[ Daily Tolkien ] A Tolkien Virgin: FOTR - Book 1 - Chapter 4

Tolkien Online ^ | September 18, 2000 | Mark-Edmond

[JameRetief]

A Tolkien Virgin: The Fellowship of the Ring - Book 1 - Chapter 4
by Mark-Edmond

The Journey Continues

Chapter 4
A Shortcut to Mushrooms

Something about the black riders makes me uneasy... and I don't mean their most obvious sinisterness (if that's even a word). It's that they almost seem to hold back. They get so close...like the night before, and even now one of them spots the hobbits as they dart into the thicket.

Maybe I'm attributing to them skills they don't have, but I expect them to be able to successfully ambush the hobbits, or incapacitate them from a distance.

Those frightening wails, some kind of communication, seem to show that they know where the hobbits are, that they are successfully tracking them, but they don't move in. Maybe they just can't. Maybe they're not holding back. Maybe it's just me.

Could these Black Riders be those mortal men enthralled by the Enemy with the rings of power? Or are they just his lesser minions?

One thing I will say is that Tolkien does a fantastic job of putting the reader in the place of his characters. Specifically, at the end of the chapter we hear the Black Rider approaching--I'm trying to figure out how Frodo is going to escape, I start reading faster... and then it turns out to be Merry!

Author: Mark-Edmond
Published on: September 18, 2000

The next Tolkien Virgin article covers: The Fellowship of the Ring - Book 1 - Chapter 5

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The Daily Tolkien articles by various authors	The Tolkien Virgin articles by Mark-Edmond
ARTICLES 01-10	ARTICLES 01-10
ARTICLES 11-20	ARTICLES 11-20
ARTICLES 21-30	ARTICLES 21-30
ARTICLES 31-40	31) The Hobbit - Chapter 8
ARTICLES 41-50	32) The Hobbit - Chapters 9 and 10
ARTICLES 51-60	32) The Hobbit - Chapters 11 and 12
ARTICLES 61-70	33) The Hobbit - Chapters 13 and 14
ARTICLES 71-80	34) The Hobbit - Chapters 15, 16 and 17
81) J.R.R.Tolkien, Catholicism and the Use of Allegory	35) The Hobbit - Chapters 18 and 19
82) Where Have All the Dragons Gone?	36) FOTR - Book 1 - Prologue & Chapter 1
	37) FOTR - Book 1 - Chapter 2
	38) FOTR - Book 1 - Chapter 3
	38) FOTR - Book 1 - Chapter 4

[JameRetief]

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