This week we read Helm's Deep, a chapter which always confounds me a little, as I was introduced to Lord of the Rings through the movies. And as wonderful as they are, I think the biggest change is in their handling of this battle. The Battle of Helm's Deep takes up somewhere between a third and a whole half of the second movie. In our text it only takes up one chapter.
It's also different because, in the books, it's mostly a running battle. The Rohirrim and the Orcs arrive nearly at the same time. The men secure a gate or a wall and the Orcs again and again overrun them, causing a retreat.
When there is nowhere else to retreat, Theoden decides he'd rather die fighting than hiding. As his men ride into battle, accompanied by the great horn of the Helm's Deep, Gandalf also arrives with Erkenbrand, a Rohirrim warrior who'd been cut off from everyone else (along with his forces). In addition to this, we are told, "The land had changed. Where before the green dale had lain, its grassy slopes lapping the ever-mounting hills, there now a forest loomed." The text describes the Orcs' response to this turn of events:
The hosts of Isengard roared, swaying this way and that, turning
from fear to fear.
Again the horn sounded from the tower.
Down
through the breach of the Dike charged the king’s company.
Down
from the hills leaped Erkenbrand, lord of Westfold.
Down leaped Shadowfax, like a deer that runs surefooted in the mountains.
The
White Rider was upon them, and the terror of his coming
filled the
enemy with madness. The wild men fell on their faces before him.
The Orcs reeled and screamed and cast aside both sword and spear.
Like a black smoke
driven by a mounting wind they fled. Wailing
they passed under the
waiting shadow of the trees; and from that
shadow none ever came again.
"The Orcs were destroyed - we should celebrate! Who should deserve the honors."
"The King's company, because they did not give up."
"Yes! Though they retreated time and time again, as the situation required, when they had nowhere further to go they attacked. They did not lose heart. They were willing to compromise when necessary, but they kept their ultimate goal in mind. Had they stood firm at the first gate, they may have all been destroyed."
"And how many Orcs did they destroy?"
"According to the text, none."
"And they charged not from strength, but from desperation. Such foolishness is not ethics. It is good fortune, only, they did not ride to their death."
"So then who deserves the honors of destroying the Orcs?"
"Erkenbrand, lord of Westfold! His troops had been skirmishing along the borderlands with the Orcs. He and his men were able to provide a crucial rearguard action."
"And how many Orcs did they destroy?"
"According to the text, none."
"So then who deserves the honors of destroying the Orcs?"
"Shadowfax, and Gandalf, the White Rider, Mithrandir! He had found Erkenbrand and led his men to the Deep."
"And how many Orcs did they destroy?"
"According to the next, none; though Gandalf's coming filled the enemy with terror."
"But terror does not kill."
"So then who deserves the honors of destroying the Orcs?"
"Who is left?"
"The trees."
"The trees."
"The trees sat themselves as if they were mere trees. While Erkenbrand and Theoden and Gandalf may have known no forest usually lived there, the Orcs would not know. Their ignorance led to their death."
"Why had the forest come?"
"As part of the Ent's attack on Isengard. They had come to Helm's deep to intervene, if the battle was going ill."
"But it was not."
"And so the trees, unhasty, were content to watch their enemies be destroyed."
"But instead the Orcs ran towards them."
"The Orcs had only seen the trees as you and I know them. They had never known their violence or grudgeful heart."
"And so the trees deserve the honors of destroying the Orcs."
"The trees, bent on revenge. The trees, whom the Orcs fled to for cover. As is a theme of our text, evil destroyed itself.* The Orcs deserved no less."
"So do you say the Orcs destroyed themselves?"
"Only in a pitiable way. They surely are owed no honors for such a result. So let's give it to the trees, who came to watch a battle but in fact, played a decisive role."
"A poetic end."
"One unworthy of the Bard."
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