LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 04 – A Short Cut to Mushrooms

[Estelyn Telcontar]

This chapter is shorter than the first three, and quite transitional. I already mentioned the safe havens in my introductory post, so I shall do my best to bring out new aspects without being repetitive.

Tolkien's humorous lines are often almost hidden; this time I took note of the exchange between Pippin and Frodo on the first page, with the former saying a question was important, and Frodo answering, "In that case I am sure Gildor would have refused to explain it." Go not to the Elves indeed! I don't remember - did we discuss the question of the significance of the sniffing Nazgul?

I'm also amused over the end of that brief conversation:

[Frodo]'I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think.'
'Good heavens!' said Pippin. 'At breakfast?'

Despite the movement and action of this passage of the story, there is a good deal of dialogue - which I enjoy very much. The short cuts... proverb and its extension to inns is nice. Have any of you ever heard the 'short cuts' proverb in real life, or did Tolkien make it up?

The "Ho! Ho! Ho!" poem is used in the movie, in an inn scene, though the words actually do not fit that context. They seem to be custom-made for the situation in which the three Hobbits find themselves at that moment.

We have two cases of misleading identification of friends as foes - Frodo's perception of Farmer Maggot, and Merry's figure as seen in the fog. That provides suspense, especially for first-time readers.

The Hobbit surname 'Puddifoot' reminds me of C. S. Lewis' Marsh-wiggle in the Narnia books.

By the way, the Reader's Companion mentions a comment written by Tolkien in a draft for a letter (Letters #297) concerning the relationship between Sam and Frodo:

...as having the status of one who serves a legitimate master, but the spirit of a friend (if not an equal).