LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 09 - The Great River

[Lathriel]

Lhunardawen, I wouldn't kill you because I always think the same way about this chapter.
However, when re-reading LOTR I also think of the entwives who had their gardens in the brownlands (When they weren't any brownlands yet) That thought always makes me very sad because you do get a very strong sense that the magic in ME is waning and that certain things are coming at an end.
Of course this is amphisized by the knowledge that the Fellowship may have to be split up and that some may never see eachother again.

One reason why I always think of the Argonath is because there is something about the descriptionthat Tolkien used which makes me remember them.

Quote:Upon great pedestals founded in the deep waters stood two great kings of stone:still with blurred eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North.The Left hand of each was raised palm outwards in gesture of warning;in each right hand there was an axe;upon each head there was a crumbling helm and crown.

Of course this once again shows that Gondor has weakened since the days of old. In general all these kind of images give me a feeling of sadness.

[Formendacil]

This is a transitional chapter, not a blockbuster like some, but it's got more than a little action, between the River, Gollum, and the orks on shore. Having grown up canoeing down the Red Deer River through the Alberta prairie, I find this an especially easy chapter to imagine, though I don't think my Albertan-painted imaginings are quite accurate.

Gollum creeping continuously behind the Fellowship, ready to potentially throttle them in their sleep, is quite a creepy mental image, and while it's comforting to know Aragorn has been warding them (not unlike Rangers and the Shire), it's all the more frightening once Frodo and Sam go off alone, without his protection.

And the Argonath... is there anything that speaks to the fictional sightseer quite so much as these millennia-old megaliths? It puts the magnitude of Numenor's long-since-faded power into emotional terms, experiencing it this way.