I'd like to take you back, if I may, to the last two months of 2017 when you were discussing Tom Bombadil. I've only just watched that section of Exploring LOTR on YouTube, and I have some observations that weren't mentioned at the time. (Maybe they have been by now. Please let me know if they have.)
"Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow."
You asked the class why Tom Bombadil felt he had to announce the color of his clothes as he danced down the forest path. I have a theory that no-one mentioned. Aside from "yellow" being a pretty neat rhyme for "fellow," think of the two colors together. Tom Bombadil is, according to his later tales, a primary spirit of Iluvatar, and blue and yellow are primary colors. Beyond that, what happens when blue and yellow are mixed? A secondary color, green, appears. Green is Goldberry's color, remember, as well as the color of the trees and hills and beans on poles. I think Tom is joyfully announcing that he is part of the natural environment, though he was here first, and that he loves being where he is. He is master, true, but more in the sense of caretaker, I think.
"A shadow seemed to pass by the window, and the hobbits glanced hastily through the window. WHEN THEY TURNED AGAIN, GOLDBERRY STOOD IN THE DOOR BEHIND, FRAMED IN LIGHT."
You were wondering how this could happen, but stop to think. Right after Goldberry appears, Tom jumps up and helps her set the table for dinner. My question is (and no-one thought to ask this), who made the dinner? I think Goldberry was standing in the doorway to the KITCHEN, which was well-lit, and where she had been preparing dinner while the hobbits had been sitting in another room listening to Tom Bombadil and losing track of time, while around them everything grew dark. It was night now, and the light from the kitchen, when Goldberry opened the door to make her announcement, would be behind her, framing her in light.
"Merry turned toward him [Frodo] to say something and gave a start, and checked an exclamation. Frodo was delighted (in a way): it was his own ring all right, for Merry was staring blankly at the chair, and obviously could not see him. He got up and crept quietly away from the fireside towards the outer door."
I never thought that Frodo was going to go anywhere. I always assumed that Frodo's urge would be to keep secret the fact that he had put on his ring; but how to explain his sudden disappearance to the others? Maybe, although it was never mentioned, the outer door could not be seen from where the hobbits were sitting, so Frodo was going to reach the door, open it, and slip off the Ring. Then, when everyone heard the door and noticed he was missing, they would call out to him and he could poke his now visible head back around the screen (or whatever was there). "I'm just popping out to the loo. Be right back." he could say. Maybe he was hoping everyone would think they'd been so engrossed in Tom's tales that they hadn't noticed him getting up. (Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. )
"Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow."
You asked the class why Tom Bombadil felt he had to announce the color of his clothes as he danced down the forest path. I have a theory that no-one mentioned. Aside from "yellow" being a pretty neat rhyme for "fellow," think of the two colors together. Tom Bombadil is, according to his later tales, a primary spirit of Iluvatar, and blue and yellow are primary colors. Beyond that, what happens when blue and yellow are mixed? A secondary color, green, appears. Green is Goldberry's color, remember, as well as the color of the trees and hills and beans on poles. I think Tom is joyfully announcing that he is part of the natural environment, though he was here first, and that he loves being where he is. He is master, true, but more in the sense of caretaker, I think.
"A shadow seemed to pass by the window, and the hobbits glanced hastily through the window. WHEN THEY TURNED AGAIN, GOLDBERRY STOOD IN THE DOOR BEHIND, FRAMED IN LIGHT."
You were wondering how this could happen, but stop to think. Right after Goldberry appears, Tom jumps up and helps her set the table for dinner. My question is (and no-one thought to ask this), who made the dinner? I think Goldberry was standing in the doorway to the KITCHEN, which was well-lit, and where she had been preparing dinner while the hobbits had been sitting in another room listening to Tom Bombadil and losing track of time, while around them everything grew dark. It was night now, and the light from the kitchen, when Goldberry opened the door to make her announcement, would be behind her, framing her in light.
"Merry turned toward him [Frodo] to say something and gave a start, and checked an exclamation. Frodo was delighted (in a way): it was his own ring all right, for Merry was staring blankly at the chair, and obviously could not see him. He got up and crept quietly away from the fireside towards the outer door."
I never thought that Frodo was going to go anywhere. I always assumed that Frodo's urge would be to keep secret the fact that he had put on his ring; but how to explain his sudden disappearance to the others? Maybe, although it was never mentioned, the outer door could not be seen from where the hobbits were sitting, so Frodo was going to reach the door, open it, and slip off the Ring. Then, when everyone heard the door and noticed he was missing, they would call out to him and he could poke his now visible head back around the screen (or whatever was there). "I'm just popping out to the loo. Be right back." he could say. Maybe he was hoping everyone would think they'd been so engrossed in Tom's tales that they hadn't noticed him getting up. (Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. )
