LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 03 - Three Is Company

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I'm enjoying the posts on this thread - so many good and enlightening thoughts! I'd like to add just a couple of things I noticed, not important, and yet worth pondering briefly, at least.

I find Gandalf's answer to Frodo's question on which course he should take fascinating:

Towards danger; but not too rashly, nor too straight.

Often, when facing a new challenge, we expect immediate competence from ourselves or others. Gandalf gives Frodo time to develop his muscles with a training program, so to speak, letting him grow into the task at hand. He gives him a first goal that is attainable, though not without difficulty, and that has a reward for him when he reaches it - Rivendell and the Elves. I'm reminded of the proverb that a journey, no matter which length, begins with a single step. Would Frodo, or we, for that matter, dare new tasks if we knew how difficult they will ultimately be? Most certainly not, but when we live one step at a time, we are ready for them when we get there.


One thing that intrigued me some time ago was the brief mention of a character who's one of Frodo's closest friends, but who is never again mentioned in the book. I speak, of course, of Folco Boffin. We read his name once in Chapter 2, twice in this chapter, and with his disappearance

Folco went home after lunch

he disappears from the story. No mention of him at the end, when the Shire is scoured and we again hear of other Hobbits, including Fatty Bolger, by name. I suppose anything we can imagine has to be pure speculation - did he leave the Shire, was he one of the Hobbits who was killed in the Scouring, what on earth happened to him? Or did Tolkien perhaps forget about him by the time he reached the end of the story? Here's wonderful material for a fan fiction or RPG!


The last item is a humorous human interest reference to Sam - he disappears for awhile shortly before leaving, and when Frodo calls him, he comes:

...wiping his mouth. He had been saying farewell to the beer-barrel in the cellar.

There's an interesting comparison to Frodo there - he and his friends finished off the Old Winyards at the birthday party. Is there a class difference between the wine and the beer drinkers in there?