Hello, and welcome to the NataCast, 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 covered Book 5, Chapter 5 of the Lord of the Rings,

the ride of the Rohirum, and this week we're on to Book 5, Chapter 6, the Battle of the Pelinor

Fields. The last two chapters ended with a miracle, the same miracle, the Rohirum arriving to

drive back the shadow and welcome the sun as it glittered on King Theodon's shield.

This chapter begins with the word, but.

It's Tolkien bringing us up short, reminding us that victory is as temporary as defeat.

There's always a catch, and the enemy is too powerful to be dispelled with a single cavalry

charge, however glorious and legendary.

After all, Tilkeon writes, it's not some random ork leading the siege.

It's Sauron's right-hand man, or rather right-hand wraith.

The witch-king's fortunes may have turned, Tolkien writes, the world itself seeming to

turn against him and his master, but this is the guy who destroyed the northern kingdom of men.

He's not going to turn back from the southern kingdom at the first major obstacle.

He left the gate and vanished, Tolkien writes, and then the author shifts the narrative

camera back to Theodon, focusing on the details of his charge, so we'll forget about

the witch king before Tolkien brings him back.

And that same sense of the glory fading as this chapter starts and the grim realities

of the situation returning applies to the Rohirum.

They have overrun the northern half of the Pelinor Fields,

Tolkien telling us that Elf Helmsmen specifically are taking down the siege engines,

...