The Two Towers’ is part 2 of Tolkien’s epic trilogy and comprises of ‘books’ three and four.
Book
three follows the adventures of the fellowship after Frodo and Sam
depart. At the end of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ the orcs have
attacked. Aragorn is up at the high seat where Frodo and Boromir
conversed before he tried to take the ring from the hobbit. Aragorn
hears Boromir’s horn, but arrives too late. Boromir is hanging on to
life and after a few words, he dies in Aragorn’s arms. Gimli and Legolas
show up and they discover that Merry and Pippin have disappeared.
Aragorn tells them that the orcs have them and they make quick pursuit.
They
follow the orcs (who were slain by Éomer and company) to Fangorn. In
the forest, they discover that Gandalf is still alive and that the
hobbits are alive and well. Gandalf goes with the trio to Edoras to meet
with Théoden, King of the Mark. There they find the king’s mind
poisoned by Wormtongue. Wormtongue’s hold is destroyed and he flees back
to Isengard, to Saruman.
It is decided to go to Isengard and
strike down Saruman and end his evil campaign. On the way, they are
detoured to Helm’s Deep where a massive battle ensues. Miraculously, the
armies of Isengard are defeated and then destroyed by the mysterious
forest (a horde of Ents) that appears.
They leave Helm’s Deep and
continue on to Isengard where they find it ravaged. After the armies
had left, other Ents attacked and trapped Saruman and Wormtongue in
Orthanc. They also find Merry and Pippin quite safe and sound. After
they had escaped the slaughter of the Orcs, they had ran across
Treebeard (Fangorn is his forest) who took them with him to a council of
ents were they decided to go to war against Isengard.
When the
company finally go and speak with Saruman, Gandalf destroys Saruman’s
staff. Then Wormtongue nearly hits Gandalf with an orb he threw from one
of the higher windows. What he threw was a palantir, one of seven
stones used for communication many centuries prior (and how Saruman
communicated with Sauron). On their way back, Pippin lets his curiosity
take over and holds the orb. He communicates with Sauron, but doesn’t
give anything away. They see one of the Nazgûl and Gandalf instructs the
others to go to Helm’s Deep, while he takes Pippin and leaves for Minas
Tirith.
Across the river, Sam and Frodo are trying to make their
way to Mordor. Before they get out of Emyn Muil, they capture Gollum
(also called Sméagol) who they thought they’d lost. Gollum leads them
across the dead marshes and to the Black Gate, but it is closed,
guarded, and has too much foot traffic. Gollum tells them of a secret
way further south near Minas Morgul. Sam (who doesn’t trust Gollum)
isn’t keen on the idea, but Frodo knows there really isn’t another
choice.
As they pass through Ithilien, they meet with Faramir
(Boromir’s brother) who takes them with him and his soldiers. Once he
learns of their mission, he allows them to go (and doesn’t kill Gollum).
They continue down through Ithilien and eventually pass Minas Morgul
and up through Cirith Ungol. Gollum then leads them through the tunnels
and his betrayal is learned when they are attacked by Shelob, a giant
spider. Sam and Frodo get separated and when Sam finds him again, Frodo
appears to have been killed. He takes the ring to continue the journey,
but some orcs appear and he learns that Frodo is still alive. He follows
the orcs to where they take him, but arrives too late and is stuck
standing outside the gate.
I was considering watching the film
again to make sure I correctly mentioned some of the scenes, but got
annoyed so I turned it off. It is a no brainer that the book is better
than the film. As I’ve been reading the three books, I’ve been amazed at
the liberties Peter Jackson took when making the films. When they first
came out, I remember people saying how close they were to the books.
Sorry to say, but not really. I’ll highlight some of the major scenes as
citing them all would take ages.
Alright, here are some changes
from book 3. So the whole scene about how the Ents were going to war was
totally incorrect. Sure their meeting took a long time, but they were
keen on going to war and already knew about what Saruman had done to the
trees. Next, Théoden wasn’t being controlled by Saruman. His mind was
poisoned by Wormtongue. Then the whole scene at Isengard was so wrong
that it would take ages to convey all the differences (for one Saruman
never dies). Book 4 had tons as well. Gollum never started to become
good. He pretended. Frodo wasn’t bothered by the ring until they passed
Minas Morgul. The interaction with Faramir was totally different and
they were never taken to Osgiliath. And Frodo wasn’t poisoned against
Sam whilst climbing Cirith Ungol. They’ve been cool the entire time.
I’ll
just straight into my qualms with the characters. Faramir is such an
amazing character and Jackson made him into a joke. When I read about
him, all I could think about was how noble a person he was. The ring was
within his grasp and he knew taking it was wrong. He knew that even
with good intentions the ring would bring about evil. The people loved
him because he was wise, kind, and a great leader. He was none of those
things in the film. It was so infuriating. Not to mention that Frodo is
so much stronger in the books than the films. They turn him into a
weakling as well. It is so aggravating. The characters are so great and
unique. There was no need to change them.
I found the book very
exciting. My problem was that it was more interesting following Frodo
and Sam than the rest of the fellowship. There is a lot of description
going on with the fellowship and everything they are doing. With the
hobbits it is much more linear. I found it easier because you were
following feelings and journey of two people rather than the goings on
of a large group. It is more intimate. Plus their journey is wrought
with more danger (and who doesn’t like reading about dangerous
adventures).
Overall, of course I think you should read it. It is
an epic fantasy that has earned that classification. Yes, it can be
difficult to get though and some of the sentences will need to be reread
a couple times as they can be quite confusing (some seriously don’t
actually make any sense). But if you can get through it, you will be
glad you did. It is worth the read. Enjoy
No comments:
Post a Comment