Like some of my ancient predecessors on this thread, my first thought reading through this time was that "Helm's Deep" is a rather short chapter--and, related to that, reading it through, it always seems a bit shorter reading it than movie-tinted memories make it. That said, I think it's better in the book, where the overall impression (and others above commented upon Tolkien's narrative methods) is of an actual battle--that is, Tolkien's narration feels closer akin to historical battle accounts (whether written or something filmed, like
Band of Brothers to capture a historical account) than it does to the movie version of its account! I suspect, leaning on the foregoing posts here, that a great of this sense to me has to do with the pauses and waiting that are part of the battle. No doubt, the fact that Tolkien had actually participated in real battles aided their creation here.
He wrote it over a decade ago, so I will not hold
Aiwendil to defend himself, but I disagree when he writes:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aiwendil
This chapter serves as something of a climax for book III. It's interesting to compare this with the climaxes of books I and II, each of which occurs in the final chapter of its respective book. This climax is greater, though, than either Frodo's escape from the Nazgul at the fords or the breaking of the Fellowship, and this may account for the extra space given to the denouement.
|
Of course,
Aiwendil wisely says "Helm's Deep" is "something" of a climax--a nice way to wiggle out from my disputation that this chapter is not, in fact, the true climax of Book III. I would agree that it is a false climax of sorts--and, certainly, the movies made it into the climax of the book--but the true climax of Book III is "The Voice of Saruman."
Saruman is the defining character of Book III: from Boromir's death, to the Three Hunters' quest, to the death of Théodred, to the defense of Helm's Deep, to the march of Ents, all the main plot actions of the "good" characters are in response to him. Even the shining revelation of Gandalf
the White is a reaction to Saruman's evil and failure. That is why I would say that the true climax of the book is the confrontation at Orthanc and the true denouément doesn't begin until thereafter. The Battle of Helm's Deep is an important move on the chessboard: boxing Saruman in and removing one of his great tools, but it's arguably no more significant than the Ents' destruction of Isengard and both seem to be to be set-up for the true climax of the book.