After many years away from LOTR, I'm reading it to my ten year old, who's liking it a lot. I'm enjoying it too, but I'm starting to pick up on things I never noticed as a kid or young man.
Something that hit me like a ton of bricks recently reading The Two Towers:
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli find Boromir, slain by orcs. They don't know quite what happened, but do know from his last words that the orcs kidnapped at least some of the hobbits. Do they immediately set off in hot pursuit to rescue their furry-footed buddies, who at this point can't be more than a few miles away?
No, they decide that they cannot leave Boromir's body to be despoiled by his enemies. They gather up trophies from his last battle and give him a Viking funeral, complete with songs.
As I'm reading to my kid, I'm thinking: Hey guys, it's nice that you aren't allowing your dead friend to be eaten by goblins, but aren't you concerned that the live ones are being sized up against the wine list at the moment?
Now, I understand that it's A BOOK, and that Tolkien did this deliberately to give the orcs a huge headstart, and set up the attack by the Rohirrim, and the Ents, and all that stuff that's incredibly important for the overall story. And i also understand that he does it so skillfully that it's take me 40 years to go .
But still, now it's bugging me.
Thoughts, or other LOTR comments?