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Old 04-23-2005, 08:13 PM   #10
littlemanpoet
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Edge of Faerie
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littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Tolkien

I have always thought that Frodo always saw through Gollum/Sméagol. He knows Gollums capabilities and his limits, it seems to me. Through the purgatory torture of the Ring (which, in Rivendell, Frodo accepted as a task rather than a possession), he becomes more Elvish as the quest proceeds. This is how I read all of the things Frodo says and does, including his words to Faramir regarding the blindfolding.

As to the virtue of the staves, the syntax of Faramir's words,
Quote:
...a virtue has been set upon them of finding and returning.
This is worded as if a craftsman had done the deed; perhaps one of Númenórean descent? Someone would have had to do the "setting upon" of the virtue. As to whether it played a part in the ultimate success of their journey, I don't know. I can't remember what happened to them, when.

davem's interpretation of Sam's dream is good enough for me. He got more out of it than I ever did.

I think it's Mount Doom that's rumbling. All that darkness has to come from somewhere.

What struck me this time were the places they hid in. Their first rest is far from Morgul, and they rest in the open woods.
Quote:
Frodo lay and slept away the night on the deep mould beneath an ancient tree.
The second rest (a short one because they had been debating whether night or day) was off the ground because Gollum insisted upon it.
Quote:
...they all climbed up into the crotch of a large holm-oak, whose thick branches springing together from the trunk made a good hiding-place and a fairly comfortable refuge.
The third rest is described thus:
Quote:
On the further edge of this broad hill-back they stayed their marc and crawled for hiding underneath a tangled knot of thorns. Their twisted boughs, stooping to the ground, were overridden by a clambering maze of old briars. Deep inside there was a hollow hall, raftered with dead branch and bramble, and roofed with the first leaves and shoots of spring.
It is here that Sam has his dream. These seem symbolic of the more dire circumstances as this chapter progresses.

Two more things stood out to me. First, Sam's undying spirit is revealed in
Quote:
...but where there's life there's hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add.
Second is Frodo's reaction to being startled awake by Gollum.
Quote:
'...Wake up Master, wake up!' He clawed at Frodo; and Frodo, startled otu of sleep, sat up suddenly and seized him by the arm. Gollum tore himself loose and backed away. 'They mustn't be silly,' he hissed.
Maybe it's not much, but something just happened, and it feels like a microcosm of the relationships between the three of them, especially between Frodo and Gollum. To me it is a foreshadowing of what will take place in Shelob's lair, but also is symbolic of the fact that though Gollum tries to manipulate Frodo, it is always Frodo's will that wins out ... until Mount Doom.

One final word about "nothing happening" in this chapter. Tolkien wrote in Letter # 183 (not really a letter but Notes on a review by Auden) the following:
Quote:
Most men make some journeys. Whether long or short, with an errand or simply to go "there and back again", is not of primary importance. As I tried to express it in Bilbo's Walking Song, even an afternoon-to-evening walk may have important effects.
How much more a three day journey from Henneth Annûn to the Crossroads? All of you have shown me that a lot more has happened in this chapter than I saw through one reading.

I enjoyed this. I actually read the whole chapter instead of scanning. It's not like one chapter per week is going to messs up my other plansss, my preciousssss.
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