This week I’m kicking off a new series topic – Action! This is an area in my own writing that needs a lot of work, so I thought what better way to improve than to cross-examine some of the more famous action scenes in fantasy. My goal in this endeavor is to identify what an author does to make a fight scene or action sequence compel the reader to keep turning page.
The book I examined this week is The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the scene is Sam and Frodo’s fight with Shelob.
Good action sequences come from two-part execution: setup and scene. During the setup, the author takes the reader through the terrain. We see which tools both sides have access to, what hindrances apply to each, and what complications could be encountered during the altercation.
The setup for the Shelob fight takes place over six pages, wherein Sam and Frodo lose their way through the pitch-black lair. In this sequence, Gollum leads Sam and Frodo into Shelob’s lair as a trap. They stumble through the darkness, unaware of the impending danger, and then the fight unfolds at one of the exits to the cave. Tolkien uses Frodo and Sam’s time in the cave to draw our attention to three motifs crucial to the ensuing fight: darkness, eyes, and light.
Tolkien introduces Shelob through trepidation and sensory overload. “They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought…out of it came a reek so foul, and a sense of lurking malice so intense, that Frodo reeled.” (386-387). Tolkien shrouds Shelob in the darkness of her cave, obfuscating the halflings through sensory attacks. The sheer force of darkness oppresses the hobbits. Darkness is the weapon of Shelob, weakening the heroes, and Tolkien repeatedly draws our attention to this idea to express just how dire a situation the hobbits have gotten themselves into.
The next motif manifests in the form of eyes. Before the fight begins, Shelob reveals herself to the hobbits, but only her eyes. He teases us with the scale of the great spider, while simultaneously drawing our attention where he needs it for the fight: “Not far down the tunnel, between them and the opening where they had reeled and stumbled, he was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many-windowed eyes—the coming menace was unmasked at last.” (389) Beyond creating an impressive visual and giving life to the eerie feeling of being watched that the Hobbits experience, revealing Shelob’s eyes cues the reader to the part of Shelob that Sam will attack later.
This small taste Tolkien gives us with Shelob’s eyes also provides an opportunity to showcase the hobbits’ weapons, the setup’s final motif - light. Just as darkness weakens the Hobbits and strengthens Shelob, light yield the opposite effect. Finally, the phial Galadriel gave to Frodo comes into play – ‘Chekhov’s star-glass’ so to speak. “Holding the star aloft and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes…doubt came into them as the light approached. One by one they dimmed, and slowly they drew back. No brightness so deadly had ever afflicted them before.” (390) Before the fight even starts Tolkien provides everything we need to know: the hobbits will use light to combat Shelob’s darkness, and exploit her weak point: her eyes.
With the setup settled, the fight commences over a short, action-packed, three pages. Because the actual fight starts and finishes in such a short time, Tolkien eliminates the need to painstakingly block his scenes. Generally, blocking becomes incredibly important for these fights, so that the audience can keep track of each of the parties no matter where they may fly around. But in this case, since the fight doesn’t cover much ground, Tolkien focuses on the payoff to his setup: the important motifs he established inside the cave.
Looming over an incapacitated Frodo, Shelob is about to drag him away when Sam strikes. “…the shining sword bit upon her foot and shore away the claw. Sam sprang in, inside the arches of her legs, and with a quick upthrust of his other hand stabbed at the clustered eyes upon her lowered head. One great eye went dark.” (398) Upon seeing the great spider, Sam flies in, immediately going for her eyes, the point of interest upon which Tolkien had earlier labored. And then to finish off the beast, Sam relies on the light of the star-glass. “As if his indomitable spirit had set its potency in motion, the glass blazed suddenly like a white torch in his hand….No such terror out of heaven had ever burned in Shelob’s face before.” (400) Unable to bear the luminescence, Shelob slinks back into her lair to the safety of darkness.
The fight with Shelob is one of the most famous in fantasy. What makes it special is Tolkien’s attention to setup. Inside the cave, the audience feels the trepidation and overwhelming suffocation that Sam and Frodo feel. Even though the actual fight is quite short – over in essentially three blows - Tolkien’s makes it last much longer in our memory.