[Lalwendë]

When Sam awoke, he found that he was lying on some soft bed, but over him gently swayed wide beechen boughs, and through their young leaves sunlight glimmered, green and gold. All the air was full of a sweet mingled scent.

He remembered that smell: the fragrance of Ithilien. 'Bless me!' he mused. 'How long have I been asleep?' For the scent had borne him back to the day when he had lit his little fire under the sunny bank; and for the moment all else between was out of waking memory.

When Sam wakes up, the scene is unusual. He is in a bed, but he is outdoors. Of course, they are some distance from Minas Tirith or any other habitation so camping will be necessary, but this is camping without a tent, not at all unusual in Middle-earth, but some form of tent has been brought along as there are 'pavilions' on the field, described later on; it might be expected that Frodo and Sam, being wounded/ill would be given shelter. I think there is a reason that they are laid in beds in this grove, and that is the 'fragrance of Ithilien'. Like the way that the scent of the Athelas works in the Houses of Healing, it brings Sam memories of a happier time.

At length Gandalf rose. 'The hands of the King are hands of healing, dear friends,' he said. 'But you went to the very brink of death ere he recalled you, putting forth all his power, and sent you into the sweet forgetfulness of sleep. And though you have indeed slept long and blessedly, still it is now time to sleep again.'

And it does seem that Aragorn has again been involved in some healing; perhaps Frodo and Sam have been placed in the grove as the scent of the herbs is much more potent and effective.

They stepped out of the beech-grove in which they had lain, and passed on to a long green lawn, glowing in sunshine, bordered by stately dark-leaved trees laden with scarlet blossom. Behind them they could hear the sound of falling water, and a stream ran down before them between flowering banks, until it came to a greenwood at the lawn's foot and passed then on under an archway of trees, through which they saw the shimmer of water far away.

As they came to the opening in the wood, they were surprised to see knights in bright mail and tall guards in silver and black standing there, who greeted them with honour and bowed before them. And then one blew a long trumpet, and they went on through the aisle of trees beside the singing stream. So they came to a wide green land, and beyond it was a broad river in a silver haze, out of which rose a long wooded isle, and many ships lay by its shores.

They wake in a grove, attended by a wizard, and then progress out of it across a magical sounding lawn and under an aisle of trees; this is an odd description and made me think of druidic groves. It is as though Frodo and Sam have been rescued from the grim realities of the world, sent to sleep and then have been wakened into something resembling Faerie. Maybe this is one of those occasions when Tolkien does touch on the 'real faerie'?

and the day after they came to the green fields of the Pelennor and saw again the white towers under tall Mindolluin, the City of the Men of Gondor, last memory of Westernesse, that had passed through the darkness and fire to a new day.
And there in the midst of the fields they set up their pavilions and awaited the morning; for it was the Eve of May, and the King would enter his gates with the rising of the Sun.

This another striking moment at the end of the chapter. The Eve of May? Passing through fires? The new King? The sunrise on May Day? This is extremely close to ideas of Beltaine. Fires would be lit during the festival, through which cattle would be driven and people would jump for purification; and there has been purification, when some of the Men entered Mordor to destroy the fortifications. When Frodo and Sam are given their new 'linen' clothes it is also a form of purification. This ritual would take place between rituals of banishment (downfall of Sauron) and of consecration (Aragorn's Coronation).

The idea of a May King is now not so common; we tend to just have May Queens, usually teenagers forced to dress up in frocks and look pretty for the day (and normally sulking about it ). But at one time a May King would also be present, possibly as the Green man or as a Robin Hood figure. Allegedly, sometimes the May King would also be subject to sacrifice at some date during the year; we see this idea in The Wicker Man. May Day is also traditionally a good time to find faeries, and it a time when the unsuspecting are 'taken' from one world into the other; when Aragorn passes through the gates of the city on May morning, it could be said to be symbolic of his passing from the old world of war and conflict into the new world in which he is King.