The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp. 815-820

Thanks to the aid of Ghân-buri-Ghân and his people, the Rohirrim are able to bypass the host of Mordor that holds the road to Minas Tirith against them. Now, apart from a few orcs at the wall of the Pelennor Fields who are easily overcome, nothing stands before them and the host that besieges the great city of Gondor and gather before its gates.

Nothing, did I say? There may be nothing between the Riders of Rohan and the Morgul host that presses in upon the city, but there is that host, commanded by the Morgul-lord himself, the lord of the Ringwraiths, and for a moment the sheer immensity of that host almost overcomes Théoden’s courage.

Throughout the telling of his great tale, Tolkien describes each scene through the eyes of a hobbit wherever possible, and by this means is able to bring us into it, not through as mighty warriors but as someone who is very small and very afraid. And by telling this story through Merry’s eyes he is able to bring every one of us into the battle, as long as we are prepared to look through the eyes of a small person ourselves. And perhaps that is one of the great gifts of reading. For when we read in private we are alone with ourselves. There is no-one to impress, no-one to pretend to. There is just the reality of what lies within our hearts.

And so it is through Merry, riding with Dernhelm who has come close to the king’s own company of knights, that we are able to witness Théoden’s inner struggle just before the battle begins.

“But the king sat upon Snowmane, motionless, gazing upon the agony of Minas Tirith, as if stricken suddenly by anguish, or by dread. He seemed to shrink down, cowed by age. Merry himself felt as if a great weight of horror and doubt had settled on him. His heart beat slowly. Time seemed poised in uncertainty. They were too late! Too late was worse than never! Perhaps Théoden would quail, bow his old head, turn, slink away to hide in the hills.”

This is no superhero story in which the little people like us can safely stand back and watch the mighty ones go into battle on our behalf. We are like Merry, and so like every member of the host of Rohan. We must do battle against evil and if the courage of our king fails now then so too will ours. If he slinks “away to hide in the hills” then so too will we, and there, like him, we will be hunted down and we will fall.

Perhaps at this moment Théoden remembers the words he spoke to Éomer in Harrowdale when he said, “If the war is lost, what good will be my hiding in the hills?” It is a grace that words that we have spoken in moments of reflection when there is leisure still for such a thing come back to us when we need them most. And if these are the words that come to the king then they call him back to his best self, the self that he had displayed to Éomer just a few days before. Now Théoden must confront, not only the Morgul-host, not only his own fear, but that best self most of all. And perhaps he remembers too how that best self was reawakened by Gandalf in his own hall of Meduseld. How he had been imprisoned there by the whispering of Grima Wormtongue as he gazed at the image of Eorl the Young as the hero rode into battle against the foes of Gondor at the birth of the kingdom of Rohan. Perhaps all of this comes back into his mind, weighed down as it is by fear, at the crucial moment of his life.

And so courage is reawakened within his heart and in the hearts of all his host. When he charges into the battle not one of them will be able to stay behind. All will have to follow him no matter what the cost. Where the king goes so too will the people. This is what it means to be a king. Not to be the possessor of power but to lead the people. The king must be the one who lays down his life for the people so that the people are able to lay down their lives too. The king must give his life for the very best so that his people can find the very best within themselves. And this is the gift that Théoden now gives to them.