For an interesting interpretation (by a Christian Periodical) on hope and faith in
Middle-earth (but which really draws on "The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol" rather then "The Ring Heads South" for a source:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...0/ai_107760354
And a quote from "The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol", but one that can be extended to this chapter, and all the way back to the Silmarillion and past Bilbo's adventure:
Quote:
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'Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that's a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it-and the Silmaril went on and came to earendil. And why sir, I never thought of that before! We've got-you've got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?' 'No, they never end, as tales,' said Frodo. 'But the people in them come and go when their part's ended.'
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Okay, the above is probably 90% off-topic to this chapter
, but it may
be a bit relevant to above themes of a story going on and of hope?