Quote:
Originally Posted by Formendacil
Best FotR chapter title? "Fog on the Barrow-downs" wins for me: there's something of mystery and a hint of menace just in fog (especially if you come, as I do, from an arid clime that experiences it but rarely), and both barrows and downs are older English terms that you don't find in my part of the world--hills, yes; downs, not so much--so it has some of the Tolkienian vocabulary (or, as someone in England might call it, "vocabulary").
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I completely agree with this, and I thought of naming it amongst my favorites. I guess it doesn't do any harm that we also associate it with this sinister forum.
I actually think the Danish translation manages to achieve something similar with "
Tåge over Dyssehøjene". You very seldom here the word "dysse" being used, "gravhøj" or "jættestue" is much more common. Dyssegæst (barrow-wight) has a very unsettling ring to it, but not if you translate it literally back to english "barrow-guest"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Formendacil
ACTUAL favourite chapter?
Either "Three is Company or Strider. The former has a little bit of Gandalf, some Gaffer, and poetry; and it is the first of many chapters to lovingly take you through a landscape. And it has peak Black Rider. And then the Elves bursting on the scene. And that final note of mystery: Gildor's bafflement at Gandalf not turning up and his dark hints about the nature of the Riders.
And Book I might be my favourite of the six books--if I can be said to have one.
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In some way I think that a Short Cut to Mushrooms is peak Black Rider, I was never more scared of them than when the Hobbit saw one on the hill they had just climbed down. Though "A Conspiracy Unmasked" is a close second, Merry's appearance at the Bucklebury Ferry gave me a good scare, and it was downright creepy when the hobbits looked across the river seeing the black (bundle) rider there.