I can't say I was surprised by the death in this chapter. Since leaving Rivendell, it's been leading us to death: from all the foreboding words, to the wolves, the watcher, the orcs, the Fellowship has had a lot of brushes with death.
Tolkien had convinced me (unlike Jackson's movies) this journey through Moria was filled with very real and dangerous threats to every member of the Fellowship. Even Gandalf once he says that he's never felt a challenge from someone like the one he faced over the door. I mean this is someone who in the previous chapter chided Boromir for not knowing what he was talking about in comparing Moria and Mordor, and saying he had been through Sauron's dungeons in Dol Guldur, now there was a power in Moria that he's never felt before.
The power of the Ring, while it's not (to my recollection) brought up in this chapter, it's power to draw evil to it. I wondered years ago about the Great orc's charge on Frodo...how the orc ducks Aragorn's blow and is strong enough to actually drive Boromir backwards and get at Frodo. Not only are the orcs here presented as a deadly threat, but I wondered if the Ring caused this berserker-like frenzy in the orc. Because the orc's sole purpose here is directed at Frodo, it shows the agility in dodging Aragorn's strike, the strength to drive Boromir back, and once it reaches Frodo and wounds him, it's like the fury suddenly dissipates. Like "Knife in the Dark," when the Witch-King wounds Frodo and the Ringwraiths withdraw, believing their mission has (or soon will be) accomplished. The sudden fury of strength and agility in this orc leaves:
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Sam, with a cry, hacked at the spear-shaft, and it broke. But even as the orc flung down the truncheon and swept out his scimitar, Anduril came down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head. His followers fled howling, as Boromir and Aragorn sprang at them.
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Then a bit later, Frodo's mithril vest saves him again as an orc arrow bounces off, and another arrow pierces Gandalf's hat...you start to wonder how many escapes from death, how much "luck" does the Fellowship have?
While it is a common fantasy trope to kill the old and wise "mentor figure" to the main protagonist, I distinctly remember being surprised it was Gandalf who died here. That feeling, still having The Hobbit Gandalf firmly cemented in my head when first reading The Lord of the Rings. The Gandalf who it is said right at the start of The Hobbit:
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"We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices. We shall soon before the break of day start on a long journey, a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend and counselor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return." - An Unexpected Party
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But as mentioned on this re-read and in previous CbC posts, this Gandalf is not the infallible Gandalf from The Hobbit. And in fact his death is needed, but not to serve as the fantasy trope to leave Frodo without the "mentor figure," but it was needed for Aragorn's story. It is Aragorn who has to be the primary "mentor" figure for Frodo. Frodo's pure joy when finding out Aragorn is going with him, even if it's just for a certain amount of time. Aragorn takes Gandalf's place for the hobbits in guiding them from Bree to Rivendell. And as long as Gandalf is in the Fellowship, Aragorn is going to defer to Gandalf's judgment and guidance. He might privately disagree with Gandalf, but he ultimately defers to Gandalf. Aragorn is actually the true mentor and guide in Book I, and he can't be that in Book II, as long as Gandalf is with the Fellowship.