The Great Tolkien Reread: The Shadow of the Past
"Frodo and Gandalf" by Alan Lee [Gandalf] paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: 'This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it—but he must not get it.' Frodo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This ring!' he stammered. 'How, how on earth did it come to me?' Hot on the heels of a chapter spent in the hustle and bustle of objectively trivial pursuits, steeped in the mundane concerns of an extremely silly group of people, comes a chapter that forces us—as well as our unwilling and terrified hero—to pay attention to the concerns of the outside world. After an absence of years, during which Frodo has both settled into life as master of Bag End and felt the repeated urge to follow Bilbo on his adventures, Gandalf returns and reveals to...