[Bêthberry]

This last chapter discussion has come at a bad time for me, for I have little time to devote to the Downs this week, yet I don't want to miss out on a properly observed closure to our months of discussion, even though the Appendices appear on the horizon, like the last rays of a setting sun. Fordim, you have outdone yourself with your splendid observation that this reading has been so unlike our usual habit of solitary reading, accomplished with others at our elbows or over our shoulders..

Originally Posted by dancing spawn

Now, if the dust that Galadriel gave to Sam had got its powers from Nenya, sure the things that had been made with the help of the dust started fading as well?

You know, this expression of Galadriel's gift took me by surprise and I had to check back with the text. Yes, Tolkien uses the word 'dust' to describe the treasures of the small box Sam receives from the Lady. Why was I so taken? Because 'dust' is so strongly connoted now for me with Philip Pullman's trilogy. And how very extraordinary are the two writers' uses of that word.

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Perhaps Frodo has this 'vision' (and it seems to be heard rather than seen) because of Tom? Tom is the 'Eldest' - and he does make the point that he was there before the way to the West was closed - and so he may have known himself what the approaches to the Undying Lands might be like. Or maybe he simply awakens in Frodo a vision of what may (or may not) be to come. What Frodo experiences in Tom's house may be a kind of epiphany, a moment of realisation (revelation?) of what might happen or might be possible for some?

davem's observation of this vision is, as so many of you have already noted, a most astute observation given the authorial conceit we have discussed over this many months. The little I can add is my remembrance that in the House of Bombadil it was Goldberry who so greatly moved and inspired Frodo that he repeats the song she sang and she acknowledges him "elf-friend." Goldberry's spell is said to be different from that of the elves, "less keen and lofty but deeper and nearer to mortal heart." Not that this particularly 'solves' the mystery here.

One point of this chapter which has always intrigued me is the passage of the fair company through the Shire, for they are already not of this (that?) world any longer.

Originally Posted by Redbook Author

Though they rode through the midst of the Shire all the evening and all the night, none saw them them pass, save the wild creatures; or here and there some wanderer in the dark who saw a swift shimmer under the trees, or a light and shadow flowing through the grass as the Moon went westward.