[Mithalwen]

Oh BB, I thought the cynical "it's just a plot device" line was my speciality! Where is the romance? :P But at one level, I do agree that these chapters are thin on action and the CbC is a good way of making me look closer at chapters which despite my abiding love for Faramir, I generally skim through and which proved my nemesis on my first reading ( Like the child of Sam and Frodo's imagining, at 10, I found the fringes of Mordor too dark and didn't want to read anymore, and I had forgotten the intricacies of the other plot by the time it came to rejoin Gandalf and Pippin ).

That said, I do think Ithilien has more significance. Much of it of course, linked to Faramir, one of the characters who emerged from the story rather than as a conscious act of will on the part of Tolkien. There are paralels with the hobbit's meeting with Aragorn, chief of the Rangers of the North. Faramir, captain of the rangers of the south wears a literal mask but is soon removed. He is gold which does glister.... he is a soldier and a loremaster, scion of the noblest houses in the realm (Stewards and Dol Amroth), a man in whom the blood of Numenor runs true after years of degeneration. Also he is walking, disguied in the land which he will one day rule. However whereas with Aragorn, it is Frodo whos has to make the leap of faith to let him join them, here Faramir has to make the choice ot let Frodo go.

Unsurprisingly there is more I would say of Faramir - but I think it belongs in the next chapter.