The Nightmare World of Tolkien

[doug*platypus]

Great thread, Lalwendë! It is only fit that we celebrate the horrific descriptions of the evil beings and doings in Middle Earth. Tolkien's writing is as fluid and effective when discussing terror and brutality as it is when describing scenes of pure joy and ecstasy such as Cerin Amroth or Frodo's voyage into the west.

One of the most frightening moments in what is, at times, a terrifying book, is the assault on Crickhollow:

A feeling of fear had been growing on him all day, and he was unable to rest or go to bed: there was a brooding threat in the breathless night-air. As he stared out into the gloom, a black shadow moved under the trees: the gate seemed to open of its own accord and close again without a sound. Terror seized him.

Tolkien, it seems, uses several devices to convey terror. In this instance, rather than describing the Black Riders with gruesome language, he allows us to step into Fatty Bolger's shoes and experience what they made him feel. Absolute, mind-numbing and body seizing terror. It is some credit to Fredegar that he manages to escape and raise the alarm, rather than simply quivering in fright under the bed!

Further on in A Knife in the Dark we are with the hobbits and Strider in the dell under Weathertop, waiting for evil to assail them. Again, we are party to the fear that grips the hobbits as the enemy approaches:

"I don't know what it is," he said, "but I suddenly felt afraid. I durstn't go outside this dell for any money..."

This is most effective, and makes for great reading! These passages are right in keeping with where we are in the story in The Fellowship of the Ring, when the Black Riders are still quite mysterious, and the hobbits have not seen them up close and personal. In the subsequent volumes, as we get nearer to Mordor and become embroiled in the War of the Ring, the language gets more and more descriptive and the horror is revealed to us a little bit more each time. Gollum is played along a similar line. He and the Nazgûl do not become less frightening with each mention of them; quite the opposite. Every time we encounter them, Tolkien ups the ante and reveals more of their horror (and in the case of Gollum, pathos).

Tolkien makes the horror aspect of the book work extremely well, and we are never fooled into thinking that the forces of evil are anything but that. Granted, we have a nice conversation between Shagrat and Gorbag, but a few hours later they are sticking knives into each other and Shagrat lets out "a horrible gurgling yell of triumph" as he deals to his former friend.

As an aside, I wish that PJ and co had done more to translate the horror aspects of LOTR to the big screen. There were a few scenes that were kind of scary, but in general I think that things were revealed too soon, and the mystery was lost. I never felt truly terrified. But I will save that discussion for the Movies forum.