Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Two Towers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Decline and Decay
Good and Evil
Duty
Joy and Optimism vs. Despair
Power
Heroism, Honor, and Glory
Summary
Analysis
At dawn, the Three Hunters search the ground for signs of the hobbits. Gimli is still certain that the old man they saw the previous night was Saruman, but Aragorn is less convinced. Legolas heard the horses when they bolted, and he believes they seemed excited rather than scared, as though they saw an old friend.
As an elf, Legolas’s instincts about the plants and animals of Middle-earth are usually sound. His insistence that the horses weren’t frightened suggests to the reader that there might be something more going on in Fangorn forest than the Three Hunters are yet aware of. This understanding gives Legolas reason to be hopeful, though Gimli, still firmly pessimistic, is convinced that Saruman is causing mischief for them.
Themes
After a long search, Aragorn finds a mallorn-leaf with crumbs of lembas stuck to it and pieces of cut rope. He reads the clues and decides that at least one of the hobbits must have escaped into the forest. As they follow the trail to the bank of the Entwash and farther into Fangorn, Legolas remarks that the forest doesn’t seem evil, despite what the stories say, though it does seem tense and so old that it makes Legolas feel young. They find the place where Merry and Pippin drank from the stream and climb the same hill where the hobbits met Treebeard.
As the lembas fortified the hobbits during their escape, the mere sight of its wrappings now gives the Three Hunters new energy and enthusiasm in their search, proving that at least one hobbit escaped slaughter with the orcs. Legolas has a great sympathy for the natural world and its emotions. He can tell that, though it has suffered from the decline of Middle-earth, it hasn’t become as entirely corrupted as Celeborn implied to them earlier.
Themes
From the top of the hill, Legolas sees a bent old man wearing gray rags and leaning on a staff. Gimli suddenly shouts that the old man is Saruman and urges Legolas to prepare his bow and shoot. Legolas readies his bow slowly, but doesn’t shoot the old man, instead watching to see what he’ll do. Aragorn agrees that they can’t shoot at the old man without challenging him first.
Gimli’s urgent desire to find the hobbits, his worry, and his hopelessness impair his judgement towards the end of the Three Hunters’ search. Hasty and violent, he wants to achieve their goal of rescuing the hobbits with no thought of the propriety or courtesy he otherwise values. Aragorn and Legolas, who have a stronger capacity for hope and patience, are less eager for an unprompted fight.
Themes
The old man reaches the bottom of the hill and looks up. He is hooded, and the three companions can’t see his face, but Aragorn catches a glimpse of keen eyes. The old man greets them as friends, claiming he wishes to speak with them, and begins to climb up the hill. Gimli again urges Legolas to shoot, but Legolas drops his bow when the old man tells him to put it away. When the old man tells Gimli to take his hand away from his axe, Gimli is suddenly stuck in place. Beneath the old man’s gray clothes, there is a flash of white as he hops up to the top of the hill and steps over to meet them.
The old man is both jovial and disturbing. His words have incredible power and the clothes beneath his gray cloak are white. Both the voice and the color white are characteristic of Saruman, who the Three Hunters know has been haunting this area. His disguise and their own wariness make it difficult for the Three Hunters to determine whether he’s an ally as he claims or an enemy as he appears.
Themes
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The old man greets them again and asks what they’re doing in Fangorn. Aragorn asks the old man what his name is and what he wants to say to them. The old man responds that he already said what he wanted to say: what are they doing, and what is the story behind it? He tells them that they’ve heard his name before. When the three companions are silent, the old man reveals that he knows they’re tracking hobbits and that he has news about them. As the old man sits, his grey cloak falls back, revealing his white clothes beneath. The three companions are suddenly able to move again, arming themselves quickly.
The old man is conversationally vague and evasive in a way that, as he tells them, they have heard before. He knows information about the hobbits that would be incredibly dangerous in the hands of Saruman—it sounds to the Three Hunters like he’s threatening Merry and Pippin’s safety. Though the old man hasn’t revealed his identity, with another flash of his white clothes, the Three Hunters can be fairly certain that he’s their enemy, Saruman.
Themes
Gimli lunges for the old man with his axe, demanding to know where the hobbits are. The old man leaps away, onto a large rock, suddenly appearing taller. As he raises his staff, his hood and cloak fall away, and Gimli’s axe is pulled from his hand. Aragorn’s sword blazes with fire and Legolas cries “Mithrandir!” The three companions are stunned into silence until Aragorn finally says, “What veil was over my sight? Gandalf!”
In an unexpected turn of events, Gandalf, who fell with the Balrog into a chasm in Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring, is alive and has returned to aid his friends. From this brief introduction, Gandalf appears not to have changed much besides his clothes in his absence. He still enjoys puzzling his friends with his elusive words and masked identity.
Themes
Gandalf repeats his name as though only just remembering it and pulls his grey cloak on again. He urges the three companions to be happy that they’ve met again as “the great storm is coming, but the tide has turned.” Gimli laughs to see Gandalf dressed in white rather than grey and Gandalf answers that he has become what Saruman should have been. He urges them to tell him about themselves.
Gandalf is one of Middle-earth’s greatest counselors. His return in itself brings the Three Hunters joy, but it also means that their chances of success against Sauron have increased. Gandalf’s return is a first sign of the eventual restoration of Middle-earth: after falling, he emerges more powerful than before, wearing white as the new head of the Order of Wizards. His remark about Saruman suggests that had the wizard made different choices, he, too, could have been a force for good.
Themes
Gandalf didn’t rescue the hobbits and didn’t know they’d been taken by orcs until an eagle told him—the same eagle Legolas saw three days before. Gandalf knows some of what happened while he was gone, but not everything. He knows that the Ring was almost revealed to Sauron and helped to protect it by fighting Sauron mentally. Gimli asks how Frodo is, but Gandalf doesn’t know. Frodo was saved from danger that time, but there is more ahead on his path to Mordor. Gandalf is pleased, but not surprised, to hear that Sam went with Frodo.
Even when he was not physically with the Fellowship, Gandalf was watching out for them, collecting news and shielding them from Sauron’s eye. Still, he isn’t omniscient. He was able to help Frodo once at Amon Hen, but now, it seems, Frodo and Sam really are alone for the remainder of their quest and must face Mordor’s dangers without the Fellowship’s aid. It’s an ominous thought. Still, Frodo has Sam, whose devotion to his duty Gandalf doesn’t doubt.
Themes
Aragorn summarizes the travels of the Fellowship after Gandalf’s death, and Gandalf realizes that Aragorn is omitting Boromir’s weakness in trying to take the Ring from Frodo. Gandalf remarks that he’s glad the hobbits joined the Fellowship for Boromir’s sake, then speaks aloud to himself about the hobbits’ role in Fangorn and the fate of Isengard. Aragorn doesn’t understand and tells Gandalf that he still speaks “in riddles.”
Gandalf implies that it was Merry and Pippin that saved Boromir from himself and from the Ring’s corruption. Boromir’s love for them and his unselfish desire to defend them redeemed him after his betrayal, allowing him to die a hero. Though Boromir’s weaknesses overpowered him, they didn’t define him, thanks to the happy and loving influence of the hobbits. Their simple actions have results beyond anyone’s imagining; now, Saruman might fall because of their accidental meeting with Treebeard and encouragement of his plan to march to war.
Themes
Gandalf explains that, while Sauron knows the Ring is in the possession of a hobbit, he doesn’t know the purpose of the Company and thinks they’re traveling to Minas Tirith to use the Ring against him in battle. Sauron hasn’t yet considered that they might destroy the Ring and, instead, prepares his forces for war. Saruman is a traitor to both Sauron and Gandalf—he desires the Ring for himself and uses his influence to prevent Rohan from riding to aid Gondor. Now that Sauron knows that two hobbits were being taken to Isengard, he will see Saruman as an enemy as well. Gandalf also mentions that Saruman, concerned with the whereabouts of the Ring and the danger of Théoden taking it, forgot about the closer threat of Treebeard.
Sauron’s understanding of power as absolute and individual, while it makes him a formidable opponent, can also be a weakness. Because he can’t understand other concepts of power (as something shared and beneficial, for instance), he can’t even conceive of the possibility that someone would seek to destroy the Ring, an object of incredible power. Saruman, who sees power the same way as Sauron, acts exactly as Sauron expects the men of Gondor and Rohan to act—he seeks to take the Ring and use it for himself. Saruman is also blinded by his desire for the power of the Ring, overlooking and underestimating his enemies closer at hand.
Themes
Gandalf confirms for Gimli that it was Saruman that they saw at the edge of their fire the night before. He also tells them that the hobbits are with the ents, to the amazement of Aragorn and Legolas, who know the ents as an ancient legend. Treebeard is the oldest ent and the oldest living thing walking on Middle-earth. Gimli protests that he thought Fangorn was dangerous, but Gandalf calls all of them, himself included, dangerous if provoked. Gandalf foretells that the ents are about to remember that they are strong, but he doesn’t know what will happen in Isengard and doesn’t think the ents know themselves.
Though Gimli has been suspicious and eager to see enemies in potential allies, he wasn’t wrong to be wary, since Saruman actually was watching them. However, he doesn’t need to be so suspicious of Fangorn forest, which has the potential for good, evil, danger, and kindness—like any other living thing. Though Fangorn has a fierce reputation, the ents, newly roused to anger by Treebeard, don’t know their own power and danger. Time will tell who prevails in the coming battle at Isengard.
Themes
Aragorn asks if they should follow the hobbits and meet Treebeard, but Gandalf says that he will take him to speak to Théoden instead. They must all prepare for war against Mordor without the help of the Ring, which is now beyond their reach. Gandalf urges Aragorn not to regret the choice he made to follow Merry and Pippin rather than Frodo and Sam—it was a just choice. Aragorn promises to go with Gandalf, the two of them looking large and powerful as they stand together. Aragorn says that though Mordor has Nine Riders, they have One White Rider, Gandalf. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli agree to follow him to Rohan.
With Gandalf’s return, Aragorn finally receives assurance that, though the decision was painful, he made the correct choice in following Merry and Pippin. Now that the temptation to use the Ring in battle has been removed, it is more essential than ever for all of Middle-earth to unite against the enemy that seeks to subjugate and destroy them. To this end, they must now convince Théoden to join the fight and share the burden of protecting the world.
Themes
Before they depart, Legolas and Gimli ask what happened to Gandalf after they parted. He tells his story: he fell a long way into darkness and was burned by the Balrog, then fell into deep water and nearly froze. Gandalf fought the Balrog at the bottom of the abyss and then up a secret pathway to Durin’s tower. Gandalf threw the Balrog down the tower and killed it, and then his mind strayed through time. He was “sent back” to the mountaintop to finish his task on Middle-earth, where he lay until Gwaihir the eagle found him and carried him away to Lothlórien.
Gandalf doesn’t give precise details of what happened to him after his fight with the Balrog. He has knowledge of the workings of the world that none of his companions possess and powers beyond their understanding. All they—and the reader—need to know is that he fulfilled his duty in protecting the Fellowship from the Balrog, and has now been allowed the opportunity to continue that duty by aiding Middle-earth in the coming war.
Themes
There, Galadriel healed him and gave him white clothes before sending him with messages. To Aragorn, she asks where his kinfolk the Dúnedain are and advises him that the “Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.” She warns Legolas that if he hears a seagull cry, his heart will no longer rest in the forests of his home. Gimli asks if there is a message for him, and Legolas wonders why he would want one, since Galadriel’s words are dark and confusing. When Gimli insists that he wants a message from her no matter what she might say, Gandalf suddenly remembers a message for him, though it isn’t in verse like the other two. Galadriel sends a simple greeting to Gimli and urges him to put his axe against the right tree.
Galadriel’s messages are cryptic, but they contain encouraging hints. She gives Aragorn a clue about where to find allies against Sauron: in his own scattered people, the Dúnedain. She gives Legolas a warning that his travels and his experiences in this war will fundamentally change him. Gimli, still besotted with Galadriel, desperately wants a message. The fact that Gandalf only remembers the message for Gimli after he asks for it, and that it contains basically the same words he said to Gimli earlier about being careful with his axe, implies that Gandalf might have invented a message from Galadriel to make Gimli happy.
Themes
Gandalf whistles three times and calls three horses—the two that Éomer gifted to the Three Hunters and Shadowfax, the lord of horses, which Gandalf will ride into battle. He explains that the Rohirrim’s horses had fled the night before to meet Shadowfax, their leader. Gandalf asks the horses for permission to ride quickly to the house of Théoden. They ride as the sun sets towards the Gap of Rohan. Legolas sees smoke blocking the sun and asks what it might be. Gandalf replies, “battle and war!” and the companions ride on.
Gandalf’s respect for the horses of Rohan reveals his understanding of the inherent worth of all living things on Middle-earth, even the animals and plants. Shadowfax belongs to no one but himself and permits Gandalf to ride him as an ally and friend. The evening looks hopeful for the four friends, since they have a new goal and the hobbits are safe. Still, there is trouble on the horizon; the natural landscape reflects the turmoil in Rohan as smoke obscures the sun.
Themes
