[Formendacil]

"Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit" is the name of the chapter, but the passage it draws itself from gets the least attention on this thread. Fair enough: Ithilien and Faramir and Mumakil are all new and exciting, while we're four chapters in to the relationship of Sam and Gollum; nonetheless, I think there was some missed opportunity here to look at our trio of travellers. The dialogue over the coneys and taters is an entertaining diversion, but it also represents the high point of trust and camaraderie between Sam and Gollum, when Sam has sort of become used to him and before Gollum thinks himself betrayed at Henneth Annun. Sam's internal thoughts about Gollum's well-being as the battle begins are of a piece with this.

Nonetheless, it's interesting that Tolkien names the chapter for this incident. I don't think there's been much discussion about chapter names, because most are pretty straightforward: "Lothlorien" or "The Council of Elrond" for example. Others are more thematic, but still make sense as the major scene or theme of the chapter, such as "A Conspiracy Unmasked" or "The Taming of Smeagol." To this stage, however, there's no chapter title that's quite as... synechdoche like... as this. Is Tolkien telling us what he thinks the most important part of this chapter is, or did he just think "Ithilien" was too boring a title?

Side-note: "dishevelled dryad loveliness" is one of those beautiful Tolkien phrases that has become a staple of my wordhoard.