[Formendacil]

I read this chapter before the long weekend and find that if I had sharp impressions this time around, they are dulled by the passage of the weekend. AND I find that, despite some scintillating vintage Downsian discussion on this thread, it hasn't prompted me to add anything.

As a point of comparison with "The Great River," not nearly as much happens in "The Breaking of the Fellowship"--despite being the last chapter of The Fellowship and a key moment in Frodo's journey, it's not a chapter with much surface action--like "A Conspiracy Unmasked," it's a fairly short timeframe in a fairly limited location. That's also a fairly good comparison in terms of its effect on the immediately following chapters--but we get scenes here that have no real parallel there: Boromir's "madness," Frodo's simultaneously internal/external battle on Amon Hen, and Sam's dogged insistence on following (the best part of which is Sam's foreknowledge of what's going to happen--next to him, the other members of the Fellowship are clueless). None of this is "action," like orcs attacking them or shooting the rapids or Legolas taking down a Nazgûl, but it's dramatic.