[Formendacil]

An emotionally affecting chapter, and a pivotal moment in the narrative--Rimbaud asks earlier (you know, years ago) which thread of the story one enjoys most and my answer shall be as indecisive as most: "whichever I am currently reading."

As for why Tolkien does what he does, I think it fits his purpose best to follow Aragorn et al rather than Frodo and Sam, and that this is not merely how things came to be written (though, in truth, that is what happened). It makes sense to follow Aragorn first, because that is what is basically being engineered over the next three books: Sauron's eye is drawn towards the dramatic political actions of Rohan and Gondor and Gandalf's return, and we (the readers) get swept along with him. Unlike Sauron, though, we get to cut back to Frodo after a crescendo when our engagement with the political story is at its deepest, and realise that it was all a ruse and see what has been hidden from us all along.

As for why Tolkien presents Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli before he presents Merry and Pippin... well, he actually DID flip-flop their chapters after writing them, but he starts with Aragorn--for two reasons, I think. The first is straightforward enough: by having the Hunters chase Merry and Pippin without knowing their fate, we (like the Hunters) are left in suspense about them.

The second reason is that Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli's story follows most directly from the death of Boromir, and it makes narrative sense to see the end of Boromir before we follow the unravelled threads, because Boromir is the thread that ends here (not entirely--we'll meet Faramir and Denethor later, but Boromir himself as a member of the Fellowship ends here). This is rather ironic, since Boromir was a divisive voice in the Fellowship since at least Moria, but here his death is a sign of the Fellowship coming unravelled, as he were the glue that held them together.

The lament for Boromir is beautiful--another favourite poem. There hasn't been a poem since Lórien and poetry will be infrequent going forward compared with the previous two books. I'm another in the camp of it having been quite plausible that Aragorn and Legolas tweaked some familiar mourning template (probably one specifically addressing the four winds for a lost sojourner). To add my meagre testimony to the fine points made earlier about oral cultures and even rap, anyone who sings songs to small children know how easy it is to take an established form and change a few words to fit the situation. I have little doubt this would be quite common in an oral culture AND that Aragorn and Legolas would each have the individual skill to do so elegantly.



Another thing I was thinking of was the parallel in this chapter with Aragorn's tracking skills as displayed at Amon Sûl--there he was looking for traces of Gandalf or the Black Riders in the service of Frodo, but his own companions obscured it; here he is looking for traces of his companions--namely Frodo himself--but finding them is directed to turn aside from Frodo's path. It's another link between hills.

It was also, however, a trigger for me to think briefly about Aragorn as a detective, and I think there's a tiny sense in which he is portrayed in almost Sherlock Holmesian manner. Tracking footprints and such is not especially detective-esque, but using logic to figure out where the missing boat, missing packs, and the movement of the different actors has the feel of a very small detective story, and Aragorn certainly feels like one of the best candidates to be a detective out of the cast of characters we're given in the story.