[davem]

Sam eased the pack on his shoulders, & went over anxiously in his mind all the things that he had stowed in it, wondering if he had forgotten anything: his chief treasure, his cooking gear; & the little box of salt that he always carried & refilled when he could; a good supply of pipe-weed (but not near enough, I’ll warrant); flint & tinder; woolen hose; linen; various small things of his master’s that Frodo had forgotten & Sam had stowed to bring them out in triumph when they were called for

In the essay ‘Frodo’s Batman’ (Tolkien Studies vol 1), Mark T Hooker quotes from Lieutenant Colonel Graham Seton Hutchinson’s biography of his batman, Perter McLintock:

[Peter’s] friendliness took complete possession of the necessary, though often incconvenient, affairs of life. In such things Peter’s service was priceless. No matter at what hour I would return to the cubby hole for sleep, it was as dry & as warm as human ingenuity could devise. Eggs & small comforts he cojured from behind the lines without any promptings from me ... He would ... prepare a varied menu from interminable bread, plum-&-apple jam, & the sickly meat & vegetable ration. He woulld clean my limited wardrobe, wash & mend the socks & shirts, keep me supplied with tobacco, dry my boots & stockings. The batman was multum in parco to his charge, omnipresent yet ubiquitous ... And he would run when his officer went over the top, & fight by his side. When the officer dropped, the batman was beside him’.

Peter’s friendship expressed itself in ‘little acts of vigilant kindness. Opportunities for the rendering of trifling services & for the doing of kindness were ever present, every hour & every day. The batman’s attitude was one of subordination, & he tarried neither to consider the worthiness of his charge nor the nature of thee service asked. He gave freely, the man of humble origin & pursuit, to one at least temporarily exalted with authority. By his ready service, words & gestures he won affection, by his forethought & unknown sacrifices, he penetrated quietly & unobtrusively into the heart of the master of his goings & his comings.’

I think this sums up Sam to a T, & shows that Tolkien wasn’t exagerating when he claimed Sam was based on the batmen who served the officers in WW1.

Other things that stick in my mind from this chapter are the way we are again presented with the idea that Middle earth itself is somehow alive - it does not quickly forget places the Elves have dwelt, It can be malicious & cruel - so different from the movie, where the malice is Saruman’s, here we have the mountain itself venting its wrath on those who dare to trespass.

Also, the miruvor - odd that the source of sustenance that comes from Rivendell is drink that from Lorien is food,yet both seem to have the same uplifting & life sustaining power.

And why nine companions in the Fellowship - it seems that Elrond felt that the number was so significant that he decided on that first, & then struggled to find people to make it up. Why was it so important that there be nine companions?

(Another thing - for those interested - CT gives us the translation of naur an edraith ammen, Gandalf’s firekindling spell: ‘fire be for saving of us’, which, if anyone has heard the BBC Radio Hobbit, is misused there, where Gandalf uses it to start any fire at all, no matter what the circumstances.)

Finally, a couple of lines from Home, which didn’t make it into the final draft, but which I like for the way they show the development of Gandalf’s character. The first is from the first version, where the travellers are Gandalf, Boromir, Trotter & the hobbits.

How are we to get to the turn?’ asked Trotter.
‘I don’t know!’ said Boromir. ‘It is a pity Gandalf can’t produce flame enough to melt us a pathway.’
‘I daresay it is,’ snapped Gandalf, ‘but even I need a few materials to work upon. I can kindle fire, not feed it. What you want is a dragon not a wizard.’
Indeed I think a tame dragon would actually be more useful at the moment than a wild wizard.’ said Boromir - with a laugh that did not in any way appease Gandalf.

‘At the moment, at the moment,,’ he replied. ‘Later on we may see. I am old enough to be your great-grandfather’s ancestor - but I am not doddery yet. It will serve you right if you meet a wild dragon.’

The next is a later variant, where Legolas is the target of Gandalf’s ire:

’It is a pity,’ said Legolas, ‘that Gandalf cannot go before us with a bright flame, & melt us a path.’
‘It is a pity that Elves cannot fly over mountains, & fetch the sun to save them,’ answered Gandalf. ‘Even I need something to work on. I cannot burn snow. But I could turn Legolas into a flaming torch, if that will serve: he would burn bright while he lasted.’
‘Spare me!’ cried legolas. ‘I fear that a dragon is concealed in the shape of our wizard. Yet a tame dragon would be useful at this hour.’
‘It will be a wild dragon, if you say anymore,’ said Gandalf.

I have to say that this is my favourite put down that never made it into the final version - possibly apart from Aragorn’s reposte to Gimli after he had looked into the Palantir:

’You looked in the stone!’ said Gimli, amazed, awestruck, & rather alarmed* . ‘What did you tell - him?’
‘What did I tell him?’ said Aragorn sternly, & his eyes glinted. ‘That I had a rascal of a rebel dwarf here that I would exchange for a couple of good orcs, thank you!’’
(*really ran the gamut of emotions there!)