War: Terrible Even in Victory

This week's chapter is called "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields."  We rejoin Theoden and his forces as they break the siege on Gondor.  The battle is a victory, but the chapter repeatedly reminds us that war is the real enemy.  There is a cost.

The previous chapter (With our re-ordering) ends with the gate to Gondor being broken down, and the Lord of the Nazgûl leading the charge into the city.  Gandalf challenges him, but he raises his sword, which becomes wreathed in flames.  Things do not look good.

Meanwhile, the Rohirrim, having broken the siege, are on the move against the Haradrim, who are the same enemies we saw Faramir fight in the previous book.  They destroy many of them, but the situation reverses suddenly when the Black Captain himself, riding a terrible beast, swoops in from on high.  He, sensing the siege was broken, had retreated from the gate to address the situation.  Many of the men are thrown from their horses, which are unable to withstand his terror.  Snowmane, Theoden's horse, rears up and falls.  Theoden is crushed beneath him.  Merry and Dernhelm are also thrown off their horse, and Merry looks up to watch the Black Captain approach Theoden, who is struggling to get out from under Snowmane.

"'King's man!  King's man!'  [Merry's] heart cried within him.  'You must stay by him.  "As a father you shall be to me," you said.'  But his will made no answer." Merry is paralyzed by fear.

Suddenly, a figure jumps between the Nazgûl and Theoden.  It's Dernhelm!  The Black Captain warns him to get out of the way, and that "No living man may hinder me!" We are told "Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest.  It seemed the Dernhelm laughed..." and takes off his helmet.  His?  No, hers.  It's Eowyn!  "You look upon a woman."

"The winged creature screamed at her, but the Ringwraith made no answer, and was silent, as if in sudden doubt...  Eowyn it was, and Dernhelm also."

The Black Captain rears his beast, but Eowyn takes her sword and beheads it.  The Ringwraith raises his mace and hurls it against Eowyn.  She defends the blow, but her arm breaks.  She falls to the ground and he stands above her, readying to kill her.

But suddenly he drops his weapon; Merry has stabbed him in the heel with his sword - the very sword found in the Barrow-Wight mound at the very beginning of our adventure.  The sword, which we are told was enchanted for the specific purpose of harming Nazgûl, is disintegrates.  Eowyn, "with her last strength" drives her own sword into the Black Captain's face (Which, though invisible, is framed by his crown), and he is destroyed.  Eowyn collapses.

Merry pulls himself to Theoden's side, who says: "I go to my fathers.  And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed."

Around this time Eomer, whose horse had fled when the Black Captain arrived, returns.  Theoden names him king, and then dies.  Eomer's first action is to acknowledge the slaughter.  But things soon go amiss.

He looked at the slain, recalling their names.  Then suddenly he beheld his

sister Eowyn as she lay, and he knew her.  He stood a moment

as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart.

Then his face went deathly white; and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him

for a while.  A fey mood took him.

'Eowyn!  Eowyn!'  He cried at last.

Eomer charges recklessly into battle, crying "Death!  Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!"  And he might have led the Rohirrim to a fateful end if they had not come upon men of Gondor, who have evidently beaten back the Enemy's offensive at the gate.  The commander of that troop, Prince Imrahil, notices that Eowyn is, while gravely wounded, not actually dead.

Inspired by this, the Rohirrim battle more strategically towards Minas Tirith.  Suddenly, from down the Anduin, come ships of the south.  Despair rises again, though it is quickly replaced with relief, as its flag comes into view - it is Aragorn, and the flag is that of the King of Gondor!  Aragorn has survived the Paths of the Dead, and now with him follows an army of restless souls.  They slaughter their foes.  The battle is won.

But the chapter does not end with the victory.  It ends with a song.  The Song of the Mounds of Mundburg.  In part:

"We heard of the horns in the hills ringing,
the swords shining in the South-kingdom,
Steeds went striding to the Stoningland
as wind in the morning. War was kindled.
There Théoden fell, Thengling mighty,
to his golden halls and green pastures
in the Northern fields never returning,
high lord of the host. Harding and Guthláf,Dúnhere and Déorwine, doughty Grimbold,Herefara and Herubrand, Horn and Fastred,
fought and fell there in a far country:
in the Mounds of Mundburg under mould they lie
with their league-fellows, lords of Gondor."

This is not a song of victory, but a song of cost.  What was the cost of freedom?  In war, even our victories are bitter.

Snowmane, Theoden's horse, receives a burial mound, and a stone is set up as a marker.  Part of it reads: "Faithful servant yet master's bane."  In war, even our companions may be our end.

When Theoden dies, he mourns two things.  That he will not be able to sit with Merry and learn about the Shire, as he promised; and that he cannot say good bye to Eowyn.  The text says, "And so he died, and knew not that Eowyn lay near him."  In war, even those who are near us may not be able to help us.

Eomer temporarily goes mad with grief, and is saved only when Imrahil intervenes.  In war, even hardened soldiers can break.

The victory is so absolute that the text tells us, "And to the land of Haradrim came only a tale from far off; a rumor of the wrath and terror of Gondor."  Gondor is not going to attack the land of Haradrim (Harad).  But, in the fog of war, Gondor receives a reputation for being ruthless and terrible.  Even when Sauron is defeated, there will not be peace between Gondor and the Haradrim.  In war, even victories can increase enmity.

War is awful.  It turns the world upside down.  Recall Tolkien's experience in World War I and World War II.  While soldiers may form a unique and treasured bond with one another, it would be pretty terrible if we advocated for war because of that bond. 

This chapter tells of an unquestionable victory.  The Lord of the Nazgûl, previously believed to be invincible, is no more.  Aragorn arrives as king and slaughters the servants of Sauron.  But we are constantly reminded of the cost and evil of war.  It is not to be celebrated.  As Faramir said in The Two Towers: "War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory.  I love only that which they defend."

 The beast the Ringwraith rode is burned.  We are told that while "Green and long grew the grass" where Snowmane was buried, "ever black and bare was the ground where the beast was burned."  Some wounds of war will never heal, even if they are attained in victory.