LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 04 – A Short Cut to Mushrooms

[Estelyn Telcontar]

women, light and the safety of home

I think Goldberry would be an even more direct comparison to Mrs. Maggot, Fordim. She is heard, not seen before they enter the lighted threshold - perhaps a connecting link between the Hobbit woman and the Elven ruler, slightly more distant in character and race but not yet wholly strange. We'll discuss that more when the Hobbits get there, but I did want to mention it in this connection.

[HerenIstarion]

In the light of recent development of the thread, it may be advisable to take a glance at the following:

Farmer Maggot and Tom Bombadil

and

Bombadil's reference to Farmer Maggot

cheers

[davem]

Any significance in the fact that this chapter begins with Frodo waking up? On his return to the Shire he tells Merry that its 'like falling asleep again'. The last chapter ended with Frodo falling into a dreamless sleep. Its like a threshold has been crossed by Frodo's falling asleep, yet in a sense he's actually 'waking up'. His life in the Shire is the 'dream' from which he awakens into the wide world, & at the end he falls asleep again.

I find it strange in a way - the Shire is our mundane world, the world we live our lives in. Middle earth is a fantastical realm of Elves & wizards & monsters. Yet through Frodo Tolkien seems almost to be saying that the Shire is the dreamworld & Faerie is true waking reality. The hobbits who go off & have adventures are the ones who 'wake up' from the collective dream of the Shire. And its a wizard, in Bilbo & Frodo's case (& as Bilbo mentions at the beginning of the Hobbit its also Gandalf who inspires other hobbits to run off & have adventures) who begins it all. Gandalf is the 'awakener', the one who arouses people to go & live life & have adventures, & do important things, meaningful things. He seems to spend a lot of his time waking people up - Theoden springs to mind - or trying to - Denethor.

Perhaps this chapter & the last are where it all begins, the 'transition phase' - the last one had Black riders & Elves, but the Black Riders were almost like nightmares, & the Elves like a waking dream, like images which float through the mind just before we fall asleep, or fully wake up - which is what Frodo does at the end of the last chapter. Now he is waking up, & the things which previously were dreams (good & bad) become increasingly real. In the first chapter Frodo had dreamed (though its not mentioned that he had these dreams while asleep (because he was always asleep in the Shire?)) of 'crossing the River one day'. At the end of this chapter he's at the edge of that river, about to cross it & 'wake up' fully on the other side.

H-I Thanks for those links. I think Child's reference to Tolkien's original conception of Maggot as being not a hobbit, but a creature like Tom ties in well with Estelyn's comparison of Mrs Maggot/Goldberry. So, we'd have Farmer & Mrs Maggot symbolising the ordered, 'domesticated' life, & Tom Goldberry the more natural life in the wild wood, but both couples would in a sense be 'archetypes' - well, in the early drafts Tom does call himself an 'aborigine'. I can't help feeling that there is some underlying symbolism of these 'archetypal' couples running beneath the surface of LotR.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

A long-drawn wail came down the wind, like the cry of some evil and lonely creature.

This is reminiscent of Morgoth's cry in Lammoth to me, like a thin echo of it, if you’ll pardon the pun. The mention of the word ‘lonely’ also stands in great contrast to the Maggots welcoming the hobbits into their house. What is the Wraith lonely for? For the ring? Is there I reason why Tolkien chose this word over another besides the sound it conjures in the mind?

This conversation has brought up two things that inspire fear in Frodo. But one, the lesser, has been brought upon himself by his own misdeeds, and he is forgiven. The other is more or less inherited along with the ring, and yet turns out to pose the more dire and persistent threat. It is larger than himself.

[The Saucepan Man]

I haven't finished reading the chapter yet ( ), but I thought that I'd jump in here because the description of the Black Rider's wail stood out for me as well.

What is the Wraith lonely for?

It seems to me that this perfectly portrays the Ringwraiths' existence, in contrast to that of the Hobbits. A Wraith's existence is lonely. Although there are nine of them, there is no comradeship between them. They are bound together only by the Nine Rings and by the One. Which contrasts nicely with the bonds of friendship between the Hobbits which we have already seen and which we will see yet more of as the book develops. It also sets them up as the counterpoint to the Nine Walkers who, although brought together by the Ring (ie the need to destroy it), develop bonds of fellowship.

Yes, it's a lonely life being a Wraith. As Fordim says, one almost feels sorry for them. Indeed, one can feel sympathy for what they once were (although we do not, of course, learn of that for a while).

[Iarwain]

In response to Fordim Hedgethistle (I think I spelled that correctly), by the time the book was over, Lobelia had become one of my favourite non-fellowship hobbits. I always find it tremendously sad when she dies.

But, about those mushrooms...

I like davem's comments on the Shire. I think it's a very romantic idea (in a sense of the word). On the other hand, I disagree with those who say that the earlier drafts are bad. From what I read, they seem quite amusing, and perhaps they would have served well as a last glimpse of the Hobbit-centric view of Middle-Earth. This is not to say that I like the drafts more than the actual, though...

Hm... I seem to be "at a loss for words" this morning.


Good-day to all ,
Iarwain

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

One little mistake and you end up a bad guy, wearing black for an age and then some!

Sorry Iarwain, but going back for a moment.....

Yes, I agree that the Ringwraiths are lonely creatures, as appear most of the evil folk that populate this story. It is the timing of the wail that seems odd though. But it does fit in well, contrasting the comradeship of the hobbits, with the colorless, hollowed-out existence of the Nazgûl. But I could more easily see them expressing frustration in their chase, rather than loneliness at precisely that point in time. I suppose it serves to heighten the reader’s curiosity about them, or maybe the hobbits’ curiosity? It does make them seem more 3-dimensional, and not just flat 'bad guys'.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I was cruising through the Downs when I ran across this post by Mirkgirl from a couple of years ago. It's a long (and wonderful) post but I would like to quote a bit of it here:

Merry and the Nazgul are deeply bounded throughout the book - first he is mistaken for one, which represents them as poles. Then he has a close encounter with a Nazgul in Bree. Also he's the first one to notice the Nazgul from Weathertop, but that's not so important.

Now this quote covers parts of the book other than this chapter so I don't want to go far with this point -- what is more, I don't need to as Mirkgirl has already done such a tremendous job in her original post. But I did want to address a point that's had me thinking for a long time -- it always seemed a bit odd to me that Merry was not present for the first stage of the journey; this seemed to reduce his importance to it somehow, but now I'm beginning to wonder if I've had it all wrong. We've been talking so far about how the journey in these early chapters is a process of growth (or maturation, as in the case of Pippin) for the hobbits (and let me applaud davem for his brilliant post about waking up) -- is it not possible that Merry's absence from this stage of the journey is an indication that he is already as 'grown up' as he will become? That he is already mature in ways that the other hobbits aren't? It seems that given his association with the Nazgul make here so early, that he is already in some way ready for the task he will undertake in the death of the Witch-King.

All of which leads me to this thought: Pippin is to Sam as Merry is to Frodo. The first pair are relatively naive and innocent and will come to have their horizons broadened and their understanding expanded, but they will remain the essentially simple folk they were at the beginning (Pippin intellectually, Sam morally). The second pair are already what they need to be to accomplish their quests (that is, they are already fully associated with the darkness they must overcome - Frodo the Ring, and Merry the Nazgul).

This is a fresh new thought so I'm not really sure where I might be headed with it. Which is why I float it. . .

One More Thing: Merry's late-coming to the quest is also, I suspect, a forerunner to how things will work at the end of the book as the Fellowship slowly dissolves. In the beginning, they come together not all at once, but bit by bit; the mirror image of how it ends.