LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 04 - A Journey in the Dark

[Břicho]

I am currently reading the Lord of the Rings to my girlfriend, and this is the chapter we've just finished, so I'll write about it now...over two years after the last post...

What struck me at this last reading was how "disunited" the Fellowship is after their first near-disaster of the snow. They are beginning to bicker amoung themselves; Gandalf seems short-tempered and he and Aragorn seem to be a bit quarrelsome with each other--though Aragorn does seem to constantly defer to Gandalf; Merry and Pippin (at the gate) openly seem to doubt Gandalf(Why doesn't Gandalf do something quick?); Gandalf mock-threatens taht he's going to bash Pippin's head upon the stone-wall; Boromir voices his opposing opinion strongly; Sam angrily resists the abandonment of Bill.
Somehow this strikes me as quite realistic: they ARE under a lot of stress; they DID almost freeze to death the night before; they were attacked by vicious, supernatural wolves; they haven't had much sleep; they are "footsore and tired" and generally creeped out by the oily mere.

This discordant quality and clashes of personality are somewhat dulled down by the horror at the gate and the subsequent march into the ruins and the hardhships it holds. Again, you see it after Pippin's disastrous folly at the Well. Gandalf growls at him and tells him to throw himself in next time.
A bit later, Gandalf speaks kindly to him and tells him to go to sleep.
Pippin overhears him muttering "I know what's the matter with me. I need smoke!"
I wonder if this isn't somehow an echo of Tolkien(the smoker)'s own occasional impatience with his own children--it was somehow beautiful to me to see Gandalf doubting not only his way in the Mines, or his decision in bringing the Ring(and the others) there, but his own rather grumpy attitude brought about by his dependency on smoke!

(I guess this has already been written about on this thread!)

Upon first reading I think that I thought and hoped the "tom-tapping" might have been the missing dwarves--but somehow knew that it wasn't.

The Mithril lecture is another fine example of Tolkien expanding the imaginary world and giving it depth and history.



I think that this chapter, along with a half-dozen others of hte LOTR is an example of some of the finest descriptive, atmosphere-building writing in the book. The far-off echoes of the signal-hammer is quite scary.

[alatar]

It's funny that it never struck me as odd before (maybe it did), but reading about the wolves/wargs, I now find it odd that they disappear by morning's light. After reading this thread (and davem's various explanations), I guess others find them odd as well. Some thoughts:

• Why do they wargs disappear at dawn, yet are physical enough to be slain by real weapons?

• Why do the Hounds of Sauron wait until it is almost light to attack?

• Gandalf is concerned on Caradhas about starting a fire. When he finally does, he states that he has written 'Gandalf is here' for all to see. Why then does he torch every tree in the ring when the wargs attack, as surely this says, 'Gandalf is now here' for all to see?

• To me, the "Hounds of Sauron" echoes the 'hounds of Hell,' though I'm not sure where that phrase arises (I know that it appears in Vincent Price's monologue in Michael Jackson's song "Thriller," but somehow I'm not sure that that counts). And it would have to be Sauron, as no other enemy quite compares (i.e. "Go back, Hounds of Sandyman!")

• Why are there no other examples of disappearing organics in Middle Earth? Or, as stated, are these creatures like Sauron, who, at the drowning of Númenor, leaves his body behind? One wonders if these creatures current best form were wargs, what options were then available when/if they reincarnated ("Oy! The Aardvarks of Sauron are upon us!")

On another note, this is a wonderful chapter with my favorite, Gandalf, guiding the Fellowship through the dark with nary a misstep.