Notes on RoTK: The Passing of the Grey Company
'Gandalf was gone' but Aragorn is starting to sound like him: 'it is dark before me. I must go down also to Minas Tirith, but I do not yet see the road.'
'"Don't leave me behind!" said Merry' - perhaps his greatest anxiety since Frodo left him behind. 'I have not been of much use yet;' which must be a bitter thought after he started out by showing how much help he thought he could be to Frodo, and after failing to even recognize Pippin's danger. 'but I don't want to be laid aside, like baggage to be called for when all is over.' He would go with either Aragorn or Theoden, as long as with someone virtuous and firm of purpose - the same qualities he originally followed in Frodo. For all that he was born to be Master of Buckland, he sees himself as a helper rather than a leader - which in the cooperatively oriented Shire would not make much difference - and in the Scouring he will act as a leader, if only because Frodo won't fight, and because it is expected of him. But he left his homeland in a supporting role and that is how he defines his worth.
Both Merry and Pippin want their new environment to become their new community, which is so essentially hobbity that it is never remarked on; their bonding nature is deeper than articulate desire. Pippin, in Minas Tirth, did not think about how he would fit in, but acted swiftly to offer his service (he tells the guardsmen, before meeting Denethor, 'Little service can I offer to your lord, but what I can do, I would do'), which he easily accepted could not be of great worth (the honor of being a guardsman 'is far beyond me,' he tells Beregond courteously). Merry is worried about having neither place nor purpose, because he has not demonstrated that he can be of worth. I wonder whether Pippin's presence had formerly kept him from dwelling on such thoughts.
In a confrontation, 'Merry felt more like unneeded baggage than ever, and he wondered, if there was a fight, what he should do' - probably remembering his failure of nerve when it came to following Frodo to Mordor. 'Supposing the King's small escort was trapped and overcome, but he escaped into the darkness - alone in the wild fields of Rohan with no idea of where he was in all the endless miles? "No good!" he thought. He drew his sword and tightened his belt.' Hobbitsense comes to his rescue: He decides to fight, with however little hope of success, because escape is hopeless. This has definitely ceased to be an adventure.
'Merre breathed a sigh of relief . . .it seemed that there would be no need to die in Theoden's defence, not yet at any rate.' He has adopted an identity within Rohan - as a member of the king's guard, the very honour that Pippin said was beyond him - although he has as yet sworn no oath to Theodeon.
Aragorn says, specifically of Theoden returning to Meduseld, but phrased generally, 'Many hopes will wither in this bitter Spring.' Does this reflect on other hopes of Merry's?
Gimli and Legolas still share a horse.
'Always my days have seemed to me too short to achieve my desire. . .Now I know what you bear,' Aragorn says, having received Arwen's message: 'Either our hope cometh, or all hopes end. Therefore I send thee what I have made for thee.'
He adds, 'Bear it still for me awhile.' Does he smile, or half-smile, or is the message too deep for that? He looks north and falls silent.
Aragorn hesitates to take the shortcut through the Paths of the Dead until he has mastered the Palantir. He until now has been warrior, although one familiar with both good and evil 'magic' - but to be King he has to be more than a warrior; he needs to match wills with Sauron and become the frightful King of the Dead. The fact that he can do these things makes him utterly suitable and king and utterly unsuitable as Ring-bearer, a task he would never seek.
'Merry slept until he was roused by Legolas and Gimli. . .His few hours sleep had not been nearly enough' although Elf and Dwarf are full of energy. 'he was tired and rather dismal. He missed Pippin and felt' for the third time ' that he was only a burden, while everybody was making plans for speed in a business that he did not fuly understand.'
'They are a strange company,' Gimli says, describing the Rangers. 'the Riders of Rohan look almost as boys beside them; for they are grim men of face, worn like weathered rocks' certainly a dwarvish way of putting it, but also foreshadowing the pukelmen.
Legolas says that Elladan and Elrohir are 'fair and gallant as Elven-lords; and that is not to be wondered at in the sons of Elrond of Rivendell.' He doesn't say they are Elven-lords, which is curious. Do they not inherit any status? Or have they not yet chosen between being Elf and mortal? Later they are called 'two tall men, neither young nor old'. Even though 'men' is not capitalized, and they are 'elven-fair', it seems curious that they are never asserted to be Elves.
Gimli thinks that Gandalf summoned the Rangers, but Legolas says, 'Nay, Galdriel. . .Did she not speak through Gandalf of the ride of the Grey Company from the North?' To what is he referring here? From the White Rider: 'Where now are the Dunedain, Elassar, Elassar? Why do they kinsfolk wander afar? Near is the hour shen the Lost should come forth, and the Grey Company ride from the North. But dark is the path appointed for thee; the Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.' Gimli agrees and says that 'She read many hearts and desires. Now why did we not wish for some of our own kinsfolk?' Legolas says that wishing isn't what made the difference: 'I do not think that any would come. . .war already marches on their own lands.' He 'turned his bright eyes away north and east' seeing whatever it is that Elves can see due to their different sense of time; surely nothing very definite or he could have given Gimli news of his kin.
Theoden 'sent for Merry and had a seat set for him at his side' at the midday meal and says 'you shall ride with me'.
'"May I?" said Merry, surprised and delighted. "That would be splendid!" He had never felt more grateful for any kindness in words. "I am afraid I am only in everybody's way," he stammered; "but I should like to do anything I could, you know."'
He sounds like a self-conscious schoolboy, in contrast to Pippin's proud declaration to Denethor; Merry is not at ease like Pippin is with the relatively little that he can do; he expects more of himself. (Calanthe11 says that he is the one who comes closest to being the angsty hobbit of fanfic. Maybe it is his constant fear of inadequacy that sets him up to be Mr. Bad-hobbit in so much fanfic; it's a bit of a Kick Me sign.) '
Theoden fulfills Merry's wildest dreams: 'You shall be my esquire, if you will. Is there gear of war, Eomer, that my sword-thain could use?'. . .Filled suddenly with love for this old man,' - in constrast to the pride that moved Pippin to offer his service to Denethor - 'he knelt on one knee, and took his hand and kissed it. "May I lay the sword of Meriadoc of the Shire on your lap,Theoden King?" he cried' - rising to his new role, but still with a childlike excitement - '"Receive my service, if you will!" "Gladly will I take it," said the King . . . ."As a father you shall be to me," said Merry. "For a little while," said Theoden' either expecting to die soon or knowing, as Merry does not, that he is 'tak(ing) him a noble page' (as Beregond originally thought Denethor was in accepting Pippin's service).
'I have had a good hill-pony made ready for you. He will bear you as swift as any horse by the roads we shall take. . .by mountain paths.' If Merry were listening, he would realize that Theoden is giving him a mount that cannot take him into battle at full speed, but he is ruled by anxiety and desire. Thus he will be bitterly disapointed later.
Merry is as seasoned a fighter as Pippin by now, but cannot bring himself to feel like one; will anything make him satisfied with himself?
The Rangers and their horses bore 'no gleam of stone or gold nor. . .any badge nor token, save only that each cloak was pinned upon the left shoulder by a brooch of silver shaped like a rayed star'. Does this have anything to do with Gandalf's rhyme about 'seven stars and seven stones and one white tree'?
Aragorn looks 'as if one night many years had fallen on his head. Grim was his face, grey-hued and weary. . ."I have labored long in thought, and now I fear that I must change my purpose. . .For me the time of stealth has passed."'
Eomer gives Aragorn up for dead, Aragorn holds out hope that 'in battle we may yet meet again, though all the hosts of Mordor should stand between', and Theoden accepts and goes forward with what he has to do: 'You will do as you will. . .It is your doom, maybe, to tread strange paths that others dare not. This parting grieves me, and my strength is lessened by it; but now I must take the mountain roads and delay no longer. Farewell!' Merry feels 'very small. . .puzzled and depressed' without Pippin's 'cheerfulness'; he wishes to 'start and get it over' - which may or may not mean simply to get moving.
Aragorn looking back towards Merry says, 'There go three that I love, and the smallest not the least. . .He knows not to what end he rides; yet if he did, he still would go on.' This contrasts with Gandalf's statement to Elrond (in The Ring Goes South) 'It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or wish that they dared, and be shamed and unhappy.' Whatever Merry thinks of himself, Aragorn sees him as one who dares; and Aragorn is no fool. Because he never saw Merry as Frodo's right-hand hobbit, or as obliged to follow Frodo into Mordor, but as a person with his own fate, he has no reason to think less of Merry. Merry doesn't seem to have any notion of fate, at least for himself. It is probably not a hobbity notion - too individual and too metaphysical.
Aragorn's account of the Palantir: 'A struggle somewhat grimmer for my part than the battle of the Hornburg. . . I am the lawful master of the Stone, and I had both the right and the strength to use it, or so I judged. . .The strength was enough - barely. . .I spoke no word to him, and in the end I wrenched the Stone to my own will. . .he saw me, but in other guise than you see me here. To know that I lived and walked the earth was a blow to his heart.' He made use of the Stone to mislead Sauron, letting him think that Aragorn was the captor of the hobbit that it showed him before, and thus posessor of the Ring; and to gain information: 'when I had mastered the Stone, I learned many things. A grave peril I saw coming unlooked-for upon Gondor from the South. . .I must go myself.' These are sufficient reasons, but also I think it was a necessary test before Aragorn dares the Paths of the Dead, even if necessary only in his own mind; the Palantir is an attribute of kingship, and if he could not master it, he could not fulfill his inheritance.
'"Dark ways, doubtless,' said Gimli, 'but no darker than these staves are to me." "If you would understand them better, then I bid you come with me," said Aragorn. . . "only of your free will would I have you come, for you will find both toil and great fear, and maybe worse."' ('That way I must go, for there are none living to help me.' 'I shall take the Paths of the Dead, alone if need be.') Aragorn doesn't make the offer to any of Theoden's subjects, only to those who came with him. Understanding the prophecy better is not necessarily worth the risk, but Gimli volunteers, sense of humor intact: 'I hope that that forgotten people will not have forgotten how to fight'. Legolas comes, 'for I do not fear the Dead'.
'at Erech there stands a black stone that was brought, it is said, from Numenor by Isuldur'.
Eowyn wishes Aragorn had come to Dunharrow for her sake: 'It was kindly done, lord, to ride so many miles out of your way to bring tidings to Eowyn, and to speak to her in her exile'; his reply that 'the road which I must take leads me to Dunharrow' is one that she 'likes not' on this account and because only The Paths of the Dead lies the way he must be going. When he confirms that 'she stared at him as one that is stricken' because whatever hope he brought to her and her people is perishing before her eyes. This is the beginning of her resolution to die in battle: 'if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle.'
'May I not now spend my life as I will?' 'Spend' here means more like 'spill out' than 'while away' - it is a cry not for unconditional freedom but for choice in how to die, since death seems the only future.
'"Few may do that with honour," he answered. . ."did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return?"' He tries to portray her duty as honorable, but admits that it will likely end in death: '"A time may come," said he, "when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renoun, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes,"' to which she retorts, 'All your words are but to say: you are a woman and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl. . .I can ride and wield a blade, and I do nor fear either pain or death.'
'What do you fear, lady?' he asks. 'A cage. . .To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them' - as she saw Theoden do, not as she is likely to have the chance to do - 'and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.' She wants him not to go but to 'win renown and victory' - the things she wishes for herself, or would if the war seemed more winnable.
The final reason she wants to die with Aragorn: 'They go only because they would not be parted from thee - because they love thee.' (This is similar to Sam's wish to die with Frodo but different because Eowyn and Aragorn are relative strangers, and much of what she loves in him is the hope that he seemed to bring to Rohan. Aragorn's seeing her 'as a glimmer in the night' distantly recalls Sam's last sight of the place where Frodo fell, but I am not sure that one word is very significant.)
At Aragorn's setting out 'it seemed to Gimli and Legolas who were nearby that she wept, and in one so stern and proud that seemed the more grievous'. When Aragorn leaves without her, even though 'she fell on her knees, saying "I beg thee!"', 'only those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore'. He admires and cares for her, although he does not love her as he does Arwen, and he is tormented by both witnessing her despair and causing her pain.
'And some said, "They are Elvish wights. Let them go where they belong, into the dark places, and never return"' - even though Legolas is the only certifiable Elf among them.
'A dread fell on them, even as they passed between the lines of ancient stones and so came to the Dimholt. There under the gloom of black trees that not even Legolas could long endure. . .the Dark Door gaped before them. . .there was not a heart among them that did not quail, unless it were the heart of Legolas of the Elves, for whom the ghosts of Men have no terror.' This may be another indication that Elladan and Elrohir are not strictly speaking Elves; otherwise, wouldn't their hearts be equally impervious? I wonder whether they choose mortality so as to remain part of Middle-earth in the Fourth Age.
'"It is an evil door," said Halbarad, "and my death lies beyond it."' There is no indication how he is so sure of this.
'the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady as they walked beside them.'
As Legolas could not long endure the trees of the Dimholt, Gimli is the last to dare the Door. 'With that he plunged in. But it seemed to him that he dragged his feet like lead over the threshold; and at once a blindness came upon him.' I think this is another liminal space, having some of the same effects as Shelob's Lair, although not necessarily for any of the same reasons.
The time disortion here could be cause and/or effect of the Dead being kept in the world for so long after their own time, and thus due to Isuldur's curse rather than to any contact with the Void. Perhaps Gimli feels the distortion, or fears the Dead, more than the others because the underground is his natural realm.
'So time unreckoned passed . . . Of the time that followed, one hour or many, Gimli remembered little. . for all he could tell, it might have been twilight in some later year, or in some other world'. I think that the time references here, where there is no discrepancy between the text, the maps and the time-line according to the Tale of Years, contrast the feeling of time distortion of the Paths of the Dead, with that of Shelob's Lair which corresponds to objectively reality. (Both are enhanced by the subjective factors, but neither is determined by them.)
Gimli is aware of the Dead immediately: 'an endless whisper of voices all about him, a murmur of words in no tongue that he had ever heard before. . .there could be no turning back; all the paths were thronged by an unseen host that followed in the dark'.
Aragorn is aware of them, too; when tempted by the mystery of the dead man at the locked door, he turns to them: 'Keep your hoards and your secrets hidden in the Accursed Years! Speed only we ask. Let us pass and then come! I summon you to the Stone of Erech!'
'The Company now mounted again, and Gimli returned to Legolas'. His terror was surely increased by their separation underground, yet he was incapable of thinking of finding Legolas. Part of the purpose of this section is to illustration the difference between mighty warriors and the only two who could bring the One to the Fire.
He doesn't appear to comment now on afraid he was, but eventually he did because it is in the Red Book.
Legolas sees the Dead: 'shapes of Men and of horse, and pale banners like shreds of cloud, and spears like winter thickets on a misty night. The dead are following.' Does he say this with satisfaction?
Aragorn transformed: 'Lights went out in house and hamlet as they came, and doors were shut, and folk that were afield cried in terror and ran wild like hunted deer. Ever there arose the same cry in the gathering night: "The King of the Dead! The King of the Dead is come upon us!" . . .all men fled before the face of Aragorn. . .he bid Halbarad unfurl the great standard which he had brought; and behold! it was black, and if there was any devide on it, it was hidden in the darkness. . . the journey of greatest haste and weariness that any among them had known, save he alone'
'"Don't leave me behind!" said Merry' - perhaps his greatest anxiety since Frodo left him behind. 'I have not been of much use yet;' which must be a bitter thought after he started out by showing how much help he thought he could be to Frodo, and after failing to even recognize Pippin's danger. 'but I don't want to be laid aside, like baggage to be called for when all is over.' He would go with either Aragorn or Theoden, as long as with someone virtuous and firm of purpose - the same qualities he originally followed in Frodo. For all that he was born to be Master of Buckland, he sees himself as a helper rather than a leader - which in the cooperatively oriented Shire would not make much difference - and in the Scouring he will act as a leader, if only because Frodo won't fight, and because it is expected of him. But he left his homeland in a supporting role and that is how he defines his worth.
Both Merry and Pippin want their new environment to become their new community, which is so essentially hobbity that it is never remarked on; their bonding nature is deeper than articulate desire. Pippin, in Minas Tirth, did not think about how he would fit in, but acted swiftly to offer his service (he tells the guardsmen, before meeting Denethor, 'Little service can I offer to your lord, but what I can do, I would do'), which he easily accepted could not be of great worth (the honor of being a guardsman 'is far beyond me,' he tells Beregond courteously). Merry is worried about having neither place nor purpose, because he has not demonstrated that he can be of worth. I wonder whether Pippin's presence had formerly kept him from dwelling on such thoughts.
In a confrontation, 'Merry felt more like unneeded baggage than ever, and he wondered, if there was a fight, what he should do' - probably remembering his failure of nerve when it came to following Frodo to Mordor. 'Supposing the King's small escort was trapped and overcome, but he escaped into the darkness - alone in the wild fields of Rohan with no idea of where he was in all the endless miles? "No good!" he thought. He drew his sword and tightened his belt.' Hobbitsense comes to his rescue: He decides to fight, with however little hope of success, because escape is hopeless. This has definitely ceased to be an adventure.
'Merre breathed a sigh of relief . . .it seemed that there would be no need to die in Theoden's defence, not yet at any rate.' He has adopted an identity within Rohan - as a member of the king's guard, the very honour that Pippin said was beyond him - although he has as yet sworn no oath to Theodeon.
Aragorn says, specifically of Theoden returning to Meduseld, but phrased generally, 'Many hopes will wither in this bitter Spring.' Does this reflect on other hopes of Merry's?
Gimli and Legolas still share a horse.
'Always my days have seemed to me too short to achieve my desire. . .Now I know what you bear,' Aragorn says, having received Arwen's message: 'Either our hope cometh, or all hopes end. Therefore I send thee what I have made for thee.'
He adds, 'Bear it still for me awhile.' Does he smile, or half-smile, or is the message too deep for that? He looks north and falls silent.
Aragorn hesitates to take the shortcut through the Paths of the Dead until he has mastered the Palantir. He until now has been warrior, although one familiar with both good and evil 'magic' - but to be King he has to be more than a warrior; he needs to match wills with Sauron and become the frightful King of the Dead. The fact that he can do these things makes him utterly suitable and king and utterly unsuitable as Ring-bearer, a task he would never seek.
'Merry slept until he was roused by Legolas and Gimli. . .His few hours sleep had not been nearly enough' although Elf and Dwarf are full of energy. 'he was tired and rather dismal. He missed Pippin and felt' for the third time ' that he was only a burden, while everybody was making plans for speed in a business that he did not fuly understand.'
'They are a strange company,' Gimli says, describing the Rangers. 'the Riders of Rohan look almost as boys beside them; for they are grim men of face, worn like weathered rocks' certainly a dwarvish way of putting it, but also foreshadowing the pukelmen.
Legolas says that Elladan and Elrohir are 'fair and gallant as Elven-lords; and that is not to be wondered at in the sons of Elrond of Rivendell.' He doesn't say they are Elven-lords, which is curious. Do they not inherit any status? Or have they not yet chosen between being Elf and mortal? Later they are called 'two tall men, neither young nor old'. Even though 'men' is not capitalized, and they are 'elven-fair', it seems curious that they are never asserted to be Elves.
Gimli thinks that Gandalf summoned the Rangers, but Legolas says, 'Nay, Galdriel. . .Did she not speak through Gandalf of the ride of the Grey Company from the North?' To what is he referring here? From the White Rider: 'Where now are the Dunedain, Elassar, Elassar? Why do they kinsfolk wander afar? Near is the hour shen the Lost should come forth, and the Grey Company ride from the North. But dark is the path appointed for thee; the Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.' Gimli agrees and says that 'She read many hearts and desires. Now why did we not wish for some of our own kinsfolk?' Legolas says that wishing isn't what made the difference: 'I do not think that any would come. . .war already marches on their own lands.' He 'turned his bright eyes away north and east' seeing whatever it is that Elves can see due to their different sense of time; surely nothing very definite or he could have given Gimli news of his kin.
Theoden 'sent for Merry and had a seat set for him at his side' at the midday meal and says 'you shall ride with me'.
'"May I?" said Merry, surprised and delighted. "That would be splendid!" He had never felt more grateful for any kindness in words. "I am afraid I am only in everybody's way," he stammered; "but I should like to do anything I could, you know."'
He sounds like a self-conscious schoolboy, in contrast to Pippin's proud declaration to Denethor; Merry is not at ease like Pippin is with the relatively little that he can do; he expects more of himself. (Calanthe11 says that he is the one who comes closest to being the angsty hobbit of fanfic. Maybe it is his constant fear of inadequacy that sets him up to be Mr. Bad-hobbit in so much fanfic; it's a bit of a Kick Me sign.) '
Theoden fulfills Merry's wildest dreams: 'You shall be my esquire, if you will. Is there gear of war, Eomer, that my sword-thain could use?'. . .Filled suddenly with love for this old man,' - in constrast to the pride that moved Pippin to offer his service to Denethor - 'he knelt on one knee, and took his hand and kissed it. "May I lay the sword of Meriadoc of the Shire on your lap,Theoden King?" he cried' - rising to his new role, but still with a childlike excitement - '"Receive my service, if you will!" "Gladly will I take it," said the King . . . ."As a father you shall be to me," said Merry. "For a little while," said Theoden' either expecting to die soon or knowing, as Merry does not, that he is 'tak(ing) him a noble page' (as Beregond originally thought Denethor was in accepting Pippin's service).
'I have had a good hill-pony made ready for you. He will bear you as swift as any horse by the roads we shall take. . .by mountain paths.' If Merry were listening, he would realize that Theoden is giving him a mount that cannot take him into battle at full speed, but he is ruled by anxiety and desire. Thus he will be bitterly disapointed later.
Merry is as seasoned a fighter as Pippin by now, but cannot bring himself to feel like one; will anything make him satisfied with himself?
The Rangers and their horses bore 'no gleam of stone or gold nor. . .any badge nor token, save only that each cloak was pinned upon the left shoulder by a brooch of silver shaped like a rayed star'. Does this have anything to do with Gandalf's rhyme about 'seven stars and seven stones and one white tree'?
Aragorn looks 'as if one night many years had fallen on his head. Grim was his face, grey-hued and weary. . ."I have labored long in thought, and now I fear that I must change my purpose. . .For me the time of stealth has passed."'
Eomer gives Aragorn up for dead, Aragorn holds out hope that 'in battle we may yet meet again, though all the hosts of Mordor should stand between', and Theoden accepts and goes forward with what he has to do: 'You will do as you will. . .It is your doom, maybe, to tread strange paths that others dare not. This parting grieves me, and my strength is lessened by it; but now I must take the mountain roads and delay no longer. Farewell!' Merry feels 'very small. . .puzzled and depressed' without Pippin's 'cheerfulness'; he wishes to 'start and get it over' - which may or may not mean simply to get moving.
Aragorn looking back towards Merry says, 'There go three that I love, and the smallest not the least. . .He knows not to what end he rides; yet if he did, he still would go on.' This contrasts with Gandalf's statement to Elrond (in The Ring Goes South) 'It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or wish that they dared, and be shamed and unhappy.' Whatever Merry thinks of himself, Aragorn sees him as one who dares; and Aragorn is no fool. Because he never saw Merry as Frodo's right-hand hobbit, or as obliged to follow Frodo into Mordor, but as a person with his own fate, he has no reason to think less of Merry. Merry doesn't seem to have any notion of fate, at least for himself. It is probably not a hobbity notion - too individual and too metaphysical.
Aragorn's account of the Palantir: 'A struggle somewhat grimmer for my part than the battle of the Hornburg. . . I am the lawful master of the Stone, and I had both the right and the strength to use it, or so I judged. . .The strength was enough - barely. . .I spoke no word to him, and in the end I wrenched the Stone to my own will. . .he saw me, but in other guise than you see me here. To know that I lived and walked the earth was a blow to his heart.' He made use of the Stone to mislead Sauron, letting him think that Aragorn was the captor of the hobbit that it showed him before, and thus posessor of the Ring; and to gain information: 'when I had mastered the Stone, I learned many things. A grave peril I saw coming unlooked-for upon Gondor from the South. . .I must go myself.' These are sufficient reasons, but also I think it was a necessary test before Aragorn dares the Paths of the Dead, even if necessary only in his own mind; the Palantir is an attribute of kingship, and if he could not master it, he could not fulfill his inheritance.
'"Dark ways, doubtless,' said Gimli, 'but no darker than these staves are to me." "If you would understand them better, then I bid you come with me," said Aragorn. . . "only of your free will would I have you come, for you will find both toil and great fear, and maybe worse."' ('That way I must go, for there are none living to help me.' 'I shall take the Paths of the Dead, alone if need be.') Aragorn doesn't make the offer to any of Theoden's subjects, only to those who came with him. Understanding the prophecy better is not necessarily worth the risk, but Gimli volunteers, sense of humor intact: 'I hope that that forgotten people will not have forgotten how to fight'. Legolas comes, 'for I do not fear the Dead'.
'at Erech there stands a black stone that was brought, it is said, from Numenor by Isuldur'.
Eowyn wishes Aragorn had come to Dunharrow for her sake: 'It was kindly done, lord, to ride so many miles out of your way to bring tidings to Eowyn, and to speak to her in her exile'; his reply that 'the road which I must take leads me to Dunharrow' is one that she 'likes not' on this account and because only The Paths of the Dead lies the way he must be going. When he confirms that 'she stared at him as one that is stricken' because whatever hope he brought to her and her people is perishing before her eyes. This is the beginning of her resolution to die in battle: 'if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle.'
'May I not now spend my life as I will?' 'Spend' here means more like 'spill out' than 'while away' - it is a cry not for unconditional freedom but for choice in how to die, since death seems the only future.
'"Few may do that with honour," he answered. . ."did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return?"' He tries to portray her duty as honorable, but admits that it will likely end in death: '"A time may come," said he, "when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renoun, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes,"' to which she retorts, 'All your words are but to say: you are a woman and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl. . .I can ride and wield a blade, and I do nor fear either pain or death.'
'What do you fear, lady?' he asks. 'A cage. . .To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them' - as she saw Theoden do, not as she is likely to have the chance to do - 'and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.' She wants him not to go but to 'win renown and victory' - the things she wishes for herself, or would if the war seemed more winnable.
The final reason she wants to die with Aragorn: 'They go only because they would not be parted from thee - because they love thee.' (This is similar to Sam's wish to die with Frodo but different because Eowyn and Aragorn are relative strangers, and much of what she loves in him is the hope that he seemed to bring to Rohan. Aragorn's seeing her 'as a glimmer in the night' distantly recalls Sam's last sight of the place where Frodo fell, but I am not sure that one word is very significant.)
At Aragorn's setting out 'it seemed to Gimli and Legolas who were nearby that she wept, and in one so stern and proud that seemed the more grievous'. When Aragorn leaves without her, even though 'she fell on her knees, saying "I beg thee!"', 'only those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore'. He admires and cares for her, although he does not love her as he does Arwen, and he is tormented by both witnessing her despair and causing her pain.
'And some said, "They are Elvish wights. Let them go where they belong, into the dark places, and never return"' - even though Legolas is the only certifiable Elf among them.
'A dread fell on them, even as they passed between the lines of ancient stones and so came to the Dimholt. There under the gloom of black trees that not even Legolas could long endure. . .the Dark Door gaped before them. . .there was not a heart among them that did not quail, unless it were the heart of Legolas of the Elves, for whom the ghosts of Men have no terror.' This may be another indication that Elladan and Elrohir are not strictly speaking Elves; otherwise, wouldn't their hearts be equally impervious? I wonder whether they choose mortality so as to remain part of Middle-earth in the Fourth Age.
'"It is an evil door," said Halbarad, "and my death lies beyond it."' There is no indication how he is so sure of this.
'the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door, if their masters' hearts were steady as they walked beside them.'
As Legolas could not long endure the trees of the Dimholt, Gimli is the last to dare the Door. 'With that he plunged in. But it seemed to him that he dragged his feet like lead over the threshold; and at once a blindness came upon him.' I think this is another liminal space, having some of the same effects as Shelob's Lair, although not necessarily for any of the same reasons.
The time disortion here could be cause and/or effect of the Dead being kept in the world for so long after their own time, and thus due to Isuldur's curse rather than to any contact with the Void. Perhaps Gimli feels the distortion, or fears the Dead, more than the others because the underground is his natural realm.
'So time unreckoned passed . . . Of the time that followed, one hour or many, Gimli remembered little. . for all he could tell, it might have been twilight in some later year, or in some other world'. I think that the time references here, where there is no discrepancy between the text, the maps and the time-line according to the Tale of Years, contrast the feeling of time distortion of the Paths of the Dead, with that of Shelob's Lair which corresponds to objectively reality. (Both are enhanced by the subjective factors, but neither is determined by them.)
Gimli is aware of the Dead immediately: 'an endless whisper of voices all about him, a murmur of words in no tongue that he had ever heard before. . .there could be no turning back; all the paths were thronged by an unseen host that followed in the dark'.
Aragorn is aware of them, too; when tempted by the mystery of the dead man at the locked door, he turns to them: 'Keep your hoards and your secrets hidden in the Accursed Years! Speed only we ask. Let us pass and then come! I summon you to the Stone of Erech!'
'The Company now mounted again, and Gimli returned to Legolas'. His terror was surely increased by their separation underground, yet he was incapable of thinking of finding Legolas. Part of the purpose of this section is to illustration the difference between mighty warriors and the only two who could bring the One to the Fire.
He doesn't appear to comment now on afraid he was, but eventually he did because it is in the Red Book.
Legolas sees the Dead: 'shapes of Men and of horse, and pale banners like shreds of cloud, and spears like winter thickets on a misty night. The dead are following.' Does he say this with satisfaction?
Aragorn transformed: 'Lights went out in house and hamlet as they came, and doors were shut, and folk that were afield cried in terror and ran wild like hunted deer. Ever there arose the same cry in the gathering night: "The King of the Dead! The King of the Dead is come upon us!" . . .all men fled before the face of Aragorn. . .he bid Halbarad unfurl the great standard which he had brought; and behold! it was black, and if there was any devide on it, it was hidden in the darkness. . . the journey of greatest haste and weariness that any among them had known, save he alone'