The Great Tolkien Reread: Many Meetings

"Rivendell" by J.R.R. Tolkien

'I hear all kinds of news, from over the Mountains, and out of the South, but hardly anything from the Shire. I heard about the Ring, of course. Gandalf has been here often. Not that he has told me a great deal, he has become closer than ever these last few years. The Dúnadan has told me more. Fancy that ring of mine causing such a disturbance! It is a pity that Gandalf did not find out more sooner. I could have brought the thing here myself long ago without so much trouble. I have thought several times of going back to Hobbiton for it; but I am getting old, and they would not let me: Gandalf and Elrond, I mean. They seemed to think that the Enemy was looking high and low for me, and would make mincemeat of me, if he caught me tottering about in the Wild.'

The second book of The Fellowship of the Ring opens with Frodo waking up in Rivendell and reuniting with Gandalf and his friends. Though some plot-relevant conversation occurs—Gandalf catches Frodo up on the dramatic events at the Ford of Bruinen and the two discuss the nature of the Black Riders—for the most part this is a mood chapter, dedicated to Frodo's explorations of the Last Homely House.

That house was, as Bilbo has long ago reported, 'a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all'.

Looking back at the story so far, and forward to what's ahead, one can guess at the reason for this pause. Book One of Fellowship is in many ways its own novel, a story about Frodo, the Shire, and how he shakes off its influence and becomes a different person in the wilderness. "Many Meetings" is the beginning of a different novel, one about a fellowship, and it requires its own opening chapter. Like "A Long-Expected Party", this chapter sends the main characters of The Lord of the Rings to the background (Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Aragorn barely appear) and repeatedly calls back to The Hobbit. Elrond and Rivendell are, of course, both original to The Hobbit, and the description quoted above is taken from that book. Frodo's dinner companion, Glóin, is what we might call a legacy character, the sort that, in a TV show, would appear in the premiere of a spin-off to shepherd nervous viewers into this new installment of the story.

The most significant way in which "Many Meetings" reminds us of The Hobbit is, of course, through its reintroduction of Bilbo, who turns out to be living at Rivendell and quite ruling the roost, waited on hand and foot by Elrond's elves. As a young reader, I was just as pleased as Frodo to meet Bilbo again and find out what had happened to him, and it was delightful to learn that he was good pals with Strider and aware of the drama of the Ring. The older I get, however, the sadder this chapter makes me. It now reads like an incredibly moving meditation on what it's like to watch the people who raised you grow old.

Frodo does not expect to find Bilbo at Rivendell. This might seem strange to us, either because we're familiar with this particular story or with the conventions of its type. Bilbo is the parent figure; obviously he will show up to offer advice and approval, and send the actual hero on his way. But to Frodo, Bilbo is still the hero. The adventurer, who set out from the Shire to see mountains and other strange places (as it turns out, Bilbo made it as far as Dale, came back, and has no intention of leaving again). He will continue to loom over all the hobbits, their model for journeying and adventuring, for the rest of the novel. Even having experienced things he could never dream of, they will find themselves thinking of him, comparing themselves to him, and wondering what part, if any, they will have in the story he's writing.

All of this remains true despite the fact that the Bilbo we meet in this chapter is an old hobbit dozing by the fire, who isn't quite up to joining the company at dinner. Who still has moments of great energy and wit, but who is indulged more than included. Reading the scenes in which Bilbo needles Aragorn about his love life, or complains that Gandalf and Elrond are keeping their plans from him, one recognizes the feeling of interacting with a parent or grandparent whom you love, but who can no longer keep up with you. And, like that grandparent, Bilbo himself is not aware of this. He still speaks of his ring, his adventure, his story, even though these have all passed from him.

The Ring itself is playing a role in Bilbo's confusion, of course. We don't tend to think of Tolkien as a writer of metaphors, but there's a lovely bit of dovetailing in this chapter, with the effects of old age doubling and paralleling the lingering effects of the Ring. The moment in which Frodo shows Bilbo the ring and is shocked by his response to it—"To his distress and amazement he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands"—is a plausible (and terrifying) extension of all that we've learned about the Ring, and the effects we already saw it having on Bilbo in "A Long-Expected Party". But it will also, I think, feel heartbreakingly familiar to anyone who has had to watch a loved one succumb to dementia, becoming a (sometimes hostile and violent) stranger.

Happily, the chapter doesn't end on this moment, but on Bilbo and Frodo sitting down to have a nice long talk. Bilbo is still Bilbo, and still wonderful in so many ways—still the hobbit who "[has] the cheek to make verses about Eärendil in the house of Elrond", and who will stand up and offer to take the Ring to Mordor even though he clearly isn't equal to the task. Which is a fitting note on which to end this chapter, a peaceful interlude between long stretches of terror and hardship. Even if you know that the people you love are going to leave you, you can still enjoy your time with them while they're here.

Next time: On May 19th, an actual meeting occurs in the first of two discussions of "The Council of Elrond"

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