Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 52
Comment on Tom’s tolerance of the Barrow-wights:
Comment on Tom’s tolerance of the Barrow-wights:
- If the Downs were part of Tom’s land, why would be tolerate the Barrow-wights there?
- The same can be said for Old Man Willow and the other trees. Even Treebeard will say that there are sketchy things going on in the Old Forest.
- There is no doubt of the evil of Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wights, so that it not the issue.
- There is an underlying assumption that if Tom is good, he must have a strong reason not to expel the evil creatures. This assumes that to be good is to be an activist against evil.
- Both Tom Bombadil and Treebeard are examples that this assumption is not universal in Tolkien’s world, which removes the need for explanation for lack of intervention.
- We must examine the ideas of good within the context of the text, not out own assumptions.
- This is illustrated in Merry and Pippin’s questions for Treebeard about which side he falls on. Merry and Pippin, as part of those actively resisting Sauron, make this assumption, too.
- Note: Though critics of Tolkien assume that he is taking an oversimplified view of good and evil, though Tolkien goes out of his way to question and push back on this assumption.
- The Rohirrim are the good guys from our point of view in the war against Sauron, but there are multiple points of view on this, as Treebeard, or the Dunlendings, see them as enemies, too.
- Note: Tolkien wrote about this shifting perspective to Christopher during his service in the RAF, saying that there were “orcs on both sides” of WWII.
- There is also an element of a much longer view of the movements of evil by creatures like Treebeard and Tom Bombadil, which is outside our understanding.
- Tom understands that the Barrow-wights are themselves victims, having been enslaved and trapped in the barrows. He may not want to cast the spirits out and does so with sadness.
- This is another example of the tragic and piteous nature of evil beings.
- Note: The temptation is to project external vocabulary onto the text, using either knowledge of the author or our own assumptions about it. Rather, we must first create our vocabulary about the text by examining the text alone and on its own terms.
- Gandalf examines this concept himself when he warns Frodo not to be quick to judgement.
- It’s important that Frodo is given another drink before the second rendition of the song.
- Frodo is not immune to the same temptations as Pippin, having given into his pleasure at the attention and approval of the crowd to continue singing.
- This is partly a generational difference with their ancestors, as they’re outliers of hobbit culture.
- We’ve already seen the warm response given to Frodo by the Underhills. This follows the trend.
- There is a sense among the hobbits that they feel the familiarity and welcome equals safety.
- Frodo had already accomplished his goal of distracting from Pippin before anything bad happened, but then he joins in with the jollity, participating in the spirit of the song itself.
- As within the song, there is an escalation of merriment leading up the moment he vanishes.
- Aragorn’s concern about all of the hobbits, not just Pippin, is justified by Frodo’s behavior.
- There is an element of enchantment in the song, and Frodo’s getting carried away with it. This is similar to the dwarf song in chapter 1 of The Hobbit, which was also not explicitly magical.
- The description is from the perspective of the crowd, rather than Frodo. This makes the narrator more visible again, and uses the exclamation point to draw attention to it.
- This intervention by the narrator also sounds like the narrator of The Hobbit, and the voice is like one of the participants, as if the narrator is getting caught up in the action.
- When Frodo is compared to a travelling magician, there is a precedent for this in the minds of the hobbits of Bree, which is Gandalf. Butterbur knows that Gandalf can do magic.
- No one really understands Gandalf’s true nature, as he never reveals it, but even those hobbits who know him well don’t really question it. Pippin will reveal this later in Gondor.
- Butterbur defends Gandalf to others, in spite of their fear of magic, due to their relationship.
- It is possible that they simply fear the unknown, and they probably don’t have much experience.
- It may be that most people in Bree don’t even believe that Gandalf is truly a wizard anyway.
- The context is also important. This was not an occasion in which a magic trick was expected.
- There is a parallel to Bilbo’s joke at the Party, which the hobbits take as in very poor taste, because he did not tell them, and they had no reason to expect it in that context.
- The other motivation for doing this as a prank, which would annoy people due to the surprise.
- Butterbur does not rebuke Frodo for the magic but for the surprise, though the fact that they are from out of town might make the hobbits think that there is something weird about them.
- Their strangeness to Bree makes this extra suspicious, even if there was no magic involved. If Frodo is capable of this, they do not know what his purpose might be in Bree.
- What does Bill Ferny know that gives him that expression? It can’t be about the Ring, as neither Saruman, nor the Black Riders would have revealed its importance to underlings.
- The Black Riders must have told Ferny that they were looking for hobbits from the Shire.
- The presence of magic would not be identifying mark of the hobbits for whom they’re watching.
- The name of Baggins would have been made known to Ferny, so Frodo’s interruption of Pippin’s story about a Baggins may have drawn his attention.
- They might also have been told to look for hobbits behaving strangely, and this would fit that.
- It’s possible that the southerner gave Ferny more information beyond what he was told by the Black Riders. Would Saruman have shared such information with his spy?
- It’s not that Ferny has just figured out who they are but is now taking the opportunity to mock them as he leaves with everyone else.
- He would probably find it funny that they have made such a grave error, and he also feels as if he now has good information for the Riders and will be rewarded.
- The importance of Ferny’s expression is in the paranoia it incites in Frodo and company.
- Ferny shows the characteristics of the bully, taking advantage of people when opportunity presents itself, and lording that advantage over others. Even Bill the pony is an example.