The Two Towers

By J.R.R. Tolkien

I am not sure why, but I liked this part of the story better than the first one, maybe because I had some difficulty grasping the plot while reading the first book. There were so many characters and at some point I think I just lost track of them all for a while. However, now that I have seen the first movie, I have more points of reference and so it was not too hard for me to keep track of all the characters this time round. Normally I do not have this problem when reading, but somehow this very complex story (in my mind anyway) made me lose track of everyone…

Like in the first book, so much happens also in the second part that it is almost impossible to write a short summary. Nonetheless, I suppose Frodo and Sam journey towards for Mordor is worth mentioning, as well as Boromir dying while he tries to stop a band of orcs from kidnapping Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, who travel into the land of Rohan to pursue the Orcs. It is on this journey that Aragorn meets an old man, who turns out to be Gandalf whom they all had assumed dead after his fall in Moria.

I think my favourite moment in this book was when Merry and Pippin met Treebeard, an ent who is so enraged by their tale of the evils around that he gathers the other ents to rouse the forest and attack Isengard.

On their journey towards Mordor, Frodo and Sam find Gollum, a creature who once bore the Ring, and who has been following them for some time. Frodo and Sam force him to lead them into Mordor. After a long and gruelling journey they finally arrive at the gates of Mordor. However, Gollum leads them up a seemingly endless staircase and into a secret tunnel where he abandons them and where they are attacked by a spider-like beast. Sam eventually beats the creature away but finds that Frodo is no longer breathing. He takes the Ring to continue on with the quest on his own, while Frodo, who appears to be dead, is carried away by Orcs.

Ohhh… Very exciting ending here, especially since Frodo really is not dead. The poison injected in him by the spider-like beast only makes the victim appear dead, so now it only remains to see if he will be able to escape the Orcs…

Hm… I think I am on the way to becoming a fan here, as I cannot wait to see what the next, and last, chapter of this story has to offer.