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
That morning, Théoden and Gandalf reunite, along with Aragorn, Legolas, and Erkenbrand. Éomer and Gimli, who had been driven back into the Deep, emerge also, Gimli announcing his final number of 42. It beats Legolas’s score by one, but Legolas is so pleased to see him unharmed that he doesn’t mind losing the game. Gandalf reveals that he wasn’t the one who brought the forest to Helm’s Deep and says he could better explain who did if Théoden and the others will follow him to Isengard.
Though Legolas and Gimli’s competition was useful to keep them moving and playful during the battle, the actual outcome matters less than their safety and Rohan’s success. Legolas isn’t upset to lose because the object of the competition wasn’t actually to win. The appearance of the forest is a true mystery; if Gandalf didn’t bring it with him, it appears to the men of Rohan that Middle-earth itself sent them a forest to kill the orcs.
Themes
They rest, then depart in the evening with a hand-picked group of riders. Though the orcs are all dead, some of the wild men beg for mercy. The men of Rohan disarm them and make them swear to never march to war again. The dead riders of Rohan are buried in two mounds in the field in front of the Hornburg. They dig a separate grave for Háma, who died defending the gate. The orcs are piled up in heaps too big to burn.
The allied Free Peoples often offer lenience and mercy to the corrupted allies of Saruman and Sauron (in contrast to the harsher policies of the enemy), and the men of Dunland accept that mercy now. The orcs continue to be a plague on the natural landscape in death as they were in life, since the men of Rohan are unable to dispose of the bodies. Though Háma was demoted from doorward to messenger by Théoden, he ultimately died as a doorward—honorably defending an entryway.
Themes
Gandalf leads the way through the shadowy forest towards Isengard, leaving behind the people of Westfold, who sing a victory song. Gandalf thinks that no one will ever know what happened to the orcs when they ran into the forest. Legolas wants to talk to the trees; he senses wrath from them, but only towards orcs. Gimli urges him not to, explaining that he doesn’t love trees. The dwarves find the same beauty in stones and caves that Elves find in forests. He tells Legolas about the beauty of Helms Deep’s caverns and how much he’d like to carefully tend them, and though Legolas doesn’t like caves any more than Gimli likes trees, he is moved by Gimli’s passion. If they both survive the war, they decide to visit Fangorn and Helm’s Deep again together.
In the wake of the battle, Legolas and Gimli have a friendly argument that emphasizes the natural beauty of Middle-earth. Though they each find beauty in different things—and can’t understand the other’s preferences—they pledge to visit both caves and forests together after the war to witness all the beauty the world has to offer. Legolas’s love of trees and forests is well-established by now, but Gimli’s passion for rocks and caverns is surprising to Legolas even after his raptures in the halls of Moria. His appreciation for stone is a reminder that all the natural world has value and deserves care and tending.
Themes
As they pass out from beneath the trees, Legolas turns back to look and notices strange eyes watching them from the branches. Ents emerge from the forest, facing north towards more ents approaching. When the riders start to draw their swords, Gandalf assures them that the ents have no interest in harming them and explains what they are.
The trees really did march to battle like an army—they are huorns, a race of sentient trees cared for by the ents, and the same creatures that Pippin saw on the march to Isengard. The ents and the huorns are the representatives of the natural world in the battle against evil.
Themes
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Though the ents are a legend to Théoden, Théoden and the land of Rohan are only fleeting stories in the long lives of the ents. Théoden realizes that men have been so caught up in their own affairs that they no longer listen to the old stories of their people and only teach them to children. This is “a careless custom,” since now their legends walk among them.
Here, Théoden realizes one of the greatest problems facing the realms of men—one contributing to their decline. Men are beginning to forget their past, discount their treasured stories, and ignore the world beyond their own borders. In doing so, they have lost knowledge, wisdom, and opportunities for recognizing the wonder and diversity of the world. Théoden is right to call it careless, and his recognition of the problem raises hope for future change.
Themes
Gandalf tells Théoden he should be glad that the lives of those legends are also threatened by Mordor, since it makes them allies in the war. Théoden argues that he should also be sad, since the war might end with the destruction of “much that was fair and wonderful.” The evil of Sauron can’t ever be fully erased from the world.
While Gandalf focuses on the positive aspects of the ents joining them in the fight against Sauron and Saruman, Théoden is struck suddenly by the underlying implication—that the ents, creatures of legend, are just as likely to be killed as the men of Rohan. Gandalf can’t disagree. The entire world, full of both human mundanity and strange, wonderful legends, is endangered. Even if they win the war, what survives might never completely recover.
Themes
As they carry on towards Isengard, they notice that the springs of Isen are dried up as a result of Saruman’s corruption of the land. Théoden is distressed to ride past places where carrion birds swarm around fallen riders of Rohan, though Gandalf buried some of them while he was out on his errand gathering Erkenbrand’s scattered men the night before. When they stop for the night, Aragorn sees a column of smoke rising from Isengard, as if Saruman’s valley is burning. Éomer guesses that Saruman is creating some evil to stop them.
Saruman exploits the natural world around him, chopping down trees and drying up rivers, to fuel his corrupt machine—the pits and forges around Isengard where he makes his weapons and gathers his armies. The land is also marred by Saruman’s influence in the corpses left by the battles and the smoke filling the sky.
Themes
In the middle of the night, a watchman cries out, and the company wakes to hear whispering voices in the mist and feel the ground tremble, but eventually the voices pass and the sun rises. At the Hornburg, the men of Rohan also feel the earth move, but when the sun rises the piles of dead orcs have been buried in a huge pit, and the forest is gone. The trees are never seen near Helm’s Deep again—they have their revenge on the orcs and then return to Fangorn.
The huorns, as representatives of the natural world, have disposed of the orcs’ bodies, burying them out of sight beneath the earth. What was too great a task for the men of Rohan is the work of a single night for the huorns. The force of their actions shakes the very ground as they clean up the pollution left behind by the orcs and travel back to their rightful home.
Themes
Gandalf and his companions pass into Saruman’s valley, covered over in fog. Though it was once green and beautiful, it’s now polluted and covered in brambles. When they approach the walls around Orthanc, Saruman’s tower, they find the doors of Isengard broken on the ground. The land inside the walls is flooded and full of debris. By the gate, the riders suddenly see two small figures surrounded by bottles and plates. Merry, who notices the riders first, stands to welcome them to Isengard, then tells them that Saruman is closed up in his tower with Wormtongue.
Finally, as the characters reach Isengard, the narrator describes exactly what Saruman has done to the once-beautiful land. Isengard is further wrecked and flooded by some influence other than Saruman’s—presumably, this was the work of the invading ents. Merry, cheerful as ever, pleased to see his friends, and apparently undaunted by the battle for Isengard, takes the opportunity to mock Saruman’s defeat while he greets the approaching riders.
Themes
Gandalf laughs and greets Merry, then Gimli happily chides him for making the Three Hunters worry for the hobbits’ safety while they were there being “truants,” eating and smoking. Théoden recognizes Merry as a halfling, since his people have stories that they exist, though they don’t know anything specific about them. Treebeard has left a message for Théoden and Gandalf to meet him at the northern wall. As they ride away, the hobbits call Théoden very polite.
After the hopelessness and distress of the past days for both the hobbits and the Three Hunters, their reunion is a joyful reprieve. The hobbits are safe, happily eating and smoking —some of their favorite pastimes, and their favorite shields against despair. Théoden meets another of Rohan’s legends in the hobbits and, open-minded about the truth of the old stories, actually identifies them, though few people do. Merry and Pippin note Théoden’s good manners, further indication of the return of courtesy to Rohan.
Themes
