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This is another fairly brief, transitional chapter. Though it takes place in a safe haven, all involved know that it is only temporarily so.
This is the place to gather information about the history of the Brandybucks and Buckland - an unusual branch of the Hobbits, we are told. First of all, they liked water and some could swim; secondly, they kept their doors locked at night, since the border area was more susceptible to strange 'visitors'. The Reader's Companion gives an interesting bit of information about the founder of the family. His name, Gorhendad, is Welsh for 'great-grandfather'.
After getting to know the happy-go-lucky Pippin on the way to Crickhollow, this chapter aquaints us with Merry and his ability to organize things, to grasp connections and act on short notice. Introducing them seperately this way helps to distinguish them; I found it hard to figure out which was which at first in the movie.
Merry tells his companions (and us readers) that Farmer Maggot knows more than he shows; if he really went into the Old Forest, he was more adventurous than we would expect! We do know (from the Tom Bombadil poems) that he kept in contact with Bombadil - I wonder, which of them kept the other in touch with the wide world?!
We have a brief foreshadowing of things to come here in the account of Fatty Bolger's plans to stay in the cottage and play Frodo to keep up pretences.
The chapter closes with Frodo's dream - an interesting subject for thought and discussion.
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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