Post by MajahTR on Jan 20, 2009 7:33:28 GMT -6
As the fellowship is discussing their next move, they are attacked by wolves/wargs. Tolkien uses the words interchangeably. Who collected the bodies of the wargs during the night or did they burn completely without even ashes left in Gandalf's supernatural fire?
Have you noticed that the action has picked up drastically? No longer are we having a one crisis, a safe haven pattern. That was in the initiation period of the quest. Now we have moved beyond that.
This chapter follows a similar pattern to the Lothlorien chapter and are a 'Pair". I'll discuss more of this then, but, try to see them in this light and pay attention to the events as they unfold. A few to get you thinking are Frodo's feet touching the water of the creek as opposed to the Nimrodel, Gimli sings a song in this chapter and Legolas does in Lothlorien. The settings really contrast each other, also.
"Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took.," said Gandalf. "But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words." I did not realize he was exasperated with Pippin already.
Once the Watcher in the Water chases them in to Moria, the Fellowship is faced with another labyrinth: a journey through the Underworld, a symbol of death and rebirth.
Has anybody ever wondered about how Gollum managed to be inside Moria when the Fellowship got there? Or has anyone wondered about the cats of Queen Beruthiel? Answers to these questions can be found in Unfinished Tales. Gollum apparently fled here after escaping the Elves of Mirkwood and eluding the Orcs of Sauron. It was luck or fate that put him within reach of the company at this point. The cats have an interesting story, too. But, I'll leave that for another day.
Pippin is the stereotypical little boy of the Fellowship. He just can't seem to keep himself out of trouble. He is strangely attracted by the well. I don't think there was any "spiritual" force at work here, just a curious kid flirting with danger, as if there wasn't enough already. My daughter tends to be this type. I can see her doing something like this. Anybody else have a Pippin in their family?
When Gimli chants The Song of Durin we get a small glimpse of the splendor of Moria in ancient times. Sam is enchanted by it.
One of the most interesting things I noticed in reading this time was the lines about Bilbo's mithril mail shirt, "Frodo said nothing, but he put his hand under his tunic and touched the rings of his mail-shirt. He felt staggered to think that he had been walking about with the price of The Shire under his jacket." "The price of the Shire under his jacket." He is the price of the Shire, not the mithril. And again in the same paragraph, Frodo wishes he was back at Bag-End and never heard of the Ring.
The Tomb of Balin is found…
DA
Birds (Crebain) are spies and are real... from Fangorn or Dundland and close to Isengard. I can see why moviemaker P. Jackson decided to directly connect the Crebain to Saruman and made him the instigator of the storm. They went up the mountain and the Storm stopped them (it is real... and Gandalf says they were "attacked" by the storm). On their way down the Crebain see them. I'm sure they go back to tell their master.
Their choices for passage are dwindling and all seem to have some fatal end. Go back to Rivendell defeated, go around the mountains delaying, go through the Gap of Rohan (too close to Isengard), go through Moria... where their fate is unknown. Boromir sees it as a trap. The Wargs give the fellowship further impetus to go through Moria...
The Wargs - They are not real... perhaps Aragorn statement show he is puzzled - "The Wargs have come west of the mountains." Even more puzzling: Their bodies are not found.
The weather changed "...as if it was at the command of some power that had no longer any use for snow, since they had retreated from the pass, a power that wished now to have a clear light in which things that moved in the wild could be seen from far away..." Someone wanted them to go through Moria!
Their final thrust into Moria made wonder whether it was the Barlog that wanted them inside... Gandalf's remark "but the arms were all guided by one purpose...There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world...Gandalf notes that Frodo is the one that was grabbed first. Moria was their (or Gandalf's) destiny and their fate. Aragorn - "He has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself" Later his says "Let the guide go first while you have one." Hmmmm.... Aragorn must know the threat...is that why he doesn't want to go this way?
For the first time we begin to see the affects the Ring and the knife-stroke have on Frodo. 6 "Though he had been healed in Rivendell of the knife-stroke, that grim wound had not been without effect. His senses were sharper and more aware of things they could not be seen in the dark than any of his companions, save perhaps Gandalf."
Frodo sensed the evil in the water outside Moria and wondered why Boromir would be so impulsive to throw a stone in it. He senses the evil ahead and behind. I know that what he senses is Gollum...but I think there is something more. Is this the first time we know for sure that Frodo is changed except at Rivendell when Gandalf notes the change?
LovesBeren
Have you noticed that the action has picked up drastically? No longer are we having a one crisis, a safe haven pattern. That was in the initiation period of the quest. Now we have moved beyond that.
This chapter follows a similar pattern to the Lothlorien chapter and are a 'Pair". I'll discuss more of this then, but, try to see them in this light and pay attention to the events as they unfold. A few to get you thinking are Frodo's feet touching the water of the creek as opposed to the Nimrodel, Gimli sings a song in this chapter and Legolas does in Lothlorien. The settings really contrast each other, also.
"Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took.," said Gandalf. "But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words." I did not realize he was exasperated with Pippin already.
Once the Watcher in the Water chases them in to Moria, the Fellowship is faced with another labyrinth: a journey through the Underworld, a symbol of death and rebirth.
Has anybody ever wondered about how Gollum managed to be inside Moria when the Fellowship got there? Or has anyone wondered about the cats of Queen Beruthiel? Answers to these questions can be found in Unfinished Tales. Gollum apparently fled here after escaping the Elves of Mirkwood and eluding the Orcs of Sauron. It was luck or fate that put him within reach of the company at this point. The cats have an interesting story, too. But, I'll leave that for another day.
Pippin is the stereotypical little boy of the Fellowship. He just can't seem to keep himself out of trouble. He is strangely attracted by the well. I don't think there was any "spiritual" force at work here, just a curious kid flirting with danger, as if there wasn't enough already. My daughter tends to be this type. I can see her doing something like this. Anybody else have a Pippin in their family?
When Gimli chants The Song of Durin we get a small glimpse of the splendor of Moria in ancient times. Sam is enchanted by it.
One of the most interesting things I noticed in reading this time was the lines about Bilbo's mithril mail shirt, "Frodo said nothing, but he put his hand under his tunic and touched the rings of his mail-shirt. He felt staggered to think that he had been walking about with the price of The Shire under his jacket." "The price of the Shire under his jacket." He is the price of the Shire, not the mithril. And again in the same paragraph, Frodo wishes he was back at Bag-End and never heard of the Ring.
The Tomb of Balin is found…
DA
Birds (Crebain) are spies and are real... from Fangorn or Dundland and close to Isengard. I can see why moviemaker P. Jackson decided to directly connect the Crebain to Saruman and made him the instigator of the storm. They went up the mountain and the Storm stopped them (it is real... and Gandalf says they were "attacked" by the storm). On their way down the Crebain see them. I'm sure they go back to tell their master.
Their choices for passage are dwindling and all seem to have some fatal end. Go back to Rivendell defeated, go around the mountains delaying, go through the Gap of Rohan (too close to Isengard), go through Moria... where their fate is unknown. Boromir sees it as a trap. The Wargs give the fellowship further impetus to go through Moria...
The Wargs - They are not real... perhaps Aragorn statement show he is puzzled - "The Wargs have come west of the mountains." Even more puzzling: Their bodies are not found.
The weather changed "...as if it was at the command of some power that had no longer any use for snow, since they had retreated from the pass, a power that wished now to have a clear light in which things that moved in the wild could be seen from far away..." Someone wanted them to go through Moria!
Their final thrust into Moria made wonder whether it was the Barlog that wanted them inside... Gandalf's remark "but the arms were all guided by one purpose...There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world...Gandalf notes that Frodo is the one that was grabbed first. Moria was their (or Gandalf's) destiny and their fate. Aragorn - "He has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself" Later his says "Let the guide go first while you have one." Hmmmm.... Aragorn must know the threat...is that why he doesn't want to go this way?
For the first time we begin to see the affects the Ring and the knife-stroke have on Frodo. 6 "Though he had been healed in Rivendell of the knife-stroke, that grim wound had not been without effect. His senses were sharper and more aware of things they could not be seen in the dark than any of his companions, save perhaps Gandalf."
Frodo sensed the evil in the water outside Moria and wondered why Boromir would be so impulsive to throw a stone in it. He senses the evil ahead and behind. I know that what he senses is Gollum...but I think there is something more. Is this the first time we know for sure that Frodo is changed except at Rivendell when Gandalf notes the change?
LovesBeren