[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I must say this chapter is just great and I always have the urge to go on a trip when reading this one (the same with the previous chapter - though there it has to be a nightly trip, while this time it has to be "through ").

Concerning the dialogue in this chapter, I must agree with you, Esty, that it is great and amusing from beginning to the end - in fact, this chapter is full of jokes, even the final revelation of Merry as the mysterious rider is a heart-lifting joke. The whole conversation between Pippin and Frodo at the beginning is very funny, it's one of the funniest parts of the book I remember.

Another interesting quote is Farmer Maggot's

You should never have gone mixing yourself up with Hobbiton folk, Mr. Frodo. Folk are queer up there.

Which is total contradiction, or rather: a copy of the opinion of the Hobbiton folk on the Bucklanders, only with reversed subjects - we read the very same thing at the beginning of the book from Gaffer. It nicely shows the opinions of people from one place on "the others", and it's all the same wherever you are.

The short cuts... proverb and its extension to inns is nice. Have any of you ever heard the 'short cuts' proverb in real life, or did Tolkien make it up?

I hereby call the English members to help us answer this one. I can contribute a bit by a Czech saying, which is not even a regular proverb, more like a joke you say in reply when someone asks you if you don't know about a shortcut: "Yes, I know one - it's a little longer, but on the other hand it's more dangerous."

And now the last thing that I immediately noted down "You have to ask this one when you post up there". Please follow.

Two of Maggot's sons and his three daughters came in, and a generous supper was laid on the large table. The kitchen was lit with candles and the fire was mended. Mrs. Maggot hustled in and out. One or two other hobbits belonging to the farm-household came in. In a short while fourteen sat down to eat.

Count with me, please. Frodo, Sam, and Pippin - that's three. Farmer Maggot and his wife - that makes five. Two sons and three daughters make another five, so we are on ten people now. One or two other hobbits - that's eleven or twelve. "In a short while fourteen sat down to eat." Okay, just asking - is that intentional? I realise it's not that apparent in original, but in Czech it plainly says "two other hobbits". But the number fourteen immediately reminded me of another occassion with dubious welcome, dinner and miscounting - Queer Lodgings. "Twelve isn't fifteen", resp. in this case "twelve isn't fourteen, the reader should know that much!" And the words "one or two other hobbits..." remind me of "I was coming over the mountains with a friend or two..." Maybe hadn't it been for the plainly-seeming translation, I wouldn't have noticed; but still - do you think there was any intention behind this? Or anything that was supposed to connect the scenes of being welcomed by Farmer Maggot and Beorn? Most curious.