Guess Who's Coming to the Disaster - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
Is this the sort of stuff the stereotypical fan-boy supposedly eats up in his sword-hacking fiction? I don't think so. The whole scene reminds me of those formulaic Hollywood war flicks, where the soldiers are sitting around the campfire talking about their girls back home. But instead of focusing on some assembly-line actor rattling off lines about how he's going to marry Becky Sue, settle down, and have a ton of kids (although he has no idea he'll be buying the farm in the minefield just over the hill), Tolkien gives us flashbacks of the tragic history of the Ents. These include Treebeard's account of how the Ents and Ent-wives grew apart, and the Elves' songs marking the poignance of their separation with song.
Treebeard knows he's not going to find Fimbrethil. He longs for her in the way that only a man who has realized his terrible mistake can. It's a bit of tenderness set amid a landscape of hardy adventurers doing the manly thing, whatever the manly thing may be. In Treebeard's case, he was sniffing around the edges of the forest, trying to figure out what was going on. He had a lot of thinking to do, and had been thinking a lot. Yet, in coming to the realization that the Ents were still strong, Treebeard was lollygagging about, reminiscing over lost loves and vanished girlfriends. Someone, please give me a hanky.
When it comes to displays of macho mentality, the Rohirrim aren't much better off than the Ents. Theoden is grieving over his lost son, of course, but Eowyn is steadfastly by his side, offering her support even when all she really wants to do is lop off Wormtongue's head. Eomer falls all over himself in a manly bout of political correctness when he meets up with Aragorn Gimli, and Legolas. After a brief exchange of threats with the dwarf and elf, Eomer reveals that he could really use a hand back at Edoras. Whom does Eowyn ask for help?
As cliched as the manly but sensitive hero may seem to be these days, Tolkien filled his book with them. There have been innumerable jokes about Sam and Frodo, including innuendo and fan fiction which put them together in ways the author never would have dreamed of. But there are also scenes where Sam comes on like a blood-thirsty thug. He kills an Orc in Moria, and he threatens Gollum more than once. In fact, Tolkien lays the blame for Gollum's final fall directly at Sam's insensitive feet. Had Sam paid closer attention to the changes in Gollum's personality, things might have turned out differently.
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