As we have been reviewing The Two Towers this past week, I have been reminded about how little time actually progresses from start to finish, particularly in Book 3. It starts with the death of Boromir and concludes with the parley at Isengard. I checked Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings to see precisely how many days passed between these two events, and what I found is that Book 3 consists of only ten days. Similarly, Book 4 of The Two Towers regarding Frodo and Sam's quest only takes 18 days. Contrasted with the entire Fellowship of the Ring, which includes over eighteen years of events, The Two Towers packs a lot of information in a short amount of text.
I wonder why Tolkien decided to dedicate so much time within The Fellowship of the Ring while making the sequel significantly shorter. On the surface, perhaps it could have been to quicken the pace and insert the necessary degree of urgency as Middle-Earth prepared for its great and final conflict. When reading The Two Towers, the change in pace seems fairly obvious as the plot develops quite quickly. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas pursue the hobbits, encounter the Riders of Rohan, and soon battle at the fortress of Helm's Deep with their new friends all in under a week. On the other hand, Merry and Pippin escape the orc band, meet Treebeard, sack Isengard, and reunite with their friends by the end of those ten days. So much happens in so little time, and I for myself struggle to comprehend that this is not taking weeks upon weeks to accomplish.
Furthermore, Tolkien's technique of splitting up The Two Towers into one book dedicated to Frodo and Sam and another to the remainder of the Fellowship plays with time as well. As I mentioned above, Frodo and Sam's half of Two Towers takes eight more days to tell. Thus, in the second half of Book 4, the first half of Book 5 in the Return of the King is already underway. To give an example, when Frodo is stung by Shelob, Gandalf and Pippin had already been in Minas Tirith for nearly four days, Aragorn was currently battling Corsairs at Pelargir, and the Rohirrim was on its way to Gondor's aid. All in all, Tolkien shifts the timeframe in The Two Towers and The Return of the King four times.
Why do you think Tolkien decided to write The Two Towers and The Return of the King in their split styles? What do you think was his rationale for spending so much time in The Fellowship of the Ring and speeding up the plot significantly in the other books?
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