This really is the most suspenseful chapter so far!
I quite agree with Aiwendil and Bethberry that the tension in the book is far greater than in the movie.
I enjoyed reading all those great posts (very enlightening and thought-provoking as usual) There is little left to say for me.
I find the description of the attack of the wraiths on Crickhollow is very creepy. Reading it over again, I just wonder a little for what reason the black riders stand waiting at the door and the corners of the house so long (until the "cold hour before dawn") before they knock and break in the door? Is it just a trick to draw out the reader's suspension and allow Fatty to escape ?
I like the Bucklander's horncall "Fear! Fire! Foes!" (reminded me a bit of "Fee, fie , foe, fun"
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Frodo unwittingly saying "I hope the thinning process will not go on indefinitely, or I shall become a wraith." foreshadows what will actually almost happen to him after the stab of the morgul-knife! Strider, of course , knows about such things and tells him not to talk like that.
I keep thinking what a big relief it must have been for Frodo and his companions to have now Strider as their leader who took care of everything, and was so knowledgable .
At my first reading, I was as surprised as the companions to hear Sam recite the Gil-galad poem (which is one of my favourite ones) Only then I realized how extraordinary learned for a hobbit Bilbo must have been. (Apparently "working class"- hobbits didn't as a rule learn reading & writing - no schools in the Shire, then?!)
Like Davem and Hilde , I was also taken in by those wonderful descriptions of the landscape and the sense of the past they imply.
The way Aragorn chants the poem of Beren and Luthien and tells the story to the hobbits tells us that he is somehow involved with that past, even before we are aware who he is.
Quote:
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As Strider was speaking they watched his strange eager face, dimly lit in the red glow of the wood fire. His eyes shone and his voice was rich and deep.
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And once more, I was very intrigued by Frodo calling out "A Elbereth, Gilthoniel". (That scene in the movie is nothing like that!
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