Day 54: The Two Towers

Tonight as I walked I felt very much as though I am in the 'Two Towers' stage of my 90 day challenge.  For those of you who have read the trilogy by J.R.R.Tolkien, you may remember the Two Towers as the middle book of the three. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book, is really exciting.  There's a lot of excitement and setting-off and people joining the quest and taking provisions and narrowly escaping disaster and new friendships and old friendships forged stronger and the thrill of the quest.  And the third book, The Return of The King, is also excitement in a different way.  The quest is nearly over, there is a mighty battle (many mighty battles), and the end is in sight.  Those who were weary have become rejuvenated, those who lost hope have seen it regained, evil is losing and good is triumphing and there is glory, glory everywhere, shining on the land of hope and freedom!

But the middle book is neither initial excitement nor second wind.  My overwhelming impression of the book is Frodo slogging on through a quest that is daily wearing him down, his steps growing slower and slower as the weight he carries burdens him more and more the closer he gets to the end.  Enemies abound.  Fear is on every side.  His best friend never leaves him, but Frodo begins to lose the encouragement that Sam gives because he is just so weary, so burdened.

Here is a quote from the middle of the middle book of the trilogy:

"They had almost lost count of the hours during which they had climbed and laboured among the barren slopes and stones of the Emyn Muil, sometimes retracing their steps because they could find no way forward, sometimes discovering that they had wandered in a circle back to where they had been hours before.  Yet on the whole they had worked steadily eastward, keeping as near as they could find a way to the outer edge of this strange twisted knot of hills.  But always they found its outward faces sheer, high and impassable, frowning over the plain below; beyond its tumbled skirts lay livid festering marhes where nothing moved and not even a bird was to be seen."

In my walking I am in the Two Towers stage.  At first it was really exciting, with six inches and then a foot and then two feet of snow!  And I was out tramping in my welly boots and defeating the forces of weather!  And then it was ice, and then snow, then back to ice and frost, then mist, and I was the intrepid explorer, and there were many followers and comments and praise and impressiveness.  But the last few days have been cold, dark, grey, brown.  There is nothing to take a photo of, or else I'm out walking so late it's pitch black outside.  (And considering it gets dark before 5, it's not always easy to get out while it's still light.)  And I'm not yet near the end, and I am walking the same streets I walked before, and tonight it started raining a cold, freezing rain and I had no hat.  Yes, Frodo, I hear you as you lose count of the hours and the ring weighs heavy on you and you wander in circles back to where you were hours before.

But there is a beautiful part where they are still trudging along, and they come to a place where there is a great stone figure carving, a king of old, now crumbled and forgotten.  The head had fallen off and was lying on the ground.  As Frodo looks, he is startled into speech:

"'Look, Sam!  The king has got a crown again!'  The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold.  A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king, and in the crevices of his stony hair yellow stonecrop gleamed.  'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo."

Yes, there is evil in the world out there.  The walk is long, the days get weary.  The weather is dull, and unimpressive, and very cold.  And I am tired.

But "they cannot conquer for ever."  And I will walk on.

Walk length: 25 minutes