The Shadow of the Past (FOTR) By Hildie

I think that this book gets better and better with each reading. This chapter is very different from the movie as you can see from the very start. I am actually quite a “Tolkien purist” and found the rush exit from Bag End in the film a bit annoying (though it didn't ruin it by any means and probably couldn’t be helped in a movie).

So let’s see, where to start? I’m basically scanning page by page for the parts I want to bring up so you’ll have to bear with some stream of consciousness comments in this review.

Poor old Gandalf, Tolkien always has the hobbits blaming him for people going off into the Blue doesn't he? I'm pretty sure that in The Hobbit he was given the credit for several lads and lasses leaving the Shire (off into the Blue) as well.

I thought that Frodo's custom of always giving Bilbo his birthday party was quite endearing actually, and unlike the hobbits I don’t think it was odd at all. He was very fond of the old hobbit, so why not celebrate his birthday (considering it was Frodo’s birthday too).

Here we find Merry and Pippin mentioned earlier than in the film, and given significant weight as Frodo's closest friends. I think that it makes more sense that they would go with him in this sense than if they just ran into him as it happened in the film. I mean, sure he knew them in the film, but no bond had been built up, or mentioned like it has in the book. We’ve seen Merry helping him in chapter one, and now the mention of their friendship.

I love Tolkien's description of both Bilbo and Frodo off tramping in the woods at night meeting strange folk. It's intriguing, and exciting. It also shows the simplicity of the hobbits even more in depth. These strange folk they're talking about were only strange because they didn't know them, obviously to Bilbo and Frodo they wouldn't have been strange. These descriptions always drive home even more so the fact that hobbits are more comfortable by the hearth with a nice pipe and a mug than walking in the woods under sun or star. It makes hobbits seem quainter all round.

Frodo, like Bilbo, has good preservation (foreshadowing anyone?). What could possibly cause this? Is it just luck? The way it's written gives the readers big hints that it is indeed NOT luck!

I thought this chapter did an excellent job of setting Frodo up much like Bilbo was in The Hobbit. He's got the same characteristics, and the same love of the Shire. His love of maps is exactly like Bilbo. Yet he dreams of something more. He is the Master of Bag End, but he knows there are mountains out there, there’s something beyond the white borders of the Shire maps. But it’s so nice just to stay at home, where there’s good food, friends and all the old paths that are so familiar.

Not very far into the chapter we get the first mention of the Enemy and Mordor and all the dark powers and evil things that are starting to creep about Middle Earth. The Dark Tower is mentioned, orcs and trolls increasing numbers... all is not right in the world. That whole paragraph lends a sense of dread and sense of doom to all the news that Frodo is gathering from the "strange wayfarers." Of course at the same time Tolkien continues to state that ordinary hobbits ignore these things, or don't even hear about them in their safe little bubble.

I was especially interested in the conversation between Sam and Ted Sandyman at the Green Dragon. I often forget the mention of the "Tree-men" in this chapter. In hindsight it makes me think about the conversation that Treebeard has with Merry and Pippin with regards to the lost Entwives. Was this Tree-man that Hal saw up in the Northfarthing actually an Entwife? Treebeard says that he thinks they would like the hobbits country? Just a little food for thought there...

In this chapter Sam is really was shown as a simpleton and not too bright at all. I did find that a bit aggravating at times, considering how important he is for the rest of the book. Though, it does lend to a greater contrast as his character matures and develops. I suppose that’s what Tolkien had in mind all along.

The bit when Gandalf comes back to Bag End after his long absence also has LOADS of foreshadowing. He notices that Frodo is showing the same signs as Bilbo of good preservation, and Frodo notices that Gandalf looks more careworn and older. We see the reluctance of Gandalf to speak of evil things at night, even in a place as far removed as the Shire. We also get the story of the One Ring and how deadly and perilous it is. He mentions the fact that Frodo will probably one day get the story in full from one who knows it best. He obviously wouldn’t be getting the story from a person like that in the Shire, so an adventure is in the works.

Just a note for people who haven't read any of the other books (yet). Gandalf tells Frodo about the Elven-rings made by Elven-smiths in Eregion. That is the region they go through later also known as Hollin (I may be wrong but that’s the way I understand it from looking at some old maps and from all the other readings. If I am please correct me.).

The scene when Gandalf throws the Ring into Frodo's fire to check with his final test is brilliant. Frodo scrabbling for the tongs to save his “beloved ring….” It still sends shivers up my spine, and somehow I always find myself hoping right with Gandalf and Frodo that nothing shows up on the ring, and when it does, when Gandalf starts with the poem, I get cold shivers of dread for Frodo and for that this means. His ring isn't just a magic ring, it's the Master Ring, the ONE RING to rule them all ONE RING to find them, ONE RING to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. How chilling when you really think about it!

There's so much more I could say about the brief history that Gandalf gives about the ring, and how it got to Gollum and Bilbo and Frodo... I think that it's an excellent bit of writing and I always enjoy reading it.

The one thing that I don't quite get is the small error Gandalf makes in the telling where he says " A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It may slip off treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it. At most he plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else's care-- and that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip. But as far as I know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone beyond playing, and really done it..." Gandalf has already said that of the other rings of power several of them have been handed down by the bearers or given to another. The Three Rings of Power given to the Elves have been given to other masters, Gandalf knows this for sure. He knows that at least one of the Dwarf Rings of Power was given freely from Thror to his son Thrain. So was he really talking about only the One Ring here rather than all of the Rings of Power?

I think that the tramp of doom in this chapter, the bit that can make your skin truly crawl comes when Gandalf tells Frodo about Gollum's capture in Mordor and that the Enemy has heard of "hobbits" and "Shire" and even the name "Baggins." I think if I'd have been Frodo I'd have wet myself right then and there!

I really have only one problem with the choice of Frodo for the ring bearer, though would anyone else prove any stronger? In this chapter he actually can't even cast the ring away from himself in his house. He knows he's not destroying it, or even throwing it away in a sense that he can't retrieve it yet he still can not do even that simple thing. He knows that he can't do anything that would hurt the ring even, but still can't do it. Gandalf's comment of "You see? Already you too, Frodo, cannot easily let it go, nor will to damage it. And I could not "make" you-- except by force, which would break your mind..." How would he have the strength of will to throw it into Mt. Doom to be destroyed if he can't even let it go in his own house? Did Gandalf even think of this?

Back to a more positive note, I love the scene (even if Sam does look silly) when Gandalf pulls him in through the window. It always makes me smile, and seems a bit of an ice breaker after the intense discussion that Gandalf and Frodo have just had. How simple things were for Sam back then, huh? I mentioned changes to his character earlier, but I think he possibly goes through the most changes throughout LOTR than anyone else. I must say liked him so much more in the book than in the films though.

Can't wait for the next chapter! Perhaps I'll go sit in the other room and read it now!