Episode 38 Summary

[Tony Meade]

SESSION 38

Comment on Angelica Baggins’ gift of the mirror:

• It’s important that the mirror is convex, as they are used in open areas and rear-view mirrors to see more of the area reflected.
• The point of the gift of the mirror may be to encourage Angelica to see more of the world and people around her.
• The usual interpretation doesn’t cover the “joke” or “point” of Bilbo’s gifts.
• Therefore, even if the reason for the gift is Angelica’s vanity, she will get this effect of a wider view when she looks into the mirror.

A detour after a detour:

• The land that the hobbits are now traveling through was not the country that they were making for before being led into the Withywindle valley and Tom’s house.
• It’s also important that this land is almost the opposite of the land they have been in. There are no trees at all, especially no willow trees.
• What is meant by “strange” birds? Does this mean weird or just unfamiliar? It appears the narrator only means “strange to the hobbits”, unknown to their experience.
• This means that the land is not only different from where they have been traveling, but an altogether new type of terrain from what they have experienced before.
• The description of the cries of the birds does set an eerie tone for their experience of the land.
• It’s also important that Hobbits equate “unfamiliar” with “weird”, or in their words, “queer”.
• There is also a distant echo of the cries of the Black Riders in the description of the bird calls.
• There is a consistent anthropomorphizing of the hills and landscape, relating the land features to body parts, like shoulders, making it feel that they are among giants.
• This is used metaphorically, but it highlights the hobbits sense of smallness.
• The hobbits also look at the hills themselves with some suspicion, as if they hold some malice.
• Even with all these things setting the tone, we have not yet seen anything that is weird or out of place. This is a perfectly natural landscape.
• Note: We must also remember that this is the furthest that any of the hobbits have ever been. Fifty miles is not that far for us, especially Americans, but very far for hobbits. Pre-modern people usually didn’t travel that far in their whole lifetimes, due to the difficulty of travel. Even in the modern UK, a journey of 50 or 100 miles is considered a long way.

The return of the mist:

• The mist around the Withywindle valley was shown as almost a symbol of the power of Old Man Willow and the befuddlement of the land around. This is echoed here.
• Having had Tom explain the workings of trees, they can see them physically from distance now.
• The hobbits feel that they are now safe from that influence up in the highlands, but they feel the heat increasing and the wind decreasing, and encroaching shadows at the edges of the blue sky.
• The phrase “hazy and deceptive” re-invoke the power of the trees in the Old Forest now in this new landscape, but the hobbits resist the signs that danger is closing around them again.
• The hill where they observe the landscape is reminiscent of the bald hill, where they also saw a hopeful view before being diverted into a dangerous trap.
• Merry now re-asserts his leadership of the group as he did in the Old Forest. This is not a good sign for their prospects, given their past experiences. This will be Merry’s last stint as leader.
• Note: It important to remember that while the hobbits are strangers to this land, they are not complete novices at navigating and orienteering, having done so in the Shire. This would be the source of Merry’s confidence, though he knows very little about the outside world.

The trap is set:

• They are tempted by the path through the valley that they can see from the hill, as it seems to offer a clear path out of the Downs.
• The hobbits have at least taken care to pass to the west of the Downs, as instructed by Tom.
• The simile of the stones as teeth is reminiscent of Old Man Willow, but more predatory.
• Note: It is also reminiscent of Bilbo’s first riddle in The Hobbit about teeth, and Gollum’s eating.
• The greenness of the gums is disturbing, although the green grass in sunlight is a good thing.
• Evil, as usual, has twisted the positive sign of green grass into a creepy, disturbing sight.
• It is not a good sign that the hobbits choose to eat on the east side of the standing stone, and that they allow their ponies to stray.
• Note: When Frodo meets Gandalf again in Rivendell, he will be reminded about all the “absurd things” that he and the hobbits have done before getting there. This is one of them.
• Note: The hyphenated word “noon-meal” points to another Westron word with no translation.
• There is a juxtaposition between the ominous signs of danger and their own rationalizations.

The bait in the trap is taken:

• The hobbits show a degree of overconfidence and seek out the shelter and coolness of the standing stone due to the warm noon sunlight.
• This delightful meal is enhanced by Tom’s food, and his atmosphere makes them feel safe.
• However, they have been lured into a time and place wrong for this activity.
• They have been explicitly warned about “cold stones” by Tom Bombadil before.
• This is the second time that a place they have stopped has been compared to an island, followed by them being submerged. The first time it was a sea of trees that they entered; this time they are overwhelmed by a sea of fog. Tom later compares his rescue to saving them from drowning.
• It is no accident that the view was clear when they were with Goldberry but has closed in and become more obscure as they have gotten further away.
• The standing stone seems more aggressive and threatening than the trees, as the trees lured them invitingly, while the stone seems openly malevolent. They also know more now.
• This fog seems less like a coincidence or a symbol of a malevolent will, but its instrument.
• There was a natural conflict in the Old Forest between the hobbits and the trees, whereas this is a conflict between the living and the dead.
• The simple fact that this has happened to them before makes this even more ominous.
• The standing stone was a warning before, but now the shadow it casts is pointing to the east and the Barrow-downs.
• We’re given a description of a natural sunset on a foggy day, but in context of the Barrow-downs, the Old Forest, and Tom’s warnings, we are aware there is something more happening.
• The hobbits didn’t know about Old Man Willow before and were therefore unaware of a central malevolent will at play, guiding them. This time they are fully aware of its presence.
• The use of capitalized “East” regarding the shadow tells us that they are under attack.
• Note: There is an importance associated with capitalizing “East” and “West” that is unclear. However, Tolkien is almost never random in his usage of things like capital letters, hyphens, or pronouns, though it might seem so at first glance. There is almost always a consistent pattern.

The trap closes around them:

• Were the hobbits put to sleep, like Old Man Willow before? The narrator seems to come up with many natural explanations for it, but hints that there is a more subtle influence than the trees.
• Its obvious now that they were deceived before and lured by comfort.
• They may also have their guard down after spending time in the house of Tom Bombadil.
• Why do they not call for Tom Bombadil now, as opposed to later? Possibly pride, as they feel chagrined and don’t want to admit it to Tom, but they also feel like they know the way out.
• The hobbits seem resistant to being on their guard and admitting the danger they are in. They do not want to admit that the fog is a type of an uncanny attack.
• The fog does not seem to have physically affected them until they attempt to descend into it and escape, even though it surrounded them on the hill. This is not natural.
• We don’t yet know who is influencing them or to what end. It seemed clearer when it was Old Man Willow at work, as to what he was doing and what his endgame was.
• It is notable that there is no dialogue in this scene. They don’t sing, or talk, or joke. The lack of hobbitry lets us know something of their state of mind. This is a bad sign.
• The fog seems to be clouding their thoughts as well, as they are unable to think ahead.
• The plan of whatever will at work seems to be to delay them until dark and then confound them with fog until they walk into the clutches of the Barrow-wights, but we don’t know why yet.
• The Barrow-downs is a place of the dead, and the dead are silent, but that doesn’t fully explain the hobbits’ silence, as it is out of character for them, as we saw in the Old Forest.
• In the Old Forest, they stood out from the environment with their talk and banter. Here, they are being forced to conform to the environment they are in.
• They may be being dominated by the Barrow-downs in a stronger, but more subtle way.
• While we might chalk their silence up to the seriousness of the situation, we have been shown that it is in such dangerous times that hobbits tend to talk and banter and joke the most.

END OF SESSION