Posted on 03/15/2002 6:54:33 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Repost – Highlights from chapters 1-5 copied from the original forum to the new one. To reference the full version, click here: Original Green Dragon Inn Within the first five chapters... disregard the reply numbers... they wont work.
Thank you ecurbh, for copying and editing our old thread so that the highlights could be moved here! Highlights of the first five chapters from the old thread are pasted into the first 5 replies here. For those of you who are just joining you… as of this post we are beginning Chapter 6.
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Welcome to The Green Dragon Inn
Approaching The Green Dragon Inn
Hobbiton, in The Shire
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.
- JRR Tolkien
Politics also goes ever on and on.
This is a place for FReeper Tolkien fans to come and take a break from the impure reality of conservative activism and relax a little with a great story. We (the other co-conspirators and I) would like to study together the writings of Tolkien, beginning together, and discussing as we go through The Lord of the Rings together.
This is a chapter discussion, roughly one chapter per week, with the discussion mostly centered on the books, though of course the movie will be contrasted and compared, and perhaps used to illustrate another interpretation of the story.
Every week, someone from the group (maybe me) will ping The Green Dragon List to the new Chapter, but we will continue this one thread until it becomes too cumbersome…. Let me know if you would like to be on - or off - this list. I will for now serve as the Thain of the list.
If you are joining late, jump right in, but please stick to the chapter currently being discussed.
Some have loved this story a long time, and some are newly discovering it. If you fit either category, we invite you to join in, but we would like this thread to stay mostly focused on the chapter at hand and keep moving, but at a pace everyone can keep up with… No jumping ahead, and no lagging behind! If you have other news to report or wish to discuss something Tolkien in more general terms… May we recommend the equally homey Hobbit Hole where my co-conspirators and I frequently have plenty of good talk.
One other request…. This thread will get long. In recognition that images slow down the thread for many, let’s keep the posting of images to a minimum on this thread. If there is a great illustration you wish to share, let’s try to use links instead of images wherever possible.
So lets read, listen and become inspired by the many aspects of The Lord of the Rings that touch us deeply and reconnect us to the values we aspire to. Many great discussions have already been had, and I hope that this thread will produce even more. Many FReepers have wonderful things to say about LoTR, whether the fantasy reconnects them with their faith, with their relationships with friends and family, or simply illustrates the splendor of great acts of heroism and sacrifice in the constant battle of virtue versus corruption.
Though it is a work of fiction, we believe the inspiration to be gained can only help us in our larger political goals: to appreciate and defend our freedom, our culture and our political ideals. May the fellowship and insight gained from this discussion help us to work through the issues that are the basis for our many shared ideals.
Besides, we Tolkien fans* need something to keep us busy during the next two years of waiting for the next two films. If you do not enjoy this story, then please simply leave us be.
*Also known as Geeky Hobbity Weirdos, obsessive fanatics, you name it, we have heard it and we see these names as compliments. In other words: don’t act like a troll, or we will distract you with our endless babble until the morning sun turns you to stone.
Someone up the thread brought up Beorn and how they were similar...now I really like Beorn.
Welcome, Miss Marple! The folks on this thread really do love the books. I, for one, have read them too many times to count (I know I'm on my fifth reading now, since the movie came out.)
Fellowship of the Ring
CHAPTER VII
In the House of Tom Bombadil
Hullo friends! It’s Friday! – Time for our new chapter!
In this chapter our hobbits spend time with their new friend, Tom Bombadil, and his wife Goldberry, who welcome the four into their home and feed them very well. After a good night’s sleep, they discover that it is raining too hard for them to continue their journey. “This is Goldberry’s washing day,” says Tom, and so they tell stories all day. That evening, though, something odd happens…
‘Show me the precious Ring!’ he said suddenly in the midst of the story: and Frodo, to his own astonishment, drew out the chain from his pocket, and unfastening the Ring handed it at once to Tom. It seemed to grow larger as it lay for a moment on his big brown-skinned hand. Then suddenly he put it to his eye and laughed. For a second the hobbits had a vision, both comical and alarming, of his bright blue eye gleaming through a circle of gold. Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little finger and held it up to the candlelight. For a moment the hobbits noticed nothing strange about this. Then they gasped. There was no sign of Tom disappearing! Tom laughed again, and then he spun the Ring in the air - and it vanished with a flash. Frodo gave a cry - and Tom leaned forward and handed it back to him with a smile.
Movie Pictures-General This chapter happened “off screen” in the movie… so no specific pictures …
And here is ecurbh’s Timeline if you would like to keep track of what day it is as we go!
Here is a Map of the Shire
And here is a Map of Middle-Earth So we don't get lost!
Index to thread… click link to find the start of each prior chapter discussion:
(First Five chapters are re-posts of highlights from the old forum)
Prologue and Chapter One – A Long-Expected Party
Chapter Two - The Shadow of the Past
Chapter Three – Three is Company … And also here – double post! ugh!
Chapter Four – A Shortcut to Mushrooms
Chapter Five – A Conspiracy Unmasked
End of re-posts
Chapter Six – The Old Forest
Since HairoftheDog is away today, I’m substituting. Overtaxed will be helping me out, so direct your comments to either of us!
For starters...[Tom speaking]:
"Did I hear you calling? Nay, I did not hear; I was busy singing. Just chance brought me then, if chance you call it. It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you. We heard news of you, and learned that you were wandering. We guessed you'd come ere long down to the water: all paths lead that way, down to Withywindle. Old Grey Willow-Man, he's a mighty singer; and it's hard for little folk to escape his cunning mazes."
I picked up on that right away. I don't understand why y'all don't like this part of the book though. It seemed to me like a much needed oasis in the desert, a refuge from all the frightening events of the journey so far.
Something I found intriguing though and never really noticed before, or at least don't remember noticing, is that Tom is completely unaffected by the ring's "magic" and seemingly its evil.
Makes you wonder all over again just who is Tom Bombadil.
Another thing I found interesting (that I hadn't noticed before) is that when Tom asks Frodo to show him the ring, Frodo does so without hesitation:
...and Frodo, to his own astonishment, drew out the chain from his pocket, and unfastening the Ring handed it at once to Tom.I had a movie flashback when Tom was playing with the Ring.
For a second the hobbits had a vision, both comical and alarming, of his bright blue eyes gleaming through a circle of gold.
I agree with whoever it was that said that these are two chapters to generally be skimmed over.
Mushroom anyone?
-ksen
But is he really the eldest? I thought that Treebeard was called the oldest thing in Middle-Earth? I am so confused.
If this branch of discussion is not appropriate here, dealing with Treebeard and all, I am willing to continue on the Hobbit Hole thread.
-ksen
I don't think he's in Silmarillion. At least, I don't see his name indexed. He might be referred to in The Book of Lost Tales.
"...brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns, and what else are they not called, for their number is very great... they were born before the world and are older than its oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much..."A quick search says that there was a book published in 1961 called Adventures of Tom Bombadil. From what I can tell, Tolkien discusses him frequently in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (letter numbers I have are 19, 144, 153,181, and 229.)The Book of Lost Tales, Part I, III The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor
Mushrooms sound great! (going to lunch now)
From Encyclopedia of Arda Treebeard is "immensly old" and Tom is "very old indeed." However, I did find out that Ents originated in Middle Earth shortly after the Elves so I would say that Tom is the Oldest. Treebeard must be the oldest of the Ents.
Elrond: "But many another name he as since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange character, (you go that right) but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council."
"He would not have come," said Gandalf.
"Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?" asked Erestor. "It seems that he has a power even over the ring?"
"No, I should not put it so," said Gandalf. "Say rather that the Ring has not power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, wihtin the bounds thta he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and will not step beyond them."
"But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him," said Erestor. "Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless."
"No," said Gandalf, "not willingly. He might do so, if all free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or mostly likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardan; and that alone is answer enough."
A professor I had once described Hamlet as the ultimate literary reflector. A mysterious, rather than ambivalent, character that is much easier to identify by our opinions of them than by what they truly are. Bombadil, I think, is a similar kind of cipher or wildcard. Different things to different people.
For me, the one aspect of Bombadil that stands out the clearest is that he is the only character shown in the trilogy to be madly, passionately in love. He and Goldmoon are like perpetual newliweds. There is none of the heaviness to their relationship that is seen in the other marriages portrayed in LOTR.
Interesting especially in light of a CS Lewis quote I came across recently, where he called Tolkien the "most thoroughly married man" he'd ever met. I believe the tombstones of Tolkien and his wife are inscribed "Beren" and "Luthien."
OK, feel free everyone to blast me for spoilers if I've violated thread protocol. :)
Now you're treading on dangerous ground! :)
You're explanation sounds as good as any. Apparently Tolkien meant for Bombadil to be a mysterious character but I hate it when they're this mysterious. To me, all these questions lead back to "Who or What is Tom Bombadil?"
OK, so here's a question for any Silmarillion readers. Is there any clue as to who or what Bombadil is in Iluvatur's Song of Creation?
It seems obvious Bombadil is similar to the pagan green man, or nature god. CS Lewis had a theory, which perhaps Tolkien shared, that where and when the pagan gods were real and forces for good, they were basically holy angels in disguise. The Valar are the angels of Middle Earth. Does the analogy hold? Is Bombadil a Valar?
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