Hello, and welcome to the Nodcast, podcast, the podcast that usually goes through a Song of Ice and Fire, one chapter a week, but not here.

I'm one of your hosts Emmett, also known as Poor Quentin, and welcome back to my series on J.R.R. Tolkien's, the Lord of the Rings.

Last time we wrapped up Book 5, Chapter 4, The Siege of Gondor,

and this week we're jumping ahead with Book 5, Chapter 5, The Ride of the Rohirum. So as I've been saying,

book 5 is a bigger, better sequel to Book 3. In both cases, Tolkien jumps around in time and space

from chapter to chapter, playing with

information to provide a structure of tension and release for the audience. At the end of the last

chapter, just when all hope seemed lost for the defenders of Minas Tirith, Pippin heard the horns

of the Rahirum echoing off the mountains.

But wait, how'd that happen?

We were told over and over again that the riders of Rohan would come too late, if they came

at all.

There's an army blocking the Northern Road into the city.

So now this chapter has to flash back to fill in what happened.

You can almost imagine a title card flashing

on the screen, two days earlier. Tolkien is playing his audience like a fiddle, delaying our gratification

before providing it at the chapter's end. He ramped us up, and now he ramps us down, just so he can

ramp us right back up again.

Tolkien has the reputation as a fussy, self-indulgent writer.

But everything in these chapters is designed to engage the audience on a gut level.

It's a well-oiled machine, a blockbuster ahead of its time.

The chapter starts by disorienting us. It's a dark night and we can't see anything.

...