Notes on RoTK: The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
The Witch King can no longer daunt Theoden: 'Horses reared and screamed. Men cast from the saddle lay grovelling on the ground. "To me! To me!" cried Theoden. "Up Eorlingas! Fear no darkness!"'
But the Witch King still wins because of 'the madness of . . . steeds': 'Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high fighting with the air' which opened him up to 'a black dart' and he fell on Theoden and crushed him. Madness in horses is panic, forgetfulness of discipline or of rider: 'mastered by the madness of their steeds [the Riders] were borne away'.
Now the Witch King displays 'a deadly gleam of eyes'.
Dernhelm/Eowyn, like Merry, 'loved his lord as a father' but unlike Merry 'stood by him, 'faithful beyond fear'. Merry, thrown when their horse bolted, 'crawled on all fours like a dazed beast, and such a horror was on him that he was blind and sick. . .his will made no answer and his body shook. He dared not open his eyes or look up'. [Pippin had looked up at the Witch King when Beregond told him to, but that was from a much greater distance, and Pippin couldn't keep it up long.]
'It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you are not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.' She is ready for the death she seeks: 'The helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders.' This also means that her head is unprotected. 'Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. A sword was in her hand and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes.'
Like Frodo at Minas Morgul (and in similar wording to Sam's memory of the Phial in Cirith Ungol) Merry is roused by a voice: 'Then out of the blackness of his mind he thought that he heard Dernhelm speaking' (after he was silent for most of the ride from Dunharrow). 'Very amazement conquered Merry's fear.' That is so like Merry! 'He opened his eyes and blackness was lifted from them.' As for Frodo when the Nazgul passes over in The Taming of Smeagol, these are two separate phenomena; his opening his eyes alone does not enable him to see until the blackness is lifted as well. 'Eowyn is was and Dernhelm also' - meaning that Merry had different ideas of each and is only now putting them together - 'For into Merry's mind flashed the memory of the face that he saw at the riding from Dunharrow: the face of one that goes seeking death, having no hope. Pity filled his heart, and great wonder' - displacing his usual anxiety about his own perceived uselessness - 'and suddenly the slow-kindled courage of his race awoke. He clenched his hand. She should not die, so fair, so desperate! At least she should not die alone, unaided.' That is also so like Merry: He started out meaning to help Frodo, wanted to serve Theoden, wished he could rescue Pippin - and finally there is someone he can help, even if it is only to die. He thinks of neither glory nor fear, except that he can't let fear stop him from helping: 'The face of their enemy was not turned towards him, but still he hardly dared to move, dreading lest the deadly eyes should fall on hiim; slowly, slowly he began to crawl aside' both avoiding the Witch King and getting into a postion in which he can do something.
Merry's stroke from behind (with the only 'blade [that] . . . would have dealt a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will') saves Eowyn's life and opens the Witch King to her stroke. 'And there stood Meriadoc the hobbit in the midst of the slain, blinking line an owl in daylight' - which is to say a being out of place - 'for tears blinded him'. He has 'forgotten the war' and isn't thinking about his part in killing the Witch King, but about the people he loves: Eowyn 'lay and did not move' and Theoden is dying. Theoden is pleased with his death: 'I felled the black serpent. A grim morn, a glad day, and a golden sunset.' He blessed Merry and asks about Eomer and Eowyn 'dearer than daughter'. Dying in battle is part of what Rohirrim do, and they do it well. It is not part of the Shire. Merry wonders 'Where is Gandalf? Is he not here? Could he not have saved the king and Eowyn?' but Gandalf can't be everywhere at once and save everyone.
Eomer shows up, in time to hear Theoden's final words, a farewell to Eowyn, who they both think is in Rohan, ready to reconstitute the house of Eorl from her body should they win. Their love of her as an individual is inseparable from their hope for their house and country - rather like her love of Aragorn is inseparable from her hope that he would save Gondor and thus Rohan - only they know her and she doesn't know Aragorn.
Eomer 'himself wept' as he tells his men 'Mourn not overmuch!. . .War now calls us.' He was ready for the possibility of Theoden's death in battle, or his own. Here, as at other points of strong emotion in this chapter, he speaks in verse, either composed on the spot or quoted from later bardic accounts which recast his real words.
'And he looked on the slain. . .Then suddenly he beheld his sister Eowyn' and looked, rather like Denethor, on the ruin of his house. '[A]ll speech failed him . . . A fey mood took him. "Eowyn! Eowyn!" he cried at last. "Eowyn, how came you here? What madness or devilry is this? death, death, death. Death take us all!. . . Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!"'
'And still Meriadoc the hobbit stood there blinking through his tears, and no one spoke to him, indeed none seemd to heed him' - exactly as before. He is a hobbit and does not belong on a battlefield. Those who do have other matters to tend to. There is no sign that he expects this to change because he has taken an important part in the war, or even that he thinks it was important. Only when he tries to pick up his sword does he even care that his right arm 'was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.' When Theoden and Eowyn are borne from the field, 'slowly and sadly Merry walked beside the bearers, and he gave no more heed to the battle. He was weary and full of pain, and his limbs trembled as with a chill. A great rain came out of the Sea, and it seemed that all things wept for Theoden and Eowyn' - Merry does not think that 'all things' might weep for him, but rather that they share his grief for the fallen.
Prince Imrahil shows up - the 'veray parfit gentle knight' who is always there when needed and always does the right thing - and discovers that Eowyn is 'hurt, to the death maybe, but I deem that she yet lives.'
'[F}ortune had turned against Eomer, and his fury had betrayed him' isolating him and his men from their allies. Eomer is ruled by a different emotion from the one that made Snowmane his master's bane, but ruled by emotion none the less. Like Sam at Cirith Ungol, although within known parameters, he changes his understanding of what it means to join Eowyn in death. When he sees the ships of the Umbar coming up the river, 'hope died in his heart. . .Stern was Eomer's mood, and his mind clear again. . .he thought to make a great sheild-wall at the last, and stand, and fight there on foot till all fell, and do deeds of song on the fields of Pelennor, though no name should be left in the West to remember the last King of the Mark.'
'Thus came Aragorn . . .the hosts of Mordor were seized with bewilderment, and a great wizardy it seemed to them that their own ships should be filled with their foes; and a black dread fell on them, knowing that the tides of fate had turned against them and their doom was at hand.' It is never explaiend how they 'know' rather than only feel; perhaps the feeling is so strong that it is indistinguishable from knowledge.
Three wear stars: Elladan, Elrohir, and Aragorn.
But the Witch King still wins because of 'the madness of . . . steeds': 'Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high fighting with the air' which opened him up to 'a black dart' and he fell on Theoden and crushed him. Madness in horses is panic, forgetfulness of discipline or of rider: 'mastered by the madness of their steeds [the Riders] were borne away'.
Now the Witch King displays 'a deadly gleam of eyes'.
Dernhelm/Eowyn, like Merry, 'loved his lord as a father' but unlike Merry 'stood by him, 'faithful beyond fear'. Merry, thrown when their horse bolted, 'crawled on all fours like a dazed beast, and such a horror was on him that he was blind and sick. . .his will made no answer and his body shook. He dared not open his eyes or look up'. [Pippin had looked up at the Witch King when Beregond told him to, but that was from a much greater distance, and Pippin couldn't keep it up long.]
'It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you are not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.' She is ready for the death she seeks: 'The helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders.' This also means that her head is unprotected. 'Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. A sword was in her hand and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes.'
Like Frodo at Minas Morgul (and in similar wording to Sam's memory of the Phial in Cirith Ungol) Merry is roused by a voice: 'Then out of the blackness of his mind he thought that he heard Dernhelm speaking' (after he was silent for most of the ride from Dunharrow). 'Very amazement conquered Merry's fear.' That is so like Merry! 'He opened his eyes and blackness was lifted from them.' As for Frodo when the Nazgul passes over in The Taming of Smeagol, these are two separate phenomena; his opening his eyes alone does not enable him to see until the blackness is lifted as well. 'Eowyn is was and Dernhelm also' - meaning that Merry had different ideas of each and is only now putting them together - 'For into Merry's mind flashed the memory of the face that he saw at the riding from Dunharrow: the face of one that goes seeking death, having no hope. Pity filled his heart, and great wonder' - displacing his usual anxiety about his own perceived uselessness - 'and suddenly the slow-kindled courage of his race awoke. He clenched his hand. She should not die, so fair, so desperate! At least she should not die alone, unaided.' That is also so like Merry: He started out meaning to help Frodo, wanted to serve Theoden, wished he could rescue Pippin - and finally there is someone he can help, even if it is only to die. He thinks of neither glory nor fear, except that he can't let fear stop him from helping: 'The face of their enemy was not turned towards him, but still he hardly dared to move, dreading lest the deadly eyes should fall on hiim; slowly, slowly he began to crawl aside' both avoiding the Witch King and getting into a postion in which he can do something.
Merry's stroke from behind (with the only 'blade [that] . . . would have dealt a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will') saves Eowyn's life and opens the Witch King to her stroke. 'And there stood Meriadoc the hobbit in the midst of the slain, blinking line an owl in daylight' - which is to say a being out of place - 'for tears blinded him'. He has 'forgotten the war' and isn't thinking about his part in killing the Witch King, but about the people he loves: Eowyn 'lay and did not move' and Theoden is dying. Theoden is pleased with his death: 'I felled the black serpent. A grim morn, a glad day, and a golden sunset.' He blessed Merry and asks about Eomer and Eowyn 'dearer than daughter'. Dying in battle is part of what Rohirrim do, and they do it well. It is not part of the Shire. Merry wonders 'Where is Gandalf? Is he not here? Could he not have saved the king and Eowyn?' but Gandalf can't be everywhere at once and save everyone.
Eomer shows up, in time to hear Theoden's final words, a farewell to Eowyn, who they both think is in Rohan, ready to reconstitute the house of Eorl from her body should they win. Their love of her as an individual is inseparable from their hope for their house and country - rather like her love of Aragorn is inseparable from her hope that he would save Gondor and thus Rohan - only they know her and she doesn't know Aragorn.
Eomer 'himself wept' as he tells his men 'Mourn not overmuch!. . .War now calls us.' He was ready for the possibility of Theoden's death in battle, or his own. Here, as at other points of strong emotion in this chapter, he speaks in verse, either composed on the spot or quoted from later bardic accounts which recast his real words.
'And he looked on the slain. . .Then suddenly he beheld his sister Eowyn' and looked, rather like Denethor, on the ruin of his house. '[A]ll speech failed him . . . A fey mood took him. "Eowyn! Eowyn!" he cried at last. "Eowyn, how came you here? What madness or devilry is this? death, death, death. Death take us all!. . . Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!"'
'And still Meriadoc the hobbit stood there blinking through his tears, and no one spoke to him, indeed none seemd to heed him' - exactly as before. He is a hobbit and does not belong on a battlefield. Those who do have other matters to tend to. There is no sign that he expects this to change because he has taken an important part in the war, or even that he thinks it was important. Only when he tries to pick up his sword does he even care that his right arm 'was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.' When Theoden and Eowyn are borne from the field, 'slowly and sadly Merry walked beside the bearers, and he gave no more heed to the battle. He was weary and full of pain, and his limbs trembled as with a chill. A great rain came out of the Sea, and it seemed that all things wept for Theoden and Eowyn' - Merry does not think that 'all things' might weep for him, but rather that they share his grief for the fallen.
Prince Imrahil shows up - the 'veray parfit gentle knight' who is always there when needed and always does the right thing - and discovers that Eowyn is 'hurt, to the death maybe, but I deem that she yet lives.'
'[F}ortune had turned against Eomer, and his fury had betrayed him' isolating him and his men from their allies. Eomer is ruled by a different emotion from the one that made Snowmane his master's bane, but ruled by emotion none the less. Like Sam at Cirith Ungol, although within known parameters, he changes his understanding of what it means to join Eowyn in death. When he sees the ships of the Umbar coming up the river, 'hope died in his heart. . .Stern was Eomer's mood, and his mind clear again. . .he thought to make a great sheild-wall at the last, and stand, and fight there on foot till all fell, and do deeds of song on the fields of Pelennor, though no name should be left in the West to remember the last King of the Mark.'
'Thus came Aragorn . . .the hosts of Mordor were seized with bewilderment, and a great wizardy it seemed to them that their own ships should be filled with their foes; and a black dread fell on them, knowing that the tides of fate had turned against them and their doom was at hand.' It is never explaiend how they 'know' rather than only feel; perhaps the feeling is so strong that it is indistinguishable from knowledge.
Three wear stars: Elladan, Elrohir, and Aragorn.