Matt DeForrest
Active Member
While I don’t think we will reach this point tonight, I wanted to mention this now before I forgot.
This time reading through, Frodo’s statement after coming out of the Barrow seemed to carry more weight than I remembered:
On prior read throughs, I may have thought of it as him avoiding a singularly unpleasant memory. This time, however, I remembered that the One Ring almost had him — and had him abandon his friends to their fate:
This time through, I think he is trying to push away the memory of the Ring almost getting ahold of him, as it had in the House of Bombadil, rather than of the Wights. (A brief aside — I also wondered why the color of the rags kept getting stressed. Then, typing the sentence just before the parenthetical, I noticed the pun: White/Wight.)
This time reading through, Frodo’s statement after coming out of the Barrow seemed to carry more weight than I remembered:
“What in the name of wonder?’ began Merry, feeling the golden circlet that had slipped over one eye. Then he stopped, and a shadow came over his face, and he closed his eyes. ‘Of course, I remember!’ he said. ‘The men of Carn Dûm came on us at night, and we were worsted. Ah! the spear in my heart!’ He clutched at his breast. ‘No! No!’ he said, opening his eyes. ‘What am I saying? I have been dreaming. Where did you get to, Frodo?’
‘I thought that I was lost,’ said Frodo; ‘but I don’t want to speak of it. Let us think of what we are to do now! Let us go on!”
‘I thought that I was lost,’ said Frodo; ‘but I don’t want to speak of it. Let us think of what we are to do now! Let us go on!”
On prior read throughs, I may have thought of it as him avoiding a singularly unpleasant memory. This time, however, I remembered that the One Ring almost had him — and had him abandon his friends to their fate:
Then a wild thought of escape came to him. He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way out. He thought of himself running free over the grass, grieving for Merry, and Sam, and Pippin, but free and alive himself. Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else he could do.
But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily.
But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily.
This time through, I think he is trying to push away the memory of the Ring almost getting ahold of him, as it had in the House of Bombadil, rather than of the Wights. (A brief aside — I also wondered why the color of the rags kept getting stressed. Then, typing the sentence just before the parenthetical, I noticed the pun: White/Wight.)