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Old 09-13-2004, 08:24 PM   #3
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
After the excitement of the previous two chapters, Book II begins with a needed respite. Like chapter 1 of Book I, there is no real danger in this chapter, and the plot is not very much advanced. What does come across very strongly here is milieu - the feeling of Rivendell (that is, the feeling of Faerie) is perfectly captured. Book I began with a chapter that offered a vivid impression of Hobbiton; the rest of that book amounted to a journey away from the mundane and toward Faerie. As others have noted in previous chapter discussions, each time Frodo crosses a river he moves farther into the "otherworld". Now he has fully arrived, and a chapter offereing a vivid impression of Rivendell completes the journey.

This chapter also contains a rather impressive poem, Bilbo's "Earendil was a Mariner". I never cease to be impressed with the scheme of the poem, rhymes on every second line and assonance between the end of the off-lines and the second foot of the rhyming lines. Tolkien wrote that he was only able to write in this meter once and never again - but the "Earendil" poem is actually a heavy revision of his older poem "Errantry"; so he had sufficient command of its form at least for that. Interestingly, the version found in LotR was not the one that was meant to be. Tolkien had revised the poem further, but apparently could not find that revision at the time of publication and was forced to use this one. The "correct" version can be found in HoMe VII.
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