It looked like the black shade of a horse led by a smaller black shadow. And if you’re familiar with the films, you may recognize that last verse as the inspiration behind Pippin’s song in Return of the King.Īs Frodo watched he saw something dark pass across the lighter space between two trees, and then halt. This is a nice example of Tolkien’s poetry, blending a strong and simple meter with lyrics both poetical and mundane. He comes from a poor family, and he owes Bilbo and Frodo for all of his education (little as hobbits care about such things). There’s a reason he refers to everyone else as “Mr.” and jumps whenever someone even jokingly orders him around. One thing that I didn’t notice when I first read the series is the vast difference in social status between Sam and the rest of the hobbits (and particularly Frodo). ‘All right, cousin Frodo! You can keep your secret for the present, if you want to be mysterious. ‘I don’t know, and I would rather not guess,’ said Frodo. ‘Then you know or guess something about this rider?’ said Pippin, who had caught the muttered words. ‘But perhaps it would only have made it worse.’ ‘I wish I had waited for Gandalf,’ Frodo muttered. They all find the encounter suspicious (although Sam and Pippin didn’t actually see the rider), and Sam brings up the stranger from Hobbiton (who learned that Mr. He’s only spared by “chance”, it would seem, as the Rider suddenly moves on. ‘And I am still in the Shire,’ he thought, as his hand touched the chain on which it hung. He felt he had only to slip it on, and then he would be safe. He hardly dared to breathe, and yet the desire to get it out of his pocket became so strong that he slowly began to move his hand. A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo, and he thought of his Ring. Round the corner came a black horse, no hobbit-pony but a full-sized horse and on it sat a large man, who seemed to crouch in the saddle, wrapped in a great black cloak and hood, so that only his boots in the high stirrups showed below his face was shadowed and invisible. And so Frodo forgets about the encounter, until a strange rider catches up to them on the road. Tolkien makes a point to show how people rationalize fears and evil influences that they don’t understand – because you just don’t want to believe that something else is controlling your thoughts and actions. ‘I am sick of questions about my doings, I suppose,’ he thought. Frodo wondered vaguely why the fact that they did not come on up the Hill seemed such a great relief. Then, just before he finally sets out, he overhears a stranger asking about his whereabouts.įootsteps went away down the Hill. Several of his friends help him move out of Bag End, and Merry and Fatty go on ahead to his “new home” in Buckland while Frodo lingers awhile with Pippin and Sam, not wanting to set off without Gandalf. Frodo doesn’t hear anything more from him after that, and thus is left largely to his own council, with only Sam sharing his secret.īut he’s not totally without help, since he is still in the Shire. He promises to return to see Frodo off (in a few months), but he doesn’t. Then Gandalf suddenly takes leave, saying he’s heard something that makes him anxious and needs checking into. And nothing he can imply about reaching the end of his money will make anyone believe there’s not something fishy about that. Gandalf advises him to make for Rivendell, and in the interest of not rousing too much suspicion, Frodo decides to move to Buckland (or pretend to), his childhood hometown which happens to be on the eastern border of the Shire. Despite having the body of a younger hobbit, Frodo has a much older soul than Bilbo ever did. At one point he even recites Bilbo’s poem “ The Road goes ever on”, but the line about “eager feet” is replaced with “weary feet”. This chapter, Frodo is just beginning to reckon with the long road ahead of him. ‘Towards danger but not too rashly, nor too straight,’ answered the wizard. ‘But in the meantime what course am I to take?’ At any rate you are not ready for that long road yet.’ It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom but that quest may be for others: I do not know. ‘But you cannot see very far,’ said Gandalf. ‘For where am I to go? And by what shall I steer? What is to be my quest? Bilbo went to find a treasure, there and back again but I go to lose one, and not return, as far as I can see,’ ‘I have been so taken up with thoughts of leaving Bag End, and of saying farewell, that I have never even considered the direction,’ said Frodo. Frodo begins his wandering by trekking across the Shire, but danger is already following.
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