The Two Towers

The ending of The Two Towers places Frodo and Sam in the most evil and dangerous place they have ever been, building up to a moment of utter despair and ruin that serves as the low-point of the series. By exploring how Frodo and Sam endure the greatest threat of evil they have ever faced, Tolkien represents how difficult it can be to find hope and courage to go on. These chapters use the natural environment as an obstacle and as a source of horror, indicating that there are inherently evil aspects of the world that are not simply the result of Sauron’s power. Nevertheless, the courage the hobbits show in these chapters—even in their worst moments—reflects the theme of Warfare Versus Heroism.

The vale of Minas Morgul and Shelob’s tunnel serve as the setting for these chapters, with Tolkien portraying them not as wastelands but places of polluted and revolting growth. While the area around the Black Gate is described as a desert, empty of any plant life, the Morgul Vale has a stream and flowers. However, Tolkien does not describe these flowers as beautiful or pleasant: “[L]uminous these were too, beautiful and yet horrible in shape, like the demented forms of an uneasy dream; and they gave forth a faint sickening charnel-smell; an odour of rottenness filled the air” (689, emphasis added). These corpse-like flowers are a form of natural life, but it is a twisted and horrific form, once more embodying evil through nature that is perverted or destroyed.

Similarly, Shelob is described as a spider-like beast who predates even Sauron. The motif of light and dark (See: Symbols & Motifs) is used to signal Shelob’s evil nature. Shelob cannot be easily driven away by Elvish magic because she is also an ancient natural power: “[O]ther potencies there are in Middle-earth, powers of night, and they are old and strong. And She that walked in the darkness had heard the Elves cry that cry far back in the deeps of time […] and it did not daunt her now” (704, emphasis added). Rather than being a result of Sauron’s corruption, Shelob is an old and powerful entity with no agenda in the war of the Ring. She is, nevertheless, also a form of mindless destruction: “[She] only desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her up and the darkness could not contain her” (707, emphasis added).

The ending of The Two Towers focuses on how the small and meek hobbits Frodo and Sam overcome seemingly overwhelming odds and face evil powers that even great warriors could not overcome, bringing the theme of Warfare Versus Heroism to its climax. Firstly, Frodo faces the leader of the Nazgûl, resisting the powerful entity’s compulsion to reach for the Ring. Frodo later uses the light of Galadriel’s phial to find a way out of Shelob’s tunnel, choosing to run toward the dreadful creature instead of caving in to his fear. The light provides him with both mental relief from the burden of the Ring and also with literal help in navigating a dark space, suggesting that the light represents the hope that Frodo uses to subvert even these powerful and ancient forces of evil (See: Symbols & Motifs).

Similarly, Sam faces an even more desperate scenario when he believes that Frodo has been killed by Shelob. When he sees the monster wrapping up Frodo’s body, Tolkien’s description emphasizes that Sam’s choice to intervene is not based on rational consideration but rather his loving instincts:

Sam did not wait to wonder what was to be done, or whether he was brave, or loyal, or filled with rage. He sprang forward with a yell […] No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate (711).

In this moment of despair, Sam’s love for Frodo is the only thing that he needs to keep him from giving in to despair and apathy, revealing his own heroic instincts.

As a result, the ending of The Two Towers hints that Sam has become much greater and more powerful than he seems. He overhears the Orcs speculating about how Shelob was wounded, saying, “I’d say there’s a large warrior loose, Elf most likely, with an elf-sword anyway, and an axe as well maybe” (722). While Sam is only a small hobbit, his love for Frodo has allowed him to overcome odds greater than anyone could expect.