the two towers

     much like the page of quotes which proceeds this one, all editorial marks run as such: additional replacements in the text (mainly adding a character's name so you know who is speaking) are marked by [ ] brackets, and exclusions (again, nothing drastic, just the omissions of description etc. not necessary when trying only to highlight quotations) are marked ... with an ellipses.
     here now follows excerpts and quotes from the second installment of the lotr series, the two towers. i'm certain you will note pippin's role only gets larger in the last two books of the trilogy, and more, my inability to condense it into small excerpts. ie. please see my overzealousness with the palantír scene.
     again, if you haven't read the books, and do not wish to spoil the many twists and turns for yourself, i highly suggest you stop reading this page at this time.
     all this text is copyrighted specifically to the 1965 ballantine book series, and consequently to the estate of j.r.r. tolkien, if there be a problem, sweet merciful god, contact me.

pippin lay in a dark and troubled dream: it seemed he could hear his own small voice echoing in the black tunnels calling frodo, frodo! but instead of frodo hundreds of hideous orc-faces grinned at him out of the shadows, hundreds of hideous arms grasped at him from every side. where was merry?

'now,' thought pippin, 'if only it takes that ugly fellow a little while to get his troop under control, i've got a chance.' a gleam of hope had come to him. the edge of the black knife had nicked his arm, and then slid down to his wrist. he felt the blood trickling on his hand, but he also felt the cold touch of steel against his skin. ... he drew the knot of the wrist-cord up and down against the blade of the knife. it was sharp and the dead hand held it fast. the cord was cut!

he cut the thongs round pippin's legs and ankles picked him up by his hair and stood him on his feet. pippin fell down, and uglúk dragged him up by his hair again. several orcs laughed. uglúk thrust a flask between his teeth and poured some burning liquid down his throat: he felt a hot fierce glow flow through him.

a sudden thought leaped into pippin's mind, and he acted on it at once. he swerved aside to the right, and dived out of the reach of his clutching guard, headfirst into the mist; he landed sprawling on the grass.
'halt!' yelled uglúk.
there was for a moment turmoil and confusion. pippin sprang up and ran. but the orcs were after him. some suddenly loomed up right in front of him.
'no hope of escape!' thought pippin. ' but there is a hope that i have left some of my own marks unspoilt on the wet ground.' he groped with his two tied hands at his throat, and unclasped the brooch of his cloak. just as long arms and hard claws seized him, he let it fall. 'there i suppose it will lie until the end of time,' he thought. 'i don't know why i did it. if the others have escaped, they're probably all gone with frodo.'
a whip-thong curled around his legs, and he stifled a cry.

'find it?' said grishnákh: his fingers stopped crawling and gripped pippin's shoulder. 'find what? what are you talking about, little one?'
for a moment pippin was silent. then suddenly in the darkness he made a noise in his throat: gollum, gollum. 'nothing, my precious,' he added.

'we always seem to have got left out of the old lists, and the old stories,' said merry. 'yet we've been about for quite a long time. we're hobbits'
'why not make a new line?' said pippin. 'half-grown hobbits, the hole-dwellers. put us next to man (the big people) and you've got it.'
'hm! not bad, not bad,' said treebeard. 'that would do. so you live in hole, eh? it sounds very right and proper. who calls you hobbits, though? that does not sound elvish to me. elves made all the old words: they began it.'
'nobody calls us hobbits; we call ourselves that,' said pippin
'hoom, hmm! come now! not so hasty! you call yourselves hobbits? but you should not go telling just anybody. you'll be letting out your own right names if you're not careful.'
'we aren't careful about that,' said merry. 'as a matter of fact, i'm a brandybuck, meriadoc brandybuck, though most people call me merry.'
'and i'm a took, peregrin took, but i'm generally called pippin, or even pip.'

- pippin found the sound very pleasant to listen to at first; but gradually his attention wavered. after a long time (and the chant showed no signs of slackening) he found himself wondering, since entish was such an 'unhasty' language, whether they had yet got further than good morning; and if tree beard was to call roll, how many days it would take to sing all their names. 'i wonder what is the entish word for yes or no,' he thought. he yawned.
treebeard was immediately aware of him, 'hm, ha, hey, my pippin!' he said.

'welcome, my lords, to isengard!' [merry] said. 'we are the door-wardens, meriadoc, son of saradoc, is my name; and my companion, who, alas! is overcome with weariness' - here he gave the other a dig with his foot- 'is peregrin, son of paladin, of the house of took. far in the north is our home. the lord saruman is within; but at the moment he is closeted with one wormtongue, or, doubtless he would be here to welcome such honorable guests.'

'and what about your companions? what about legolas and me?' cried gimli, unable to contain himself longer. 'you rascals, you wooly-footed and wool-pated truants! a fine hunt you have led us! two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! and here we find you feasting and idling- and smoking! smoking! where did you come by the weed, you villains? hammer and tongs! i am so torn between rage and joy, that if i do not burst, it will be a marvel!'
'you speak for me, gimli,' laughed legolas, 'though i would sooner learn how they came by the wine.'
'one thing you have not found in your hunting, and that's brighter wits,' said pippin, opening an eye. 'here you find us sitting in a field of victory, amid the plunder of armies and you wonder how we came by a few well-earned comforts!'
'well-earned?' said gimli, 'i cannot believe that!'

'half a moment!' said pippin. putting his hand inside the breast of his jacket he pulled out a little soft wallet on a string. 'i keep a treasure or two near my skin, as precious as rings to me. here's one: my old wooden pipe. and here's another: and unused one. i have carried it a long way, though i don't know why. i never really expected to find any pipe-weed on the journey, when my own ran out. but now it comes in useful after all.' he held up a small pipe with a wide flattened bowl, and handed it to gimli. 'does that settle the score between us?'

'and here also is your brooch, pippin.' said aragorn. 'i have kept it safe, for it is a very precious thing.'
'i know,' said pippin. 'it was a wrench to let it go; but what else could i do?'
'nothing else,' answered aragorn. 'one who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters. you did rightly.'

'... i tried to call out, and couldn't. there was no need. he halted just by us and looked down at us. "gandalf!" i said at last, but my voice was only a whisper. did he say "hullo, pippin! this is a pleasant surprise!"? no, indeed! he said: "get up you tom-fool of a took! where, in the name of wonder, in all this ruin is treebeard? i want him. quick!"'

at that moment a heavy shining thing came hurtling down from above. it glanced off the iron rail, even as saruman left it, and passing close to gandalf's head, it smote the stair on which he stood. the rail rang and snapped. the stair cracked and splintered in glittering sparks. but the ball was unharmed: it rolled on down the steps, a globe of crystal, dark, but glowing with a heart of fire. as it bounded away towards a pool pippin ran after it and picked it up.

'here, my lad, i'll take that! i did not ask you to handle it,' [gandalf] cried, turning sharply and seeing pippin coming up the steps, slowly, as if he were bearing a great weight.

merry was sleepy, but pippin seemed curiously restless. the bracken cracked and rustled, as he twisted and turned.
'what's the matter?' asked merry. 'are you lying on an ant-hill?'
'no,' said pippin, 'but i'm not comfortable. i wonder how long it is since i slept in a bed?'
merry yawned. 'work it out on your fingers!' he said. 'but you ust know how long it is since we left lórien.'
'oh, that!' said pippin. 'i mean a real bed in a bedroom.'
'well, rivendell then,' said merry. 'but i could sleep anywhere tonight.'
'you had the luck, merry' said pippin softly, after a pause. ' you were riding with gandalf.'
'well, what of it?' 'yes, a good deal. more than usual. but you heard it all or most of it; you were close by, and we were talking no secrets. but you can go with him tomorrow, if you think you can get more out of him- and if he'll have you.'

'well, if gandalf has changed at all, then he's closer than ever that's all.' pippin argued. 'that- glass ball, now. he seemed mighty pleased with it. he knows or guesses something about it. but does he tell us what? no, not a word. yet i picked it up and i saved it from rolling into a pool. here, i'll take that lad- that's all. i wonder what it is? it felt so very heavy.' pippin's voice fell very low, as if he was talking to himself.
'hullo!' said merry. 'so that's bothering you? now, pippin my lad, don't forget gildor's saying- the one sam used to quote: do not meddle in the affairs of wizards for they are subtle and quick to anger.'
'but our whole life for months has been one long meddling in the affairs of wizards,' said pippin 'i should like a bit of information as well as danger. i should like a look at that ball.'
'go to sleep!' said merry. 'you'll get information enough, sooner or later. my dear pippin, no took ever beat a brandybuck for inquisitiveness; but is this the time, i ask you?'
'all right! what's the harm in my telling you what i should like: a look at that stone? i know i can't have it, with old gandalf sitting on it, like a hen on an egg. but it doesn't help much to get no more from you than a you-can't-have-it-so-go-to-sleep!'
'well, what else could i say?' said merry. 'i'm sorry, pippin, but you really must wait till the morning. i'll be as curious as you like after breakfast, and i'll help in anyway i can at wizard-wheedling. but i can't keep awake any longer. if i yawn any more, i shall split at the ears. good night!'

driven by some impulse that he did not understand, pippin walked softly to where gandalf lay. he looked down at him. the wizard seemed asleep, but with lids not fully closed: there was a glitter of eyes under his long lashes. pippin stepped back hastily. but gandalf made no sign; and drawn forward once more, half against his will, the hobbit crept up from behind the wizard's head. he was rolled in a blanket, with his cloak spread over the top; and close behind him, between his right side and his bent arm, there was a hummock, something round wrapped in a dark cloth; his hand seemed only just to have slipped off it to the ground.
hardly breathing, pippin crept nearer, foot by foot. at last he knelt down. then he put his hands out stealthily and slowly lifted the lump up; it did not seem quite so heavy as he had expected. 'only some bundle of oddments, perhaps, after all,' he thought with a strange sense of relief; but he did not put the bundle down again. he stood for a moment clasping it. then an idea came into his mind. he tiptoed away, found a large stone, and came back.
quickly now he drew off the cloth, wrapped the stone in it and kneeling down, laid it back by the wizard's hand. then at last he looked at the thing that he had uncovered. there it was: a smooth globe of crystal, now dark and dead, lying bare before his knees. pippin lifted it, covered it hurriedly in his own cloak, and half turned to go back to his bed. at that moment gandalf moved in his sleep, and muttered some words: they seemed to be in a strange tongue; his hand groped out and clasped the wrapped stone, then he sighed and did not move again.
'you idiotic fool!' pippin muttered to himself. 'you're going to get yourself into frightful trouble. put it back quick!' but he found now that his knees quaked, and he did not dare to go near the wizard to reach the bundle. 'i'll never get it back now without waking him,' him he thought, 'not till i'm a bit calmer. so i may as well have a look first. not just here though!' he stole away, and sat down of a green hillock not far from his bed. the moon looked in over the edge of the dell.
pippin sat with his knees drawn up and the ball between them. he bent low over it, looking like a greedy child stooping over a bowl of food, in a corner away from others. he drew his cloak aside and gazed at it. the air seemed still and tense about him. at first the globe was dark, black as jet, with the moonlight gleaming on its surface. then there came a faint glow and stir in the heart of it, and it held his eyes, so that now he could not look away. soon all the inside seemed on fire; the ball was spinning, or the lights within were revolving. suddenly the lights went out. he gave a gasp and struggled; but he remained bent, clasping the ball with both hands. closer and closer he bent, and then became rigid; his lips moved soundlessly for a while. then with a strangled cry he fell back and lay still.
the cry was piercing. the guards leapt down from the banks. all the camp was soon astir.

'so this is the thief!' said gandalf. hastily he cast his cloak over the globe where it lay. 'but you pippin! this is a grievous turn of things!' he knelt by pippin's body: the hobbit was lying on his back, rigid, with unseeing eyes staring up at the sky. 'the devilry! what mischief has he done- to himself, and to all of us?' the wizard's face was drawn and haggard.
he took pippin's hand and bent over his face, listening for breath; then he laid his hands on his brow. the hobbit shuddered. his eyes closed. he cried out; and sat up, staring in bewilderment at all the faces round him, pale in the moonlight.
'it is not for you saruman!' he cried in a shrill and toneless voice, shrinking away from gandalf. 'i will send for it at once. do you understand? say just that!' then he struggled to get up and escape, but gandalf held him gently and firmly.
'peregrin took!' he said, 'come back!'
the hobbit relaxed and fell back, clinging to the wizard's hand. 'gandalf!' he cried,. 'gandalf! forgive me!'
'forgive you?' said the wizard. 'tell me first what you have done!'
'i, i took the ball and looked at it,' stammered pippin; 'and i saw things that frightened me. and i wanted to go away, but i couldn't. and then he came and questioned me and he looked at me, and that is all i remember.'
'that won't do,' said gandalf sternly. 'what did you see, and what did you say?'
pippin shut his eyes and shivered, but said nothing. they all stared at him in silence, except merry who turned away. but gandalf's face was still hard. 'speak!' he said.
in a low hesitating voice pippin began again, and slowly his words grew clearer and stronger. 'i saw a dark sky, and tall battlements,' he said. 'and tiny stars. it seemed very far away and long ago, yet hard and clear. then the stars went in and out- they were cut off by things with wings. very big, i think, really; but in the glass they looked like bats wheeling round the tower. i thought there were nine of them. one began to fly straight towards me, getting bigger and bigger. it had a horrible- no, no! i can't say.
'i tried to get away, because i thought it would fly out; but when it had covered the whole globe, it disappeared. then he came. he did not speak so that i could hear words. he just looked and i understood. "so you have come back? why have you neglected to report for so long?"'
'i did not answer. he said: "who are you?" i still did not answer, but it hurt me terribly; and he pressed me so i said: "a hobbit."
then suddenly he seemed to see me, and he laughed at me. it was cruel. it was like being stabbed with knives, i struggled. but he said: "wait a moment! we shall meet again soon. tell saruman that this dainty is not for him. i will send for it at once. do you understand? say just that!"
then he gloated over me. i felt i was falling to pieces. no, no! i can't say any more. i don't remember anything else.'
'look at me!' said gandalf.
pippin looked up straight into his eyes. the wizard held his gaze for a moment in silence. then his face grew gentler, and the shadow of a smile appeared. he laid his hand softly on pippin's head.
'all right!' he said. 'say no more! you have taken no harm. there is no lie in your eyes, as i fear. but he did not speak long with you. a fool, but an honest fool, you remain, peregrin took. wiser ones might have done worse in such a pass. but mark this! you have been saved, and all your friends too, mainly by good fortune, as it is called. you cannot count on it a second time. if he had questioned you, then and there, almost certainly you would have told all that you know, to the ruin of us all. but he was too eager. he did not want information only: he wanted you, quickly, so that he could deal with you in the dark tower, slowly. don't shudder! if you will meddle in the affairs of wizards, you must be prepared to think of such things. but come! i forgive you. be comforted! things have not turned out as evilly as they might.'
he lifted pippin gently and carried him back to his bed. merry followed, and sat down beside him. 'lie there and rest, if you can, pippin!' said gandalf. 'trust me. if you feel an itch in your palms again, tell me of it! such things can be cured. but anyway, my dear hobbit, don't put a lump of rock under my elbow again! now, i will leave you two together for a while.'

going to pippin, gandalf picked him up in his arms, 'you shall come with me this time,' he said. 'shadowfax shall show you his paces.' then he ran to the place where he had slept. shadowfax stood there already. slinging his small bag which was all his luggage across his shoulders, the wizard leapt upon the horse's back. aragorn lifted pippin and set him in gandalf's arms, wrapped in cloak and blanket.

'what did men of old use them for?' asked pippin, delighted and astonished at getting answers to so many questions and wondering how long it would last.

'i wish i had known all this before,' said pippin. 'i had no notion of what i was doing.'
'oh yes, you had,' said gandalf. 'you knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen. i did not tell you all this before because it is only by musing on all that has happened that i have at last understood, even as we ride together. but if i had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. on the contrary! no, the burned hand teaches best. after that, advice about fire goes to the heart.'
'it does,' said pippin. 'if all seven stones were laid out before me now, i should shut my eyes and put my hands in my pockets.'
'good!' said gandalf. 'that is what i hoped.'
'but i should like to know-' pippin began
'mercy!' cried gandalf. 'if the giving of information is the to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, i shall spend all the rest of my days answering you. what more do you want to know?'
'the names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of middle-earth and over-heaven and of the sundering seas,' laughed pippin. 'of course! what less? ...'

... x