“The Two Towers” begins with the disintegration of the Fellowship after Sam and Frodo depart from the rest of the Fellowship to take the One Ring to Mordor. As Aragorn searches for Frodo, hears Boromir’s horn blaring with urgency, and knowing Boromir needs help, runs to find him. He finds Boromir mortally wounded following his battle with several Orcs.
Boromir reveals that Merry and Pippin have been kidnapped by the Orcs, who mistook them for the Ring-bearer Frodo. After giving Boromir a funeral on the River Anduin, Aragorn decided the remaining Companions would allow Frodo and Sam to continue to Mordor alone while they pursue the Orcs and rescue Merry and Pippin.
I think that Aragorn’s decision to allow Frodo and Sam to continue on the journey to Mordor alone was one of the greatest and most pivotal decisions made by the characters in the entire trilogy, leading to the breaking of Sauron’s power and therefore ruining a great part of Sauron’s plans.
The Three Hunters track the Orc company through the valleys of Rohan chasing them day and night, but the Will of Saruman was driving the Orcs ever forward. On the fourth day of their chase, they encounter the Riders of Rohan and exchange news with Éomer, the Riders’ leader, who reveals that they have killed an Orc company at the edge of the Forest of Fangorn. Éomer urges Aragorn to give up his search for the Hobbits and instead return with him to meet Théoden, the king of Rohan, but Aragorn refuses to speak to Théoden until his quest to find the Hobbits is complete. He, Legolas, and Gimli travel on toward Fangorn Forest, where the Riders of Rohan fought the Orc company.
Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin are forced to march with the Orc company, two different groups who frequently fight amongst themselves. During a scuffle between the Isengard Orcs and the Mordor Orcs, when they are distracted, Pippin manages to free his hands, wrapping the bindings back around his wrists so the Orcs don’t notice, and drop the brooch from his cloak as a clue for Aragorn to find. The Riders of Rohan pursue the Orcs and surround them beside Fangorn Forest.
Grishnákh, one of the Mordor Orcs, kidnaps Merry and Pippin away from the Isengard Orcs, but he is soon killed by one of the Riders. The rising action begins as the Hobbits escape unharmed into Fangorn Forest, traveling along the Entwash River where they meet and befriend an Ent named Treebeard. Treebeard feeds them and takes them to an assembly where the Ents resolve to march to war against Saruman and the Orcs of Isengard, who have been cruel to them.
I am often fascinated by how people overlook this passage and the drastic effect the Ents’ contact with Pippin and Merry had on them. Having walked the earth for millennia, since the time of the Trees, the Ents had become slow and almost treelike. Under Pippin and Merry’s influence, they became quicker than they would normally be.
The Three Hunters track Merry and Pippin from the remains of the Orc company into Fangorn Forest. There, they meet Gandalf, who they thought had perished in the Mines of Moria in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” He explains that he has been sent back to Middle-earth as Gandalf the White to complete his work and assures his three friends that Merry and Pippin are safe with the Ents.
Gandalf leads Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli to Edoras to meet with Théoden. There, Gandalf reveals that Théoden’s counselor Wormtongue is working for Saruman and heals Théoden’s mind of Wormtongue’s corrupting influence. As Wormtongue flees to Saruman, Théoden resolves to ride to the ancient stronghold of Helm’s Deep where he will gather his armies and shelter from the onslaught of Saruman’s army.
On the road, Gandalf departs on a mysterious errand, and Aragorn continues with his friends and the Riders of Rohan to the fortress at Helm’s Deep. The story reaches its climax as Rohan’s forces are attacked by a large army of Saruman’s Orcs and Dunlendings, who greatly outnumber them. At dawn Aragorn and Théoden rally their men for one final charge from the fortress, they drive the Orcs out of the gates. Gandalf appears on the hill around the fortress, setting up the story’s turning point. Gandalf brings reinforcements, consisting of a force of Riders led by Erkenbrand, the Marshall of Westfold, and a host of Huorns from the Fangorn Forest. Caught between the armies, the Orcs of Isengard were crushed and defeated.
This passage reiterates to me Gandalf’s importance in Tolkien’s legendarium. Although he was under a stricture from the Valar to never unveil his full power, he manages to always be at hand at the most dire moments to save the kingdoms of Men from annihilation.
The group then travels to Isengard, which has been taken over by the Ents who stood guard on the corrupted wizard Saruman. They find Merry and Pippin waiting by the gate to greet them. Gandalf confronts Saruman, trapped in his tower, asking him to repent of his corruption but when Saruman sneers at him and refuses, Gandalf ejects him from the Order of Wizards and breaks his rod of power. Saruman’s fall from his exalted position brings the story to its resolution.
As Gandalf turns around to depart, Wormtongue throws the palantír of Orthanc, aiming to hit him, but misses. As the group established camp in the middle of the night near Edoras, Pippin stared into the palantír. Sauron tortures his mind and interrogates him to find what he knows about the Ringbearer but before he can get much out of Pippin, Gandalf takes the stone from him and covers it. Aragorn also uses the palantír to challenge Sauron, showing him Narsil, which had cut the One Ring from his hand, and declaring himself as the heir of Isildur. Gandalf decides to split up the group, taking Pippin and riding to Minas Tirith.
The falling action of “The Two Towers” finds Frodo and Sam lost in the mountains on their way to Mordor with no food besides a dwindling supply of lembas bread. After Gollum follows them for several days, the Hobbits finally confront and capture him, recruiting him as their guide and making him swear on the Ring to obey Frodo. They pass through the Dead Marshes, the site of a long-ago battle during the Last Alliance, where dead faces linger in the water and try to draw travelers in. Frodo is increasingly weary, burdened by the weight of the Ring and the gaze of Sauron, who searches for him.
I often find it frustrating how Gollum’s contributions to the success of the Ring quest are overlooked. Frodo’s quest would have quickly ended in the hills of the Emyn Muil as he and Sam became lost if they had not captured Gollum and forced him to guide them to Mordor.
As they travel towards the gates to Mordor, Sam insists that he and Frodo take turns sleeping and keeping watch, suspicious of Gollum, whom Sam catches debating with himself about whether to steal the Ring. When they finally reach the Black Gate of Mordor, they find it too well-guarded to enter, and Gollum convinces Frodo to follow him to a more secret path into Mordor through the mountains.
On the way, the Hobbits are intercepted by a group of Rangers from Gondor led by Faramir, Boromir’s younger brother. Faramir is initially suspicious of the Hobbits and interrogates Frodo about Boromir’s death and Isildur’s Bane, but decides to trust them after Sam accidentally blurts the secret that Isildur’s Bane is the Ring. Faramir promises not to take the Ring from Frodo, and when Gollum is found trespassing near their secret fortress, Faramir spares his life for Frodo’s sake. Faramir tries to dissuade Frodo from following Gollum through the hidden pass into Mordor, but Frodo is adamant that he must continue his quest.
Gollum leads the Hobbits past Minas Morgul, where Frodo sees the Witch King of Angmar and is briefly tempted to put on the Ring, then they climb up into the mountains. Frodo guesses that war is beginning in the West when he sees Sauron’s massing armies around Minas Morgul and the Black Gate. After they climb a series of staircases higher into the mountains and stop to rest, Sam wonders to Frodo if people will tell stories about them someday.
After a long absence, which makes Sam suspicious again, Gollum shows them to the next part of their journey: a dark, stuffy tunnel. Sam and Frodo lose track of Gollum somewhere along the way and realize they’ve been led into a trap. As they hear a strange hissing noise behind them, Sam suddenly remembers Galadriel’s vial and urges Frodo to use it. The vial brightens with starlight, and the Hobbits see clusters of eyes following them. Frodo bravely threatens the eyes with the vial and his sword, invoking Galadriel’s name, and the eyes disappear. The Hobbits cut their way out of the tunnel, which is blocked with thick weblike objects.
Tolkien’s work is often suffused with Christian themes, including forgiveness. He also toyed with the idea of creatures like Gollum being redeemable despite their sins. I think this part of the narrative shows Tolkien finally giving up on him and showing us that Gollum was indeed too far gone for redemption.
The many-eyed giant spider, Shelob, follows the Hobbits out of her lair as soon as Sam puts the vial away. Gollum appears again, tackling Sam to the ground, but Sam fights him, and Gollum flees back into the tunnel. Sam then attacks Shelob, who looms over Frodo and manages to stab her in the belly. He drives her back into her lair with Galadriel’s vial, shouting out an invocation to Elbereth in Elvish, a language he doesn’t speak.
Frodo is covered in spiderwebs and doesn’t appear to be breathing. Believing him to be dead, Sam reluctantly takes up the Ring, intending to finish Frodo’s quest alone. As Sam leaves Frodo’s body behind, he hears Orcs approaching and puts on the Ring to become invisible. Realizing he’s made the wrong choice in leaving Frodo, Sam runs back toward Shelob’s lair to discover that the Orcs have carried Frodo away.
Sam follows the Orcs, listening to them talk, and realizes that Frodo is alive and merely paralyzed by Shelob’s venom. He draws his sword to charge the Orcs and rescue Frodo, but he’s too far behind them. The Orcs carry Frodo into the tower and close the gates, leaving Sam outside. As “The Two Towers” ends, Sam is anguished by the thought that he and Frodo are separated.
