Tags
a bridge too far, bridges, c.s. lewis, j.r.r. tolkien, story dynamics, the bridges at toko-ri, the chronicles of narnia, the lord of the rings, writing
Recently, I have been reading a lot of stories that involved bridges, for some reason. And watching movies, too. To name just a few:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkein. In the second book of the first volume, to escape from Moria, the Fellowship must cross a narrow bridge. The bridge is their downfall–Gandalf holds the bridge against a Balrog and is lost (which I frankly could not believe happened and was in shock for quite some time afterwards! Up until Gandalf returned in The Two Towers, in fact.) Another mention of a bridge (not such an ill-fated one, though) in Fellowship was the Last Bridge, over the Mitheithel or Hoarwell, which they had to cross before they could ford the Bruinen, also known as the Loudwater or the river of Rivendell, in order to enter Rivendell. Perhaps the reason for their better luck with this one was 1) that Glorfindel had passed before them and left a “token” in the form of a beryl, a kind of elf-stone and 2) that they actually had a chance to scout it out before crossing. Not to mention that Glorfindel had drawn (or chased) all the Black Riders away, to give the hobbits and Aragorn some safety in crossing. (If you have only seen the movies and your experience of bridges in Fellowship is entirely bad, then I say “Bah!” to you. Come back when you’re older and wiser. ;-P)
- The Bridges at Toko-Ri. This is a sad movie, especially because SPOILER! the father dies and leaves his family and wife widowed. END SPOILER Probably one of the biggest reasons I don’t like war movies so much… :’-(
- A Bridge Too Far. This movie, about Operation Market Garden (which, if they had had a better chance, might’ve ended WWII earlier), is the other reason why I don’t like war movies. So tragic–SPOILER! everyone I liked died in the end. In fact, EVERYONE died in the end. END SPOILER
- Ranger’s Apprentice: The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan. In this story, a bridge that would allow Dark Lord Morgarath to cross over the Mountains of Rain and Night becomes the least of our heroes’ worries when Will and Evanlyn are kidnapped. (Yes, I was delighted to find the second book at our local library. And for those who wanted to know–John Flanagan does get better over time. The point-of-view skips which were the thing I liked least, non-plot speaking, about the first book have all but disappeared in the second, and the plot is equally intriguing.)
- The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis. In this story, to reach the far north, Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum are forced to cross a giants’ bridge that leads to the road going to Castle Harfang. Before meeting the Witch-Queen of the Underworld, it was one of the most terrifying moments in the novel.
So why do bridges have such a bad rap in fiction and nonfiction? (Well, they probably have a bad rap in fiction only because of their bad rap in nonfiction… Shut up, Kysherin.)
Well, here are a few reasons why.
- Bridges symbolize decisions, especially irreversible ones. Thus, a bridge can be quite a dangerous thing, and may have serious implications.
- While on a bridge, you are exposed, and may not even have the cover of a low parapet if someone starts shooting or throwing lances, spears or knives at you, leaving you to trust your own judgement, which isn’t always a safe option, and dodge.
- Bridges often span dangerous things, such as fast-flowing rivers with sharp rocks sticking up, bottomless chasms, or deep ravines with rivers at the bottom. Since there’s nothing but a few feet of stonework or timbers, which may or may not be rotten, or, in the case of rope bridges, even just a woven walkway made out of knotted rope, or, if you’re lucky, planks, between you and utter disaster and nearly certain death. Gulp.
- Bridges are prime places for an ambush. After all, you can only get a limited number of people over them at once, and sometimes the obstacle they span is an impassable one, or at best, your troops are bogged down in chest-deep water and can’t move that fast. Thus, it would be relatively easy to wipe out the few men who could get over at a time if the bridge was held against you by an attacking force, or they could cut your men off and surround them, keeping them from receiving help from the remainder of your army. Scary stuff, here.
- Who likes to fall even five feet down? Still get that heart-dropping sensation at three feet!
Now, there’s probably more to the bad reputation bridges have than simply these five reasons. If any of you decide to research the question further, link me back to your findings! I’d love to check it out. 🙂
Thanks for reading, and God Bless!
In some folklore, trolls live under bridges. Sometimes they eat people 😀
Now you know where I live!
*dives under the bridge* I see you’ve cleared out all the nettles, Professor! But this crabgrass is making me itchy! 😛
Professor!! You are not a troll. But very funny!
😛 We have such interesting conversations, sometimes… 😉 I used to hide under bridges. Well, scratch that, I still do sometimes. One time my friend Iris and I were pretending to be Rangers-in-training (like in the Ranger’s Apprentice books) and we hid under a bridge that goes over a little stream in the park near her house and watched people. We actually succeeded in startling our sisters. 😉
Cute! 😉
It was fun. ^_^ And then there was another time when we were supposed to leave signs for Jewel to track us. At first we didn’t leave a good enough trail for her to follow, but the second time around she was able to follow it. And when we were done trail-laying, we snuck back and watched her as she went along the trail without her seeing us! ^_^ It was fun. 😀 And then, when she got to the end of the trail, we jumped out of hiding and ambushed her! I gave her a hug, but Iris isn’t much of a hugger. I think she scared poor Jewel. (Iris can be a scary person. 😛 )
You can be a Sith or a troll. Not both.
EULALIA!!! *brains a random troll of the Tolkien kind with a pan*
They do. And in other folklore, they get trampled to bits by billy goats. (Maybe THAT’S why Iris loves goats…) 😛
Bridges…they can be such symbols, I think. Don’t you think it’s better not to cross a bridge?
It can be, but sometimes it’s necessary. (Like when Obi-Wan said, “I will train Anakin,” it was crossing a bridge, and it probably was necessary, because if he hadn’t trained Anakin Palpatine could’ve gotten to Anakin much easier, don’t you think? So maybe they had several more years of the Republic because of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon!)
I’ve never thought about it that way! But…if Qui-Gon didn’t train Anakin…wouldn’t they have dropped his training?
I’m not sure what you mean…
Well, I thought Qui-Gon is the one who insisted that Anakin get trained in the first place. If he didn’t insist, Anakin would never have been trained. Then he couldn’t have been a Sith!
No, if Anakin wasn’t trained, he would have been easier to find for Sidious, and he was such a needy kid, he would have been easy prey. It took more time for Palpatine to turn him as things did happen–because he’d been trained as a Jedi first. Yes, Sidious would’ve had to train Anakin himself, but Anakin would have turned more easily and wouldn’t have had something to pull him back.
Hmm! Well, okay, then.
Yup. (I think Sidious is just lazy when it comes to actually training his apprentices. >:-D )
I think you’re right there. We would have been better off if I was training the apprentices.
Probably you’re right. 😛
There’s one bridge in Fellowship you’re forgetting: the rope bridge in Lórien. It’s literally just a rope. In the scene, the Galadhrim are escorting the Fellowship to Caras Galadhon (did I spell that right?) and they use this bridge to cross the river, which is a problem because it’s pretty much designed in a way so that only Elves and maybe incredibly dexterous Hobbits can cross it. Gimli throws a fit and Legolas falls over laughing. I guess you could pretend it symbolises bridges that only some people can cross? But really I think it was just the Galadhrim being dicks.
X-D It could be symbolism; I think it was just that everyone was making fun of Gimli at that point… which is rather unfair… 😛 But yes, I suppose there are bridges that only some can cross.
May I mention the numerous bridges during a certain fight scene in tPM, and a rather freaky bridge during a certain other fight scene in RotS?
Yeah, bridges are definitely not good news in SW.
Whenever someone in a movie walks on a thin bridge made of planks held together by rope, I expect them to almost fall in. It’s become a cliche. But then, I expect such bridges *are* fragile!
Actually, they’re not THAT fragile. 😛 TV is not really true to life. 😛 And yes, it is cliche X-P