Lord of the Rings readathon

[jo]

That's a very good point about Bilbo doing the same with his birthday party and his present giving .. I had not considered that :).

About the elves.. I suppose the most charitable thing I can think of is that they just didn't realise what Frodo was carrying and hence what would happen if he was caught .. if they had know it was The Ring I hope they would have helped! They had kin in Rivendell and Lorien, after all.

But still, they could have helped just because they knew Frodo was in danger, even if they did not know what it was :(.

I have just arrived at Crickhollow and am taking a bath with Frodo, Pippin and Sam (ahem ;)).

[A#minor]

Now are you going to tell me that this is not the most adorable little hobbit on the face of Middle-earth?! He's just so darn cute, right?

[jo]

LOL well I think he was very well cast for Bilbo, put it that way :). But my dislike - well that's too strong a word but my antipathy - for Bilbo stems from way before that. I dunno, there's just something about him that I find unappealing. I know he does redeem himself slightly by offering to take the Ring to the Fire at the council of Elrond but nonetheless it does seem that he adopted Bilbo and just left him a lot of grief.

Who would have got the Ring if Frodo had had no heir? Gandalf would not have taken it. Would it just have been taken straight to Rivendell?

I am about to enter the Old Forest :D

[A#minor]

[Messenger_of_Eden]

Ever listen to The Tolkien Album by Glass Hammer?? It's JUST like being in the Prancing Pony, with Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Men singing songs all very unique to their own cultures. It is (I think) delightful--and a great thing to keep you in the mood for LOTR all day long!!

[AllanS]

[The Bigsleep J]

[jo]

Allan - I have wondered why Gandalf didn't do just that actually ;). I mean if the eagles could fly them all BACK from Mount Doom - cutting out tedious weeks and months of trudging and bypassing orcs and carnivorous spiders along the way - why not just take them THERE too? And then the rest of the book could have been filled with depictions of hobbits eating and drink and making merry..

[jo]

A Minor .. interesting question about the order in which the hobbits were taken by Old Man Willow but I doubt there's any real significance in it .. seems to me that they were taken in that order cos Merry and Pippin were the ones unwise enough to lean right against the drunk. I also doubt that OMW was guided by Sauron .. I believe he is probably older than Sauron and not much interested in him.

[jo]

Is anyone reading with me? :) I am just about to leave Tom and head out to the Barrow Downs. I love that page, that starts with Tom telling the hobbits about the 'evil' trees 'remembering the times when they were Lords' and then recounting the history of the area. I always read and then reread it .. it's beautiful writing: 'suddenly Tom's talk left the wood and went leaping up the young stream..' I know it pretty much by heart.

What do you all think of Tom? Who is he and what does he represent? I've never read 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, can someone tell me about it? Is Goldberry in it? Who do you think she is?

[Boogster]

I'm reading, too. Just read the 'Mirror' Chapter.

Bombadil is my favourite character. I was midly peeved that he was omitted from the film-version. I think he represents the essence of the Shire, and perhaps the essence of all the natural elements of Middle-Earth.

[jo]

[A#minor]

Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of poems taken from the Red Book of Westmarch. Only a few of them are actually about Tom. You can find them in The Tolkien Reader.

I think that Tom is actually Tolkien's way of putting himself in the story. Of course, we've discussed more about who Tom is in other threads.

I was excessively disappointed that he was cut out of the movie. The scenes in Goldberry and Tom's house are some of the most beautiful in the entire book.

[jo]

Yes I love that line about Goldberry's voice . .. 'as young and as old as Spring.' That is a beautiful image. I can envisage their house and the Old Forest so well that maybe in some ways it's good that they didn't depict it more in the film .. maybe it would have been different from what I had imagined.

I am still on the Barrow Downs but just about to escape ;)

[A#minor]