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masterghandalfThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This post contains violence, deaths and depiction of drowning.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Dennis L. McKiernan’s The Iron Tower! Last time, our heroes arrived at Spindle Ford, we spent a lot of time on the daily routines of the Thornwalkers and some very long physical descriptions of the Thornwall itself, and we learned that Modru is indeed on the move again and seems to have summoned some sort of massive shadow to blot out the sun and provide cover for his armies. Today we wrap up Chapter Three as we finally get to the events that will lead to our heroes leaving the Boskydells entirely and venturing out at long last into the wider world. Joining us today will be Tharkos and Thalia!
Thalia: …are we going to learn more about that darkness Modru has summoned? I think that’s what I want to read about, anyway! In any case, we open the second half of the chapter with Tuck’s squad being assigned Beyonder duty in the overnight shift, and while waiting to go out they fall to small talk on various subjects *she sighs heavily* why is that so easy for some people? – talk that inevitably turned to Modru. Tapry wonders why Modru has only returned now, after four thousand years, while Arbin wants to know all about the creatures that serve him, and explains what he’s heard about them:
“I know about Rûcks, Hlôks, and Ogrus, or at least what the tales tell: they’re supposed to be all alike, just different sizes: the Rûck being the smallest, a bit larger than we—say, four-foot tall; the Hlôk, big as a Man, I hear tell; and the Ogru, or Troll as the Dwarves call him, twice Man-size.”
Tharkos: Well, seeing as there is far more to war than mere size, if that is literally all you know about the enemy, then you are in a sorry state indeed. Danner is disbelieving about this, thinking that if Trolls were really that large, they’d be the most powerful creatures in the world after only dragons – and no dragon has been seen for centuries. Unless, of course, one counts the great comet that passed a few years ago and which we’ve already heard referenced – the Dragon Star.
MG: Breaking in for a bit more context on some things. First off, yes, it’s very clear from this description how all these creatures map onto their LotR equivalents – Rucks are ordinary orcs or “goblins,” Hloks are Uruk-hai, and Trolls are, well, trolls. Not even trying to hide it are you, McKiernan (admittedly, D&D does something much the same with goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears – D&D trolls being a rather different beast from LotR’s)? As for dragons, the reason none have been seen for centuries is that Mithgar dragons have a cycle of hibernation and activity. As of the present of Iron Tower, the dragons are asleep, so don’t expect to see any, alas (though we’ll hear a bit more about them). They’ll wake up again in time to play a big role in the overall saga’s climactic installment, Silver Wolf, Black Falcon, which we’re not looking at (for the record, I don’t plan at the moment to look at any Mithgar beyond Iron Tower and Silver Call unless people really, really want to hear me talking more about this world after we’re done with those… but I do have a couple of other Tolkien-adjacent things I’m eyeing, in addition to RoP. But all that’s still a ways in the future.).
On the other hand… yes, there is a reason Modru is acting now and not before, and we’ll learn it eventually. This is, however, an interesting point of comparison with Sauron. Sauron may have only openly returned to Mordor shortly after The Hobbit, but he hardly spent the Third Age idle. He’d been pulling strings from the shadows for a long, long time and setting up his dominos to fall. A question I’ve seen asked – I think mostly from people who’ve just seen the movies, because the book explains it – is why Sauron is such a threat, if the Free Peoples beat him once already when he had his Ring. Well, part of that is it’s been three thousand years; with the exception of some of the elves, everyone who fought Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance is long dead, and the political situation is massively different. The Last Alliance is as distant to the Free Peoples as of LotR as the Trojan War is to us. But, more to the point – Sauron has been going to great lengths to undermine his enemies during the Third Age, to ensure the destruction or decay of the Numenorean kingdoms (largely successfully) and the alienation of the declining elves from mortals. And it worked. The book makes it very clear that the War of the Ring is not a war of more-or-less equal sides with the Ring potentially shifting the balance one way or another. Sauron is winning, fairly easily. He wants his Ring back, and getting it would make his victory certain, but even without it he’s holding almost all the cards. Destroying the Ring, and therefore breaking Sauron, is a desperation move that the Council of Elrond went with because they were basically out of other good options.
Modru… hasn’t really been doing that. Okay, he’s been doing some chessmastery – he was the greater-scope villain of Dragondoom, set between the War of the Ban and Iron Tower (and his apprentice Andrak was one of that book’s main antagonists), for example. But mostly he’s been sitting around waiting to make his move. Again, there’s absolutely a reason for that, which we’ll learn… but I do think it makes Modru a somewhat less impressive dark lord compared to OG Sauron. Anyway, Dragon Star.
Delber was talking about the great flaming star with its long burning tail that had come blazing out of the heavens five years past nearly to strike the world:
For weeks before, its light could be seen, appearing at sunset, and it burned through the night. Night after night it grew brighter and larger, plunging through the star-studded sky. And its fiery tail, called “Dragon’s Breath” by some, and “Dragon’s Flame” by others, grew longer and longer. An awful portent it was, for the hairy stars had presaged dire events since the world began. On it came, rising each night, inexorably sweeping closer. Now it was so bright that it could be seen even in the dawn light, as it set while the Sun rose.
But night was its true Realm, for then it silently clove the spangled sky, looming ever larger, ever brighter; and then folk noted that it seemed to be changing course, shifting, for slowly its tail swung behind till it no longer could be seen, as if the Dragon Star had turned and was hurtling directly for Mithgar.
Tharkos: I find this to have rather less tension than it might, considering we are having this threat related to us literally years after the fact; it is entirely obvious that the Dragon Star did not actually strike Mithgar, because everyone is still here. Nonetheless, we are told how everyone desperately prepared for a cataclysm and unscrupulous merchants sold wards against it. Finally, the night came when everyone thought it would hit. The Warrows gathered in the village square to watch as it hurtled by, raining fragments of itself as it went. One looked like it was nearly going to strike the Bosky itself but veered off to impact the north, in Rian or perhaps even farther instead. Hmmm, and I am compelled to note that someone who our heroes have just been discussing supposedly was exiled to the remote North… Some of the Warrows fled to their cellars or burrows, but most simply sat and watched and waited, with their arms around their buccarans or dammias, or about their sires and dams, or their buccoes and dammsels, or granthers and grandams, or uncles, aunts, cousins, or other relatives or friends, for they knew nought else to do. But of course, the comet simply hurtled by without impacting and gradually grew smaller and smaller again until it vanished.
Thalia: If only I could’ve seen it! But it wasn’t without effect; it left a trail of shimmering lights in the sky, and it was followed by sickness, crop failure, storms and the like, which people blamed on the Dragon Star though that seems rather unlikely to me. Warrows in their inns and taverns debated whether the star could have caused these events but couldn’t come to a conclusion, and things gradually returned to normal. But we’re assured that no one who saw the Dragon Star would ever forget it, including our Thornwalkers, as the flashback ends.
Tharkos: And so, we cut back to the present where one of the Thornwalkers, Dilby, shares a too-long, rambling anecdote about his grandmother and how she predicted that the Dragon Star heralded the death of the High King or something even worse – The Doom of Mithgar! We are not told why Dilby’s grandmother felt moved to make such a pronouncement, but she was clearly frightened when she did it. However, both the world and the High King are still here, so Dilby thinks she was wrong. Tarpy suggests that the Star was actually a warning of Modru’s return, with Arbin chiming in that it was likely sent by Adon. Danner thinks it’s more likely the Star was sent by Modru or even Gyphon, Himself; Arbin insists the Star could have been a sending of Adon, though perhaps not the plagues that came in its wake. Plagues are sendings of Gyphon, the Great Evil. If not from Gyphon, then plagues come from His servant Modru, the Enemy in Gron. …I am not myself versed in the medical arts, but I know a number of healers and physicians who would be quite surprised by this revelation!
Thalia: *shaking her head* No, no, I think they might be onto something… Danner, angry, demands to know that if he threw a rock at a bird and it took flight in response, would that be a sending of Modru, or Gyphon, or one of High Adon? Answer me this, too: if Adon wanted to say something, why wouldn’t He just come right out and say it plain? Why would He cast it in runes that nobody can read? Sendings! Omens! Faugh!”
MG: Well, for one, Adon lives on Adonar, not Mithgar, so your options for just strolling up to him and asking him these sorts of questions are limited. For another, he’s supposed to be an extremely hands-off god (how this squares with the Ban is… difficult to manage, which is probably part of why McKiernan ended up throwing up his hands and having Adon rescind the thing). But, spoilers, the Dragon Star is indeed connected with Modru and Gyphon, if that surprises anyone. We’ll find out more about how much later in the book.
Thalia: *beaming* So they were onto something! Arbin and Danner very nearly come to blows, until Tuck finally steps in and separates them, telling them to save their fighting for Modru. Excellent advice; alas, if only more people followed it! Tarpy also breaks in, taking Tuck’s side.
“Look, we can’t have you two buccoes forever glaring at one another like circling dogs. Let’s just leave it at this: sometimes events seem like sendings and omens, sometimes not, and who’s to say the which of it? Perhaps some things are portents while others are not, even the flights of birds—there may be times that they mean something, and other times not; yet I think none of us here will ever read a winged augery. But this I say: Until we know the truth about sendings, omens, whatever, there’s got to be room for different beliefs, and respect for the right to hold diverse opinions.” Little Tarpy glared at Danner and Arbin, both of whom towered over him. “Have you got that? Then formally put your wrath behind you.”
Tharkos: *taken aback* That was quite a speech to make such a straightforward and simple point! And the ending was remarkably stiff. Nonetheless, Danner and Arbin get up and apologize to each other to general happiness as the scene ends. We learn how they spend the rest of their shift on guard duty and return to camp to general greetings and questions of Have you bitten any Vulgs lately? And What’s the news from Modru? From those they pass. After they pass the River Spindle and camp there, however, Tuck is awakened by Tarpy’s shouts that Dilby is coming fast; when he arrives he brings word that a rider is coming, on a full-sized horse rather than a pony. They call for a light, and it indeed reveals a human man riding on a foam-flecked black horse “In the name of the High King, open up, for I am his herald, and War is afoot!” cried the Man, holding his torch aloft so that all could see that indeed he was garbed in a red and gold tabard, the colors of High King Aurion.
MG: I do find it kind of interesting that McKiernan makes the High King’s royal colors gold and red, one of the most stereotypically “heroic” color combinations (though it can be villainous as well, certainly – look at the Fire Nation! But don’t tell Vathara!). I do think it’s interesting to contrast with LotR, where Gondor’s colors are black and silver.
Thalia: The rider quickly declares his mission, and it is about what we would expect, I think?
“Ai! Modru gathers his Horde to fall upon Challerain Keep,” cried the messenger, his horse curvetting, “and I am sent to muster this Land, for all must answer to the call if the Realm is to brave the coming storm. And I am told to show you this”—he held up a leather thong laced through a hole in a coin—“though I know not what it means.”
The eyes of all the Warrows on the barricade widened in alarm, for it was a Gjeenian penny, the cheapest coin in the realm, a symbol hearking back to the Warrows Tipperton Thistledown and Beau Darby and the Great War of the Ban. There was coin just like it in the Centerdell town of Rood, to be sent to the King should the Bosky be in desperate straits. And none on the barrier ever thought to see such a dreadful sign.
MG: …whose story is told in the Hel’s Crucible duology, which focuses on the War of the Ban (in other words, Mithgar’s equivalent of the War of the Last Alliance). See what I mean about how, unlike the hobbits who had been mostly overlooked by the other peoples of Middle-earth, the Warrows have a long history of being involved in Mithgar’s great events (though I have to wonder why the messenger wasn’t told what the coin means? Was “this is a ceremonial object that will authenticate to the Warrows that you really come from the High King” that hard?).
Thalia: But the Warrows let the messenger inside, whether he knows the meaning of his token or no, and he explains more of what is going on. “Darkness stalks the north. Prince Galen strikes within the Dimmendark. Young Prince Igon has slain Winternight Spawn. And Aurion Redeye fortifies the Keep,” much of which I don’t understand, but seems to me like it mostly sounds very bad? Though he also stops to tell Patrel that riding through the Thornwall is like passing through the very gaping gates of Hel, which isn’t very nice! Tuck isn’t offended and asks if he wants tea before he goes on, but the messenger doesn’t; he fears something is coming after him. And so, as he takes his horse out across the frozen river, the Warrows watch… until a huge black shape comes hurtling out of the passage behind him. Vulg!
MG: So, for some context here, Prince Galen is basically Iron Tower’s counterpart of Aragorn… though he’s also in some respects a counterpart of Boromir, interesting because Aragorn and Boromir are quite different characters and are in some very notable ways at odds! Even more interesting, Terry Brooks in Sword of Shannara would also composite Aragorn and Boromir into one character with Balinor… and then Balinor’s brother Palance somehow ended up a mix of Faramir, Denethor and Theoden – no wonder the poor guy was so messed up, trying to be three quite different people at once!
Tharkos: …well, that seems quite outside my personal experience. Tarpy shoots the Vulg and misses because it’s out of range, then grabs his bow and runs out after it while Patrel shouts for the barrier to be closed. More Vulgs are coming, and the Warrows shoot at them as the barrier slams shut, but not before Tuck runs out after Tarpy and the messenger. He manages to shout a warning in time to save the messenger from getting savaged by a Vulg; the messenger’s horse flees and the Vulg pursues, but Tuck shoots at it and kills it, though momentum still leads it to slam into the horse. The ice cracks as horse, Vulg and man hit it, and then a large chunk of it flips over, sending them all and the two Warrows into the water. And the slab slammed shut behind them like a great trapdoor as the scene ends.
Thalia: Well, that seems… less than good, doesn’t it? At least I don’t think any of these people are adapted to such conditions, except perhaps the Vulg, who is beyond caring now? We cut to Tuck as he’s pulled under the ice, and we get some genuinely powerful descriptions of his panic, and how the cold is so intense it literally burns. We get a quite lengthy description of him finding an air pocket under the overturned slab and struggling against the current to stay there, and how he finally manages with much effort to claw his way back to the surface. It’s rather overlong, and I think I’ll spare you the details, but it is quite effective writing overall, I think, conveying the chill of the water, the power of the current, and Tuck’s terror and determination. *she wraps her arms around herself and shivers* Tuck pulls himself up onto the ice, half-drowned and forcing himself to go on by sheer force of will, until he sees a torch approaching and realizes it’s Danner. Danner is so overjoyed to see his best friend alive that he nearly breaks down in uncharacteristic weeping and calls for the other Thornwalkers to bring rope so he can haul Tuck to shore, while others continue looking for Tarpy and the messenger. Danner, Patrel and the others manage to get Tuck tied to the rope and are able to pull him to shore, Danner keeping him afloat all the while, and finally they get him to the fire where they strip his clothes off and wrap him in blankets to warm up. Patrel gets him to drink hot tea… but when Tuck asks about Tarpy, the others can only shake their heads sadly, and the scene ends.
Tharkos: We cut to Danner’s point of view as Captain Darby and the healers arrive for Tuck; they give him a sleeping draught and Danner falls asleep too, only to wake up in the middle of the night to see Tuck writing in his diary. Danner guesses he must be trying to put it all down in writing to help get it out of his mind, and the scene ends. We cut back to Tuck the next morning as Danner wakes him up. Tuck soon bursts into tears, and despite Danner’s efforts to cheer him up admits he can’t stop thinking about the dead… and that he blames himself, poor soul. Many a soldier has thought the same.
Oh, Lor! Tarpy, Tarpy. I close my eyes and see his face under the ice, his hands clawing, but he cannot get out.” Sobs racked Tuck’s frame, and Danner, weeping too, threw an arm over Tuck’s shoulders. “If only I hadn’t shot the Vulg just then,” Tuck sobbed, “it wouldn’t have struck the horse and the ice wouldn’t have broken and . . . and . . . ” Tuck could not go on.
Tharkos: Danner, however, assures him that if he hadn’t shot the Vulg, it would have bitten Tarpy’s head off - Tuck did exactly the right thing, and it was only bad luck that caused it to go wrong. And it was only luck that saved Tuck in the water, so he shouldn’t blame himself for surviving. Danner tells him to blame chance, but Tuck, after mulling it over, refuses to do so. Chance did not send that Vulg after the Kingsman. ‘Twas Modru. And the scene ends.
Thalia: We cut to Spindle Ford, where a memorial service is held for Tarpy and Captain Darby comes up to speak, reminding them that the High King has called a muster and they must answer. He will send word across the Bosky to muster the Thornwalkers, but for now, some of those here will go in the advance guard and asks for volunteers. Will you Walk the Thorns of the Seven Dells, or will you instead walk the ramparts of Challerain Keep?” After a long silence, Tuck is the first to respond. “I will go to the High King, for Evil Modru has a great wrong to answer for—Nay! two wrongs: one lies atop the Rooks’ Roost, the other sleeps ’neath this frozen river.” Danner and Patrel join him, along with all their squad. More volunteer, but Captain Darby says this is enough, since they can’t leave the Ford unguarded. He names Patrel Captain of the Company of the King with Tuck and Danner as squad leaders and promises to send him more volunteers as they arrive. He tells Patrel to lead well, and the rest to walk in honor as the scene ends. We cut to the next morning as forty-three grim-faced Bosykdell Warrows ride out, armed with bows and arrows and heading north to Rian. Their destination was Challerain Keep, for they had been summoned. And on that dramatic note, the chapter ends.
MG: I honestly find this section to be a rather frustrating mixed bag. The action scene was well done, especially the description of Tuck being caught in the river, and I genuinely appreciate both Tuck’s feelings of guilt and Danner trying to snap him out of it – it felt very real, and genuinely affecting. And of course, we now have the actual plot moving again as our heroes leave the Bosky behind and set out for Challerain Keep. On the other hand, I think the pacing is somewhat wonky. The Dragon Star flashback feels weirdly placed; honestly, I don’t think it should have been here at all, I think it should have been a prologue to the story as a whole. Placed as it is, it just feels like more of the characters telling each other about things they already know, and it’s hard to feel the sense of impending doom when we know this happened five years ago and everything is fine now.
And then… Tarpy’s death. Honestly, I just think this is gratuitous. It just feels like a repeat of Hob’s death to me – kill off one of the less-developed Warrows to motivate our heroes on their journey. Once wasn’t great, but twice is just excessive, and while I feel like I know Tarpy slightly better than Hob, he’s still a pretty flat and underdeveloped character and it’s kind of hard to get too upset that he’s dead now, sadly. And it also just makes the pacing of this chapter feel wonkier. We had a “big,” supposedly, motivational death, and our heroes steeled their resolve… and ended up at Spindle Ford, where they sat around for several weeks on boring guard duty until another death got them moving again. It just makes the whole thing feel repetitive and the Spindle Ford section drag more, IMO. OTOH, we now have our main Warrows for the story established clearly – Tuck, Danner and Patrel. Tuck is still pretty obviously Frodo, and Patrel makes a somewhat reasonable facsimile of Merry, though he doesn’t line up quite as closely. Danner… still isn’t much like Sam, though he got a chance to show his courage and loyalty today; still, it should be obvious by now he’s going on a different, rather darker path.
Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time is going to be the first part of quite a long chapter, as we set out on the road to Challerain Keep! We’ll see you then!
Warning: This post contains violence, deaths and depiction of drowning.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Dennis L. McKiernan’s The Iron Tower! Last time, our heroes arrived at Spindle Ford, we spent a lot of time on the daily routines of the Thornwalkers and some very long physical descriptions of the Thornwall itself, and we learned that Modru is indeed on the move again and seems to have summoned some sort of massive shadow to blot out the sun and provide cover for his armies. Today we wrap up Chapter Three as we finally get to the events that will lead to our heroes leaving the Boskydells entirely and venturing out at long last into the wider world. Joining us today will be Tharkos and Thalia!
Thalia: …are we going to learn more about that darkness Modru has summoned? I think that’s what I want to read about, anyway! In any case, we open the second half of the chapter with Tuck’s squad being assigned Beyonder duty in the overnight shift, and while waiting to go out they fall to small talk on various subjects *she sighs heavily* why is that so easy for some people? – talk that inevitably turned to Modru. Tapry wonders why Modru has only returned now, after four thousand years, while Arbin wants to know all about the creatures that serve him, and explains what he’s heard about them:
“I know about Rûcks, Hlôks, and Ogrus, or at least what the tales tell: they’re supposed to be all alike, just different sizes: the Rûck being the smallest, a bit larger than we—say, four-foot tall; the Hlôk, big as a Man, I hear tell; and the Ogru, or Troll as the Dwarves call him, twice Man-size.”
Tharkos: Well, seeing as there is far more to war than mere size, if that is literally all you know about the enemy, then you are in a sorry state indeed. Danner is disbelieving about this, thinking that if Trolls were really that large, they’d be the most powerful creatures in the world after only dragons – and no dragon has been seen for centuries. Unless, of course, one counts the great comet that passed a few years ago and which we’ve already heard referenced – the Dragon Star.
MG: Breaking in for a bit more context on some things. First off, yes, it’s very clear from this description how all these creatures map onto their LotR equivalents – Rucks are ordinary orcs or “goblins,” Hloks are Uruk-hai, and Trolls are, well, trolls. Not even trying to hide it are you, McKiernan (admittedly, D&D does something much the same with goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears – D&D trolls being a rather different beast from LotR’s)? As for dragons, the reason none have been seen for centuries is that Mithgar dragons have a cycle of hibernation and activity. As of the present of Iron Tower, the dragons are asleep, so don’t expect to see any, alas (though we’ll hear a bit more about them). They’ll wake up again in time to play a big role in the overall saga’s climactic installment, Silver Wolf, Black Falcon, which we’re not looking at (for the record, I don’t plan at the moment to look at any Mithgar beyond Iron Tower and Silver Call unless people really, really want to hear me talking more about this world after we’re done with those… but I do have a couple of other Tolkien-adjacent things I’m eyeing, in addition to RoP. But all that’s still a ways in the future.).
On the other hand… yes, there is a reason Modru is acting now and not before, and we’ll learn it eventually. This is, however, an interesting point of comparison with Sauron. Sauron may have only openly returned to Mordor shortly after The Hobbit, but he hardly spent the Third Age idle. He’d been pulling strings from the shadows for a long, long time and setting up his dominos to fall. A question I’ve seen asked – I think mostly from people who’ve just seen the movies, because the book explains it – is why Sauron is such a threat, if the Free Peoples beat him once already when he had his Ring. Well, part of that is it’s been three thousand years; with the exception of some of the elves, everyone who fought Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance is long dead, and the political situation is massively different. The Last Alliance is as distant to the Free Peoples as of LotR as the Trojan War is to us. But, more to the point – Sauron has been going to great lengths to undermine his enemies during the Third Age, to ensure the destruction or decay of the Numenorean kingdoms (largely successfully) and the alienation of the declining elves from mortals. And it worked. The book makes it very clear that the War of the Ring is not a war of more-or-less equal sides with the Ring potentially shifting the balance one way or another. Sauron is winning, fairly easily. He wants his Ring back, and getting it would make his victory certain, but even without it he’s holding almost all the cards. Destroying the Ring, and therefore breaking Sauron, is a desperation move that the Council of Elrond went with because they were basically out of other good options.
Modru… hasn’t really been doing that. Okay, he’s been doing some chessmastery – he was the greater-scope villain of Dragondoom, set between the War of the Ban and Iron Tower (and his apprentice Andrak was one of that book’s main antagonists), for example. But mostly he’s been sitting around waiting to make his move. Again, there’s absolutely a reason for that, which we’ll learn… but I do think it makes Modru a somewhat less impressive dark lord compared to OG Sauron. Anyway, Dragon Star.
Delber was talking about the great flaming star with its long burning tail that had come blazing out of the heavens five years past nearly to strike the world:
For weeks before, its light could be seen, appearing at sunset, and it burned through the night. Night after night it grew brighter and larger, plunging through the star-studded sky. And its fiery tail, called “Dragon’s Breath” by some, and “Dragon’s Flame” by others, grew longer and longer. An awful portent it was, for the hairy stars had presaged dire events since the world began. On it came, rising each night, inexorably sweeping closer. Now it was so bright that it could be seen even in the dawn light, as it set while the Sun rose.
But night was its true Realm, for then it silently clove the spangled sky, looming ever larger, ever brighter; and then folk noted that it seemed to be changing course, shifting, for slowly its tail swung behind till it no longer could be seen, as if the Dragon Star had turned and was hurtling directly for Mithgar.
Tharkos: I find this to have rather less tension than it might, considering we are having this threat related to us literally years after the fact; it is entirely obvious that the Dragon Star did not actually strike Mithgar, because everyone is still here. Nonetheless, we are told how everyone desperately prepared for a cataclysm and unscrupulous merchants sold wards against it. Finally, the night came when everyone thought it would hit. The Warrows gathered in the village square to watch as it hurtled by, raining fragments of itself as it went. One looked like it was nearly going to strike the Bosky itself but veered off to impact the north, in Rian or perhaps even farther instead. Hmmm, and I am compelled to note that someone who our heroes have just been discussing supposedly was exiled to the remote North… Some of the Warrows fled to their cellars or burrows, but most simply sat and watched and waited, with their arms around their buccarans or dammias, or about their sires and dams, or their buccoes and dammsels, or granthers and grandams, or uncles, aunts, cousins, or other relatives or friends, for they knew nought else to do. But of course, the comet simply hurtled by without impacting and gradually grew smaller and smaller again until it vanished.
Thalia: If only I could’ve seen it! But it wasn’t without effect; it left a trail of shimmering lights in the sky, and it was followed by sickness, crop failure, storms and the like, which people blamed on the Dragon Star though that seems rather unlikely to me. Warrows in their inns and taverns debated whether the star could have caused these events but couldn’t come to a conclusion, and things gradually returned to normal. But we’re assured that no one who saw the Dragon Star would ever forget it, including our Thornwalkers, as the flashback ends.
Tharkos: And so, we cut back to the present where one of the Thornwalkers, Dilby, shares a too-long, rambling anecdote about his grandmother and how she predicted that the Dragon Star heralded the death of the High King or something even worse – The Doom of Mithgar! We are not told why Dilby’s grandmother felt moved to make such a pronouncement, but she was clearly frightened when she did it. However, both the world and the High King are still here, so Dilby thinks she was wrong. Tarpy suggests that the Star was actually a warning of Modru’s return, with Arbin chiming in that it was likely sent by Adon. Danner thinks it’s more likely the Star was sent by Modru or even Gyphon, Himself; Arbin insists the Star could have been a sending of Adon, though perhaps not the plagues that came in its wake. Plagues are sendings of Gyphon, the Great Evil. If not from Gyphon, then plagues come from His servant Modru, the Enemy in Gron. …I am not myself versed in the medical arts, but I know a number of healers and physicians who would be quite surprised by this revelation!
Thalia: *shaking her head* No, no, I think they might be onto something… Danner, angry, demands to know that if he threw a rock at a bird and it took flight in response, would that be a sending of Modru, or Gyphon, or one of High Adon? Answer me this, too: if Adon wanted to say something, why wouldn’t He just come right out and say it plain? Why would He cast it in runes that nobody can read? Sendings! Omens! Faugh!”
MG: Well, for one, Adon lives on Adonar, not Mithgar, so your options for just strolling up to him and asking him these sorts of questions are limited. For another, he’s supposed to be an extremely hands-off god (how this squares with the Ban is… difficult to manage, which is probably part of why McKiernan ended up throwing up his hands and having Adon rescind the thing). But, spoilers, the Dragon Star is indeed connected with Modru and Gyphon, if that surprises anyone. We’ll find out more about how much later in the book.
Thalia: *beaming* So they were onto something! Arbin and Danner very nearly come to blows, until Tuck finally steps in and separates them, telling them to save their fighting for Modru. Excellent advice; alas, if only more people followed it! Tarpy also breaks in, taking Tuck’s side.
“Look, we can’t have you two buccoes forever glaring at one another like circling dogs. Let’s just leave it at this: sometimes events seem like sendings and omens, sometimes not, and who’s to say the which of it? Perhaps some things are portents while others are not, even the flights of birds—there may be times that they mean something, and other times not; yet I think none of us here will ever read a winged augery. But this I say: Until we know the truth about sendings, omens, whatever, there’s got to be room for different beliefs, and respect for the right to hold diverse opinions.” Little Tarpy glared at Danner and Arbin, both of whom towered over him. “Have you got that? Then formally put your wrath behind you.”
Tharkos: *taken aback* That was quite a speech to make such a straightforward and simple point! And the ending was remarkably stiff. Nonetheless, Danner and Arbin get up and apologize to each other to general happiness as the scene ends. We learn how they spend the rest of their shift on guard duty and return to camp to general greetings and questions of Have you bitten any Vulgs lately? And What’s the news from Modru? From those they pass. After they pass the River Spindle and camp there, however, Tuck is awakened by Tarpy’s shouts that Dilby is coming fast; when he arrives he brings word that a rider is coming, on a full-sized horse rather than a pony. They call for a light, and it indeed reveals a human man riding on a foam-flecked black horse “In the name of the High King, open up, for I am his herald, and War is afoot!” cried the Man, holding his torch aloft so that all could see that indeed he was garbed in a red and gold tabard, the colors of High King Aurion.
MG: I do find it kind of interesting that McKiernan makes the High King’s royal colors gold and red, one of the most stereotypically “heroic” color combinations (though it can be villainous as well, certainly – look at the Fire Nation! But don’t tell Vathara!). I do think it’s interesting to contrast with LotR, where Gondor’s colors are black and silver.
Thalia: The rider quickly declares his mission, and it is about what we would expect, I think?
“Ai! Modru gathers his Horde to fall upon Challerain Keep,” cried the messenger, his horse curvetting, “and I am sent to muster this Land, for all must answer to the call if the Realm is to brave the coming storm. And I am told to show you this”—he held up a leather thong laced through a hole in a coin—“though I know not what it means.”
The eyes of all the Warrows on the barricade widened in alarm, for it was a Gjeenian penny, the cheapest coin in the realm, a symbol hearking back to the Warrows Tipperton Thistledown and Beau Darby and the Great War of the Ban. There was coin just like it in the Centerdell town of Rood, to be sent to the King should the Bosky be in desperate straits. And none on the barrier ever thought to see such a dreadful sign.
MG: …whose story is told in the Hel’s Crucible duology, which focuses on the War of the Ban (in other words, Mithgar’s equivalent of the War of the Last Alliance). See what I mean about how, unlike the hobbits who had been mostly overlooked by the other peoples of Middle-earth, the Warrows have a long history of being involved in Mithgar’s great events (though I have to wonder why the messenger wasn’t told what the coin means? Was “this is a ceremonial object that will authenticate to the Warrows that you really come from the High King” that hard?).
Thalia: But the Warrows let the messenger inside, whether he knows the meaning of his token or no, and he explains more of what is going on. “Darkness stalks the north. Prince Galen strikes within the Dimmendark. Young Prince Igon has slain Winternight Spawn. And Aurion Redeye fortifies the Keep,” much of which I don’t understand, but seems to me like it mostly sounds very bad? Though he also stops to tell Patrel that riding through the Thornwall is like passing through the very gaping gates of Hel, which isn’t very nice! Tuck isn’t offended and asks if he wants tea before he goes on, but the messenger doesn’t; he fears something is coming after him. And so, as he takes his horse out across the frozen river, the Warrows watch… until a huge black shape comes hurtling out of the passage behind him. Vulg!
MG: So, for some context here, Prince Galen is basically Iron Tower’s counterpart of Aragorn… though he’s also in some respects a counterpart of Boromir, interesting because Aragorn and Boromir are quite different characters and are in some very notable ways at odds! Even more interesting, Terry Brooks in Sword of Shannara would also composite Aragorn and Boromir into one character with Balinor… and then Balinor’s brother Palance somehow ended up a mix of Faramir, Denethor and Theoden – no wonder the poor guy was so messed up, trying to be three quite different people at once!
Tharkos: …well, that seems quite outside my personal experience. Tarpy shoots the Vulg and misses because it’s out of range, then grabs his bow and runs out after it while Patrel shouts for the barrier to be closed. More Vulgs are coming, and the Warrows shoot at them as the barrier slams shut, but not before Tuck runs out after Tarpy and the messenger. He manages to shout a warning in time to save the messenger from getting savaged by a Vulg; the messenger’s horse flees and the Vulg pursues, but Tuck shoots at it and kills it, though momentum still leads it to slam into the horse. The ice cracks as horse, Vulg and man hit it, and then a large chunk of it flips over, sending them all and the two Warrows into the water. And the slab slammed shut behind them like a great trapdoor as the scene ends.
Thalia: Well, that seems… less than good, doesn’t it? At least I don’t think any of these people are adapted to such conditions, except perhaps the Vulg, who is beyond caring now? We cut to Tuck as he’s pulled under the ice, and we get some genuinely powerful descriptions of his panic, and how the cold is so intense it literally burns. We get a quite lengthy description of him finding an air pocket under the overturned slab and struggling against the current to stay there, and how he finally manages with much effort to claw his way back to the surface. It’s rather overlong, and I think I’ll spare you the details, but it is quite effective writing overall, I think, conveying the chill of the water, the power of the current, and Tuck’s terror and determination. *she wraps her arms around herself and shivers* Tuck pulls himself up onto the ice, half-drowned and forcing himself to go on by sheer force of will, until he sees a torch approaching and realizes it’s Danner. Danner is so overjoyed to see his best friend alive that he nearly breaks down in uncharacteristic weeping and calls for the other Thornwalkers to bring rope so he can haul Tuck to shore, while others continue looking for Tarpy and the messenger. Danner, Patrel and the others manage to get Tuck tied to the rope and are able to pull him to shore, Danner keeping him afloat all the while, and finally they get him to the fire where they strip his clothes off and wrap him in blankets to warm up. Patrel gets him to drink hot tea… but when Tuck asks about Tarpy, the others can only shake their heads sadly, and the scene ends.
Tharkos: We cut to Danner’s point of view as Captain Darby and the healers arrive for Tuck; they give him a sleeping draught and Danner falls asleep too, only to wake up in the middle of the night to see Tuck writing in his diary. Danner guesses he must be trying to put it all down in writing to help get it out of his mind, and the scene ends. We cut back to Tuck the next morning as Danner wakes him up. Tuck soon bursts into tears, and despite Danner’s efforts to cheer him up admits he can’t stop thinking about the dead… and that he blames himself, poor soul. Many a soldier has thought the same.
Oh, Lor! Tarpy, Tarpy. I close my eyes and see his face under the ice, his hands clawing, but he cannot get out.” Sobs racked Tuck’s frame, and Danner, weeping too, threw an arm over Tuck’s shoulders. “If only I hadn’t shot the Vulg just then,” Tuck sobbed, “it wouldn’t have struck the horse and the ice wouldn’t have broken and . . . and . . . ” Tuck could not go on.
Tharkos: Danner, however, assures him that if he hadn’t shot the Vulg, it would have bitten Tarpy’s head off - Tuck did exactly the right thing, and it was only bad luck that caused it to go wrong. And it was only luck that saved Tuck in the water, so he shouldn’t blame himself for surviving. Danner tells him to blame chance, but Tuck, after mulling it over, refuses to do so. Chance did not send that Vulg after the Kingsman. ‘Twas Modru. And the scene ends.
Thalia: We cut to Spindle Ford, where a memorial service is held for Tarpy and Captain Darby comes up to speak, reminding them that the High King has called a muster and they must answer. He will send word across the Bosky to muster the Thornwalkers, but for now, some of those here will go in the advance guard and asks for volunteers. Will you Walk the Thorns of the Seven Dells, or will you instead walk the ramparts of Challerain Keep?” After a long silence, Tuck is the first to respond. “I will go to the High King, for Evil Modru has a great wrong to answer for—Nay! two wrongs: one lies atop the Rooks’ Roost, the other sleeps ’neath this frozen river.” Danner and Patrel join him, along with all their squad. More volunteer, but Captain Darby says this is enough, since they can’t leave the Ford unguarded. He names Patrel Captain of the Company of the King with Tuck and Danner as squad leaders and promises to send him more volunteers as they arrive. He tells Patrel to lead well, and the rest to walk in honor as the scene ends. We cut to the next morning as forty-three grim-faced Bosykdell Warrows ride out, armed with bows and arrows and heading north to Rian. Their destination was Challerain Keep, for they had been summoned. And on that dramatic note, the chapter ends.
MG: I honestly find this section to be a rather frustrating mixed bag. The action scene was well done, especially the description of Tuck being caught in the river, and I genuinely appreciate both Tuck’s feelings of guilt and Danner trying to snap him out of it – it felt very real, and genuinely affecting. And of course, we now have the actual plot moving again as our heroes leave the Bosky behind and set out for Challerain Keep. On the other hand, I think the pacing is somewhat wonky. The Dragon Star flashback feels weirdly placed; honestly, I don’t think it should have been here at all, I think it should have been a prologue to the story as a whole. Placed as it is, it just feels like more of the characters telling each other about things they already know, and it’s hard to feel the sense of impending doom when we know this happened five years ago and everything is fine now.
And then… Tarpy’s death. Honestly, I just think this is gratuitous. It just feels like a repeat of Hob’s death to me – kill off one of the less-developed Warrows to motivate our heroes on their journey. Once wasn’t great, but twice is just excessive, and while I feel like I know Tarpy slightly better than Hob, he’s still a pretty flat and underdeveloped character and it’s kind of hard to get too upset that he’s dead now, sadly. And it also just makes the pacing of this chapter feel wonkier. We had a “big,” supposedly, motivational death, and our heroes steeled their resolve… and ended up at Spindle Ford, where they sat around for several weeks on boring guard duty until another death got them moving again. It just makes the whole thing feel repetitive and the Spindle Ford section drag more, IMO. OTOH, we now have our main Warrows for the story established clearly – Tuck, Danner and Patrel. Tuck is still pretty obviously Frodo, and Patrel makes a somewhat reasonable facsimile of Merry, though he doesn’t line up quite as closely. Danner… still isn’t much like Sam, though he got a chance to show his courage and loyalty today; still, it should be obvious by now he’s going on a different, rather darker path.
Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time is going to be the first part of quite a long chapter, as we set out on the road to Challerain Keep! We’ll see you then!
