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Book 3, Chapter 11
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
Sam and Frodo spend the three days since they parted with the Fellowship climbing the slopes of the mountain Emyn Muil, frequently lost and retracing their steps, but heading steadily east. Sam says they’re in “a fix”—they have to go to Mordor, the one place no one wants to go. Frodo believes it’s his fate to go to Mordor, so he must eventually find a way, but he’s tired and lost and doesn’t know what to do. It’s too late to turn back now because of the orcs patrolling behind them. Sam tells Frodo that the only food they have left is lembas, so it seems as though he brought all his cooking gear for nothing.
Sam and Frodo are lost and losing hope—their destination is clear, but the path is obscured. The land near Mordor is desolate, devoid of life and food, and poisoned by mere proximity to Sauron, reflecting his moral corruption. Nothing good can survive near Mordor—possibly including Sam and Frodo. Though they still have their lembas, which sustains them and gives them a brief spiritual respite, its emotional properties don’t seem to be quite as effective closer to Mordor.
Themes
In the morning, after they’ve rested, Sam asks Frodo if he’s seen Gollum, who’s been following them. Frodo hasn’t seen him for two nights, and Sam hopes they’ve finally gotten away from him. Frodo just wants to get out of the hills, but, as the day passes, they can’t find a way out. By the end of the day, they find their path stopped by a ravine; they can go west and face further delay or east to the edge of the cliff. They decide to try to climb down the cliff, which is lower than they initially thought.
Here, Sam reveals that Gollum has been following them—or, more accurately, following the Ring—since they parted from the rest of the Fellowship. Sam dislikes and mistrusts Gollum, whom he knows primarily as a villain from Bilbo’s stories. Though faced with more drudgery and endless hills, Frodo and Sam stick determinedly to their purpose, searching for the right path.
Themes
Sam argues that he should go first, so that if he falls he won’t knock Frodo down, but Frodo wants to go first and find the safest path for Sam. Just as Frodo lets himself down to find the first foothold, a dark shape flies overhead with a blast of wind and a cry like they heard while fleeing from Hobbiton, and Frodo slips down the cliff onto a ledge below. Sam calls out to his master and Frodo answers, but he can’t see and can’t climb up. Sam, muttering to himself, recalls that he packed rope from Lothlórien in his bag and throws an end down to Frodo. Together, they pull him back up. It begins to rain heavily, and Frodo realizes he might have drowned in the crevice he’d fallen into without Sam’s rope.
While Frodo’s duty is to take the Ring to Mordor and destroy it in Mount Doom, Sam’s very simple duty—assigned to him partly by Gandalf, partly by his role as a member of the Fellowship, and perhaps most of all by himself—is to protect and care for Frodo. He takes his duty very seriously and has already proven himself willing to risk his life for Frodo. In this case, Frodo’s good sense prevails over Sam’s generous nature,. Yet when he falls, it’s Sam’s preparation that saves him.
Themes
When the rain stops, they use the rope to get down the cliff, Frodo lowering Sam down first. Once they reach the ground, they realize they have no way to get their rope back, since it’s tied to a stump at the top of the cliff, and Sam regretfully tugs on it, as if to say goodbye. To their surprise, it comes loose from the stump and falls down the cliff. Frodo laughs at what he thinks must be Sam’s poorly tied knot, grateful that it held his weight, but Sam thinks the rope simply came when it was called.
Sam is very attached to his gear, much of which he brought for cooking, though he has realized there’s nothing to cook near Mordor. Still, he clings to reminders of home and of Lothlórien. Carrying the supplies, including the rope, is a labor of love born from the possibility that Frodo might one day need some small comfort that he can provide from his bag. Their conversation about the rope that unties itself reveals that Sam is much more eager than Frodo to believe in the wonderful and inexplicable. His optimism is something else he can offer Frodo, who, weighed down by the Ring, often lacks optimism of his own.
Themes
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As they continue down Emyn Muil, Sam hopes that they’ve confused Gollum enough by disappearing down the cliff that he won’t be able to find them again. They search for a place to shelter for the night at the foot of the mountain, but only find a boulder to block the wind. As Frodo urges Sam to sleep, he spots Gollum crawling down the cliff. The hobbits don’t think Gollum can see them, but Frodo guesses that he can smell them. Sam, sick of Gollum following, gets up to “have a word with him,” and they creep close enough to the cliff to hear him.
Though Sam is disturbed by Gollum, bringing him up often in conversation and deciding to confront him, Frodo doesn’t express discomfort about Gollum following them, instead seeming to accept it as a fact of their journey. Sam is attentive to any possible threat to Frodo, and, at the moment, Gollum is the most pressing danger.
Themes
Gollum mutters to himself that he hates the hobbits and is looking for his “Precious” Ring. Reaching a place on the cliff with no footholds, Gollum falls a dozen feet to the ground, and Sam quickly jumps on him. Before Sam can pin him down, however, Gollum wraps his limbs around Sam, trapping him and biting his shoulder. When Frodo threatens to cut Gollum’s throat with Sting, Gollum lets Sam go and begs pitifully for mercy, coughing and whimpering.
Frodo understands that it is natural for Gollum to follow the Ring, his only love and obsession. Sam is less willing to accept Gollum as their perpetual shadow, but, despite his best attempt, can’t physically overpower Gollum. It’s Frodo, the bearer of the Ring—and therefore the master of Gollum—whose threats are effective.
Themes
Sam suggests they tie Gollum up, but that would mean leaving him to die. Frodo remembers the conversation he once had with Gandalf, who advised him not to be eager to kill even those who might deserve it. Realizing that he does pity Gollum after all, Frodo can’t bring himself to kill the “poor wretch.” However, Frodo won’t let Gollum go, either. He decides to bring Gollum with them and make him help them if he can. Gollum agrees to guide them to Mordor, and Frodo addresses him as Sméagol, his old name. When Gollum insists that Sméagol is gone, Frodo suggests that they might find him again.
Though Frodo once said that Gollum deserved death, he can’t bring himself now to kill him. Now that he understands the burden of the Ring and sees how pitiful Gollum actually is, Frodo is moved to mercy. Though Frodo is afraid of Gollum and has the power to kill him, he takes Gandalf’s advice and decides to use that power to defend him instead. The use of power for mercy and kindness rather than oppression is the sort of power valued by the Fellowship and their allies—and it’s the sort of power Sauron can’t understand.
Themes
The hobbits rest, but only pretend to sleep, on guard for what Gollum might do. Gollum attempts to bolt as soon as he thinks they’re asleep, but Sam grabs him before he gets far, and they tie Sam’s rope to his ankle. Gollum begins to scream, claiming that the elvish rope hurts him, though the knot is not tight. Frodo forces Gollum to swear by the Ring to be good and serve Frodo. It seems to Sam as though Frodo has grown into a tall, stern lord.
It’s clear to Sam and Frodo that Gollum is treacherous; his allegiance is to the Ring, not to Frodo. Eventually, he’ll try to reclaim it. Still, since the Ring has power over Gollum, so does Frodo—at least for now. Often, in the Lord of the Rings series, when characters reveal their inner power, it is visible to others as stature and height. Now Frodo joins the ranks of Aragorn and Gandalf: physically unassuming yet powerful figures who wield their power wisely.
Themes
They remove the rope after Gollum swears, and a change comes over him. He speaks directly to the hobbits rather than to “his precious self” and acts friendly and eager to please, “cackling” when Frodo speaks kindly to him and weeping when he’s chastised. It makes Sam suspicious, and he tries not to speak to Gollum much. Gollum says that he knows a path towards Mordor called the Marshes that the orcs don’t use, and he leads the way towards it in the silent dark.
Gollum has two names and two personalities. This kinder one that he now shows to Frodo correlates more to the person—Sméagol—that he used to be before the Ring corrupted him. Gollum’s opposed and warring personalities reflect the much larger conflict between good and evil raging on a worldwide scale. The fawning act Gollum puts on makes Sam suspicious, resentful, and even more determined to defend Frodo from any threat.
Themes
