pretty clear that Sam's suspicion of Gollum is the key reason Gollum stops wavering and decides to lead Frodo & Sam to Shelob. Otherwise, there's a good chance he wouldn't have betrayed them. ...more

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