The Two Towers: Book 3, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

The pace of the Three Hunters slows as they reach a range of hills, forcing them to climb up steep ridges and down into valleys again. The land is misty and shadowed as they travel into the night. Near dawn, as they stop to rest, they lose the orc-trail in a valley. Aragorn guesses that the orcs will go north, taking the shortest path possible through the lands of Rohan. As Aragorn searches the ground for clues, Legolas discovers that what they’d thought were boulders are actually the bodies of five of the orcs they’ve been tracking. Their killers are a mystery, but Aragorn theorizes that the deaths might have been caused by other orcs in an internal conflict. He adds that the riders of Rohan rarely travel in this region and that the area is too far from Minas Tirith for it to be likely that men killed the orcs. There is no sign of the hobbits around the bodies.

As the sky turns lighter, Aragorn rediscovers the orc trail and, freshly energized, they follow it onto a hill. From that height, Aragorn can see shadows in the West, the colors of dawn over the meadows of Rohan, and the snow-capped White Mountains of Gondor to the south. He recites a poem about Gondor, though he knows his path leads him away from it for now.

Legolas sees an eagle far above them headed north and Aragorn wonders if it’s the same bird he saw before. They also notice a huge company on foot, many leagues ahead of them, that must be the orcs. It seems that the orcs are marching as quickly as possible, traveling through the night and dropping unnecessary supplies as they go. The Three Hunters follow them, eventually reaching the sweet-smelling grass of Rohan. The air is warmer, and the ground is flatter than the range of hills behind them, enabling them to run and lessen the distance between themselves and the orcs.

As they chase the orcs, Aragorn suddenly gives a cry and turns away to follow a trail of smaller feet, where he discovers the brooch of Pippin’s elven-cloak. Aragorn guesses Pippin ran away from the trail and left the brooch for him as a sign. Gimli is heartened—Pippin is alive and has “the use of his wits, and of his legs, too.” The Three Hunters run on through the day, then debate whether to run through the night and risk missing further signs of the hobbits or to rest and risk falling behind. Legolas and Gimli leave the difficult choice to Aragorn, who feels as though all his recent decisions have gone awry. Though the orcs certainly won’t stop to sleep, Aragorn decides to rest through the night so that they don’t lose the trail in the dark.

Gimli wishes for a phial of light like the one Galadriel gave Frodo, but Aragorn argues that Frodo needs it more. Frodo has the truly important quest; theirs is small in comparison. 

They pick up the trail again before the sun rises. The orcs didn’t rest in the night and are out of even Legolas’s keen sight. Aragorn presses his ear to the ground to track the sound of their feet, but hears instead the sound of distant horses galloping towards them. The Three Hunters follow the orcs’ faint trail without rest, eating lembas bread to give them strength. Aragorn wonders why they haven’t seen any signs of life where there should have been herdsmen in the fields.

The Three Hunters rest again at dusk, though every stop makes their goal of rescuing the hobbits more hopeless. Aragorn senses something strange in the silence of the land and the unusual weariness of his heart, and guesses that some foe is hindering them while aiding the orcs. Legolas agrees that there is some ill will ahead of them—Saruman. Nonetheless, Aragorn refuses to turn back. They all sleep.

Legolas wakes up Aragorn and Gimli, claiming that something strange awaits them by the forest and that they’re called to it. They set off again. Aragorn, examining the tracks, determines that they’re over a day behind the orcs. Gimli comments that his body wouldn’t feel so tired if he weren’t so disheartened. While Legolas walks as lightly as ever, Gimli and Aragorn are weary. As night falls, Legolas urges them to rest and not to give up hope.

On the fourth morning of their chase, Aragorn, noticing a shadow in the distance, lies on the ground to listen to the earth and tells his companions that riders on swift horses are approaching. Legolas, with his elven eyesight, agrees and adds that “there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair and bright are their spears.” When Aragorn, amused, calls the eyesight of the elves “keen,” Legolas argues that the riders aren’t very far away.

The riders are approaching the Three Hunters along the same trail that the orcs were taking the other way, but Legolas can’t see any hobbits among them. Though Gimli is wary of being attacked by the riders, Aragorn decides to wait and ask them for news. Aragorn knows the men of Rohan, old allies of Gondor—they are proud and bold, yet generous. Gimli says he heard a rumor from Gandalf that they pay tribute to Mordor, but Aragorn doesn’t believe it.

The riders of Rohan—tall, stern men on proud horses—thunder past. When they appear not to notice the Three Hunters, Aragorn stands and calls out to them, asking for news from the north. The host of riders turns with great speed and charges back, surrounding the Three Hunters in a circle of running horses. Suddenly, the men halt and level their spears and bows at the three companions. The tallest man, who wears a helm with a white horsetail, points a spear at Aragorn and demands to know who he is and why he’s in the land. Aragorn introduces himself as Strider, and says he is in Rohan to hunt orcs.

The leader of the horsemen dismounts and says that the three companions must not know much about orcs if they plan to hunt them on foot. Finding Aragorn suspicious, he questions him about his name, his clothes, and how it was that the riders didn’t notice him until he spoke. Aragorn replies that they have passed through Lothlórien and taken the gifts of the Lady with them.  The rider is briefly entranced by the mention of Galadriel, then accuses them of being sorcerers and asks why Gimli and Legolas don’t speak for themselves.

Gimli insists that the rider give his name first. The man says he is Éomer son of Éomund. Gimli introduces himself as well, then insults Éomer’s intellect and warns him against speaking ill of Galadriel. Éomer threatens to cut off Gimli’s head if he only stood “a little higher from the ground.” Legolas is quick to defend Gimli, fitting an arrow in his bow. Éomer raises his sword, but Aragorn jumps between them, asking Éomer to hear their tale before he attacks.

As Éomer lowers his sword, Aragorn asks if he is a friend or enemy of Sauron. Éomer answers that he serves only Théoden King of Rohan and that his people desire to be free and not serve a foreign land. When he asks who Aragorn serves, Aragorn responds that he serves no man. He hunts down the Orcs out of necessity, because they have taken two of his friends.

Aragorn throws aside his cloak and unsheathes the sword Andúril, declaring himself Aragorn, the heir of Isildur and demands, “Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” To Gimli and Legolas, watching amazed, Aragorn seems to have grown in stature before their eyes. In Aragorn’s face is the power of his ancestors, the kings carved of stone, and Legolas sees a flash of a white flame on his forehead like a crown. Éomer steps back in awe, muttering that these are days in which old legends walk again.

Éomer asks what brings Aragorn here and what fate he brings with him. Aragorn says that Théoden has a choice: to go to war either with or against Sauron. Aragorn adds that he will come to present this choice to Théoden later if he can. For now, though, he wants news of the orcs that took his friends. Éomer tells him that the Rohirrim have killed all the orcs and burned their bodies. Éomer didn’t see the hobbits among the orcs.

Another rider laughs at the mention of the halflings, whom he thinks are just an old children’s tale, and asks if they walk in legends or in daylight. Aragorn replies that it is possible to walk in both, since the generations to come will see this current generation as legends. The same rider urges Éomer to hurry south, but Éomer tells him to assemble the riders on the path, leaving him alone to speak to the Three Hunters.

When Aragorn reveals that he set out with Boromir and Gandalf in a company, Éomer warns him that Gandalf is no longer in Théoden’s favor because he took the king’s horse Shadowfax. Gandalf is a “herald of strange events: a bringer of evil, some now say.” It was after Gandalf came to Rohan in the summer, warning that Isengard was preparing for war, that they began to have trouble with Saruman. Aragorn tells Éomer that the reason Shadowfax has returned to Rohan is because of Gandalf’s death in the Mines of Moria—a greater loss than anyone in the land understands.

Aragorn tells Éomer that Boromir, too, is dead, killed by the orcs they were hunting. Éomer calls Boromir a worthy man and mourns his death, then praises Aragorn for his swiftness in crossing forty-five leagues in five days, naming him “Wingfoot.” Though Éomer has to hurry back to Théoden, he promises that Rohan doesn’t pay tribute to Sauron and will not forget their old alliance with Gondor. Years ago, Sauron wanted to buy horses from Rohan, who refused. Sauron sent orcs to steal black horses and use them for evil purposes.

Recently, Rohan has been at war with Saruman, who walks around in disguise as an old man much like Gandalf, dressed in a hood and cloak, and has many spies. Éomer implies that there might be spies in the king’s house and invites Aragorn to come and aid them. Aragorn promises to come when he can but refuses to desert the hobbits, even when Éomer urges him to come fight in the battle happening now on the Westemnet.

Éomer admits that he took the men of his household to kill the orcs without the king’s permission and left his house with little protection. He needs to hurry back and asks Aragorn a final time to accompany him since there is no hope for his friends—he and his men left none of the orcs alive. Aragorn reminds him that the hobbits have the power of the elvish cloaks which enable them to go unnoticed even in daylight.

Éomer says the world has gone strange: men speak to Galadriel and live, and the sword that was broken in the ages of legend returns to war. He wonders how a man can “judge what to do in such times.” Aragorn tells him that good and evil remain unchanged; a man must judge as he always has. Once his quest of finding the hobbits is achieved, Aragorn vows to Éomer that he will come talk to Théoden. Though Éomer says that he should not let strangers wander freely on Rohan’s lands, he lends the Three Hunters horses and parts ways with them.

In the late afternoon, the Three Hunters reach the edge of Fangorn forest where they find the ashes of the orcs burned by the Rohirrim. By nightfall, they have found no sign of the hobbits, and Gimli believes their bodies were burned with the orcs. He remembers that Elrond was against the hobbits coming with the Fellowship and says that Gandalf’s “foresight failed him” in bringing them. Aragorn responds that Gandalf’s recommendation was not based on safety and that some things are worth attempting despite the danger of a dark end.

The Three Hunters make camp and Aragorn warns Gimli against cutting living wood from Fangorn to start a fire. When they do build a fire from dead wood they gather, the tree above them seems to bend and take comfort in the warmth. Legolas recalls that Celeborn warned them not to go too far into Fangorn, which is old even for the elves. While keeping watch as the others sleep, Gimli sees the figure of an old man in a cloak and hat just outside the firelight. He wakes Legolas and Aragorn, but the figure disappears, and they realize their horses are gone. Gimli believes the figure was Saruman, but Aragorn is less certain. The night passes, and neither the horses nor the old man return.