Reading “The Lord of the Rings”: Chapter 4: “A Journey in the Dark” (Book Two)

As this chapter begins, things look rather bleak for the Fellowship. Having been defeated by the mountain Caradhras, they have to make a terrible decision about which direction to turn next. Finally, at Gandalf’s suggestion, they decide to go through the forbidding realm of Moria. Though there is some debate as to whether this is the wisest choice, the arrival of a band of sinister Wargs decides them and, after journeying into the dark, they find the tomb of Balin.

Throughout the early parts of chapter, one gets the feeling that the natural world has gone awry. The fact that the bodies of the slain wolves can’t be found the night after their attack makes it clear that they are not creatures hunting in the wilds for food but are instead emissaries of Sauron (though it’s ambiguous as to whether they managed to drag the bodies away or whether they were some sort of beings without fleshly form at all). The most unsettling creature, however, is the Watcher in the Water, that being of many legs (or hands, depending on how you look at it) that reaches out to snatch Frodo just as they are poised to enter Moria. It is, as Gandalf points out, one of the “older and fouler things than Orcs,” but there’s so much that we don’t know about it. For this reason, it’s one of those enigmatic and terrifying creatures that Tolkien…