LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 06 – The Old Forest

[Formendacil]

A couple minor points struck me on this reread, and refreshing myself on this thread there was one major one, which I shall get to last.

First, it amuses me to note that, reading "The Old Forest" this time, I noticed the fact that Merry must have taken the key with him, when a few years back, I missed that entirely and had to be corrected.

Second, I noticed that Sam was the one who most resisted Old Man Willow and I thought this was appropriate enough, given that he is a gardner, a tender of plants. This connection makes even more sense reading through the thread: there was a much earlier comparison of Tom to Adam in the Garden of Eden--i.e. an unfallen gardner of nature. Someone also pointed out Farmer Maggot as being somewhat Bombadil-like. So perhaps there's a definite appropriateness to Sam being the one to snap out of Old Man Willow's trance on his own.

Finally, the major point, regarding the whole point of the Bombadil trio of chapters, I was surprised to see very little written about how they function almost as a dream, given that this is a piece of analysis I am almost entirely certain I have read elsewhere. Granted, I think that might have been in the context of the parallel geography of the hobbits' journey at the END of the book, but it has a distinct appropriateness here. The quote:

Originally Posted by Homeward Bound

'Well here we are, just the four of us that started out together,' said Merry. 'We have left all the rest behind, one after another. It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded.'
'Not to me,' said Frodo. 'To me it feels more like falling asleep again.'

This is immediately preceded by Gandalf leaving them to visit Bombadil, with the image of him riding off towards the Barrow-downs.

I'm not a fan of the plot device "It was all just a dream!", the most famous example of which is the movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but it's useful as a way of understanding the point of the Bombadil chapters. In the rest of the book--even as soon as Bree--they are half-remembered at best. Saying that they are like a dream the reader had is an excellent way of describing their general irrelevance to the later plot.

And travelling through a dream is a lot like travelling into Faërie: time and space seem to have different rules than in the "real" world--and although all of The Lord of the Rings takes place in a world that equally purports to be real, there is still a different sense of reality in the Shire and in the adventures from Bree to Bree: when Frodo says that it's like falling asleep again, he is speaking as much or more for the reader as for himself. We've been taken on an adventure into a higher, more true reality than daily life which is the dream.

In other words, I think the Bombadil chapters are important for allowing the Shire and the rest of the great tale to coexist, without the Shire seeming trivially pointless or the greater tale impossibly remote. They're the fuzzy state between sleeping and waking that create the massive chasm of distance between dream and reality.

I actually think that omitting them is the only reason Jackson is able to make The Fellowship of the Ring into the best of his movies--because each of the six books of the LotR rises and falls on its own, and Book I without the Bombadil section is all introduction and climax. It functions within the wider LotR to transition us from the world of the Shire (in some respects the world of The Hobbit) into the world of the epic (again, in some respects, the world of the Silmarillion). That sense of building tension and rising stakes needs a chance to simmer, and without the Bombadil interlude, it goes fast: Black Riders, Merry & Pippin, Bree, Strider, Black Riders!

Again, I think that helped make the FotR the best Jackson movie, because it allows the FotR to have a single arc (with Rivendell replacing Bombadil as the stretching-middle). Part of the reason TTT and RotK don't work as well is because they attempt to make a single story out of two books (granted, they have to, but you'll never convince me that six movies wouldn't have been better, though I'll grant you that the placement of the destruction of the Ring in the early part of Book VI makes that final book an interesting one to stand alone--though, of course, as the final volume, it's kind of like Infinity War in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a different sort of beast).

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

First, it amuses me to note that, reading "The Old Forest" this time, I noticed the fact that Merry must have taken the key with him, when a few years back, I missed that entirely and had to be corrected.

Well, who's to say that was the only key? Seems rather slack of the Brandybucks to risk its loss. After all, all it would take is a drunken stroll into the Forest after dark, and you're sending to Hobbiton for a locksmith.

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Second, I noticed that Sam was the one who most resisted Old Man Willow and I thought this was appropriate enough, given that he is a gardner, a tender of plants. This connection makes even more sense reading through the thread: there was a much earlier comparison of Tom to Adam in the Garden of Eden--i.e. an unfallen gardner of nature. Someone also pointed out Farmer Maggot as being somewhat Bombadil-like. So perhaps there's a definite appropriateness to Sam being the one to snap out of Old Man Willow's trance on his own.

I never considered before why Sam was least affected by the Willow.
Besides being a gardener and "lover of trees", he was seemingly a bit less intelligent than the others, and also had at least heard of Huorns or their like from Cousin Hal. Hmm.

Originally Posted by Formendacil

In other words, I think the Bombadil chapters are important for allowing the Shire and the rest of the great tale to coexist, without the Shire seeming trivially pointless or the greater tale impossibly remote. They're the fuzzy state between sleeping and waking that create the massive chasm of distance between dream and reality.

Very interesting! So the Forest is rather a buffer between the innocent, Hobbit-like beginning, then going directly to the Downs, where things get really perilous.

Of course, the Hobbits had been shadowed by the Black Riders, but to a first-time reader, I think the Barrow-wight, seen (and heard) at a much closer distance, would be creepier.

[Boromir88]

Of course, the Hobbits had been shadowed by the Black Riders, but to a first-time reader, I think the Barrow-wight, seen (and heard) at a much closer distance, would be creepier.~Inzil

For me, I'll give a very Elvish answer and say both, yes and no. Yes, they are creepier and their threat is indeed more upclose and personal than the Ringwraiths up to this point.

The Ringwraiths are still quite unknown, or I should say their true threat if they find Frodo is not yet known to the readers. They're still just "Black Riders" who are servants of Sauron hunting for the Ring. Gandalf barely says anything about them and Gildor pretty much refuses to tell Frodo anything more than "stay away." We know they're pursuing Frodo, but all encounters are from second hand accounts (Farmer Maggot's). They aren't a direct threat until the attack on Merry in Bree and even then their danger isn't truly revealed until their attack on Weathertop.

Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wight are, in some ways, perceived as larger threats, but their danger is also far more restricted. Similar to how I question Bombadil's powers outside his own defined borders. Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wight have defined borders where they are extremely dangerous, but not a threat outside their areas. Even if they haven't managed to catch the hobbits yet, the Ringwraiths power clearly isn't limited to specific boundaries. Right from the get go, we learn they manage to break into the Shire and Frodo barely managed to leave Bag End in time.