SilkWeskit
New Member
First off, I'd like to give a shout-out to likelyabot for bringing up the subject in the most recent episode (Session 217: The Quest Begins) of how much (or little) of the remainder of the strory is told from inside "Frodo's head", as distinct form third-person neutral narration. I'm glad he did so, as this has been a specific concept I've been mulling over for some time now, but haven't found the right opportunity to bring it up.
As TwoJuiceMan suggested in the Discord chat that someone do, I am looking into the possibility of writing a paper on the subject of this shift in narrative perspective for a future moot, but I'm trying to find the right way to quantify and draw conclusions.
I've been trying to reconcile the loss of Frodo's narrative perspective (as a literary styling of Tolkien's to show character alteration) with the story also having the framing of a "found work" as well as a document of historical events cobbled together by multiple hobbits, including Frodo himself well afterwards, and revised by at least one human editor (not including Tolkien).
Clearly the omniscient narrative point of view shifts heavily to Sam from Book 4 onwards, following him exclusively when he and Sam are separated at Cirith Ungol, but we don't seem to get much from his viewpoint for long stretches before then. Even those we do get don't have the emotional underpinnings that would be expected considering we were getting full accountings of dreams back in Book 1.
There may be multiple confounding things at play, and we as readers may also be trying to read too much into Frodo's "absence" from his own story.
- The effects of struggling with the ring itself, as he and it approach the land of its making, and while its Master is putting forth so much energy to find it, may have much greater (and earlier) effect on Frodo's mind and will than he even relates late in the story. This deadening of his inner voice may be Tolkien's way to signal the growing struggle for a good while before the end.
- The effect of the attack on Weathertop and Frodo's carrying of the shard may have had much more serious and permanent damage to Frodo than were ever discussed openly in the narrative, and have muted his inner monologue, except under certain specific circumstances. It may even be possible that he is only "roused" to the point of having his thoughts and emotions expressed in the presence of High Elves in places like Rivendell and Lorien, or with their aid (Miruvor, white gem from Arwen), or when he feels direct threats to himself and the ring (being tracked by Gollum, and on Amon Hen). If the effect of the wounding is being protrayed this broadly in the telling of the story, and with only the help of Elves to abate it, it would go a long way to solidifying Frodo's absolute need to go to Valinor, purely so he can have respite from an otherwise permanent condition.
- It may simply be that Tolkien either had nothing for Frodo to add, and that he preferred to have the reader experience the emotional impact of the story through its least knowledgeable character in a given group (Sam to Mordor, Pippen across Rohan, Gimli through the Paths of the Dead), in order to make the experience more ("R"-word deleted here).
My question now is how to go about attacking the issue, in that simply counting times Frodo is said to have done something for a specific reason doesn't necessarily equate to having really spent time "in his head", and I'm open to any thoughts on how to develop a way to draw solid conclusions.
As TwoJuiceMan suggested in the Discord chat that someone do, I am looking into the possibility of writing a paper on the subject of this shift in narrative perspective for a future moot, but I'm trying to find the right way to quantify and draw conclusions.
I've been trying to reconcile the loss of Frodo's narrative perspective (as a literary styling of Tolkien's to show character alteration) with the story also having the framing of a "found work" as well as a document of historical events cobbled together by multiple hobbits, including Frodo himself well afterwards, and revised by at least one human editor (not including Tolkien).
Clearly the omniscient narrative point of view shifts heavily to Sam from Book 4 onwards, following him exclusively when he and Sam are separated at Cirith Ungol, but we don't seem to get much from his viewpoint for long stretches before then. Even those we do get don't have the emotional underpinnings that would be expected considering we were getting full accountings of dreams back in Book 1.
There may be multiple confounding things at play, and we as readers may also be trying to read too much into Frodo's "absence" from his own story.
- The effects of struggling with the ring itself, as he and it approach the land of its making, and while its Master is putting forth so much energy to find it, may have much greater (and earlier) effect on Frodo's mind and will than he even relates late in the story. This deadening of his inner voice may be Tolkien's way to signal the growing struggle for a good while before the end.
- The effect of the attack on Weathertop and Frodo's carrying of the shard may have had much more serious and permanent damage to Frodo than were ever discussed openly in the narrative, and have muted his inner monologue, except under certain specific circumstances. It may even be possible that he is only "roused" to the point of having his thoughts and emotions expressed in the presence of High Elves in places like Rivendell and Lorien, or with their aid (Miruvor, white gem from Arwen), or when he feels direct threats to himself and the ring (being tracked by Gollum, and on Amon Hen). If the effect of the wounding is being protrayed this broadly in the telling of the story, and with only the help of Elves to abate it, it would go a long way to solidifying Frodo's absolute need to go to Valinor, purely so he can have respite from an otherwise permanent condition.
- It may simply be that Tolkien either had nothing for Frodo to add, and that he preferred to have the reader experience the emotional impact of the story through its least knowledgeable character in a given group (Sam to Mordor, Pippen across Rohan, Gimli through the Paths of the Dead), in order to make the experience more ("R"-word deleted here).
My question now is how to go about attacking the issue, in that simply counting times Frodo is said to have done something for a specific reason doesn't necessarily equate to having really spent time "in his head", and I'm open to any thoughts on how to develop a way to draw solid conclusions.