BookI Chap12: Flight to the Ford

[MajahTR]

I am having so much difficulty getting people to post to the commentaries that I decided to fool you this time with the title. I did not post any questions as Topic questions for chapters 9, 10 or 11, hoping to see some comments on the commentary threads. I thought there were a few things there that might spark discussion. I'm trying to give this experiment of mine a fair trial...
BookI Chapter12: Commentary
I have often wondered about the meaning of this passage in this chapter: "He (Strider) sat down on the ground, and taking the dagger-hilt laid it on his knees, and he sang over it a slow song in a strange tongue. Then setting it aside, he turned to Frodo and in a soft tone spoke words the others could not catch." It sounds "shaman-istic." I don't get the same feeling from "The Houses of Healing" chapter in RotK. Does anyone have thoughts on this?
With the scene at the Stone Trolls, Tolkien firmly anchors The Hobbit with LotR, lest we forget. In the midst of the ancient history of the region, we are reminded of the more recent Hobbit history. And then, with the Hobbit laughter and Sam singing "Stone Troll" is quite a contrast to their journey since Weathertop. Is this the exact same version as in "Adventures of Tom Bombadil"? Is there anything more to say about it in the context of the setting of the chapter?
In speaking of Sam, Frodo says "He'll end up becoming a wizard---or a warrior!" I think he actually becomes both. The warrior is pretty obvious as we go further on. He also is a Wizard, in the sense that I believe Tolkien meant -- a wise man. If Tolkien meant magician, conjuror, sorcerer, etc, meaning "magical" I think he would have used those words. But, even so, Sam does have a few tricks up his sleeve. When he wishes for light and water in Mordor, they appear. And with the help of Galadriel's earth, the beauty of the old Shire is surpassed by his care.
Elves are really "magical" beings rather than beings that use magic. The light within Glorfindel, his touch and the drink he gives to the company are subtle ways to show this.
It is interesting to me that Frodo does not feel an urge to put on the Ring during this chapter. Is it due to his hatred of the Black Riders, or is it because the Riders now know which Hobbit carries it? Would they have had any influence over his actions? If Frodo did put on the Ring and commanded them to go back to Mordor, would they have laughed or would they have started to obey?
Nice to see Glorfindel in the saddle (figuratively speaking) again instead of Arwen…
DA

[Andorinha]

RE DA -- "I have often wondered about the meaning of this passage in this chapter: 'He (Strider) sat down on the ground, and taking the dagger-hilt laid it on his knees, and he sang over it a slow song in a strange tongue. Then setting it aside, he turned to Frodo and in a soft tone spoke words the others could not catch.' It sounds 'shaman-istic.' I don't get the same feeling from "The Houses of Healing" chapter in RotK. Does anyone have thoughts on this?"

Yes, very like a Shaman...

Although this come up quite a bit later in the third volume, one of the salient features of a "true king" is his possession of "the healing touch." In the Houses of Healing, Aragorn uses this feature of his personality to "magically" assist in the healing of those who are especially incapacitated by the Evil Magics of the Nazgul. Eowyn, Faramir, and Merry receive this "cure" from the healing touch of the "true king." Here, I think we have Aragorn's innate "noble magic" acting directly against the evil, sorcerous magics of the Witch-king.

The source of the magically-enhanced wound that Frodo receives on Weathertop, is from the same hand/ breath, and of the same type (evil magical) as the wounds of Faramir, Eowyn, and Merry. Normal, "scientific" medical assistance (as practiced by the "doctors" of Gondor) is not sufficient to heal the victims of "the Black Breath," or the weapons of the Nazgul. I think Aragorn himself points out that Elrond, a distant ancestor of his, has the same kind of "good kingly virtue" in healing. Hence, Aragorn uses his magical-healing powers to stabilize Frodo's condition, but then Elrond, possessing this same magic to an even greater degree, finishes the healing process for the hobbit.

So, I get the feeling that Aragorn's shamanistic powers are used to undo, at least partially, the evil magic, and evil spells laid upon the Morgul Blade, the crooning of counter-curses was necessary to loosen the effect of the Witch-king's curses.

[Stormrider]

Why did Strider's attempt to heal Frodo after his knife wound from the Witchking on Weathertop need more back up healing from Elrond...but when Aragorn healed Merry, Éowyn, and Faramir he was able to heal them himself alone?

Strider was able to have Sam find the healing leaf and applied it fairly quickly after Frodo was wounded. It seems that he was able to get to Merry and Éowyn as soon as he could--granted he had to wait for the end of the battle and the wounded to get settled in the Houses of Healing first. Faramir was pretty gone by the time Aragorn was able to tend to him. It would seem Faramir should have been the most difficult to heal given the time lapse to begin the healing process.

Perhaps the difference is in how they were wounded in the first place:
*Frodo's wound was inflicted ON him by the Witchking unwanted by Frodo.
*Éowyn's and Merry's wounds were given to them when they made the move to kill the Witchking themselves--they were the agressors here.
*Faramir's wound was like Frodo's--given to him unwanted.

So if the evil magic wound was given by the evil entity it was worse than if the good person gave the evil person the fatal strike.

[Stormrider]

Thinking about this a little more and doing some reading...

Flight to the Ford: Strider says and does:

"And more deadly to Frodo was this!" He stooped again and lifted up a long thin knige. There was a cold gleam in it. As Strider raised it they saw that near the end its edge was notched and the point was broken off. But even as he held it up in the growing light, they gazed in astonishment, for the blade seemed to melt, and vanished like a smoke in the air, leaving only the hilt in Strider's hand. "Alas!" he cried. "It was this accursed knife that gave the wound. Few more have the skill in healing to match such evil weapons. But I will do what I can."

Then he sings over the dagger-hilt in a strange tongue and speaks softly to Frodo so the others could not hear. He takes Athelas out of his pouch and explains where it is found and tells them:

"It has great virtues, but over such a wound as this its healing powers may be small."

Then he boils it and bathes Frodo's shoulder.

In Many Meetings, after Frodo wakes in Rivendell, Gandalf explains:

Elrond is a master of healing but the weapons of our Enemy are deadly. To tell you the truth, I had very little hope; for I suspected that there was some grament of the blade still in the closed wound. But it could not be found until last night. Then Elrond removed a splinter. It was deeply vuried, and it was working inwards. Don't be alarmed! It is gone now. It has been melted. And it seems that Hobbits fade very reluctantly. I have known strong warriors of the Big People who would quickly have been overcome by that splinter, which you bore for seventeen days.

They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife which remains in the wound. If they had succeeded, you would have become like they are, only weaker and under their command."

Strider was not a surgeon but Elrond was and the removal of the tip was needed to finish saving Frodo.

Faramir was also wounded by an evil dart. Evidentally it did not lodge inside Faramir as the Mordul-knife had lodged inside Frodo. But still Faramir was pierced by the evil. In Houses of Healing:

Now Aragorn knelt beside Faramir, and held a hand upon his brow. And those that watched felt that some great struggle was going on. For Aragorn's face grew grey with weariness; and ever and anon he called the name of Faramir, but each time more faintly to their hearing, as if Aragorn himself was removed from them, and walked afar in some dark vale, calling for one that was lost.

"The worst is now over. Stay and be comforted!" Then taking the two leaves, he laid them on his hands and breathed on them, and then he crushed them, and straightway a living freshness filled the room, as if the air itself awoke and tingled, sparkling with joy. And then he cast the leaves into the bowls of steaming water that were brought to him, and at once all hearts were lightened. For the grafrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeing memory. But Aragorn stood up as one refreshed, and his eyes smiled as held a bowl before Faramir's dreaming face.

I wonder if there is a plant similar to this in our world...it would be nice to have. It sounds so uplifting.

Of Éowyn's and Merry's wounds Aragorn says:

Aragorn came to Éowyn and he said: "Here is a frievous hurt and a heavy blow. The arm that was broken has been tended with due sill, and it will mend in time, if she has the strength to live. It is the shield-arm that is maimed; but the chief evil comes through the sword-arm. In that there now seems no life, although it is unbroken.

Alas! for she was pitted against a foe beyond the strength of her mind or body. And those who will take a weapon to such an enemy must be sterner than steel, if the very shock shall not destroy them. It was an evil doom that set her in his path." Then...

"He [Merry] has taken a hurt like the Lady Éowyn, daring to smite that deadly thing. But these evils can be amended, so strong and gay a spirit is in him. His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.

Luckily neither Éowyn or Merry were pierced with an evil knife or dart leaving anything inside of them. They did the wielding of the weapon against the Witch-king and the fact that they were not men--a woman and a hobbit--also helped protect them.

[Andorinha]

Thanks, Stormie!

Ooo, some very nice stuff here, Stormrider! I like the connection you make between the type of "wounding" and the potential severity of the wound. Direct contact with the Nazgul, whether initiated by the wraith or by the defensive measures of the victims, seems to give the most severe wounding. In this regard, I see Frodo, Eowyn and Merry as having the most serious of the afflictions after their encounters with the Witch-king. Frodo's wound, I would class as the most damaging, as he was penetrated by a specially devised weapon of great evil, the Morgul blade. Perhaps, the One Ring that he was carrying, made Frodo even more vulnerable? The Ring would have "welcomed," perhaps facilitated the action of the Morgul blade? The Ring did, by itself, have the power (when Frodo wore it) of dragging the poor hobbit half-way into the spirit plane where the Nazgul were at their most effective. For all these reasons, perhaps, Frodo's wound was the most serious of all those who had dealings with the Nazgul. This, as you point out Stormrider was a doubly dangerous wound precisely because part of the poisoned blade remained in Frodo's body. The Athelas that Sam and Aragorn used, helped some against The Black Breath of the Nazgul, Aragorn's own kingly healing helped some more, but so potent was the wound that it required Elrond's additional surgery and "kingly healing" powers to finally put Frodo on the road to recovery. Even then, this was not a full recovery, as the wound would continue to "haunt" and sicken the poor hobbit later in his life.

Eowyn and Merry seem to have been caught up in some sort of evil "energy-release" that entered them through their own weapons, both "clean" blades, and in Merry's case, a blade that was actually wound-about with spells for the Good, spells specifically made to "kill" the Nazgul. Consequently, as you noted, Stormrider, their wounds were nasty, but not quite so nasty as Frodo's, where the blade that penetrated him was itself a poisonous thing.

In a sense, I'm thinking, Merry's blade may have somewhat "insulated" him from the full impact of the Nazgul -- Merry's red-bronze sword was in fact the exact opposite of the Morgul blade, the barrows blade was a magical weapon that was spell-bound to be "poisonous" to the Witch-king. But, the power of the Witch-king was such, that even in his death he could deal out a near fatal return blow to both Eowyn and Merry. Eowyn's blade exploded, Merry's blade melted into smoke and both these blades acted as a sort of electrical cord that channeled the hate and spite of the dying Nazgul into his last two victims. Only a special force for the good, Aragorn's kingly virtue of healing, and the use of Athelas could save them.

With Faramir, who seems to have been the closest to death (except for Frodo -- though Frodo would not have actually died from the Morgul blade, would he? Just become a lesser shade under the power of the Nazgul)) I think we have a different situation, unlike Frodo, Eowyn and Merry, I don't think this Captain of Gondor was actually pierced by a weapon of the Witch-king's, nor did he himself directly strike the Nazgul Lord. Faramir's physical wound was by a common, mortal Southron dart, was it not? This wound weakened him, but the main problem he had was his prolonged exposure to The Black Breath, which seems to have redoubled his current depression, making him super-vulnerable to the deadly, demoralizing, paralysis of the Nazgul:

" 'He is nearly spent,' said Aragorn turning to Gandalf. 'But this comes not from the wound. See! That is healing. Had he been smitten by some dart of the Nazgul, as you thought, he would have died that night. This hurt was given by some Southron arrow, I would guess. Who drew it forth? Was it kept?'

" 'I drew it forth,' said Imrahil, 'and staunched the wound. ... It was as I remember, just such a dart as the Southrons use. Yet I believed that it came from the Shadows above, for else his fever and sickness were not to be understood; since the wound was not deep or vital. How then do you read this matter?'

" 'Weariness, grief for his father's mood, a wound, and over all the Black Breath,' said Aragorn." ("The Houses of Healing," p. 898, single volume ed.)

The first time we ran into The Black Breath, was way back in Bree, when just a touch of it seems to have knocked Merry unconscious, and he was about to be carried away by a Nazgul (probably Khamul?). Maybe this original exposure to the Black Breath also made Merry more vulnerable to its impact on the field of battle before Minas Tirith?

We do know, from the speech of the Warden of the Houses of Healing, that Athelas was a specific palliative against The Black Breath, especially (maybe only) if it were administered by the healing hand of a true king:

When the black breath blows
and death's shadow grows
and all lights pass,
come athelas! come athelas!
Life to the dying
In the king's hand lying!

(p. 899, emphasis mine)

I wonder if this rhyme of healing lore is to be interpreted as meaning that athelas had to be used by a true king if it were to have a significant impact against The Black Breath? If so, since Gondor did not have a "true king" for about 1000 years, it is no wonder the Warden did not regard it as a very potent herb -- it had to be combined with the touch of a true king to be really effective? In this case, the "shamanic power" of a king was required in order to effect a cure for Frodo, Eowyn, Merry and Faramir.

Hmmm, now I think I need to work up some more data on the "Shamanic" function of the kings in Middle-earth, this regards the "Healing Touch" of the kingly figures as seen in both our Real-Life history, and the subcreated histories of Middle-earth.

[Stormrider]

Yes, I believe you hit the nail on the head! The One Ring made it possible for the Nazgûl to "see" Frodo because he was part-way in that spirit plane and more susceptible to a morgul knife wound. Even the kingly powers of Aragorn and Elrond were not powerful enough to fully cure Frodo. The Black Breath is an awful thing.

Good points both: Éowyn's and Merry's were CLEAN BLADES! and Merry's was specially created to specifically target these types of evil enemies. I like your thought that Merry's blade may have insulated him from some of the evil black breath effects. It makes perfect sense! Merry does seem to be able to bounce back more eaily than any of the others after he is healed by Aragorn.

Faramir's wounds were not deep according to Imrahil but Aragorn says "over-all the black breath" was the cause for the seriousness of the wound. What does that mean? Was the dart poisoned by the black breath or was the black breath in the air about Faramir when he was pierced? Was the blackness that came out of Mordor infused with the black breath? Everyone should have had a spellbinding and incapacitating response to it if that was the case.

No wonder Athelas/Kingsfoil didn't seem to be an important healing plant to the Warden of the Houses of Healing. I never thought about the power of the King being the activating force to release the healing properties of the plant.

Excellent points!

[Andorinha]

More "Good Stuff" again, Stormrider!

RE Stormrider's: "Faramir's wounds were not deep according to Imrahil but Aragorn says "over-all the black breath" was the cause for the seriousness of the wound. What does that mean? Was the dart poisoned by the black breath or was the black breath in the air about Faramir when he was pierced? Was the blackness that came out of Mordor infused with the black breath? Everyone should have had a spellbinding and incapacitating response to it if that was the case."

Hmmm...

In the battle for Minas Tirith, there seems to have been some sort of "demoralization/ despair" that was broadcast from the 9 Nazgul, and most especially from their leader the witch-king. Wherever the Nazgul passed, all the men beneath them quailed, and would have run away had not Faramir's will-power and example kept them in some fighting order. Just speculating here, but did Faramir absorb an ever increasing dose of the Black Breath each time he rallied his troops, took away their fears (temporarily) by taking the burden of the Nazgul magic upon himself? No idea if this is what JRRT had in mind, but I recall that when the "high born" Imrahil and Gandalf walked among the troops on the ramparts of the city, they would rally, forget their fears of the Nazgul for a bit, and fight on. But when Imrahil and Gandalf left one section of the defenses for another, a paralyzing sense of doom would fall upon the regular soldiers again. The despair caused by the Black Breath seems to have drained the men of Gondor even of the will to protect themselves.

If Faramir was somehow, through his Numenorean blood and noble status shielding the men under his immediate command from this innervating evil influence, it may have concentrated the Black Breath in his own person? Eventually, the physical shock of an ordinary dart wound, combined with the psychological problems he was already having with Denethor, became pressure enough to tumble him into full despair?

Did the Black Breath also come as a feature of the Dark Cloud from Mordor? Hmmm, not sure, of course, the darkness alone would disturb men who were used to the Sunlight, while its comforting pall would encourage, especially the Orcs and Trolls, and Nazgul of Sauron's forces. But was there an actual "poison" in the stuff, some pollutant that would paralyze the will of the Men of Gondor to resist? The passages where the Gondor Army seems to become demoralized, are, I think, all connected with the close presence of the Nazgul, as when the retreating forces from Osgiliath come back to the city. Here they return in some good order until the Nazgul start swooping down upon the formations, when horses and men seem to go mad and break to flee. But Faramir, steadies his men, masters them and even their horses so that they can regain their composures and reach the city gates once more a disciplined, fighting force. Later, when tightly besieged, the men on the walls are able to fight effectively when bolstered by a Gandalf or Imrahil, but as the Nazgul sweep closer to the ramparts, the men below fall quickly into greater despair. So, it seems the greatest force of the Black Breath comes directly from the Nazgul, and maybe their mounts as well (a shadow of evil departs from the field of battle when Eowyn cuts the head off the witch-king's reptilian mount, even though the Nazgul is still, at this point unharmed).

So, was there some "Black Breath" stuff in the Darkness itself that came from Mordor? Could be, but I'm not sure JRRT gives us enough data to be certain? I still tend to see the Black Breath as a function only of the Nazgul, maybe their mounts as well, and the Darkness was just a general factor of gloom and doom?

[Stormrider]

The Black Breath from the Nazgûl is a powerful weapon. I can see how Faramir and his men where put at a disadvantage against it. Faramir must have been exhausted holding his strength to keep his men together under its influence.

You are right, Denethor's treatment of Faramir had to depress Faramir beyond endurance and yet he still kept on fighting and rallying his men against the onslaught. Faramir was a strong man but all of this would send anyone into despair.

The darkness--I don't like driving in the dark. It must have been difficult for the men of Gondor to fight in the dark. Attacking in the dark is a strategy of battle and the foes of Gondor must have been more accustomed to it to give them the advantage.

This battle was a gruesome one.