Parallels between Bilbo and Frodo

[Praise Moyer]

This post is in celebration of myself and my sister Gloria (musigal) finally catching up! In honor of this, I want to briefly drag the discussion all the way back to the Shire, which was raced through so hastily before the class took a more sensible pace. I've always noticed the parallel in Tolkien's choice of phrasing between Bilbo leaving Bag End in "A Long Expected Party" ("He jumped over a low place in the hedge at the bottom, and took to the meadows, passing into the night like a rustle of wind in the grass.") and Frodo leaving the Shire in "Three Is Company" ("They jumped over the low place in the hedge at the bottom and took to the fields, passing into the darkness like a rustle in the grasses").

Much has been discussed in this class about the differences between Bilbo's first journey and Frodo's journey in Lord of the Rings. However, this parallel phrasing emphasizes to me the similarities between the two Hobbits (especially the fact that neither return permanently to the Shire or Bag End after leaving it). I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Kate Neville]

Welcome, Praise! Tuesday nights are usually booked for me, so I have to catch up later in the week. I thought you might find this post interesting. Tom Hillman (whose blog everyone should be following) had a blog about the exits of Bilbo and Frodo based on Tolkien's famous drawing of The Hill as seen from Hobbiton. I put in my two cents, which he found valuable enough to include. The remarkable thing about the whole affair to me is that Tolkien created this painting in 1937 for The Hobbit, but one can clearly follow the routes which both Bilbo and Frodo took when each left Bag End. There's a well-known quote from C. S. Lewis in which he says that The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe grew out of an image of a faun with an umbrella, but I think we all forget how visual Tolkien was as well -- the roots of Middle-earth are in language, but he had a very clear vision of the world in which those roots were planted.
http://alasnotme.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-low-place-in-hedge-fr-1i36.html