This my April follow-up post for LOTR Read-Along hosted by Lorren at The Story Girl and it contains SPOILERS.
I was really looking forward to The Two Towers. There are some fabulous parts of in any case fabulous book. However, as long as thirty days of April may seem to be, they rushed past me without reading a page of this book. So, instead of recapping the nought of what I haven’t read, I want to just point out my favourite parts of The Two Towers I am still looking forward to read.
There is a wonderful piece of poetry in the beginning, Lament for Boromir. These verses particularly touch me:
"What news from the North, O mighty wind, do you bring to me today?
What news of Boromir the Bold? For he is long away."
'Beneath Amon Hen I heard his cry. There many foes he fought.
His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought.
His head so proud, his face so fair, his limbs they laid to rest;
And Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, bore him upon its breast."
"O Boromir! The Tower of Guard shall ever northward gaze
To Rauros, golden Rauros-falls, until the end of days.
Next, Treebeard and the Ents are amazing characters. It is easy to imagine trees speaking and thinking through Tolkien’s writing.
The Rohan parts are gripping, unveiling a whole new people but still leaving enough mystery to make the reader yearn to learn more.
I cannot not mention the newly introduced Faramir, whom I find to be one of the most sympathetic characters in the LOTR.
And then, Gollum. The villain and the victim in one, you can hate him but you have to love him at the same time. His cunningness is abominable and admirable at the same time, and I cannot but feel sorry for him on several occasions. His best part, however, is his way of speaking, which is written so well I can actually hear him. Here I must say the filmmakers did a good job. The cinematic Gollum speaks just as I imagined when reading the book.
That’s it. Now, I must stop looking forward to it and get on with reading, I guess.
I think The Two Towers often gets short shrift compared to the other books in the trilogy, but there's so much praiseworthy about it, isn't there?
ReplyDeleteThe Two Towers is my favourite book in the trilogy. I absolutely love Faramair's character and the people of Rohan - what's not to like about them?
ReplyDeleteI cant say that I like any of them better than the others, but each book has so much that I enjoy. I think maybe because it is the middle one, so you are past the dramatic start and not yet gotten to the outcome, that it sometimes feels like a filler. But there is just so much going on, we have only read 125 pages in my edition and yet an awful lot has happened!
ReplyDeleteThe Two Towers is often looked down upon as the least favorite of the trilogy, simply because it is the middle. It's hard to please people when, like Tracy mentioned, it's past the dramatic start and yet have not gotten to the long awaited conclusion. It does sometimes feel like a filler, but then again, that's just how it is for any book.
ReplyDeleteI loved The Two Towers of course, but I have to say it is actually my "least" favorite of the three.