Frodo – Living in the ‘Now’ in Rivendell?

Flammifer

Well-Known Member
Hi Professor Olsen, In the last class, on the end of ‘Many Meetings’, you offered an interpretation that Frodo and Bilbo speaking, “no more of the small news of the Shire far away,” represented speaking no more of the past; that, “nor of the dark shadows that encompassed them,” represented the present; and that, “the fair things they had seen in the world together,” especially, “the gentle fall of the bright year in the woods,” represented the future.

I offer a different reading, and wonder what you think of it?

I agree that news of the Shire represents the past, but consider that dark shadows represent either the past or the future (I note that ‘encompassed’ is in the past tense), whereas the gentle fall of the bright year in the woods, represents the now.

Frodo has come out of darkness, and near death or wraithification, to the safety and haven of Rivendell. He is, for this one day, maybe only this one evening, safe, rescued from the past, the future uncertain, and suspended (enchanted) in the now. Still enchanted in the now, when he leaves the Hall of Fire, and talks with Bilbo about the gentle fall of the bright year in the woods in Rivendell in October (though a different, and more ‘hobbitish’ enchantment than he experienced in the Hall of Fire).

Frodo, like most, has either been thinking about the past, or planning and thinking about the future most of the time. When he has been absorbed in the present, it has mostly been in times of urgent stress or emergency. Examples of focus on the present in peaceful and safe circumstances have been rare. Singing, “Opon the hearth the fire is red,” while walking through the Shire; the feast with Gildor Inglorion’s Elves; the baths and mushrooms at Crickhollow; dinner with Bombadil; running naked on the grass in the sunlight after escaping the barrow wight; the common room in the ‘Prancing Pony’ (before it turned into an emergency); are some of the examples that come to mind.

None, however, seem to have the importance of this evening in Rivendell. Frodo has just come from deadly peril to safe haven. He has just been (virtually) re-born. The future is uncertain, and unplanned. Frodo is suspended in a haven of peace and safety and joy. He is enchanted by Elvish song. He is lauded by Bilbo’s rendition of ‘Earendil was a Mariner’ after the feast in his honor. He hears the song to Elbereth. He sees a ‘seeming’ of Elrond, Arwen, and Aragorn in Majesty. He looks out with Bilbo on the woods of Rivendell and talks about the fall of the bright year.

Frodo has successfully (surprisingly) concluded a perilous quest. He has no plans yet (that he is aware of) for the future. Frodo is suspended in the safe and enchanting present. Partly, this makes us aware of how tempting it must be to stay in Rivendell, and how brave he is in the next chapter to volunteer to continue the quest. Partly the Earendil poem and the song to Elbereth condition Frodo (and us) to recognize why he will continue the quest.

Now, I know, that ‘living in the now’ is a particularly trendy ‘new age’ thing at the moment, associated with ‘mindfulness’ and other vague concepts. Not so much in Tolkien’s day. Then, it was more of an ‘Eastern’ or ‘Buddhist’ concept. Though I am sure there must have been some Catholic thinkers who discussed something like this (does anyone know?) (Or, dare I say, Biblical references?).

Still, I think Frodo and Bilbo sitting in Bilbo’s room in Rivendell in October, looking out over the forest hills, and talking about the fall of the bright year in the woods, is Tolkien giving us some glimpse of them ‘living in the now’, neither in the past nor the future.
 
I agree that taken in wider context, it makes sense that, in turning away from wider and deeper (and likely alarming) topics, Bilbo and Frodo talking about "the gentle fall of the bright year in the woods" seems to talk about the present. "Let's not dwell on the past, or speculate on the future, but just talk about what's going on now." That seems more in character for the island-of-tranquility-within-the-larger-island-of-tranquility-which-is-Rivendell vibe the text seeks to evoke here.
 
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