LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 01 - A Long-Expected Party

[The Saucepan Man]

Intersting thoughts davem, and they possibly explain why Tolkien used the phrase in reference to a Dragon-like firework (albeit one made by Gandalf). But the reference is still to my mind incongruous with the fiction of the story having been written by the Hobbits. Even if steam trains did exist in Mordor and Angband, they are surely unlikely to have been sufficiently common features of Hobbit vocabulary to be used in this way.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

But the reference is still to my mind incongruous with the fiction of the story having been written by the Hobbits.

On the other hand, you can chalk it up as a liberty taken by the "translator" of the Red Book (i.e., Tolkien), just as the word "Hobbit" itself is an invention, and other Hobbit family and place names have been normalized for the modern reader. See the very last page in RotK, at the end of the appendices.

By casting himself in the rôle of translator, Tolkien is able to smooth over any straggling errors, anachronisms, or inconsistencies in his work. A stroke of genius on his part, I'd say.

[Guinevere]

Tolkien seems to have been fond of this figure of speech ; I noticed that already in the Hobbit there is something similar:
" he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel."

But of course Mr.Underhills explanation is spot on!

[mark12_30]

LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 01 - A Long-Expected Party
Fingolfin II wrote:

with just a hint of darker things

Squatter wrote:

However, the gentle comedy masks a tension that Tolkien begins to build right at the beginning of the chapter.

*Varda* wrote:

Tolkien again drops hints of darker things to come

I saw several hints of darker things (subtle unless one is looking, perhaps.) Drownings. The Old Forest. Dangerous boats. Elves and Dragons… don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters or you’ll land in trouble too big for you. And (Gandalf’s) real business was more difficult and dangerous.

Fordim wrote:

Gollum would never have given away his birthday present but kept it for himself; Bilbo, because he's a hobbit, does give away birthday presents, and does manage -- after a struggle -- to give away this one too.

Frodo is the only one of the three who actually DID receive it as a Birthday Present! He could honestly call it that! (And wouldn't it be eerie...) Not just birthday, but Coming-Of-Age birthday present... and an inheritance... what a way to recieve your Life-Changing Doom...

Fordim: about the Foreshadowing-- just *wow*. I took a break after reading your post just to let it sink in. Bilbo vanishes from the party; then leaving Bag-End, rather light-heartedly, happy with his three companions, he foreshadows Frodo's route westward and over the gap in the hedge; he melts into the twilight, dwarf-hooded and dwarf-cloaked (a foreign cloak again, dark green but so stained and patched it must be practically camo, blending perfectly into the woods) and Gandalf watches him go. .... Then Frodo watches Gandalf go, bent and burdened....

I also saw a very divided Frodo from my first introduction to him here.

He had difficulty keeping from laughter at the indignant surprise of the guests. But at the same time he felt deeply troubled: he realized suddenly that he loved the old hobbit dearly.

”I wish—I mean, I hoped until this evening that it was only a joke,” said Frodo. “But I knew in my heart that he really meant to go.”

Frodo was waiting on the step, smiling, but looking rather tired and worried.

He looked indisposed—to see Sackville-Bagginses, at any rate; and he stood up, fidgeting with something in his pocket. But he spoke quite politely.

…if I could get Bilbo back and go off tramping in the country with him. I love the Shire. But I begin to wish, somehow, that I had gone too.”

All this foreshadows the torn Frodo we see as the quest continues, and makes his statement to Sam all the more poignant: “You cannot be always torn in two. You were meant to be one and whole”-- although Frodo was torn in two from the time Bilbo disappeared from under the Party Tree.

[HerenIstarion]

Originally Posted by mark 12:30

Frodo is the only one of the three who actually DID receive it as a Birthday Present! He could honestly call it that! (And wouldn't it be eerie...) Not just birthday, but Coming-Of-Age birthday present... and an inheritance... what a way to recieve your Life-Changing Doom...

Well noticed

But I think there is a bit more to it. Frodo's person is quite a composite and contains a load of hints to load of things

First, let me retain my Norse mythology connotations to his name (I'm glad to accept the 'wise by experience' explanation by Fordim Hedgethistle too and incorporate it into)

But, remembering Tolkien's famous 'consciously so in the revision' quotation, let me be so bold to mark that Frodo at the same time is Christ-like figure (so is Aragorn, per instance, but that is to be seen later on)

Note one of the similarities - to be revealed in the very first chapter, and heavily stressed upon - Frodo receives the Ring (may I say, his cross?) when he is 33 years old. Having in mind that he is to become the saviour of whole ME later on in the story, it certainly rings certain bells.

It seems to me that in Frodo Tolkien tries to unite Christian myth with those of the pagan mythologies of the north-west of Europe. He certainly employes what C.S.Lewis was referring to as the reflections of True Myth (True Myth referring to incarnation of Christ) scattered across pagan myths (dying god of corn to bring new life). Frodo is to do exactly this - he is to die (in a sense, his departure from ME by the end of the book is death, and, if another sense of death is to loose this world, than Frodo certainly looses it), but than, Frodo does let the world live on by it.

And with all this in mind, Frodo's Ring (very strikingly referred to as 'burden' throughout the narration) comes to him as he reaches 33 years of age.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Yes, 33 does ring a bell, but alas Frodo does not take up his burden at thirty, and dawdles a bit before heading down that road, a bit of a reluctant savior in contrast. Perhaps Tolkien only wants to hint at that reflection of True Myth. Frodo is a hobbit and not a god, after all. But the idea of him returning to the Shire for a time, and then sailing west strikes me as a wonderful parallel, as is the change in his friends upon returning to the Shire.

But it seems, I'm having trouble sticking to the first chapter here. Many apologies!

[The Saucepan Man]

I also saw a very divided Frodo from my first introduction to him here. (mark12_30)

Good point Helen, and well-supported by the quotes you give, each of which makes a statement about the conflict between Frodo’s outward appearance and his inner feelings. It seems to me that this ties in with the idea of Frodo being marked out right from the outset. On the surface he displays characteristic Hobbit traits: good-humour, cheerfulness, politeness and a love of the Shire. But, internally, there is something deeper going on. He is troubled, indisposed, tired and worried and already taken with the beginnings of wanderlust. There is a similarity with the contrast in the opening chapter of The Hobbit between Bilbo’s stay-at-home nature and his adventurous Tookish side. But, in keeping with the darker theme of the book, Frodo’s inner feelings are darker and deeper.

You are right also, I think, that this hints at the turmoil that Frodo is to undergo. Perhaps it also foreshadows the choice that he ultimately has to make between his beloved Shire and a higher calling in the Undying Lands. The fact that the non-Hobbitish characteristics are the less superficial, and perhaps represent the real Frodo, suggests that his ultimate choice can never really have been in any doubt. But for the Quest, he would surely have ended up in Rivendell or somewhere similar, like Bilbo.