<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Newly Deceased
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Gildor
Very good observations and comments, Barrow-Wight. Gildor did say something to the effect that they were only wandering for a while and no longer concerned with the affairs of Middle Earth. Be that as it may, leaving Frodo alone to face the Black Riders seems to me to be a reckless act on the part of Gildor. Bombadil, for that matter, could also be viewed as being only slightly better than Gildor in that he let the hobbits proceed through a very dangerous area bereft of a guide. It was only due to the good fortune of Frodo that he, Frodo, was able to call Tom, but at least Tom chose to accompany them to the borders of his land.
As I mentioned in a previous post, maybe we as fans did too deeply. I am not convinced that Tolkien gave much thought to Gildor, and only used him as a literary device to offer the hobbits a momentary reprieve from the Black Rider. Had Tolkien chose to have Gildor guide Frodo to Rivendell, we would have never (most likely) encountered Farmer Maggot, the old forest, Old Man Willow, Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, the barrow downs, and Bree. In addition, we would also have encountered Strider in a different context, much in the same manner as we were introduced to the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring after the Council of Elrond was concluded. Had we only met Strider in this fashion, I believe, a lot of his character development would be missing. In fact, I would suggest that "Strider the Ranger" would not have even entered the picture...we would only know of Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir in exile to the great kings Isildur and Elendil.
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