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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9818292" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Chapter 4: A Short Cut to Mushrooms<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">While not the only time, I do like how Sam and the others express doubts about their journey to destroy the One Ring. Sam opens up that he wants to see things through with his good friend, even if he doesn't have a plan.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Their meeting with Farmer Maggot provides an interesting look into subjective experiences; Frodo was beaten and chased off his property long ago for poaching mushrooms, but both he and Maggot regard that as water under the bridge. Sam, on the other hand, isn't as elated, for he understandably has a poor reaction upon meeting someone who treated his friend that way, even if it was a long time ago.</li> </ol>Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The more I read this book, the more the events in the Peter Jackson films feel abrupt. Merry and Pippin originally joined Sam and Frodo in those movies while on the run from Farmer Maggot. The book instead has them meet up with Merry at the expansive Buck Hill, and it turns out that Frodo wasn't as secretive as he thought when safeguarding the Ring and the contents of Frodo's secret book. Thus, Merry and Pippin not only knew about the gravity of what Gandalf had told Frodo that day, they had already long made the decision to help him.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I like how Frodo's group and various other characters make use of singing. It's a good way of passing the time and finding entertainment while regularly traveling, and their relative brevity and simplicity makes more sense for traveling types rather than sprawling epics that some other fantasy novels would do.</li> </ol>Chapter 6: The Old Forest<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Tolkien continues to do a great job in making the land itself feel full of danger and secrets, from the tunnel-gate the hobbits use to pass through a hedge, to the dark, thick forests that only grant occasional glimpses of the sun through lit glades.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The malevolent tree, Old Man Willow, and later Tom Bombadill's explanation of how many trees bear resentment to mobile people cutting them down and burning them, really lends itself to the idea of Middle-Earth being an ancient land. That even the era of the elves and the Dark Lord are but passing in a much older cycle.</li> </ol>Chapter 7: In the House of Tom Bombadil<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I can easily see the European fairie folklore influences in regards to Tom. From Frodo's company losing track of time while staying with him, to his innate ability to understand plants and animals, to his powerful yet whimsical nature when he is later summoned via song to save the hobbits from a barrow-wight.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Much ado is made about Tom Bombadil putting on the ring in various fandoms, but what stood out to me was that this was the first time in the book that Frodo put it on himself. Understandably, Frodo was worried that Tom might have stolen the Ring and swapped it with a fake, so when he put it on to confirm he turned invisible. Contrast this to the Peter Jackson movie, when he accidentally slips it on during a fight at the Prancing Pony, and he ends up getting frightful visions. IMO the book's handling is better, for the Ring's tempting power should at first appear to have no downsides. In very much a "first hit is free" like for the newly-addicted.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Page 128 does some paraphrasing of Tom talking about the history of the wilderness is an excellent use of symbolism, from describing his tale-telling as traveling "over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet crannies…" to "Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords." The lore-dump and world-building doesn't have to be explicit in regards to names, times, and places, but instead covers history via fanciful adjectives to let the reader get the gist of it, much like the impressions left by a skilled storyteller painting a picture of another world.</li> </ol>Chapter 8: Fog on the Barrow-Downs<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I like how the danger of the barrows is gradual, where it's difficult for the hobbits to know where they are while traveling until they're near or on them, even though they know that Tom warned them earlier. I can see some people asking why didn't Frodo or the other Hobbits sing for Tom earlier, but as the danger of the barrow-wights wasn't immediate or obvious (initially it could be brushed off as them having difficult navigating the foggy night), but when they're separated and Frodo catches his first glimpse of a wight there's hardly any time to react before they're captured in a barrow.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I can see the inklings of inspiration in the RPG genre was Tom Bombadil takes away the buried treasures from the barrows, first to dispel the foul nature of the barrows and also to give the hobbits some useful daggers to defend themselves. Most stories and folklore would have such treasures be cursed, but the whole "we must take the treasure so that the wights cannot rise again" is a very RPG-esque subversion.</li> </ol></blockquote>

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