The Great Tolkien Reread: Three is Company, A Short Cut to Mushrooms, A Conspiracy Unmasked
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| "Nazgûl" by Juan Bjuan Oliver |
[Frodo] had indeed privately made up his mind to leave on his fiftieth birthday: Bilbo's one hundred and twenty-eighth. It seemed somehow a proper day on which to set out and follow him. Following Bilbo was uppermost in his mind, and the one thing that made the thought of leaving bearable. He thought as little as possible about the Ring, and where it might lead him in the end.We have our first multi-chapter discussion this week, as we follow Frodo from his (now former) home at Bag End to the edges of the Shire. The first leg of his journey, in a part of the world he knows well and where he is known and respected, ought to be an easy, safe one. Indeed, from the way he and his companions, Pippin and Sam, think and talk about the journey, as a leisurely farewell to their home and a pleasant bit of exercise, one might assume that despite his ever-present fear of the Ring and the danger it poses, Frodo is leaving on a holiday rather than an adventure, much less a desperate flight.
Things quickly take a turn with the appearances of the Black Riders, one of Tolkien's most effective bits of monster invention. It's our first introduction to the way that he uses absence and obscured view to intensify horror and the sense of the otherworldly. The Riders are essentially a gap in the world. They have no faces; they seem to struggle to speak; even when Frodo manages to get a glimpse of them, what he perceives is barely an outline of a horse and its rider.
The sound of hoofs stopped. As Frodo watched he saw something dark pass across the lighter space between two trees, and then halt. It looked like the black shade of a horse led by a smaller black shadow. The black shadow stood close to the point where they had left the path, and it swayed from side to side. Frodo thought he heard the sound of snuffling. The shadow bent to the ground, and then began to crawl towards him.
In spite of this emptiness, the Riders are increasingly inescapable. The flip side of the Shire being so orderly and comprehensible is that if Frodo wants to get to his new house at Crickhollow (and from there, to depart the Shire for Rivendell) he has to follow a limited set of paths, which the Riders can navigate more quickly than he can.
In the context of the Shire, however, there is something faintly ridiculous about the Riders. They don't fit there, and they can't quite work out what levers to pull to manipulate its inhabitants. Their attempts at polite inquiry, intimidation, and bribery—"[Baggins] is coming. He is not far away. I wish to find him. If he passes will you tell me? I will come back with gold."—keep crashing against the Shire-folk's rock-hard distrust of any outsider, and of anyone who seems even slightly out of the ordinary. In the end, they are stymied by the locals closing ranks against them—Farmer Maggot chases a Rider off his land and helps Frodo escape them—as well as by the Shire's carefully maintained order—the Buckleberry Ferry won't return across the river for them; the guards at the gate to Buckland won't let them through after dark. Within the Shire, this is enough to hold them back. They will prove more formidable, and more terrifying, out in the wilderness.
In video game terms, we might call these chapters a tutorial level. They give Frodo a sense of what his journey will look like (including a stretch in which he and the other walkers become lost and literally bogged down in mud). But for the most part, the challenge in this part of the story is still on a comprehensible level. This is still Frodo's home, and he can make his way across it without needing to rope anyone else into his adventure. Farmer Maggot may shrewdly guess that Frodo's troubles stem from some treasure Bilbo brought back with him from abroad, but like the fox who so memorably watches the hobbits sleep in the woods, "he never found out any more about it." Gildor the elf senses the magnitude of the quest Frodo is embarking on, but he's on his way to the Grey Havens, and not inclined to involve himself in Frodo's story. Even Fatty Bolger, who knows about the Ring, allows his decision to stay behind from the quest to blind him to the enormity of what Frodo is embarking on. Surely the Old Forest on the border of Buckland, he insists, is more dangerous than the Black Riders.
For the rest of The Fellowship of the Ring, we will see a repeated leveling up of both the danger Frodo faces, and the protection he requires to make his way through it. He accepts the companionship of Merry and Pippin at the end of "A Conspiracy Unmasked", but as soon as the four travelers leave the Shire they end up in mortal peril, and must be rescued by Tom Bombadil (twice) to make it even as far as Bree. Out past Bree, into what is already proper wild country, it takes the efforts of Aragorn (with a mighty assist from Glorfindel and Elrond) to get Frodo to Rivendell. And from Rivendell to Mordor, the whole fellowship is required. These increasing circles of protection, and the increased danger that they are only partly proof against, will make Frodo's decision to strike out on his own on the last leg of his journey all the more monumental.
The last thing I want to talk about in this discussion is the matter of foresight. We already noted in our previous essay how, a mere two chapters into the book, Tolkien had already laid out most of the building blocks of its conclusion. In "Three is Company", we encounter an attribute of Middle Earth that is central not just to The Lord of the Rings but to many other Tolkien writings (perhaps chiefly The Silmarillion). Many characters in this world, and not just elves and wizard, possess foresight. Though still in conscious denial of this, Frodo is already beginning to understand that taking the Ring to Mount Doom will be his task. Gildor's heart "forbodes that, ere all is ended, you, Frodo son of Drogo, will know more of these fell things [the Black Riders] than Gildor Inglorion." And even humble Sam can sense the shape that his future is about to take.
There are, of course, opaque images in The Lord of the Rings. "A Conspiracy Unmasked" ends with Frodo's disturbing dream of towers and bolts of lightning that is, we will later learn, our first hint of Gandalf's imprisonment at the hands of Saruman. But Tolkien refuses to be coy about the type of story he is writing. Why shouldn't Sam understand his role in the events to come? He is intended for them not only by the great powers of his world, but by the hand writing his story. One of the most delightful things about The Lord of the Rings is how it understands that to acknowledge this does not take away even a little from the story's pleasures, or its grandeur.
Next time: We will reconvene on February 10th to venture into "The Old Forest"
In the context of the Shire, however, there is something faintly ridiculous about the Riders. They don't fit there, and they can't quite work out what levers to pull to manipulate its inhabitants. Their attempts at polite inquiry, intimidation, and bribery—"[Baggins] is coming. He is not far away. I wish to find him. If he passes will you tell me? I will come back with gold."—keep crashing against the Shire-folk's rock-hard distrust of any outsider, and of anyone who seems even slightly out of the ordinary. In the end, they are stymied by the locals closing ranks against them—Farmer Maggot chases a Rider off his land and helps Frodo escape them—as well as by the Shire's carefully maintained order—the Buckleberry Ferry won't return across the river for them; the guards at the gate to Buckland won't let them through after dark. Within the Shire, this is enough to hold them back. They will prove more formidable, and more terrifying, out in the wilderness.
In video game terms, we might call these chapters a tutorial level. They give Frodo a sense of what his journey will look like (including a stretch in which he and the other walkers become lost and literally bogged down in mud). But for the most part, the challenge in this part of the story is still on a comprehensible level. This is still Frodo's home, and he can make his way across it without needing to rope anyone else into his adventure. Farmer Maggot may shrewdly guess that Frodo's troubles stem from some treasure Bilbo brought back with him from abroad, but like the fox who so memorably watches the hobbits sleep in the woods, "he never found out any more about it." Gildor the elf senses the magnitude of the quest Frodo is embarking on, but he's on his way to the Grey Havens, and not inclined to involve himself in Frodo's story. Even Fatty Bolger, who knows about the Ring, allows his decision to stay behind from the quest to blind him to the enormity of what Frodo is embarking on. Surely the Old Forest on the border of Buckland, he insists, is more dangerous than the Black Riders.
For the rest of The Fellowship of the Ring, we will see a repeated leveling up of both the danger Frodo faces, and the protection he requires to make his way through it. He accepts the companionship of Merry and Pippin at the end of "A Conspiracy Unmasked", but as soon as the four travelers leave the Shire they end up in mortal peril, and must be rescued by Tom Bombadil (twice) to make it even as far as Bree. Out past Bree, into what is already proper wild country, it takes the efforts of Aragorn (with a mighty assist from Glorfindel and Elrond) to get Frodo to Rivendell. And from Rivendell to Mordor, the whole fellowship is required. These increasing circles of protection, and the increased danger that they are only partly proof against, will make Frodo's decision to strike out on his own on the last leg of his journey all the more monumental.
The last thing I want to talk about in this discussion is the matter of foresight. We already noted in our previous essay how, a mere two chapters into the book, Tolkien had already laid out most of the building blocks of its conclusion. In "Three is Company", we encounter an attribute of Middle Earth that is central not just to The Lord of the Rings but to many other Tolkien writings (perhaps chiefly The Silmarillion). Many characters in this world, and not just elves and wizard, possess foresight. Though still in conscious denial of this, Frodo is already beginning to understand that taking the Ring to Mount Doom will be his task. Gildor's heart "forbodes that, ere all is ended, you, Frodo son of Drogo, will know more of these fell things [the Black Riders] than Gildor Inglorion." And even humble Sam can sense the shape that his future is about to take.
'I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't to see the Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want—I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.'This is not, to put it mildly, how modern fantasy writers approach their stories. Our spoiler-phobic culture will not allow it, and a media environment that has elevated the Big Twist to the highest level of storytelling is incapable of comprehending a story that simply tells you where it is going. Visions and prophecies, when they appear, are usually opaque and imagistic, the better for fans to analyze and dissect. One of my favorite things about Tolkien is how he—mostly by virtue of predating the commercialization of the fantasy genre and the rise of fan culture, but also, I suspect, simply because of the kind of guy he was—genuinely does not give a shit about such conventions.
There are, of course, opaque images in The Lord of the Rings. "A Conspiracy Unmasked" ends with Frodo's disturbing dream of towers and bolts of lightning that is, we will later learn, our first hint of Gandalf's imprisonment at the hands of Saruman. But Tolkien refuses to be coy about the type of story he is writing. Why shouldn't Sam understand his role in the events to come? He is intended for them not only by the great powers of his world, but by the hand writing his story. One of the most delightful things about The Lord of the Rings is how it understands that to acknowledge this does not take away even a little from the story's pleasures, or its grandeur.
Next time: We will reconvene on February 10th to venture into "The Old Forest"
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