Hey dol! Merry dol! Get lost Tom!!!

[Boromir88]

Essex:

I know this is turning into a 'book' type thread, but for me the scenes from crickhowell to Bree are SO important to me,

I happen to agree Essex, I think these chapters are important ones. First off, skipping these chapters means you have basically skipped 3 chapters of the book, and people may say "Tom is not important." But, these chapters are key chapters to figure out, how Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Sam acted back then, and then how they grow maturely by the end of the book. Tom may not be important, but it's important if you want to see the growth of the Hobbits from beginning to end.

As Mark said, Frodo completed a brave feet on his part, even more so then people give him credit for. I mean come on PJ give Frodo some bravery, it's pathetic that he falls down some 200 times in the 3 films. Mark, I like how you bought up the fact that Frodo resisted his temptation, from the ring, to leave his friends behind, to escape easily, and leave his friends to their own fate, I never considered that before and it has shown me a whole "new light" to Frodo, which is only more cause for me to stress these chapters are important to pick up on how the characters act in certain situations, good post.

Again Essex:

and are some of the most 'atmospheric' among the whole book.

Good point Essex, The Old Forest adds this sort of majestic, magical, haven for the hobbits seperate from Middle-Earth. You get this magical feeling when reading the chapters in the Old Forest, it's something totally different then the rest of Middle-earth, then maybe besides Fangorn. Fangorn and Old Forest have a lot of simularities, and parallels.