[Lalwendë]

Hurrah! It seems the site was down yesterday so now I can at last do my post which I'd picked out some ideas for last weekend! This chapter has raised some odd questions for me.

As he gazed at it suddenly Sam understood, almost with a shock, that this stronghold had been built not to keep enemies out of Mordor, but to keep them in. It was indeed one of the works of Gondor long ago, an eastern outpost of the defences of Ithilien, made when, after the Last Alliance, Men of Westernesse kept watch on the evil land of Sauron where his creatures still lurked. But as with Narchost and Carchost, the Towers of the Teeth, so here too the vigilance had failed, and treachery had yielded up the Tower to the Lord of the Ringwraiths, and now for long years it had been held by evil things. Since his return to Mordor, Sauron had found it useful; for he had few servants but many slaves of fear, and still its chief purpose as of old was to prevent escape from Mordor. Though if an enemy were so rash as to try to enter that land secretly, then it was also a last unsleeping guard against any that might pass the vigilance of Morgul and of Shelob.

What kind of 'treachery' made Gondorian Men give up the tower to the Witch King? Their vigilance failed in more ways than one, as it seems that the enemy was indeed within their own if it was treachery that made the tower fall to the enemy. I have to wonder if Men garrisoned on the borders of Mordor would be in a very vulnerable situation, not just physically, but also mentally; as Sauron's power waxed it must have grown increasingly desolate a place to be posted. Even the Orcs dream of 'retirement', so what kind of effect must the posting have had on Men? It strikes me that there is potential for a very interesting RPG in this simple statement!

Cirith Ungol is a watchtower, built to keep people inside Mordor, and strangely, now also used to keep people inside Mordor, but the people being kept inside while Sauron is in possession of Cirith Ungol are slaves. Mordor is in effect a prison. What is very odd here is that Tolkien says of Sauron: "he had few servants but many slaves of fear". This suggests that of the population of Mordor, the majority did not choose to be there. Who lives in Mordor? Is the population primarily Orcish? Do we assume that Orcs tend to willingly offer their loyalty to Sauron? I wonder where the Orcs lie in the definition of who is a servant and who is a 'slave of fear'; the Orcs have been shown to have minds of their own in the chapters which take place in the Pass of Cirith Ungol so I wonder if following Sauron is innate or a choice? If it is a choice, then this suggests that Mordor's population must also include a majority of peoples who are enslaved in some way, who are not Orcs. But if the Orcs might have been enslaved by their fear then this suggests that the Orcs are not inherently bad people, they do bad deeds but how much of it is by choice? This makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Don't orcs eat, and don't they drink? Or do they just live on foul air and poison?'

'No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them; and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures. Foul waters and foul meats they'll take, if they can get no better, but not poison. They've fed me, and so I'm better off than you. There must be food and water somewhere in this place.'

'But there's no time to look for them,' said Sam.

'Well, things are a bit better than you think,' said Frodo. 'I have had a bit of luck while you were away. Indeed they did not take everything. I've found my food-bag among some rags on the floor. They've rummaged it, of course. But I guess they disliked the very look and smell of the lembas, worse than Gollum did. It's scattered about and some of it is trampled and broken, but I've gathered it together. It's not far short of what you've got. But they've taken Faramir's food, and they've slashed up my water-bottle.'

Frodo's words deepen my concerns. The Orcs, as he points out, are not monsters or machines, they are living beings, people just as are the Hobbits and Elves. They too need to eat and drink, and as Frodo says, they will even consume food which we might find revolting - which suggests they live in straightened circumstances.

But they will not eat the Lembas and even find it more repellant than Gollum did; if they are living a hand to mouth existence as regards food, surely Lembas would be a treat? Perhaps their distaste for the food may stem from their origins as Elves? A memory of something fair may be highly disturbing to them. Frodo hints that they are not a new people, that they are a people who have been 'ruined and twisted'; I wonder how many of the Orcs in the Third Age were also alive in the days of Melkor? We don't know if Orcs breed at all, but maybe they do, even if it is unpleasant to think of babies and Orcs in the same breath.

Perhaps Orcs do not breed at all, but are reincarnated after death in much the same way that Elves are? That is a possibility if they were indeed Elves - and it could be the purpose of 'The Houses of Lamentation' that the Witch King speaks of - a darkened mirror image of the Halls of Mandos. If an unending life is inherent in Elves' nature then would it also be inherent in Orcs' nature?

This chapter also displays how bitter experience has caused Frodo to grow in knowledge and understanding. He has certainly learned something about Orcs during this brief time of captivity; while he doesn't sympathise with them, he admits that they are also human (i.e. sentient beings). It is Frodo who at the start of LotR was disgusted at the thought of Gollum being allowed to live; by this point in the story he has come to realise the truth in Gandalf's words about pity, and while I would not exactly say he feels pity for the Orcs, he has recognised that they are not just animals.