Kyle Winiecki
New Member
Last week amysrevenge had a post about Bree being a return to normalcy after the last three chapters seeming more like an adventure into Faerie and Enchantment. This got me thinking more about these chapters and other instances of the company traveling into Faerie (such as when the hobbits go to Woodhall with Gildor and in the future with Rivendell and Lothlorien).
This left me with a few questions after thinking more about journeying into Faerie and experiencing Enchantment: How do we respond to Enchantment? Is there an appropriate response? and do we ever see such an appropriate response from any of the characters in LotR?
After going back and looking through the three chapters of Faerie (The Old Forest, In the House of Tom Bombadil and Fog on the Barrow-Downs) there was a connection that I found that I don't believe we discussed and led me more to a theory as to how we should respond.
Upon looking at the dream sequence with the four hobbits in The House of Tom Bombadil during their first evening, there was a specific sentence that jumped out to me. After seeing the experiences of the first three dreams of Frodo, then Merry and then Pippin, each of them has a dream where they are awoken due to some fear or misunderstanding they receive from their dreams. Then we get one of the great Sam sentences in LotR: "As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep sleep content, if logs are contented."
What stood out to me about this is that we see another character who seems to fall asleep contentedly when taken into enchantment, Tom Bombadil. When Tom is telling the hobbits stories and tales he seemingly nods off asleep. Even though the text doesn't specifically say, I think we have evidence that he is content in this moment, if indeed Tom Bombadil can be contented.
This connection here between Sam and Tom strikes me as significant and leads me to suspect that Sam indeed out of many characters in LotR experiences and responds to enchantment in an appropriate way more than others. It also seems significant to me that in LotR in many of the times where the hobbits are taken into Faerie, we get very little if any dialogue from Sam. I wonder if in part this is due to the fact that he is enchanted and is just contentedly taking things in and experiencing things as they are.
Now as a sidebar here, I will admittedly say that I love Sam and he is my favorite characters in all of the legendarium and I may be showing a bit of favoritism here. I am admitting this because I don't want to downplay the significance that the other hobbits experience during their time in Faerie as well. I don't think Sam is doing it the right way and everyone else is doing it wrong, I just think that Sam responses seem more appropriate and a bit closer to where we should be ourselves as we are taken into enchantment. I do think there are significant points where we see appropriate responses from the other hobbits and I am especially curious looking forward at other points where the hobbits experience enchantment to look at how they are responding (as well as others from the fellowship and other characters outside of it).
This leaves us back to where we started: How do we respond to enchantment?
The main theory I propose is that we are supposed to be contented and this contentment stems from experiencing things as they are for what they are. This also seems to be connected to Tom's response to when Frodo asks who he is and he says "Don't you know my name yet? That is the only answer." I do think there is more to responding to enchantment and that is why I am asking these questions, to further study our own experiences with Faerie and enchantment.
This left me with a few questions after thinking more about journeying into Faerie and experiencing Enchantment: How do we respond to Enchantment? Is there an appropriate response? and do we ever see such an appropriate response from any of the characters in LotR?
After going back and looking through the three chapters of Faerie (The Old Forest, In the House of Tom Bombadil and Fog on the Barrow-Downs) there was a connection that I found that I don't believe we discussed and led me more to a theory as to how we should respond.
Upon looking at the dream sequence with the four hobbits in The House of Tom Bombadil during their first evening, there was a specific sentence that jumped out to me. After seeing the experiences of the first three dreams of Frodo, then Merry and then Pippin, each of them has a dream where they are awoken due to some fear or misunderstanding they receive from their dreams. Then we get one of the great Sam sentences in LotR: "As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep sleep content, if logs are contented."
What stood out to me about this is that we see another character who seems to fall asleep contentedly when taken into enchantment, Tom Bombadil. When Tom is telling the hobbits stories and tales he seemingly nods off asleep. Even though the text doesn't specifically say, I think we have evidence that he is content in this moment, if indeed Tom Bombadil can be contented.
This connection here between Sam and Tom strikes me as significant and leads me to suspect that Sam indeed out of many characters in LotR experiences and responds to enchantment in an appropriate way more than others. It also seems significant to me that in LotR in many of the times where the hobbits are taken into Faerie, we get very little if any dialogue from Sam. I wonder if in part this is due to the fact that he is enchanted and is just contentedly taking things in and experiencing things as they are.
Now as a sidebar here, I will admittedly say that I love Sam and he is my favorite characters in all of the legendarium and I may be showing a bit of favoritism here. I am admitting this because I don't want to downplay the significance that the other hobbits experience during their time in Faerie as well. I don't think Sam is doing it the right way and everyone else is doing it wrong, I just think that Sam responses seem more appropriate and a bit closer to where we should be ourselves as we are taken into enchantment. I do think there are significant points where we see appropriate responses from the other hobbits and I am especially curious looking forward at other points where the hobbits experience enchantment to look at how they are responding (as well as others from the fellowship and other characters outside of it).
This leaves us back to where we started: How do we respond to enchantment?
The main theory I propose is that we are supposed to be contented and this contentment stems from experiencing things as they are for what they are. This also seems to be connected to Tom's response to when Frodo asks who he is and he says "Don't you know my name yet? That is the only answer." I do think there is more to responding to enchantment and that is why I am asking these questions, to further study our own experiences with Faerie and enchantment.