Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 236
Aragorn missing something:
Aragorn missing something:
- Merry starts out in a typical Hobbit joking manner, and teasing Aragorn about not enjoying the relief of their suffering from the wind and on the road, as if Aragorn misses all those things.
- While Gandalf might have returned Merry’s hobbitry in kind, Aragorn stays serious and grim.
- Gandalf’s response is light but doesn’t question Aragorn’s instincts, though he allows that what Aragorn is perceiving might simply be the result of a large party in an empty country.
- His mention of the hobbits is a joke by Gandalf, teasing the hobbits for being so far from home.
- Note: In his original incarnation as a hobbit guide named Trotter, the character that would later become Aragorn was much better at hobbitry than he later became once he became Aragorn.
- It’s possible that this is a callback to the Shire fox being surprised to see the three hobbits sleeping out of doors on the Road. However, in that case, he had prior experience with hobbits.
- Gandalf doesn’t seem to suggest that the fauna of Hollin about differentiating the hobbits.
- He wants to reassure the hobbits through humor, though he is clearly concerned about this.
- Gandalf is interested in not just Aragorn’s observations, but also his interpretations, and he trusts that those interpretations will be good, based on his experiences with Aragorn in the past.
- However, he is being careful to ask for this in a way that won’t cause alarm among the hobbits.
- Gandalf even offers up a non-alarming explanation that Aragorn can accept or refute for them.
- While Gandalf had clearly been participating in the merriment, he changes due to this news.
- Aragorn is not saying that he believes Hollin to be empty, but only that nothing that lives there is making any sound. The birds and beasts didn’t flee the country but are still there and silent.
- It isn’t stated when Aragorn first noticed the silence, but it seems to have been recently, once they had left the wind and got under shelter, and he was able to listen clearly away from them.
- This silence may have also started since they arrived, since Aragorn didn’t mention it as a warning when Gandalf suggested that this would be a good place for the Company to rest.
- However, this shows that Aragorn never dropped his vigilance, and since this silence seems to be a new phenomenon, it causes Aragorn and Gandalf to question what has changed to cause it.
- Why does Aragorn say that they “make the ground echo”? This may be a reference to the way their voices carry in the stony foothills, which he has noticed by going away from the camp.
- This also emphasizes the land’s desolation, as there isn’t enough vegetation to dampen sound.
- Aragorn is communicating not only the phenomenon or silence, but also that they are making themselves vulnerable and exposed in a place where they thought they were safe and hidden.
- He doesn’t seem to be rebuking them but making them aware of danger that they don’t expect.
- As this is the ground that remembers the Elves of Hollin, and the stones may echo them merrily.
- His mention of watchfulness and fear suggests that Aragorn knows that the animals are there.
- He’s also saying that this behavior is not because of their presence, as he has been here with others before, and the fauna has not gone silence in response, so this is something else.
- Aragorn won’t take up the invitation to speculate on the cause, as this is new to his experience.
- The use of the word “fear” is compared to the normal watchfulness that animals have naturally.
- He also seems to add the sense of fear on, as he pauses before saying it, considering his words.
- This is not due to the Nazgûl passing through, as that was months ago, and this is a new thing.
- Aragorn also doesn’t think that it is the noise of the Company is causing the silence, either.
- He is also not describing his own feelings, but his perception of the feelings of the fauna nearby.
- What he is recommending to the Company is to follow the example and become more watchful.
- However, both Aragorn and Gandalf don’t respond to the fear they perceive with their own fear.
- Gandalf keeps a bit of his whimsical tone about Aragorn, while taking his advice seriously. This is his way of resisting the temptation to fear, which would be understandable given the situation.
- Note: This doesn’t seem to be due to the crebain, which will arrive shortly. They are not frightening in their presence, and they will not arrive for many hours. It is also not due to Caradhras, as it is far away from them, as are the wargs. It is also unlikely that the Ring is causing this fear and watchfulness, as we have not seen this effect anywhere else the Ring has been.