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Old 08-25-2004, 07:49 AM   #15
Guinevere
Banshee of Camelot
 
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Switzerland
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What strikes me at second reading is that the "big folk" of Bree are really rather similar to the Hobbits... that's probably why they can live together so well. They are content with their lives in Bree and rather suspicious of anything unknown . Well, the only Bree men we really get to know are Barliman Butterbur (very hobbitlike, I think) and Bill Ferny (evil, but in a small, mean way)
I remember well, how intrigued I was at the first reading by the description of Strider. (btw the first sight of Strider in the movie is exactly like that: one sees only the gleam of his eyes from under the hood.)
Something else which makes me wonder now is the statement at the beginning of the chapter that "no other Men had settled dwellings so far west" and the description of the rangers as "mysterious wanderers" without a dwelling apparently. But some of them, at least, must have had wives and children, and all of them had parents: I wonder where those lived ? Where were Aragorn's parents living before his father died? Whither did Gilraen retire when she left Rivendell ? Is it nowhere mentioned, I wonder ?

And though I'm not from an English-spoken country I was delighted to recognize "Hi diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle" in Frodo's song. Btw , some people in a German Forum asked me in earnest if that nursery rhyme really had its origin in the LotR ! I think it's typical for Tolkien that he manages to make us think that ! ( Like "Atalantė" and "Avalonnė")
As HerenIstarion so rightly pointed out: the lore becomes folklore...
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Last edited by Guinevere; 08-25-2004 at 08:36 AM. Reason: had an afterthought...
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