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

[Rumil]

Hi Legate,

I should have remembered that the RPGs have become less stereotypically combat-oriented. My thoughts were of old-school D+D where everyone tooled up to the max with chainmail, shield and sword, selection of silver daggers, wolfsbane, oil flasks and the obligatory ten-foot pole and got full plate armour as soon as they could. Not that they weren't fun of course .

I noticed that Esty brought up the same vegetarian points in the next chapter. Anyway, the cows (kine?) could have been at least semi-wild. I wonder if it is possible to harvest sufficient grain from wild grasses? I'm thinking of Emmer-wheat here and the old theories about the beginnings of agriculture where food plants were casually harvested and encouraged until the point where formal fields made sense. Perhaps Tom did a little grain trading with Maggot, as grain can be stored, but fresh cream cannot!

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Rumil

I should have remembered that the RPGs have become less stereotypically combat-oriented. My thoughts were of old-school D+D where everyone tooled up to the max with chainmail, shield and sword, selection of silver daggers, wolfsbane, oil flasks and the obligatory ten-foot pole and got full plate armour as soon as they could. Not that they weren't fun of course .

Well not that they don't exist anymore. We also started like that, only by long playing, the players become somewhat more, hmm, "educated" and aim for other things than just, as we say, "Expírieeens!!!" (which used to be a battle cry)

I noticed that Esty brought up the same vegetarian points in the next chapter. Anyway, the cows (kine?) could have been at least semi-wild. I wonder if it is possible to harvest sufficient grain from wild grasses? I'm thinking of Emmer-wheat here and the old theories about the beginnings of agriculture where food plants were casually harvested and encouraged until the point where formal fields made sense. Perhaps Tom did a little grain trading with Maggot, as grain can be stored, but fresh cream cannot!

Well, there's still the thing I said before about "holding animals captive". And I found there's actually a good point to it. Tom actually says, after calling up the ponies in the next chapter:

Originally Posted by Fog on the Barrow-Downs

My four-legged friend; though I seldom ride him, and he wanders often far, free upon the hillsides.

So, I think Tom can have let's say a cow, but I guess she wanders randomly around the hills (I can imagine that pretty well) and when Tom wants some milk, he calls her home (quite easily, I would imagine, as with the ponies; but even the image of old Tom in his boots running around the hills to find his cow is not inappropriate). By the way I am sure Tom is the one who milks her, not Goldberry. And speaking of cows, I am actually now thinking that maybe a sheep is more plausible. Just because the fact sheep are mentioned in the memories Tom "projects" to the Hobbits when speaking about Arnor of old (it looks like the Downs were a good pasture). And then, the image of half-wild shepherd Tom with sheep milk fits well to me (I am actually thinking of the, to me known, Moravian/Slovak bača, the simple shepherd).

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It seems like I am double-posting on this thread. Very well!

This chapter begins in a terribly depressing manner. Now, I don't know how many of you are used to waking up early, but the beginning of this chapter is, to me, an exact description of what waking up at 5 am feels like. I also, literally, always remember this chapter whenever I am forced to wake up this early. The further description of fog, glistening cobwebs and especially unnaturally loud noises is unbelievably realistic.

Next I am going to mention a series of small things which caught my eye this time:

- First, Merry unlocks the gate through which they get inside the Old Forest. Okay, so he has the key, but since we know the Bucklanders sometimes visit the Old Forest (and Frodo did too), does it mean all Bucklanders have their own key? (Or, I could imagine at least some extended family could own one.) Merry is certainly an important figure from an important family, but still? Or is it only that the "boss family" owns a couple of keys? To me, the most logical would be if e.g. every more important family owned a key or two. But even that would make, say, a few dozen keys throughout Buckland? (And I imagine people like Farmer Maggot who want to visit would have friends they could borrow the keys from.)

Nevertheless, on top of everything: Does Merry actually take this one key with him somewhere abroad, to Isengard, Gondor...? (Okay, he probably loses it somewhere along the way, but maybe at least as far as Rivendell?)

Next: the journey through the forest is obviously the first "encounter with the unknown and 'magical'" for the Hobbits (if we don't count the Black Riders, whom they haven't actually encountered face-to-face yet). We probably all can agree that the Forest is creepy and all that, but let me add one more super-creepy thing I noticed only now:

Originally Posted by The Old Forest

Also northward, and to the left of the path, the land seemed to be drier and more open, climbing up to slopes where the trees were thinner, and pines and firs replaced the oaks and ashes and other strange and nameless trees of the denser wood.

Okay, we all agree that the trees in the Forest are strange, and we know that there is a willow who is evil... but what in the name of all are nameless trees? *shudders* Now all my life I've been thinking that one of the creepiest things in Tolkien's creation were the Nameless Things, but uggh, now I see there might be something even creepier...

Also: reading this chapter made me want to re-read the Hobbit as well, namely the Mirkwood stuff. In any case, the descriptions of trees are very nice and vivid.

When we get to the "main action part" of the chapter, it is interesting that we switch the main point of view from Frodo's to Sam's, who, in the end, saves the day. It is an interesting thing to do. Also, I am not sure (we'll see in the future chapters), but I think with this ends Merry's super-useful leadership part: in the previous chapter as well as here, he has been the leading force (amazing job, organising the whole conspiracy, and now guiding everyone through the Forest). But I think after the Willow episode, he disappears to the background - now we leave the land where he is at home, and it is up to others to take that role.

Last remark belongs to the often forgotten Fatty Bolger. This chapter actually contains one amazing revelation I had not noticed before: He is right in his prediction! Compare please:

Originally Posted by A Conspiracy Unmasked

"You wait till you are well inside the Forest," said Fredegar. "You'll wish you were back here with me before this time tomorrow."

Originally Posted by The Old Forest

"What a foul thing to happen!" cried Frodo wildly. "Why did we ever come into this dreadful Forest? I wish we were all back at Crickhollow!"

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Nevertheless, on top of everything: Does Merry actually take this one key with him somewhere abroad, to Isengard, Gondor...? (Okay, he probably loses it somewhere along the way, but maybe at least as far as Rivendell?)

Maybe, but as I read your post, I was given to suspect a different answer:

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Last remark belongs to the often forgotten Fatty Bolger.

It seems most likely to me that Merry would have left the key with Fatty--not least if it was either a.) one of only a very few keys and/or b.) borrowed from someone else.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

It seems most likely to me that Merry would have left the key with Fatty--not least if it was either a.) one of only a very few keys and/or b.) borrowed from someone else.

That actually is not possible. They say goodbye to Fatty, then they ride into the tunnel which runs under the hedge, then Merry unlocks the gate and locks it behind them ("the sound was ominous"). That's in fact what made me pay attention to it in the first place - the realisation that Merry locked the gate behind them, therefore, he had to keep the key all the way through their journey.

Now I am just thinking where else he might have lost it along the way - and came to the conclusion that if he managed not to lose it somewhere randomly (slipping on the slope of Caradhras, for example), he would have lost it at the latest when the Uruk-hai captured him. Wow, just imagine. Pretty handy for Saruman had they managed to get it to Isengard; it would have been actually quite fitting if ol' Sharkey got the key...

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Pretty handy for Saruman had they managed to get it to Isengard; it would have been actually quite fitting if ol' Sharkey got the key...

He wouldn't really have needed it though, would he? Saruman (according to non-canon UT ) had been in the Shire in earlier times, probably going over Sarn Ford. Why bother with the Old Forest in that case?

There were a lot of seeming opportunities for that key to have been lost. Maybe it's lucky Frodo and Co. didn't need it to enter the Shire covertly when they returned; though maybe had they known of the presence of the Ruffians, the thought could have been entertained.