LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 09 - Flotsam and Jetsam

[Lathriel]

I don't have the book with me right now but in this chapter I get a sense that events could have turned out very differently for saruman. If he hadn't been so hungry for power he could have been a great ally. Also I feel pity for him as wel as anger.

Pity because he was such a great man and has fallen so far.He could have become even greater if he had not changed sides and betrayed the west.

Anger because he destroyed much that was beautiful and good. Also he caused his neighbours much grief. The ents lost some of their herd and the people of Rohan lost their prince Theodred.(PLus many of the Rohirrim and soldiers)

Of course many of these emotions reach their peak in the next chapter but in "Flotsam adn Jetsam" they are beginning to develop.

In this chapter Ents are shown to be more then kind creatures. It is like a warning. Don't try to battle against somebody whose full strength you don't know. That was a major mistake of Saruman's. He obviously thought he could dismiss the ents and that he only had to worry about Rohan. On top of that he also underestimated their strength and thought htat it wasn;t important. Thus he was not prepared for the march of thre ents and this is what caused his downfall.

[Encaitare]

'He let Wormtongue go, and he limped off through the arch, with us close behind, until he came inside the ring and could see all the floods that lay between him and Orthanc. Then he turned to us.

'"Let me go away!" he whined. "Let me go away! My messages are useless now."'

This just makes me curious... where did Grima think he was going to go? Gondor? Bree? He doesn't seem the type to make it on his own in the wild.

'An angry Ent is terrifying. Theyir fingers, and their toes, just freeze onto rock; and they tear it up like break crust. It was like watching the work of great tree-roots in a hundred years, all packed into a few moments.'

'I thought that they [the Ents] had really been roused before; but I was wrong. I saw what it was like at last. It was staggering. They roared and boomed and trumpeted, until stones began to crack and fall at the mere noise of them.'

We all know that Tolkien was a lover of trees and rather fancied the idea of nature striking back. The second quote, though is very interesting to me; I don't think I noticed it before. It is as though multiple forces of nature, headed by the Ents, are striking back against Isengard's Fire. There are the Ents and Huorns(Earth), the Isen (Water), and the very sounds the Ents make in their fury (Air/Wind).

Ents couldn't resist. After Gandalf left, Treebeard was "left alone to talk with him" and Saruman talked his way out of captivity.

Beat me to it, Phantom. Although, it did take a while for Saruman to persuade Treebeard, so perhaps since the Ents are so ancient and decidedly unhasty, it takes longer for anything to affect them.