Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 231
When Eregion was its name:
When Eregion was its name:
- The location has been hinted at by the description of the holly trees on the ridge before this.
- The name of Eregion was described in Bag End by Gandalf, when recounting the making of the Rings of Power, so them now entering into that land is an important moment for the Company.
- However, Gandalf doesn’t emphasis the Rings of Power, but the happier days before that time.
- Eregion was the only primarily Noldorin settlement in Middle-earth in the Second Age, and the majority of the Noldor who didn’t return into the West moved there after the fall of Morgoth.
- The Elves felt that evil had left the world, and if they stayed, it was to make Middle-earth as fair as it should have been before the marring of Morgoth and had no plans for future conflicts.
- Eregion might be one of the least forested regions of Middle-earth that had Elvish settlements.
- Gandalf emphasizes how most of Eregion’s history was happy before the coming of Annatar.
- Gandalf wants to make it clear that they have been making progress, even though it may seem not, and that they have accomplished a significant part of the distance of their overall journey.
- The good news about the more pleasant weather is balanced by the danger of their possible discovery, since the easier going for the Company is equally easier going for their enemies.
- Note: The darkness that Sauron puts forth later will also aid Frodo and Sam and the others.
- Frodo doesn’t disregard Gandalf’s warning but sees the risk as worth it for light and warmth.
- Gandalf helps the hobbits alleviate their geographic confusion about the direction of travel.
- Note: This is not plot exposition, but allows Tolkien to help the readers to fully visualize the landscape they are in. As a painter, Tolkien was very interested in our clear visualization. His own art often captures his prose descriptions, though which comes first is sometimes unclear. In this case, while Tolkien wants us to visualize the mountains in the landscape, but also to orient ourselves to the map, in order to keep track of the progress of the Company on the journey.
- There is a spiritual implication to the fact that the wind is now coming from the south, rather than that east wind that had been described as “searching” and painful to the hobbits.
- Note: Tolkien was very interested in the map and was meticulous in computing travel times using the map’s scale. Gandalf’s comment about not looking at the maps may also be a side note to the reader to not make the same mistake, if they had overlooked the maps in the book.
- The change in the direction of the mountains is not a dramatic bend, but more of an offshoot of the range that approaches Eregion, which allows the three mountain peaks to be more visible.
- Does Elrond have the same map? What might be the difference between the maps in Rivendell?
- It’s likely that no single map has all the details of the lands on Middle-earth, especially the Shire.
- Note: The map that we receive in the book is likely a Fourth Age composite of all the maps featuring important locations from the story, especially from the Shire, Rohan, and Gondor. The notes such as the descriptions of South Gondor, Angmar, and the Hobbit names for various locations timestamp the map’s details to different points in history, from looking back at them. It also preserves several placenames not mentioned in the text, and possibly older versions, too. Christopher talks a lot about the development of the maps in The History of Middle-earth.
- Gandalf’s prompting of Pippin is not ridicule but sets him up for a self-effacing hobbitry joke.
- Note: It’s important to note that the hobbits never insult Gandalf in the same way that he insults them in the course of their hobbitry, not in the same way that they trade banter with each other. There definitely seems to be boundaries to the three upper class hobbits’ hobbitry, both in terms of their superiors, like Gandalf, and their inferiors, like Sam, which they don’t cross. The affectionate insults seem to be reserved for one’s peers, and otherwise become self-effacing.
- Pippin is making jokes of contradicting Gandalf’s advice, turning from assuaging Gandalf’s concerns to assert his own incompetence, both to annoy him and to compliment Frodo.
- This also has the effect of colluding with Gandalf to keep up Frodo’s confidence for the journey.
- Gandalf and Elrond had studied the maps with Frodo, so this praise would be understandable.
- Note: There seems to be an overlap between Gandalf’s hobbitry and genuine aggravation, and this is most often true of Pippin, with whom Gandalf has had an ongoing banter since Rivendell.
- Pippin is not only resisting Gandalf’s correction, but openly flaunting an inability to be corrected.
- Note: It’s interesting that the first time we hear from Gimli on the journey, he is mentioned with Legolas as he arrives to speak. This seems to be setting us up to see them as a matched pair.
- Gimli’s response shows that he is unaware or unwilling to participate in the previous hobbitry.
- The poetic nature of his response, extra syllables, and paralleling the various elements of his description, combine to add weight to his words about the important images of his people.
- Gimli emphasizes that the carven works of metal and stone are made to last, unlike the words of songs and tales, though those are also preserved in their memories, in which they stand tall.
- Note: There is a hint of the same reverence that the Elves show for the Two Trees in the way that Gimli speaks of the three mountain peaks. Gimli associates the mountains with the home of his people, in contrast to the Elves, which associate the Trees primarily with the bliss in the past.
- What does Gimli mean by the word “dreams”? There is an implication of both their sleeping dreams and the figurative dreams of his people’s wishes and aspirations for the future.
- Like the Elves, there may be a connection between songs and dreams in the experience of them.