Episode 24 Summary

[Tony Meade]

SESSION 24

Comment on the role of “luck” in The Lord of the Rings:

• As in The Hobbit, there is a significant amount of what Tolkien terms “luck” in the success of the adventure.
• Gandalf’s absence causes the hobbits to meet Tom Bombadil, receive their Numenorean swords, and meet Aragorn.
• It’s possible that Merry and Pippin might not have been allowed to come if Gandalf had been leading Frodo and Sam.
• There are many things throughout both books that seem to be bad fortune at the time but prove to be the only possibly successful paths.
• There is a difference between a blindly lucky event and the workings of Providence.
• In the example of Merry’s sword, it seems providential after the fact that he was able to use it to help take down the Witch-king, but not at the time.
• There is an element of fate at play, in that it seems as though the same events could have occurred in a different way.

Comment on the Hobbit conflict with the trees on the Old Forest:

• Is the hobbits’ bonfire used against the forest an orcish act?
• The expansion of the forest is a natural phenomenon, which the hobbits resist violently.
• The actions of the hobbits and the orcs are fundamentally different.
• This is a symptom of the over-idealization of the Shire culture. Hobbits are capable of pettiness, theft, venality, and minor vandalism. The Shire is a nice, familiar place, but not perfect.
• There is also a fixation on the Hobbit love of the earth as an example of eco-utopia.
• The Hobbits are farmers, which necessarily places them in conflict with the wild country.
• The Hobbits once had a strip of empty land, which the trees are invading. The Hobbits are protecting their farmland, not destroying the forest for no reason or for spite.
• The actions of the Hobbit in clearing the trees away from the hedge is an aggressive act, but it was in response to the aggression of the trees.
• There is an ambivalence about the actions of the Hobbits which is makes both the characters and readers uncomfortable. The hobbits might be doing overkill, but this is an unusual forest.
• There is a natural competition between these species, which is normal.
• The trees seem to have begun the aggression, as the building of the hedge was simply delineating the existing boundaries and is a normal thing to do.
• Are there Ents in the Old Forest? There is no clear evidence of them, aside from the rumor of the walking elm tree. Treebeard hasn’t been there, but he knows of it.
• Note: The reason the Old Forest and Fangorn are no longer connected is due to the Numenoreans cutting them down to build their fleets of ships.
• There is a possibility that because this story is told by hobbits, there is a pro-hobbit bias.
• We will hear about trees, from Tom Bombadil and Treebeard, that are evil and malicious, too.
• Note: Merry is skeptical of the stories based on this own experience, though not of magic and faerie in general, whereas John Harker of Dracula is skeptical of anything non-scientific.
• What is the difference between Bilbo’s stories and the nurses’ stories? Bilbo’s are based on first-hand experience and the lore of the Elves, whereas the nurses are repeating hearsay and tales.
• We will see later that “old wives’ tales” have great value, however.
• Note: Sancho Proudfoot, with whom Frodo has a tussle in Bag End over digging for treasure, is another possible heir to Bilbo’s estate.
• This trip into the Old Forest is our only encounter with it, but we will learn more about trees and the nature of forests in general later through Treebeard and Fangorn Forest.

Merry’s leadership of the hobbits:

• Merry is showing strength here through his encouragement of them to use the Old Forest as alternate route, and through his willingness to guide them through it.
• Frodo is not showing leadership here, and he cedes leadership to Merry at this point.
• The other two hobbits can’t take a leadership role. Pippin is too young, and Sam is working class.
• Frodo may not want or be suited for leadership, because of the burden he already bears.
• Note: In the films, Merry and Pippin join by accident, rather than choosing from the beginning.

The uncanny paths:

• The paths and their shifting nature are something that has already been discussed, but now it is surer that the paths are created by the trees themselves to direct travelers.
• The path starts in the Bonfire Glade, and it is clear and straight. The trees clearly are directing them towards the treeless hill.
• Why is this hill treeless? Do the trees choose not to go there? Is this recent?
• The treeless hill could probably not be seen from Buckland, and Merry has not been this deep into the Old Forest before.
• Note: Tolkien gives the paths many action verbs, to show a will behind the paths.
• The hobbits, especially Merry, are being naïve and gullible and are falling into the trees’ plan.
• Merry still seems sure that he can guide them through, while Frodo sees the threat.
• Frodo’s experience of being oppressed by the trees leads him to the conclusion that they cannot win the battle with the forest. This shows wisdom.
• Do Rangers go through the Old Forest? We don’t see that, but Aragorn has enough experience of it to know Tom Bombadil.
• Everything in the Old Forest is acting with intention, and all those intentions so far is bad.
• If these paths were simply deer runs, Merry probably would have recognized them as such. Instead, he isn’t sure what makes them.
• The implication is that the paths seem to be made by people, where people don’t live.

The end of the path:

• There is a ghostly aspect to the remaining fog, and is concentrated in the valleys, especially near the Withywindle River.
• This is a naturally accurate description of the fog but is evocative at a metaphysical level.
• The hobbits are brought to a lookout, and yet they cannot see anything distant.
• Do the trees want them to stop here? It would seem so. If so, why?
• This could be related to Frodo’s song; with its references to ending and failing. The trees seem to the taunting the hobbits.
• They are showing him and his companions no end to the forest. They are surrounded.

Not getting back to the road:

• They are not trying to cut across the forest, which would take them into the Barrow-downs.
• They simply want to go across the northern edge to the road, but they can only see to the south.
• The use of the word “queer” as used by the hobbits means “strange” and approaching “uncanny”. There is an element of “outlandish” in it as well.
• Merry points out that the “queerness” of the forest seems to be centered on the Withywindle.
• The trees seem to be trying to maroon them on an island and want them to know that.
• Note: There is a lot of sea imagery describing the forest. The use of an island as a mountain imagery is evocative and shows the difference in perspective between them and the trees.
• This is not the first time that seas and forests have been linked, as in Frodo’s dream.
• This is a moment where we are asked to see things from a different perspective than human. Tolkien has changed many reader’s views on the lives of trees.
• The trees seem to be showing them that the path they are on is preferable to going to the Barrow-downs.
• The hobbits are cheered by the sight of the Barrow-downs, because at least that is something that they know about, even if the stories are sinister.

Following the path down the hill:

• In the densest parts of the forest there are trees that the hobbits don’t recognize.
• The pines and firs mean this path is easier, so this is the way that they want the hobbits to go.
• There is a possibility that the Mirkwood story they heard from Bilbo is influencing their decisions in the Old Forest. The moral of that story was not to leave the path.
• They seem to have a lack of suspicion of the path, though it has swept them away.
• Because the paths in the populated Shire lead to places they want to go, it’s easy to understand why they would trust the path.
• The action verbs that had been attributed to the path are now used for the trees.

Being herded by the trees:

• The constant obstacles make it clear that the trees are forcibly directing them towards the Withywindle and away from the Road to the north.
• The trees are clearly moving, as they are thick where they looked thin before.
• Note: Tolkien shows the difference between the aware trees and vegetation and the inert earth by the use of active vs. passive verbs.
• The description of the movement of the trees is subtle enough to still be doubtful. They never actually see the trees move, but the effect is unmistakable.
• There is some doubt of the uncanniness, as it is easy to get lost in a normal forest.
• When the trees move, they seem to do so far from where the hobbits can see it happen.
• The trees are playing a long game, which makes sense for trees to do.

The path is chosen for them:

• The folds that the hobbits encounter may have possibly been roads in older times of Arnor. This is an example of hints of untold stories and histories.
• These folds are being used by the trees to channel the hobbits into the only possible path they can take, which is where the trees want them to go.
• The water seems like a perfectly natural phenomenon, but in this context, it seems to be active.
• Bilbo himself used the metaphor of paths that do things and used flowing water as the imagery.
• There is a symbolic parallel between the joining of the streams into the Withywindle and Bilbo’s sayings about the joining of all paths to the Road.

END OF SESSION