[Essex]

OK, Bethberry, re your reply regarding my post on of the plot seen from different viewpoints.

Not sure what you mean here. Simply that each of the narrative thread--Sam and Frodo, the hobbits, Aragorn/Gandalf--are split? I don't necessarily see any different points of view.

Here’s a few for starters.

1/ Witch King's death as discussed by the orcs on the Orc Path.

'I'll give your name and number to the Nazgûl,' said the soldier lowering his voice to a hiss. 'One of _them_'s in charge at the Tower now.'
The other halted, and his voice was full of fear and rage. 'You cursed peaching sneakthief!' he yelled. 'You can't do your job, and you can't even stick by your own folk. Go to your filthy Shriekers, and may they freeze the flesh off you! If the enemy doesn't get them first. They've done in Number One, I've heard, and I hope it's true!'
The big orc, spear in hand, leapt after him. But the tracker, springing behind a stone, put an arrow in his eye as he ran up, and he fell with a crash. The other ran off across the valley and disappeared.
For a while the hobbits sat in silence. At length Sam stirred. 'Well I call that neat as neat,' he said. 'If this nice friendliness would spread about in Mordor, half our trouble would be over.'

We see the WK's death first hand on the Pellenor Fields, but we see a different viewpoint (and more importantly we see cause and effect) with the two orcs arguing on the Orc path that Frodo and Sam overhear. Without his death, Sam and Frodo may well have been discovered, and the game up.

2/ Another, indirect, but beautifully constructed passage finds us at the Cross-roads:

Standing there for a moment filled with dread Frodo became aware that a light was shining; he saw it glowing on Sam's face beside him. Turning towards it, he saw, beyond an arch of boughs, the road to Osgiliath running almost as straight as a stretched ribbon down, down, into the West. There, far away, beyond sad Gondor now overwhelmed in shade, the Sun was sinking, finding at last the hem of the great slow-rolling pall of cloud, and falling in an ominous fire towards the yet unsullied Sea…..[king’s head piece]….. 'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.

We can see here the viewpoint of Frodo regarding the Darkness from Mordor. To the people in Minas Tirith it is overbearing, but we see from Frodo’s view that the darkness does not yet encompass all. The lightbeams fall on the fallen King’s head. Light will overcome darkness in the end.

3/ Finally, a direct comparison.

'Look at it, Mr. Frodo!' said Sam. 'Look at it! The wind's changed. Something's happening. He's not having it all his own way. His darkness is breaking up out in the world there. I wish I could see what is going on!'
It was the morning of the fifteenth of March, and over the Vale of Anduin the Sun was rising above the eastern shadow, and the south-west wind was blowing. Théoden lay dying on the Pelennor Fields.

The Wind has changed. Aragorn’s ships are charging up the river Anduin, but Theoden is dying. We can see hope tied together with despair. But together with these events unfolding in Gondor, we see Sam’s spirits are lifted at pretty much exactly when they needed to be. This is the point where Frodo begins his final descent into total control by the Ring, and this is the point where Sam really takes over, and Middle-earth needs his guidance, so that goodness can prevail.

Sorry, I seem to have led this topic off at a tangent. We should get back to Fordim’s points on whether this is a linear or circular composition. But I think my points above, though off topic, go to show that (I think) it is too simple to show this story as linear or circular. Actually, what I wrote above has just come to mind. This book, in its multiple layers, is really abot Cause and Effect. ie how different strands of a tale are totally interwoven. Take one piece out of the equation and all fall, like a line of dominoes. My example of the defeat of the Witch King is a major one. But, for example, what if Sam's dad hadn't told the Black Rider that the hobbit's had already left? They probably would have been captured in Hobbiton before they had travelled a step! Without Mr Gamgee's (unwitting) assistance, all would have been lost.......