Thinking ahead and/or being fooled

[ainur]

I was very young when I first read it. I was fooled by pretty much all of it. Gandalf dead? I believed it, and cried with the rest of the Fellowship and the elves of Lorien. It still makes me cry, though it's because I feel for the characters.
Dernhelm/Eowyn--I was fooled, but not as much as Merry. I figured it out before he did, but not right away. Eowyn dead? I thought so, because it would have been a good way out for Aragorn. Frodo dead? I thought so. It made sense, since it was in the second half of the book (like I said, I was very young.) Pippin dead? I believed that too. It came at the end of the battle. Again, it came so late in the story, he was no longer useful to the plot. I guess Tolkien fooled me at every turn. Reading it still makes me cry, though. It's the same as with Gandalf's death--I feel for the other characters.