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Old 09-20-2004, 04:27 PM   #12
Firefoot
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 7,646
Firefoot has been trapped in the Barrow!
Quote:
Do you remember your experience when reading it for the first time?
This chapter is one of the ones I remember most vividly reading for the first time. Like Frodo, I was amazed when Elrond does his "Well I remember the glory of the Elder days..." speech. I must have picked up 3018, 3rd Age somewhere because I was thinking along the lines of "Wait a minute! Just how old is he, anyway?" Another thing that originally confused me was sending it over the Sea. Send it to where? Then something was said about sending it back. Who would send it back? There are several of these hints in the chapter, though most of the history portions are more explained. As a person who had prior to this only read the Hobbit, it was these little things that added to the allusion of depth to the book, one of the many things that made feel it was "fantastic" at the end, rather than just a good book that goes back on the shelf and is never read again. What made me smile, though, was Glóin's line "You were less tender to me!" when Legolas was explaining Gollum's care. It is a sense of connection that only readers of the Hobbit can really feel. Perhaps it was satisfaction at really understanding something that was going on that wasn't flat-out explained in the text.

It confuses me a little how people can skip this chapter. Several people I have talked to skimmed through it or just completely skipped it, calling it boring. Granted, it is not very action packed, but very interesting nonetheless. There is a great deal of the subtle humor that Tolkien excells at, and the introductions and insights to characters such as Boromir are crucial. I do not understand how anyone can skip this chapter and understand what is happening later on.
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