A hundredth re-read of the LotR

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Boring detail? Like, do you mean that it becomes a trivial fact and is not used anymore?

Okay, look at from my point of view: even at an early age I was into science. We read about all of this sniffing. "Don't forget to ask about the sniffing!" It is emphasized, and so it must be important. Something completely unusual about these unearthly creatures...

And what does it all mean? That they smell our blood or something?

Does that mean that the Nazgul are going to the dogs?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by alatar

Okay, look at from my point of view: even at an early age I was into science. We read about all of this sniffing. "Don't forget to ask about the sniffing!" It is emphasized, and so it must be important. Something completely unusual about these unearthly creatures...

And what does it all mean? That they smell our blood or something?

Does that mean that the Nazgul are going to the dogs?

Hey, but what exactly do you lack there? It's discussed at the Weathertop, Merry or who is it asks that once again ("They seem to use more their smell than their sight" or something like that), and then there follows this explanation of the Nazgul's senses in daylight etc.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Hey, but what exactly do you lack there?

It just seems a bit overhyped earlier in the story. I withdraw the nitpicking observation.

[Lalwendë]

A few things from this chapter...because some proper posting will do me good .....

At the south end of the greensward there was an opening. There the green floor ran on into the wood, and formed a wide space like a hall, roofed by the boughs of trees. Their great trunks ran like pillars down each side. In the middle there was a wood-fire blazing, and upon the tree-pillars torches with lights of gold and silver were burning steadily. The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn rings of old trunks. Some went to and fro bearing cups and pouring drink; others brought food on heaped plates and dishes.

This has always reminded me of tales of Druidic groves, sacred spaces formed by great Oaks, almost like buildings. I think from reading that for the very first time in my early teens I started thinking of Elves as these magical creatures, as if they held some 'secret'. This might be the beginning of a journey for the Hobbits, but that was also a great beginning for me. In my quest to find out this magical secret of the Elves I've spent the years since delving into history, folklore, all kinds of things. I've never found that secret yet though.

And is it an old, old place, a grove used by other Elves? It sounds like it...

Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained in his memory as one of the chief events of his life.

That chimes with my own feelings when I pick up that old copy of Fellowship and feel that intangible thrill I felt when I was first reading the book. It takes me right back, but there's no way I could describe how I felt, and how I still feel like that when I pick up that old book, which is by me now.

To tell the truth, he was very reluctant to start, now that it had come to the point. Bag End seemed a more desirable residence than it had for years, and he wanted to savour as much as he could of his last summer in the Shire. When autumn came, he knew that part at least of his heart would think more kindly of journeying, as it always did at that season. He had indeed privately made up his mind to leave on his fiftieth birthday: Bilbo's one hundred and twentyeighth. It seemed somehow the proper day on which to set out and follow him. Following Bilbo was uppermost in his mind, and the one thing that made the thought of leaving bearable.

This is why I love the early chapters of the book so much. It's the sense of loss. After having been made to feel right at home in The Shire, a familiar place enough to anyone brought up in the English countryside, you have to leave it with Frodo, and his feelings are the same as my own when I have to leave behind a place I love. There's a journey you've been itching to get started on but when it comes to it, you delay leaving.

I understand that need to 'savour' too, to get your fill of the familiar places you've loved and yet in some way also found boring - when you have to leave them they suddenly don't seem so dull any more, but precious.

Anyway, I'll leave it here for tonight with a piece of Tolkien's writing that might not be about Elves, is not about a glorious city, or a furious battle, nor even about a beautiful foreign land, but about home and probably one of my favourite descriptions of anything in Middle-earth. I've often posted about how when I hear Vaughan Williams music I think of Bilbo and Frodo having to leave The Shire behind and this is what I always think of:

For a short way they followed the lane westwards. Then leaving it they turned left and took quietly to the fields again. They went in single file along hedgerows and the borders of coppices, and night fell dark about them. In their dark cloaks they were as invisible as if they all had magic rings. ..........After some time they crossed the Water, west of Hobbiton, by a narrow plank-bridge. The stream was there no more than a winding black ribbon, bordered with leaning alder-trees. A mile or two further south they hastily crossed the great road from the Brandywine Bridge; they were now in the Tookland, and bending southeastwards they made for the Green Hill Country. As they began to climb its first slopes they looked back and saw the lamps in Hobbiton far off twinkling in the gentle valley of the Water. Soon it disappeared in the folds of the darkened land, and was followed by Bywater beside its grey pool. When the light of the last farm was far behind, peeping among the trees, Frodo turned and waved a hand in farewell. 'I wonder if I shall ever look down into that valley again,' he said quietly.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Lalwendë, your mention of Vaughn Williams' music (are you familiar with his song "The Twilight People"? I sang it back in college, and it has always made me think of the Elves and Men of ME) made me think of something else about this chapter. Being a musician, I always paid a lot of attention to the various songs and poems (sang Donald Swann's "The Road Goes Ever On" cycle back in college, too, and wrote settings for just about every other song in the book quite some time ago). In the song "Upon the Hearth," I always found one part in particular quite curious:

But not yet weary are our feet,
Still round the corner we may meet
A sudden tree or standing stone
That none have seen but we alone.

The curious part, to me, is the "standing stone." Other than this mention in the song, the Three Farthing Stone is the only other mention of such a thing in the Shire, and that seems to be more of a mile marker than a megalith, such as those that are found in the "real" world. It just always struck me as an odd thing to find in a Hobbit walking song, since (given size and culture) they seem to me to be the least likely people to be raising such things. Then again, the reference may be to finding a surprise of something that was NOT raised by Hobbits, especially since Bilbo wrote the song. I can't imagine any proper adventure-adverse Hobbit wanting to sing about taking "the hidden paths that run toward the Moon and to the Sun."

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

The curious part, to me, is the "standing stone." Other than this mention in the song, the Three Farthing Stone is the only other mention of such a thing in the Shire, and that seems to be more of a mile marker than a megalith, such as those that are found in the "real" world. It just always struck me as an odd thing to find in a Hobbit walking song, since (given size and culture) they seem to me to be the least likely people to be raising such things. Then again, the reference may be to finding a surprise of something that was NOT raised by Hobbits, especially since Bilbo wrote the song. I can't imagine any proper adventure-adverse Hobbit wanting to sing about taking "the hidden paths that run toward the Moon and to the Sun."

It's yet another layer to the text which makes The Shire resonant of the real world. They have Barrows and megaliths just as we do, and they have stories about them just as we do - and what's even better is that while they can make some decent guesses as to who might have constructed the barrows, the megaliths remain enigmatic; our archaeologists can make some good guesses about the inhabitants of barrows but our megaliths remain a mystery.

As to Hobbits singing of adventure - maybe they do this instead of going on them? In much the same way I like reading travel books but I haven't got a passport because I'm not going to go anywhere? I am growing more like a Hobbit every day

I wonder if the Three Farthing Stone was put there by Hobbits or was there already? If it was already in situ then the Hobbits must have formed their administrative boundaries around it, which is pretty cool.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

As to Hobbits singing of adventure - maybe they do this instead of going on them? In much the same way I like reading travel books but I haven't got a passport because I'm not going to go anywhere? I am growing more like a Hobbit every day

I wonder if the Three Farthing Stone was put there by Hobbits or was there already? If it was already in situ then the Hobbits must have formed their administrative boundaries around it, which is pretty cool.

I suspect that Hobbits who publicly sang any song written by Bilbo (such as this one) would be looked upon rather like someone today singing off-color ditties in public: not really respectable and someone to be frowned upon. Or drunk.

And I suppose the origins of the Three Farthing Stone would depend on how big it is. If it's small, the Hobbits might have put it up themselves, but if it's large, I might think it was a remnant of Men or Elves who once lived in or traveled through that part of Eriador. I tend to like the latter possibility better, because it would be in keeping with the practical nature of Hobbits to make use of something they found that was unique, and would also indicate that not all Hobbits are (or perhaps Hobbits weren't always) so insular that they fear all things that have the faintest whiff of the world outside the Shire.