LOTR Bookclub: Bk IV: Ch 3: The Black Gate is Closed

[daughter_of_kings]

In the hours before dawn of the ninth day since the breaking of the Fellowship, Frodo, Sam and Gollum come at last within reach of the Black Gate of Mordor, the Morannon. As the day dawns, Frodo and Sam get their first good look at the Morannon and its watchtowers, at the guards on the walls, and the patrols below. Trumpets sound in the towers and are echoed in the nearby hills; the changing of the guard, and the welcoming of troops marching in from the East.

Sam is both terrified and dejected: he can see no way by which they might pass the gates undetected. Gollum is in agreement with him, exhibiting a sort of I-told-you-so attitude. Frodo is determined, though, to follow through with his mission. He says, “I purpose to enter Mordor, and I know no other way. Therefore I shall go this way.” In response to Gollum’s assertion that it is hopeless to try, that this path will lead him straight to Sauron, Frodo says further, “If there is only one way, then I must take it. What comes after must come.”

This is where Frodo becomes the hero, in my opinion. For some days now (if not from the very beginning), he has despaired of succeeding, but here, at this point, with the overwhelming odds against him now staring him straight in the face, with failure and death almost a certain guarantee, he purposes to go on anyway. How many of us would have, at this point, turned tail and gone back to… anywhere away from there? How many of us would have said, “I can’t do this, it’s too big for me” and quit trying? Sam is pretty heroic, too, to keep on, but he is following Frodo. Frodo isn’t following anything but his own conscience.

Gollum pleads with Frodo not to enter the Black Gate, not to take the Ring to Sauron, to take It away from there, or better yet, go back to the Shire and give the Ring back to Sméagol. Seeing Frodo’s resolve, he offers another option, a second way into Mordor, a way that Sauron will not be watching. Frodo takes his time before answering, but finally says that he will trust Sméagol to lead him once again. Then Frodo warns Gollum that he is in danger, that his desire for the Ring is twisting him (“give it back to Sméagol”) and that if Gollum asks for the Ring again, Frodo will put the Ring on and command Gollum to his death, knowing that Gollum will obey. This is something of a wake-up call for both Sam and Gollum, who had both equated Frodo’s previous kindness to Gollum with a certain weakness or blindness to reality. Gollum, in fact, is terrified by this drastic change in Frodo’s demeanor, and it is some time before Frodo can coax coherent information out of him.

The second way is through Ithilien, past the dead city of Minas Morgul that was once Minas Ithil. Orcs and “worse things” live there, Silent Watchers that see everything that happens under the walls of Minas Morgul. A path leads from there into the mountains, up stairs and more stairs, through a tunnel, and finally a cleft above the main pass. It is, Gollum tells Frodo, the way he got out of Mordor. The way is guarded, he admits, not safe, but it is the only other way into Mordor.

They continue to huddle on the hill while Frodo thinks on what to do. As the day wears on, Sam sees the Black Riders, four of them, winging across the sky. They are high and far away, and yet he is seized by the same terror they had felt in the Dead Marshes, when the Nazgûl had flown over. Then the Nazgûl wheel away and are gone, and eventually Sam’s dread diminishes. Some time later, Frodo appears to reach a decision and stands up as if to declare it, but he is interrupted by the sound of singing and shouting. Gollum creeps to the edge of the hill and reports: on the road below them, Men out of the South are marching to the Black Gate. “Were there any oliphaunts?” Sam asks, and as Gollum doesn’t know what oliphaunts are, he sings his song about them. Frodo laughs, his burden seemingly eased by the rhyme. Sam’s poem, a little reminder of the Shire, acts as a rally. Despair and hopelessness fall away and he gets something of a “let-me-at-‘em” attitude for just a moment: “I wish we had a thousand oliphaunts, with Gandalf on a white one at their head. Then we’d break a way into this evil land, perhaps.” He settles almost immediately back into a grim determination, though: “But we’ve not; just our own tired legs, that’s all.” He then tells Gollum that he will follow him. Gollum is pleased. They will wait until sunset before starting out.

I don’t allow myself too many “what if’s” when reading this book. For one thing, there are far too many options, and it just isn’t possible to follow all of them. As Prim said once, you pull one thread and it unravels everything. For another, I try not to “what if” in the RW, either, at least in regards to the past; it’s irrelevant because whatever if didn’t happen, and as time only flows in one direction, it isn’t ever going to. I feel the same way about Tolkien’s story… it happened the way he told it, and it isn’t ever going to happen any other way (fanfic withstanding). But each time I reach this chapter, I can’t help asking myself… what if the events at Parth Galen had happened differently, what if the Orcs had not arrived? Frodo would have gone to Mordor anyway… who would have gone with him? All but Boromir, perhaps? What then? Having made it, by whatever means, to the Morannon, with Aragorn still leading, would they have tried to make it through the Black Gate? Would they have failed? Would Sauron have captured the One Ring and the Heir of Gondor in one fell swoop? Could it be that the sundering of the Fellowship, the death of Boromir, the capture of Merry and Pippin, all set in motion the only chain of events that could possibly lead to victory?