Tablets 9 & 10

Gilgamesh's journeys have changed drastically since Enkidu passed away, he now has nobody but himself. I was surprised to see that he actually went through the whole eight leagues. You could see his struggle by the way it was written:

...struggling for breath, through the third league, alone,

and companionless through the fourth, making his way,

and struggling for every breath, to the end of the fifth,

in the absolute dark, nothing behind or before,

the weight of the blackness pressing in upon him.

Weeping and fearful he journeyed a sixth league,

and, blind, to the end of the seventh league, alone,

without a companion, seeing nothing at all (page 51)

The writer describes Gilgamesh through the leagues as being blind and then seeing nothing at all and as being companionless and then without a companion. As if restating the point for the reader to understand just how alone he was without Enkidu. Enkidu was vital to him. But when Gilgamesh finally made it through the twelfth league it was morning, and kind of a relief for Gilgamesh. But he will do anything just so he will not suffer the same fate as Enkidu. Gilgamesh after searching for the answer to immortality is faced with this answer, which I found very interesting and left me thinking about it. I think real life is just like this.

(page 64)