[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It seems like I am double-posting on this thread. Very well!

This chapter begins in a terribly depressing manner. Now, I don't know how many of you are used to waking up early, but the beginning of this chapter is, to me, an exact description of what waking up at 5 am feels like. I also, literally, always remember this chapter whenever I am forced to wake up this early. The further description of fog, glistening cobwebs and especially unnaturally loud noises is unbelievably realistic.

Next I am going to mention a series of small things which caught my eye this time:

- First, Merry unlocks the gate through which they get inside the Old Forest. Okay, so he has the key, but since we know the Bucklanders sometimes visit the Old Forest (and Frodo did too), does it mean all Bucklanders have their own key? (Or, I could imagine at least some extended family could own one.) Merry is certainly an important figure from an important family, but still? Or is it only that the "boss family" owns a couple of keys? To me, the most logical would be if e.g. every more important family owned a key or two. But even that would make, say, a few dozen keys throughout Buckland? (And I imagine people like Farmer Maggot who want to visit would have friends they could borrow the keys from.)

Nevertheless, on top of everything: Does Merry actually take this one key with him somewhere abroad, to Isengard, Gondor...? (Okay, he probably loses it somewhere along the way, but maybe at least as far as Rivendell?)

Next: the journey through the forest is obviously the first "encounter with the unknown and 'magical'" for the Hobbits (if we don't count the Black Riders, whom they haven't actually encountered face-to-face yet). We probably all can agree that the Forest is creepy and all that, but let me add one more super-creepy thing I noticed only now:

Originally Posted by The Old Forest

Also northward, and to the left of the path, the land seemed to be drier and more open, climbing up to slopes where the trees were thinner, and pines and firs replaced the oaks and ashes and other strange and nameless trees of the denser wood.

Okay, we all agree that the trees in the Forest are strange, and we know that there is a willow who is evil... but what in the name of all are nameless trees? *shudders* Now all my life I've been thinking that one of the creepiest things in Tolkien's creation were the Nameless Things, but uggh, now I see there might be something even creepier...

Also: reading this chapter made me want to re-read the Hobbit as well, namely the Mirkwood stuff. In any case, the descriptions of trees are very nice and vivid.

When we get to the "main action part" of the chapter, it is interesting that we switch the main point of view from Frodo's to Sam's, who, in the end, saves the day. It is an interesting thing to do. Also, I am not sure (we'll see in the future chapters), but I think with this ends Merry's super-useful leadership part: in the previous chapter as well as here, he has been the leading force (amazing job, organising the whole conspiracy, and now guiding everyone through the Forest). But I think after the Willow episode, he disappears to the background - now we leave the land where he is at home, and it is up to others to take that role.

Last remark belongs to the often forgotten Fatty Bolger. This chapter actually contains one amazing revelation I had not noticed before: He is right in his prediction! Compare please:

Originally Posted by A Conspiracy Unmasked

"You wait till you are well inside the Forest," said Fredegar. "You'll wish you were back here with me before this time tomorrow."

Originally Posted by The Old Forest

"What a foul thing to happen!" cried Frodo wildly. "Why did we ever come into this dreadful Forest? I wish we were all back at Crickhollow!"