Major disappointment...none of the hobbits seem to have been affected by the elven (elvish?) food. I had expected them all to wake up old (though that would probably have turned the trilogy into a one-shot) or find that many years had passed. I guess Tolkien didn't go for that part of Elvish Mythology.
And why are they going to Bucklebury? I thought the plan was to head for Rivendell. Or did I miss something in the previous chapter? Bucklebury is where Frodo has told everyone he is going, so wouldn't the Riders be waiting for him there?
And there they go breaking into song again...sigh.
I -love- Farmer Maggot's name. I've got to use that name in a book sometime.
Mrs. Maggot's mushroom dish sounds delish; I had to go eat something after finishing this chapter.
Replies: 16 comments
Yeah, Tolkien's elves are entirely his own. Or they _were_ entirely his own when he wrote them; these days, elves in games tend to be more based on his elves than on the classic "wee folk in the forest who exist only to create mischief, and nobody knows much about, because very few see them and return". Tolkien's elves are a full-fledged race of intelligent beings, who have cultural relations with other such races (humans, dwarves, etc.). And while they possibly could be considered a bit more magical than humans, it's a subtle sort of magic.
Posted by Paul (Kwinn) @ 2001 May 04 01:39 PM EST
Regarding breaking into song - first off, while the riders are after them in general, the hobbits simply aren't familiar enough with evil to be completely distressed by it and have it affect their entire lives. Yet. It is an essential part of their shared culture.
Secondly, I found this to be one of the most accurate things about the wilderness travel - what did people do when they had to travel 8 hours a day and they didn't have CD players? They sang and told stories. Using this tendency not only makes things real, especially to a generation in the 1940s and 1950s who would have done exactly that during travel, it also lays groundwork narratively for later tellings of tales that fill in much of the background of the ring and its history.
The singing is fun. Hobbits like fun. They enjoy hiking, and singing while hiking is fun.
Glad you're rolling along. Reminds me I need to replace my copies (5 kids will destroy much-cherished paperbacks, unfortunately - though since it was by reading them it isn't quite so bad) and start my own re-read session.
Posted by Bill Sutton @ 2001 May 04 06:43 PM EST
Blast.
The first two paragraphs of that comment were supposed to be surrounded by pseudo-html "overanalysis" and "/overanalysis> tags.
I used the ampersand lt; and ampersand gt; on it, it showed up correctly on the preview, then was eaten on the post.
Let me try something that has worked for me before ...
<inside brackets?>
Posted by Bill Sutton @ 2001 May 04 06:45 PM EST
Yep. That worked. basically it was put in as ampersand amp;lt; and ampersand amp;gt; (where the word ampersand is replaced by &)
We now return you to non-html-geek mode.
Posted by Bill Sutton @ 2001 May 04 06:47 PM EST
Tolkien starts slow. Things pick up very soon, after the hobbits get into the Old Forest. I grew up on LOTR..reread it about a zillion times...and still really like it.
Posted by Bob Esty @ 2001 May 04 08:19 PM EST
Bill Sutton's comment on singing & telling tales while travelling is good -- think of the Canterbury Tales. I think there's also some of that in Margery Kempe's book on her pilgrimmages.
Posted by Janet Croft @ 2001 May 16 09:57 AM EST
I was thinking of taking one or two of these poems and putting them to music, but I strongly suspect that every poem has already been turned into a song by Tolkien fans already. :-)
Posted by Debbie @ 2001 May 24 09:10 AM EST
If you can find "The Road Goes Ever on" by David Swann. Tolkien worked with swan to put a lot of his poems to music. I found the book once in the school library and haven't been able to locate it since. And yes, many people have put the songs to music, but let that stop you if you are inspired.
Posted by J'nae Rae Campbell @ 2001 May 24 11:48 AM EST
Absolutely, Deb! If you want to set Tolkien poetry to music, go for it! I would love to do such songs with Urban Tapestry.
Posted by Allison @ 2001 May 28 12:01 AM EST
Deb,
The Bucklebury reference was there in chapter 3 "Three is Company", within the first 3 pages. So as part of the plan to go to Rivendell, he told the Hobbiton hobbits that he was moving back to Buckland. So yes you must have missed. Don't fret though, I tend to find new things during each re-reading I do. Sometimes I even get the events from the book and Bakshi's movie mixed up...
Posted by Bob @ 2001 May 31 11:30 PM EST
will someone please tell what you r saying? PLEASE??
ELVES ROCK!
Posted by vikki @ 2001 Jun 13 03:38 PM EST
The note by Paul couldn't be more on point. Before Tolkien, elves were a pain in the neck for whoever dealt with them in the story. JRRT created a race that looked much like us, but was VERY different in their understanding of the world and their place in it. What's more, their view was correct, as they are fundamentally different from us. The best examples are seen later though, so I won't spoil them!
Posted by Louis E. Ransdell @ 2001 Jun 14 08:24 PM EST
say what? simplifly please
Posted by vikki @ 2001 Jun 27 01:06 PM EST
Bill, good point about the boredom factor. Listening to music while travelling helps pass the time. Hadn't thought of that.
I always thought the hobbits' singing was a defense. True, they are not fully aware of evil. They sing because they don't know better...or maybe they are afraid and sing to hold off the darkness. Songs in Tolkien are powerful tools, they tell history, carrying information, and are usually about good triumphing over evil. I always saw the singing as a strength.
Posted by constance @ 2001 Jul 02 10:53 AM EST
You are completely wrong to say the Hobbits were unaffected by meeting the Elves. Especially in the case of Sam. No, there was no outward spell cast upon them, but their meeting with Gildor is their first break from the Shire. It foreshadows Rivendell and the folk they meet there. Also, we see again how different Frodo is from other hobbits. This is, of course, vital.
Posted by GEM @ 2001 Jul 05 02:26 AM EST
WRT "Farmer Maggot"... one now-obsolete meaning of "maggot" was "notion" or "idea", particularly an obsessive or frivolous one. If you read Regency romances, you may encounter descriptions of someone "having a maggot in his head" about a particular issue; that's the "obsessive" meaning. And there are a number of English country dances with names like "Jack's Maggot" and "Mr. Isaac's Maggot", where the "frivolous" meaning is at the fore.
Once again, all this playing with language goes back to Tolkien being himself a linguist.
Posted by Celine @ 2001 Aug 05 07:39 PM EST
