Skip to main content

read along with me

Just some short posts about my thoughts and reactions to books as I read them. Feel free to join me and share your own!

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the fellowship of the ring: chapter three, “three is company”

We are getting our first taste of the Road. Tolkien often capitalizes this word when he’s referring to the idea of a road as a path one takes on a journey as opposed to a literal road, or at least that’s how I interpret it. And I think this distinction is thematically important in a quest story, especially one where the journey the characters must go on is both physical and intrapersonal. Though the hobbits haven’t yet left the borders of the Shire, Tolkien continues to provide a good forward momentum through these pages by escalating the sense of danger. The encounters with the mysterious Black Riders are tense, especially as their appearances always prompt Frodo’s struggle with a temptation to put on the Ring. The Shire has already proven unsafe, and of course only more peril lies ahead. The appearance of Gildor and elves just in time to frighten off a Black Rider is an early example of things suddenly going right for our heroes, seemingly by chance. The Hobbit was full of such inst...
Post a Comment
Read more

the fellowship of the ring: chapter four, “a short cut to mushrooms”

After their night spent with Gildor and his company of elves, Frodo considers the dangers he’s sure to face when he leaves the Shire. Gildor had reiterated Gandalf’s advice, to bring with him any friends that he trusts. But Frodo wonders if he shouldn’t go alone, leaving his friends in the safety of the Shire. Pippin doesn’t even know that Frodo isn’t really moving out to Buckland, let alone that the Black Riders they’ve seen are after him specifically. Really, Frodo shouldn’t even be taking Sam with him. Sam is quick to reassure Frodo that he has no intention of letting him go alone, and though he quotes Gandalf telling him the same, he reveals that the wizard’s admonishings are far from the only reason he’s here with Frodo now. It’s not even about experiencing the things he’s always heard about in Bilbo’s stories; after all, he’s already met elves now, as he’s long desired to. He simply believes there is something that he’s meant to do on this journey, reminiscent of Gandalf’s stated...
Post a Comment
Read more

the fellowship of the ring: chapter two, “the shadow of the past”

Chapter Two eases us into the wider world of Middle-earth. As the title would suggest, it expands on the theme of history established in the prologue, and we see how the dark happenings in Frodo’s time were set into motion long ago. We at last have answers to some of the questions we’ve had about the Ring, and a clear reason to leave the Shire. Yes, this chapter is mostly an exposition dump, but it manages to pick up the story’s momentum rather than slow it down.  Crucially, this chapter serves as our first real introduction to Frodo and Sam. There’s a clear difference in class between them which Tolkien emphasizes in their manner of speaking, and thus far nothing about the framing of their master/servant relationship suggests we’re meant to be critical of the hobbits’ social structure. But the groundwork has been laid to show that they are fundamentally equals, and each has had a chance to display admirable qualities.  Frodo is naturally frightened by everything he learns her...
Post a Comment
Read more