LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 09 - At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

[Kuruharan]

This is one of my favorite chapters because it is so atmospheric. (There is just this thing about me and atmospheric). In this particular case, the atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

The hobbits commit just about every mistake one could think of in this chapter. They don’t stay together, Merry goes wandering off in the night, the rest of the hobbits expose themselves to unnecessary attention, and Frodo uses the Ring. Of course, the upside was that they were introduced to Aragorn, which might not have happened otherwise. Although, Aragorn might have snuck in their room later, but that would probably have been more disturbing than what actually happened.

In this chapter we also see that the outside world is aware of growing danger and many different types of peoples are trying to get out of the way. We also see that people outside the Shire (or more specifically Bree) regard those inside the Shire as being a little strange.