Looks like meat’s back on the menu as we pick up the tale of Pippin and Merry and their delightful hosts: an army of Orcs on their way to Isengard. Merry is apparently down for the count, but Pippin takes in their surroundings and gradually begins to piece together an escape plan. We learn way more about Orkish medicine than we ever wanted to, offer a sidebar on the history of the Black Speech, and speculate about whether there are some things even Orcs won’t eat (probably not). Plus, how to make a holiday Orcmanbit.
Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “The Urak-Hai”, pp. 434-38
Garth, John. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (Mariner Books, hardcover)
While listening to this episode and the discussion re: heavy vs. light calvary, it got me thinking about the different types of horses you hear mentioned throughout Arthurian lit (ie. destriers vs. coursers vs. palfreys etc) I don’t remember any passages differentiating any of the mounts of the Rohirrim, but thought it was an interesting point of differentiation when it comes to Phillipians (if that’s the right way to refer to multiple horse-lovers in Greek?)
I’ve been enjoying the podcast to date, and am vacillating between the Silmarillion episodes and new ones as they drop bc I’m late to the party, but love the material y’all are bringing out. I’m a psychotherapist, and use Tolkien’s material (sometimes covertly, sometimes overtly) a lot in my work. Following in the belief that solid myth and narrative is a helpful way to find healing from trauma, profound disorientation and the absurd horror that the world can bring our way time to time, I’ve found the characters and stories The Professor unearthed for us have a lot of power towards that goal. Thanks for the work y’all do in helping to host the works!
Thank you, Micah! We appreciate the kind words. I don’t recall Tolkien ever distinguishing between different kinds of horses, either, but it’s something we’ll look out for as we continue reading.
After binging for several months from the beginning, I haven’t quite caught up- but at least I’m into “recent memory” territory! Specifically, this episode.
1) Prince Philip was for many years an avid participant in competitive coaching- that is, racing teams of horses pulling carriages. Yes, that is a thing. So, the DofE was indeed a horse guy, which presumably Tolkien knew.
2) The story reported in Amon Hen from 1974, from a dinner at Priscilla T’s with Michael also present, about “demonic Uhlans in the mist” inspiring the Black Riders, definitely came from Michael- years later he told a similar story to a fellow headmaster, who afterwards put it on the internet. But Christopher T when asked debunked it as wholly untrue, pointing out that his brother Michael was given to spinning tall tales. It can also be debunked by history: Tolkien did not reach France until summer 1916, by which time the Germans had NO cavalry on the Western Front.