[Lhunardawen]

For some reason unknown, I do not find inns any comforting. And this has been carried on as I read this chapter. Yes, Barliman Butterbur might have been a gracious and customer-friendly innkeeper, but there's something in the way that he talks so much and tends to forget things that scared me. We see a glimpse of this forgetfulness in the line that mentions him hesitating for a moment after hearing Frodo introduce himself as Underhill, as if there is something he has to do in connection with the name (my apologies, I haven't the book).

The unfamiliarity with Breelanders, particularly the Big Folk, adds to this aura of discomfort. As I read, I pictured myself being one of the hobbits, and the description of the Big Folk scared me, not just because of their height. Add to that the lurking thought of the Ringwraiths being around.

Ironically (as we will find out in the next chapter), Strider is also a source of fear. At first we see him as someone who probably knows more about these hobbits than the others in the Inn, in the way he looks at them. And since our only source of information about him in this chapter is the one given by Butterbur (which the people around most likely agree with), there is every reason for Frodo to be on his guard...

...but, unfortunately, he was not. His song has somehow lightened the mood, but the accident has made his position even worse. Now he has a growing suspicion of darkness on the only person he is most likely to trust other than his companions. What a fright this chapter must have been for poor Frodo.

I seem to have focused too much on the negative...