Tag Archives: The Two Towers

The Two Towers “Forth Eorlingas!” (2002)

As the battle of Helm’s Deep draws to a close, all seems lost for our heroes. The Uruk-Hai have overrun the outer defenses and what forces remain are holed up inside the great hall. Theoden seems almost suicidal in his despondency (“So much death. What can man do against such reckless hate?”) but even as the enemy begins breaking through, Aragorn remembers that this is the day Gandalf promised to return with help. With this in mind, he encourages Theoden to ride out and take the Uruk-Hai head on. Eager to go down fighting (that’s certainly how it appears to me), Theoden agrees, proclaiming that “the horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep. One last time.”

The Two Towers “Forth Eorlingas!” (2002)

Interestingly, the music that starts this moment (beginning when Aragorn remembers Gandalf’s promise) is a soft rendition of the music heard in “The Last March of the Ents.” It might just be a coincidence, but it could also be a musical clue that the trees of Fangorn Forest have also arrived to take revenge on the Uruk-Hai for attacking them in the past.

As Theoden and the others get ready to charge out, Gimli runs up to a tower where a massive horn can be seen. If you haven’t read the books, this is the legendary horn of King Helm Hammerhand, a great king of Rohan who saved his people from destruction. He used to sound that horn every time he went into battle, and even after he died people would swear they could hear the horn sounding on certain nights. The sound of this horn was said to terrify all who heard it, so maybe Theoden is hoping to psych out the Uruk-Hai (even a little) when the moment comes.

I love the moment the charge begins. The music has remained relatively soft and steady all this time, even as Theoden utters these last lines and the doors threaten to give way:

Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn!

At that moment, Gimli sounds the Horn of Helm and it’s this spine-tingling roar that instantly gives you goosebumps. In the next second, the door crashes down and Theoden leads a wild charge as the horn spurs them on. The music restarts as the king rides out into the morning light (a fanfare version of Rohan’s theme), but that glorious moment when all you hear is the horn is what sticks with me the most.

What do you think of this moment in “Forth Eorlingas”? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and have a great day!

The Two Towers “Last March of the Ents” (2002)

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I think we can all agree that the Ents are one of the greatest things about The Two Towers. After Merry and Pippin rescue themselves from the Uruk-hai, they head into Fangorn Forest and run straight into Treebeard, de facto leader of the few Ents that remain in Middle Earth. Ents…are like trees, sort of. They resemble different varieties of trees, but they have legs, and eyes and they can talk too. Oh and they live for a really LONG time. So long in fact, that regular events in Middle Earth like war very rarely bother them. They’d just as soon let the humans, elves and other races sort it out among themselves, despite the pleas Merry keeps making to them.

But just as Treebeard is set to take Merry and Pippin to a place where they can safely head off to the Shire, Pippin has an idea: he tells Treebeard to take them south past Isengard, having a fairly good idea of what the Ent will run into on the way.

See, while the Ents have been busy deep in the forest, Saruman the wizard has been busy having the forest surrounding Isengard chopped down as fuel for the furnaces helping to produce weapons and armor for his army. So when Treebeard comes to the slopes nearest the wizard’s tower, he emerges to find that acres of forest have been chopped down and completely destroyed, trees that he had known since they were seedlings.

That does it!! Exclaiming that “a wizard should know better” Treebeard lets out a howl of pain and anger that summons all the remaining Ents to his side as he explains to the hobbits:

“There is no curse in Elvish, Entish or in all the tongues of Men, for this treachery.”

Now the Ents will go to war, as they have not done for ages. But there is no optimism here: as the females of their species disappeared centuries ago, there are no more Ent children. Whatever losses they suffer in the coming battle will only hasten the extinction of their race, hence the reason this is called “the last march of the Ents.”

The Ents Attack Isengard

I love the scene when all the Ents are striding across the ruined plain, the Ent theme sounding clear in the background. This is one of those moments that is absolutely pure Tolkien and I never get tired of it. It’s such a sad theme, sad and bittersweet, but it matches the Ents perfectly.

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The Two Towers “Lament for Theodred” (2002)

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Note: I was actually going to do “Riders of Rohan” today but my headphones are missing right now and I didn’t want to wait all day to do a post, so I picked this one instead 🙂

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Theodred is a character that we, unfortunately, only “meet” after he has been mortally wounded by orcs at the Fords of the River Isen. (In the books we only learn of his death after the fact). He’s brought back to Edoras by his cousin Eomer, but he never recovers. In fact, a deleted scene was going to strongly hint that Wormtongue poisoned Theodred to make sure that he died.

The Two Towers “Lament for Theodred” (2002)

As King Theoden’s only son, the late prince is given a royal burial in the funeral mounds located outside the gates of Edoras, where all the kings of Rohan are buried. As the body is brought down to be interred into the mound, Eowyn (also Theodred’s cousin, being the sister of Eomer) leads a funeral dirge in Rohirric (the native language of Rohan).

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As strange as the words sound, Tolkien (being an expert in ancient languages) based Rohirric on a dialect of Old English. This is why, if you listen carefully, the words sound almost familiar, even though they’re not understandable. The basic gist of the dirge is that: death has claimed this noble warrior, and all will wail his passing. He will return home to Meduseld (the house of the king) no longer. The words sound harsh to the ear, but the raw heartache behind them is palpable.

This is clearly a very emotional moment for Eowyn, who has already lost her parents, seen her brother exiled and now must watch her cousin be buried. I’m sure she never imagined that she would witness Theodred’s funeral. It always hurts to lose a family member, but Eowyn does her best to keep her emotions in check (she is a princess of Rohan after all, being a niece of the king).

While Theodred is a character we barely get to meet, his death has far-reaching consequences. For one, Theoden has lived to bury his children (thus affecting him for the rest of the story). For another, this makes Eomer, the king’s nephew, the heir to the throne of Rohan. The problem is: Eomer is currenly riding north and growing more distant by the hour. Unless he can somehow be recalled, Rohan is going to be in a lot of trouble very quickly.