Frodo's Dream of Isengard

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Sep

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Could Frodo's dream of Gandalf at Isengard be related at all to his being named Elf-friend by Gildor? We're told that Frodo was often troubled by the sound of the sea in his dreams, but in the nights following his encounter with the Elves near Woodhall, he has a series of apparently Faërian visions. In earlier episodes, much has been made of Gildor's naming Frodo as an Elf-friend, so maybe this encounter with Faërie has heightened his sensitivity to dreams and the spiritual realm?

(Just to introduce myself, I've been following along with the series asynchronously for a little while now after an intensive 3-month catch-up of the first 150 episodes, so a lot of the discussions from a few years back are relatively fresh on my mind. During the pandemic, I've been rediscovering the Tolkien Professor podcast, which I first listened to as an early teenager during the Washington College lecture class on Tolkien. Catching up with all this material has been a God-send to listen to while working from home, and a delightful throw-back to those days when I was just starting to dip my toes into Tolkien's works!)
 
Could Frodo's dream of Gandalf at Isengard be related at all to his being named Elf-friend by Gildor?
Who knows what effects being named Elf-friend might have? Primarily, I've thought only of its effect on others - mainly Elves - who can apparently see it (or smell it, or something). I am intrigued by your proposition that it might open you up to more prophetic dreams: maybe the Valar can smell it, too!
 
Our sample of the dreams of Elf-friends is very limited. Do we know of any officially named Elf-friends other than Frodo (by Gildor Inglorien) and Bilbo (by Thranduil)? We hear of no portentous or prophetic dreams by Bilbo. So, all we really have is one Elf-friend who has impactful dreams. Not enough data points from which to draw a conclusion.

Likely that Frodo's dreams come from the Valar. Likely because he is the Ring-bearer, and the business of the Ring is becoming the central business of Middle-earth. Of course, it is possible that his being an Elf-friend somehow makes it easier for him to receive or remember these dreams, but we really have no evidence that this is so.

We also know of others, who are not Elf-friends, yet who have portentous dreams. Faramir and Boromir being key examples. So, it appears that being an Elf-friend is not necessary in order to receive divine dreams.
 
Since Frodos dreams are recycles from earlier drafts, i think we should take this with a healthy amount of salt.
 
I think being under the roof of Bombadil may be more important than being a recently declared Elf-friend. But I don't have a lot to base that on.
 
Do we know of any officially named Elf-friends other than Frodo (by Gildor Inglorien) and Bilbo (by Thranduil)?
Only in The Silmarillion and other non-tLotR texts, I think. Aragorn is clearly an Elf-friend, but if he is ever explicitly named so, I can't remember it. Gimli, too.

In those other texts there are also plenty of prophetic dreams. It would take a big chart to tally up all the dreams and dream-like events so we could divide them by Elf-friend/not. I don't think Ulmo's speaking directly to Tuor at Belegaer counts :) , though Tuor is certainly an Elf-friend, and he certainly had dreams as well. . .
 
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