Child, posting while you're on vacation -- now that's a dedicated Downer.
But anyways. . .
Reading over the posts I've thought of something about the Black Riders that I've not before. Like Frodo and the landscape through which he moves, they start out as relatively familiar things that only become more terrible and 'exotic' as the story goes on. Well, maybe "familiar" is the wrong word, but at their introduction they are simply riders dressed in black: compare that to what they will 'become' by the end of the book! So Frodo's growth into heroism, and his journey from the familiar and everyday, is matched by a 'developing growth' of the evil forces that pursue him the most relentlessly. . .
I think what the Riders here do for me is to highlight the banality of evil. Evil, real evil, never announces itself as such with anything as showy or as obvious as a Big Red Eye scanning the landscape. Here we have the chief instruments of the Enemy roaming around the Shire, being told to move along by the Gaffer no less! How utterly normal and boring -- imagine how much more 'exciting' a band of maruauding orcs or trolls would be. Now I do realise that there are strategic reasons for using the Riders here rather than more monstrous servants, but the point is that the first bad guys we see are just a bunch of guys on horses.
The really evil things that have happened in human history were like this. Nobody has ever had their village invaded by orcs (well, in this Seventh Age of the world at least
) but, tragically, a lot of people have been roused by an ominous knocking on their door in the middle of the night, only to be swept away by the men in dark clothes who have been sent to claim them. Too many people are chased through dark alleys by shadowy figures. This chapter doesn't just begin the move from the Shire (the world of everyday good) to Elves/King Elessar (the highest and noblest Good), but from the Black Riders (the world of everyday danger and 'bad men') to Mordor/Sauron (Evil).
Put another way, it is possible, I think, to see the Black Riders as Frodo's 'companions' on this journey as well. Just as he leaves the Shire as Frodo, and comes back as Frodo the Nine-Fingered, so too do his hunters leave the Shire as Black Riders and conclude their journeys as Nazgul.
EDIT -- Cross posting with
Mirkgirl. I just wanted to add:
Quote:
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The meeting with the elves has one more effect, which I believe, wasn't mentioned yet. Sam no longer needs to go to Rivendell in order to see the elves. From now on, if he decides to come with Frodo, it'll be for Frodo's sake only and not because of the elves. I believe this is rather well done of Tolkien, to clear any suspicions the readers might have about Sams motives. (:
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Never saw that before! Great point!