LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 05 - A Conspiracy Unmasked

[Fingolfin II]

Fordim said:

In this chapter we have precisely the same situation – with the hobbits inside singing their bath songs and eating mushrooms, and the Nazgûl on the outside, drawn by the power of the Ring – but it all feels so very different, perhaps even wrong. The hobbits (and the reader) have now learned to see their world the way others have for centuries (the Elves, Gandalf, the Rangers); they are aware of the danger and the darkness, and their hobbitty ways are somehow a bit sillier than they were formerly.

I definately agree that the hobbits are becoming more aware of the danger that they are faced with and are already starting to show signs of 'growing up' by pledging their faith to Frodo, even though they know it won't be an adventure like Bilbo's, but a dark quest, where they'll be "flying from danger to danger".

What really strikes me here is that they accept this, without knowing the full dangers of the Nazgul and only having a vague idea of the strength of Mordor. They become aware of the danger associated with Sauron's servants, but I think that this is only really evident after the Weathertop incident and that this chapter (along with the previous one) and their gradual recognition of who and what the Nazgul are and what they are capable of is just a build up to their meeting with Aragorn and their confrontation with the Nazgul on Weathertop, where they experience the terror of the Nazgul up close when the Witch King stabs Frodo and even before, in Bree.

Nurumaiel said:

There is a danger present, and it seems to be lurking in every shadow. It's frightening to sit and read this chapter, for even when you know what the danger is, there is still a mystery about it.

That's exactly the way I feel about this chapter! As the companions on the quest begin to unfold here, so do the obstacles toward the target begin to become more potent and sinister, we still don't know what exactly they are, and how dangerous they could be. Only later do we find out that they are the Ringwraiths, Sauron's deadliest servants. However, this ignorance of their full, frightening, selves is actually quite important, because if Frodo and his company knew who they were, they might not have had the courage to try and reach Bree and the quest could have failed then and there. To summarise it, I think that this chapter is a brilliant taste of what's going to happen next and gives us (as I said in a different thread) "a hint of darker things to come".