LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 08 - The Houses of Healing

[Alphaelin]

Two things stand out in this chapter for me. One is Aragorn's healing ability, which I see others also find interesting, and the other is the reunion of Merry and Pippin, and a demonstration of "unquenchable" hobbit-nature.

The chapter opens with the same atmosphere of battle-weariness which closed Chapter 7, personified in Merry. He is tired, lost and ill from the Black Breath; wandering in a sort of fog until Pippin finds him. It is touching when Pip takes charge of Merry here.

"Are you going to bury me?" said Merry.

"No, indeed!" said Pippin, trying to sound cheerful, though his heart was wrung with fear and pity. "No, we are going to the Houses of Healing."

Once Merry gets to the HoH, Pippin seems to regain his composure enough to greet Aragorn quite "unquenchably".

"Strider! How splendid! Do you know, I thought it was you in the black ships. But they were all shouting corsairs and wouldn't listen to me. How did you do it?"

Merry, when he wakes up, shows that he is a true hobbit by instantly demanding food, and he and Pip immediatly start discussing the possiblity of getting supper. One can only wonder what Aragorn might be thinking at this point. ('Food! Do they every think of *anything else*?' or perhaps 'Thank the Valar, he's asking for food. He's back to normal.') From his 'scolding' of Merry for losing his backpack on the field, it is probably close to the latter. This of course gives Pippin another chance at for a great line:

"My dear ***, your pack is lying by your bed, and you had it on your back when I met you. He saw it all the time, of course."

This is an interesting transition speech, for the last line sets up Merry's thoughtful remarks, quoted by Davem in his first post on this thread.

Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights."

[Merry] "But at least, Pippin, we can see them and honour them...