Tolkien Tuesday: Reading "The Lord of the Rings": "Journey to the Cross-roads"
As the trio of Sam, Frodo, and Gollum say farewell to Ithilien, they pass through some of the sad ruins of Gondor, melancholic reminders of its former greatness.
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Welcome to Tolkien Tuesdays, where I talk about various things that I love about the lore and writings of Tolkien, whether in a chapter reading or a character study or an essay. I hope you enjoy reading these ruminations as much as I enjoy writing them and, if you have a moment, I’d love it if you’d subscribe to this newsletter. It’s free, but there are paid options, as well, if you’re of a mind to support a struggling writer. Either way, thank you for joining me!
Whenever I read the chapters that take place in Ithilien, I can’t help but marvel at how different they are than their counterparts in Peter Jackson’s film. To be sure, there’s the same sense of impending doom, particularly given that the earth itself begins to shake and to tremble. However, Frodo and Sam are able to set out on this next leg of their journey with a lighter heart than their cinematic counterparts, precisely because Faramir has shown himself to be a man of character from the beginning rather than making the decision to send them to his father. This isn’t to say that the departure is all sunshine and rainbows, for unfortunately Sam and Frodo are forced to go blindfolded once again, because Frodo has decided (magnanimously) that if Gollum must be bound (always a good idea), then all three of them will.
It often occurs to me just how much Sam and Frodo have missed on their journey, precisely because they had to be blindfolded in order to keep some location secret. Let’s not forget that they had to walk blindly through Lothlórien because those in charge of protecting it didn’t want to risk exposing knowledge of its ways to the Enemy. Here again suspicion plays a role, and even though Faramir is right to suspect that Gollum would seek to use his knowledge for nefarious ends–this is Gollum, after all, and he never encountered a secret he couldn’t put to some bad end–it’s hard not to feel sorry for Sam and Frodo, in that they are denied what is no doubt a beautiful land.
Narratively, not a lot happens in this chapter, as Sam, Frodo, and Gollum make their way through the last bits of Ithilien and at last come to the Cross-roads that will mark yet another important stage of their journey. What this chapter does give us, however, is a lot of beautiful description of the land through which they wander. By now it’s clear that Tolkien was one of those writers who could truly wax poetic about the natural world, and as the three of them undertake their journey you really do feel as if you are right there alongside them, seeing and smelling the beautiful trees and flowers all around. On some level, we as readers understand that this is going to be one of the last moments in which our beloved hobbits will get to see and smell growing things and freshwater. The gloom and despair of Mordor beckons them onward, and it won’t be long before they can’t avoid it any longer.
Despite the beauty, however, there is an ever-present sense of menace, and neither the characters nor the reader can escape the sense that there are things lurking in the silence that cannot be seen. Frodo himself seems to acknowledge as much when he notices that “there was an evil feeling in the air, as if things might indeed be passing up and down that eyes could not see.” Given the fact that we know that the Ringwraiths are invisible when they are not clad in their robes, and given that they are quite close to Minas Morgul, it makes sense that the hobbit would be able to sense these things, if they are there at all and not just the product of his fevered imagination. In either case, Tolkien once again demonstrates his remarkable skill at bringing the affects and ethos of horror into the realm of high fantasy.
There is, I think, something uniquely pleasurable about this sense of imminent danger and death. On one level it reminds us of the stakes involved in this adventure. By this point Frodo and Sam have left behind the one last bit of safety and succor they can expect. From this point onward they are at Gollum’s mercy and that of any of Sauron’s minions that they might encounter. On another, deeper level, this chapter also teases that part of our brain that savors the sense of menace and threat, the sense that anything might happen and that our heroes do face actual physical danger.
I always enjoy the way that Sam manages to inject a bit of levity and decency into the quest, no matter where they happen to be or how close they are to the realm of Sauron and his hatred of all growing things. His dream is somehow both very humorous and also quite sad, particularly since I’m sure many of us have had a moment when we dreamt that we were free from an onerous and perilous situation, only to wake and realize that we haven’t achieved the escape we thought we did.
Lastly, it’s worth noting the way that this chapter evokes the former beauties and power of Gondor. Time and again throughout The Lord of the Rings we’ve been reminded that this once-mighty kingdom is but a shadow of itself, and as the trio makes their way through Ithilien this is brought home to them and us again and again. There is, for example, the brief but evocative moment in which Frodo sees “the high dim tops and broken pinnacles of old towers forlorn and dark,” all that remains of Osgiliath, the mighty city of Gondor. In one small sentence Tolkien manages to convey to us just how far this race of Men has fallen, the ruins of their most splendid creation calling attention to its own obsolescence. And then, of course, there’s also the ever-present Minas Morgul, of which Frodo can’t help but be aware, since it is the haven for the being who stabbed him back on Weathertop.
Despite its relatively short length, “Journey to the Cross-roads” still manages to pack quite a descriptive punch. And, lest we be completely overwhelmed by the looming dark, there is the piercing and poignant moment with which it concludes, when a beam of sun falls on the fallen head of the statue of the king, giving him a crown for just one more moment. It’s a fitting way to end the chapter, one last glimpse of the light before the dark.