ForthDauntless3
Member
Upon reviewing the text for tonight's class, I came across a question that has always bothered me a little bit and a new detail that I had always overlooked.
The Question: What does it mean for this in-text day to be "Goldberry's Washing Day"? Tom tells us that it's her washing day and her autumn cleaning, but what is being washed and cleaned, exactly? Maybe it's the forest, but then what about this day belongs to Goldberry specifically?
We previously concluded, as suggested by Aerendis, that Goldberry is not a river spirit but a flower spirit, so how does this washing day connect to that interpretation? Frodo hears Goldberry singing a rain song, full of the tale of the river from highland spring to old man river, running into the sea. Did Tom pluck the last of the water lilies yesterday, so now the remnants of the dead lilies are being washed down to the sea?
My previous interpretation was that Goldberry had sung up this rain storm to clean the world, but if she is a flower spirit and not a water spirit, that would make little sense.
The Observation: Tom and Goldberry have changed their clothes! This may seem a minor detail. Each of us changes our clothes every day, after all, but in previous classes, we saw both Tom's and Goldberry's clothing intimately bound up with who they are.
Tom's change is relatively minor. He's still wearing blue, but we're explicitly told that it's "blue as rain-washed forget-me-nots". He's also exchanged his yellow boots for green stockings. This change is particularly striking, given Goldberry's change in attire. Tom has incorporated some of Goldberry's colors into his own clothing.
At the beginning of the chapter, "[Goldberry's] gown was green, green as young reeds, shot with silver like beads of dew; and her belt was of gold, shaped like a chain of flag-lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-me-nots." After her washing day, "the hobbits saw that she was clothed all in silver with a white girdle, and her shoes were like fishes mail."
Perhaps the change reflects the coming winter. If the first frost came the night before, killing the last of the water lilies, it might explain why Goldberry is now clad in winter colors. And then perhaps Tom's colors reflect hope for the spring and the return of the lilies to the pool where he found Goldberry.
The Conclusion: Given the rather conspicuous change in clothing immediately after washing day, it seems likely that the two are related. Did a frost kill the lilies so Goldberry is now washing their 'bodies' down the stream? That might explain Tom's urgency the previous day if he needed to collect lilies before the frost killed the last of them. However, Tom himself tells us that he is no weather master, so would he have known that a frost was coming, if indeed that happened?
How do you understand the change in clothing and its connection to the events of the day?
The Question: What does it mean for this in-text day to be "Goldberry's Washing Day"? Tom tells us that it's her washing day and her autumn cleaning, but what is being washed and cleaned, exactly? Maybe it's the forest, but then what about this day belongs to Goldberry specifically?
We previously concluded, as suggested by Aerendis, that Goldberry is not a river spirit but a flower spirit, so how does this washing day connect to that interpretation? Frodo hears Goldberry singing a rain song, full of the tale of the river from highland spring to old man river, running into the sea. Did Tom pluck the last of the water lilies yesterday, so now the remnants of the dead lilies are being washed down to the sea?
My previous interpretation was that Goldberry had sung up this rain storm to clean the world, but if she is a flower spirit and not a water spirit, that would make little sense.
The Observation: Tom and Goldberry have changed their clothes! This may seem a minor detail. Each of us changes our clothes every day, after all, but in previous classes, we saw both Tom's and Goldberry's clothing intimately bound up with who they are.
Tom's change is relatively minor. He's still wearing blue, but we're explicitly told that it's "blue as rain-washed forget-me-nots". He's also exchanged his yellow boots for green stockings. This change is particularly striking, given Goldberry's change in attire. Tom has incorporated some of Goldberry's colors into his own clothing.
At the beginning of the chapter, "[Goldberry's] gown was green, green as young reeds, shot with silver like beads of dew; and her belt was of gold, shaped like a chain of flag-lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-me-nots." After her washing day, "the hobbits saw that she was clothed all in silver with a white girdle, and her shoes were like fishes mail."
Perhaps the change reflects the coming winter. If the first frost came the night before, killing the last of the water lilies, it might explain why Goldberry is now clad in winter colors. And then perhaps Tom's colors reflect hope for the spring and the return of the lilies to the pool where he found Goldberry.
The Conclusion: Given the rather conspicuous change in clothing immediately after washing day, it seems likely that the two are related. Did a frost kill the lilies so Goldberry is now washing their 'bodies' down the stream? That might explain Tom's urgency the previous day if he needed to collect lilies before the frost killed the last of them. However, Tom himself tells us that he is no weather master, so would he have known that a frost was coming, if indeed that happened?
How do you understand the change in clothing and its connection to the events of the day?
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