It's interesting how again we have the requirement of blindfolding. In Lorien Gimli had to be blindfolded and Aragorn chose to avoid conflict by taking this upon the whole of the Company. Here, Gollum must have his eyes bound, and Frodo this time tries to prove to him that there is nothing to fear by having Faramir's men do the same to Sam and himself. It seems Frodo has been taking a leaf out of Aragorn's book.
I love the description of the gathering darkness and the scenery:
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At their first halt they looked back, and they could dimly perceive the roofs of the forest they had left behind, lying like a vast dense shadow, a darker night under the dark blank sky. There seemed to be a great blackness looking slowly out of the East, eating up the faint blurs. Later the sinking moon escaped from the pursuing cloud, but it was ringed all about with a sickly yellow glare.
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For the most part is was covered with a thick growth of gorse and whortleberry, and low tough thorns, though here and there clearings opened, the scars of ancient fires. The gorse-bushes became more frequent as they got nearer the top; very old and tall they were, gaunt and leggy below but thick above, and already putting out yellow flowers that glimmered in the gloom and gave a faint sweet scent. So tall were the spiny thickets that the hobbits could walk upright under them, passing through long dry aisles carpeted with a deep prickly mould.
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Even the peace of Ithilien seems consumed by the blackness of the forest. The description in the second paragraph provides some great imagery for me personally; I find it very easy to envision.
Another passage I love:
Quote:
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There, far away, beyond sad Gondor now overwhelmed in shade, the Sun was sinking, finding at last the hem of the great slow-rolling pall of cloud, and falling in an ominous fire towards the yet unsullied Sea.
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This, my friends, is the perfect union of poetry and prose. If the two literary forms procreated, this would be it.
But about the excerpt itself: the Sun was originally created to check the power of Morgoth; it is like a damper on the power of evil. The Sun is veiled and is sinking along with the chances of Men's victory. The power of evil is overwhelming it. The one thing that yet seems pure, untouched, is the Sea -- which, as we all know, leads to hidden Valinor.
"They cannot conquer for ever!" Frodo says in a single line which embodies it all. Nothing is permanent, not the time of the glory of the Elves, but also not the dominance of evil.