Weapons Screening at Meduseld: Wizards, Dwarves, and Men

The companions are warned right at the gate of Edoras that all weapons must be left at the threshold of Meduseld. Basically everyone but Legolas ignores the TSA instructions and acts totally surprised that "no weapons" actually refers to him. Here's the highlights reel:

Gate-guard: Théoden gives you leave to enter; but any weapon that you bear, be it only a staff, you must leave on the threshold. The doorwardens will keep them. (509)

Háma: Here I must bid you lay aside your weapons before you enter. (510)

Legolas (handing over his knife, quiver, and bow): Keep these well, for they come from the Golden Wood and the Lady of Lothlórien gave them to me.

Háma: No man will touch them, I promise you.

Gandalf (after Aragorn and Gimli balk): Here at least is my sword, goodman Háma. Keep it well. Glamdring it is called, for the Elves made it long ago. (511)

Aragorn (reluctantly, at Gandalf's bidding): Here I set it, but I command you not to touch it, nor to permit any other to lay hand on it. In this Elvish sheath dwells the Blade that was Broken and has been made again. Telchar first wrought it in the deeps of time. Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir.

Háma: It shall be, lord, as you command.

Gimli: Well, if it has Andúril to keep it company, my axe may stay here too, without shame.

Háma (to Gandalf): Your staff. Forgive me, but that too must be left at the doors.

Gandalf: Foolishness! Prudence is one thing, but discourtesy is another. I am old. If I may not lean on my stick as I go, then I will sit out here, until it pleases Théoden to hobble out himself to speak with me.

===

I. WIZARD

One thing I hadn't remembered noticing before -- and have highlighted above -- is that the gate-guard specifically states that staffs are prohibited weapons. So Gandalf's feigned surprise and indignation is quite an act. (And both Háma and Aragorn surely see through his protestations, despite Aragorn's concurring characterization of the staff as an old man's support.)

II. DWARF

What I noticed here flows from the characterization of each weapon:

1. Legolas mentions only the origin of his weapons (not their names or lineage), and asks Háma merely to keep them well. This is sufficient, as Háma is clearly afraid of handling weapons from Faërie and volunteers that they will remain untouched.
2. Gandalf provides name and origin of his sword, and likewise asks Háma to keep it well (no special request and no reaction from Háma).
3. Aragorn provides name, lineage, and history of Andúril and commands that no one touch it, and Háma, clearly awed, indicates the command will be obeyed.
4. Gimli does not provide a name or lineage for his axe, nor does he require it to be untouched once he leaves it. We might infer from this it's an ordinary axe, and that only dwarvish pride spurs him to follow Aragorn's lead: He's sure as heck not going to comply, if Aragorn is exempt! 
   This strikingly echoes the situation at Lothlórien, where Gimli wasn't going to be the only one blindfolded! (Tellingly, he first relents on condition that Legolas would be blindfolded too, and -- just as tellingly -- the Elf balks at this until the whole Company ultimately agrees to the condition.)

III. MAN

For this, I was struck by Aragorn saying "Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir."

He makes it sound like a curse that lies on the sword (think Túrin). But is Andúril indeed cursed? Who exactly would have cursed it, and when? Surely not Aragorn -- I don't think he has the power.
Is he threatening to kill anyone who draws the sword? Seems unlikely; how would he do it, weaponless? And how would he know if someone drew the sword?

One potentially significant fact is that Aragorn doesn't provide a timeframe as to when death will come to a man (other than him) who draws Elendil's sword. So quite possibly Aragorn is saying something perfectly true -- since death shall come to all men -- and making it sound like a curse by suggesting that he himself is exempt. And in a sense Aragorn is exempt, because it is given to him to choose the time of his death. That is, death technically does not come to him; rather, he goes to death, when his work is done and the time is right.

A Few Stories About the Rohirrim

Uglúk's lore:

• they "have better night-eyes than most Men" (454)
• STATUS: This may or may not be true; riders miss the hobbits at night (457) but are described as "keen-eyed" when they hunt down the remaining orcs  after dawn (459)
• "their horses [...] can see the night-breeze" (454)
• STATUS: confirmed, in Tolkien's typically ambivalent way: "Whether because of some special keenness of sight, or because of some other sense, the horse lifted and sprang lightly over them; but its rider did not see them" (457)

Isengarders' taunts to the Northern orcs:

• they "will catch you and eat you" (452)
• STATUS: hahaha! or more likely, leave your stinking orc corpses on the road unburied -- except where the corpses are numerous enough to burn in a big heap (440)

Aragorn's explanation of what he, Gimli and Legolas have observed:

• "they do not heed the wrath of Fangorn, for they come here seldom, and they do not go under the trees" (441)

Story that they pay tribute to Sauron/Mordor:

• At the Council of Elrond, Gandalf reports Gwaihir's words: "They pay a tribute of horses [...] and send many yearly to Mordor, or so it is said; but they are not yet under the yoke" (262).  Aragorn is very surprised and deeply grieved to hear this; Boromir is certain it is "a lie that comes from the Enemy" (id.)
• On the brink of actually meeting them, Gimli reminds Legolas and Aragorn that "Gandalf spoke of a rumor that they pay tribute to Mordor" (431).  Aragorn now says he believes it "no more than did Boromir" (431), although he remains uncertain about their loyalties (262, 430, 433). 
• STATUS: When Gimli asks about it, Éomer angrily refutes it (436).

Saruman and the Boggart: A Slight Point of Connection

Just noticed a tiny point of connection between Saruman and Rowling's boggarts. It is a point merely implied by Gandalf's words, and not fully developed in Tolkien; but coincidentally brought to fruition in one of Harry Potter's Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. (I am not in any way suggesting that Rowling had it in mind.)

For simplicity, I'm reporting the dialogue as if it were a script.

Gimli: I will come. I wish to see him and learn if he really looks like you.

Gandalf: And how will you learn that, Master Dwarf? Saruman could look like me in your eyes, if it suited his purpose. And are you yet wise enough to detect all his counterfeits? Well, we shall see, perhaps. He may be shy of showing himself before many different eyes together. [...]

(Tolkien, LotR, III.10 at 576-77).

Hermione: [A boggart is] a shape-shifter. It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.

Lupin: [...] So the boggart sitting in the darkness within [the wardrobe] has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. [...]This means that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?

Harry: Er — because there are so many of us, it won’t know what shape it should be?

Lupin: Precisely. It’s always best to have company when you’re dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a boggart make that very mistake — tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening.

(Rowling, HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, ch. 7 at 133-34).

However, in the event, Saruman is not shy appearing before many different eyes - he appears as "an old man, swathed in a great cloak, the colour of which was not easy to tell, for it changed if they moved their eyes or if he stirred. His face was long, with a high forehead, he had deep darkling eyes, hard to fathom, though the look they now bore was grave and benevolent, and a little weary" (LotR, III.10 at 578). It is his voice that ultimately holds the peril. And when Gandalf's voice proves stronger, forcing Saruman to turn back when he would leave them, even this last chosen mask fails; "[h]is face was lined and shrunken" as he comes slowly back to the iron rail (id. at 583).

And Rowling's boggart cycles through many forms, each dismissed in turn with laughter by the targeted student, going faster and faster -- "Crack! The banshee turned into a rat, which chased its tail in a circle, then — crack! — became a rattlesnake, which slithered and writhed before — crack! — becoming a single, bloody eyeball" -- until it is thoroughly confused and finally banished by the group's laughter (PoA, ch 7 at 138).

And this brings us on to a second, perhaps more significant, point of connection.  Because, of course, the power of Saruman's voice is likewise finally shattered by laughter.  In a final gambit, Saruman has turned his full attention and persuasiveness to Gandalf.  The onlookers recognize these two wizards are "[o]f loftier mould [...]: reverend and wise.  It was inevitable that they should make alliance" (LotR, III.10 at 582).  Even Théoden fears betrayal.  And yet --

Then Gandalf laughed.  The fantasy vanished like a puff of smoke.

(id.).

Works Consulted

Rowling, J. K.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Scholastic Inc., 2001.

Tolkien, J. R. R.  The Lord of the Rings.  50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2005.