And now, for one Chapter, we go back to adventure as in The Hobbit.
That is, you set out on the road in search of adventure, you get danger, you overcome the danger, and it makes a great action story. So, in addition to connecting what has come before to the fundamental engine of the rest of Books I and II (the assembling and dispersal of the Fellowship), and in addition to reminding us that there is nowhere safe for Frodo and posing Frodo yet another challenge, we get a cool adventure story. Mostly, that’s it; so if you want to leave it out of a movie, that’s fine.
However, I want to note a couple of things before we move on to Bree. The first is right there in the beginning: “It seemed faint-hearted to be turning aside when they should stepping boldly, lusty as lords, towards the Mountains.” The weather is back, affecting moods again.
So what happens with the weather? It starts out invigorating, so you want to boldly go where most haven’t been before. Then, as in real weather, it starts getting hotter and more humid, and your initial burst of energy turns into added logyness, so you take a nap; and then the fog rolls in and you’re lost on the mountain with the temperature dropping towards freezing and you’re in danger of hypothermia.
In other words, for all their exposure to new knowledge, these hobbits are still inexperienced hikers. They don’t recognize the lowered energy that comes after a sugar or caffeine high for breakfast or lunch, and they don’t allow for it. Well, that’s the last time they’re going to make this kind of mistake. Luckily, it’s not fatal.
So what Frodo and the others are learning is that it isn’t enough to appreciate the weather as part of your mood. You need to actively take steps to counter its dangers. And the same goes for us. Tolkien’s appreciation as a hiker and botanist for flora and fauna as being “luminous” and a source for profound feelings is more sophisticated than we think. He doesn’t worship nature. He says that in order to appreciate this new sense of yours and get value from it, you need not only to comprehend its good effects, but also recognize, accept, and counteract its bad ones.
The other point is the details of how Frodo is growing in his ability to resist his addiction. This time, the temptation is not an outside pressure to go to the Nazgul. This time, it’s the inner temptation to save himself and walk away from his friends. That requires much more thinking to counteract. And, armed with his new knowledge, Frodo is able to think effectively and overcome the temptation. As Gandalf notes later, Frodo does well here.
And then consider what comes after the Barrow-wight. Pause for a minute and think about how Tom divvies up the loot.
We are back, as in The Hobbit, to the notion of there being a “curse” on stolen treasure. Here is how Tom removes the curse: he divides the treasure into three parts. First, he takes the treasure that originally belonged to people trying to use it for good purposes – like the knives of Westernesse. Those he gives to the hobbits in their quest, because he knows this is just the kind of purpose the original creators and owners would have wanted.
The second is a pile of remembrance. He gives the ornament to Goldberry, so that they can remember and honor a beautiful, good person of the past.
The third – everything left over – he leaves out for all comers – except that these are all comers within his area, all folk who will not be greedy or hoard. In a sense, he is turning it from property into a shared set of nice or useful things, rather like the mathoms of The Shire that are for giving to others.
Now, this may or may not remove a curse. It does, however, like money that has been hoarded rather than invested, get the loot back in circulation so that it can for a while have positive effects on all. Again, another positive aspect of being The Master. As long as no one gets greedy when you’re not around, it’s the best fix for previous greediness gotten out of hand.
And now night is falling, and we are at the gates of Bree.
Noble Language Arrives
Surprised you, didn’t I? You thought I was going to talk about Frodo’s prejudice against Men, or his horrible lapse of control that lays him bare to painful torture later on, or the superficial view of what’s going on captured in those hilarious words from the movie: Are you scared? Yes. Not scared enough!
Although, come to think of it, before we plunge into what I mean, I want you to do a mind exercise.
Look at the first description of Strider/Aragorn. What does it say? A “dark” person – meaning his skin is dark –and “weatherbeaten” – meaning that his skin may have wrinkles or brown spots from the sun and wind. He is not so much a warrior, with big arm muscles. He is more a long-distance runner, with relatively slender arms and legs. He is, as it turns out, the equivalent of our forties or fifties in age. That doesn’t mean he can’t fight; William Marshal, I believe, swung a sword in battle until well into his seventies.
So now picture this: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in his forties, before the gray set in, crossed with Abebe Bikila, the great barefoot Ethiopian runner. At first, dressed in dark green cloak, shirt, and pants, like the herder that Abebe began as. Later, of immense posture, graveness, and dignity, dressed in a simple Emperor’s tunic. Now, try thinking of him that way, all through what follows. Is it any wonder that on first seeing Aragorn, Saxon (Rohan) and Roman (Gondor) leaders would wonder how on earth he would ever be their ruler? Is there any wonder that the moment he began to speak and act, the wiser among them would come to the opposite conclusion?
I like to do this mind exercise because it seems a lot more like the prejudice and stereotyping that Frodo and the rest of the hobbits, not to mention the rest of Bree and the rest of the world, had to overcome. Frodo tried to imagine the Men of the old days in his books as more like Elves. He envisioned Men in his daily life as clumsy, arrogant, rather stupid giants. And the first glance at Aragorn only reinforced the daily-life stereotype.
On to Noble Language. Strider turning into Aragorn is our bridge to the predominant language of the rest of LOTR. From now on, there will be at least one character in most Chapters talking like that (if we include Frodo), and the descriptions will change accordingly. In this Chapter, we will start out with Strider talking modern/hobbit language, and wind up with Aragorn talking noble language: Not all that wanders is lost; The crownless again shall be king.
What do I mean by Noble Language? This is the greater part of the pre-1600 language and thinking that Tolkien is bringing us back to. We already have Master; that’s pre-1600 but not noble. Rather, you can think of noble language as part Shakespeare, with its ye’s and thou’s, part Saxon saga, and part the language of Morte d’Arthur. And you should understand that the division between those who speak noble language and those who don’t, isn’t so much a division between social classes; it’s more like a division between “civilized” English, French, and Italians and “rustic” Americans in the late 1800s.
And from now on, the new/old words begin to fall like rain. Doom. High. Wraith. Haggard. Noble strain. Counselor. Serve. Flammifer. Torment. Lordly. Adamant. Design. Bid. Hinder. Undying. Fey. Fate. Fade.
We are entering the second of two worlds with the same words divided by a different meaning. First, we must understand those new meanings, in order to understand this new world; then, we must use our understanding to succeed; and then we must integrate that world with our first world, the recognizable world of the hobbits. If you have read LOTR already, you know that the rewards are worth the effort.
And here, unlike Tolkien, I’m going to pause for awhile. Because, both in the writing and in the plot, things run inevitably from here to the end of Book I, and I want to brace myself before I as Frodo get tortured almost to death.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Like You’ve Never Heard It: