The beginning of an expedition

TThurston

Member
The morning after the Fox encounters the three hobbits, Frodo wakes quite sore. "'Walking for pleasure! Why didn't I drive?' he thought, as he usually did at the beginning of an expedition." I used to think that on previous expeditions he had started by driving. This time it occurred to me that he generally always walked, but at the beginning he regretted it and wished that he had driven. I expect that an expedition would something on a much grander scale than a day-hike or a multi-day jaunt through the Shire. I wonder what other expeditions Frodo had undertaken.

I suppose his journey from Buckland as a lad may have been an expedition of sorts, but it seems like there have been others. Frodo tells Sam that one meets Elves sometimes in the Woody End in spring and autumn, which is a couple of days walk from Bag End. Perhaps this is the extent of his expeditions. But the Elves say that they have not seen hobbits in a wood at night (as the Fox observed) since Bilbo went away. Maybe Frodo's expeditions were with Bilbo, before he went away.
 
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The first section Chapter 2, "The Shadow of the Past," describes Frodo's life between Bilbo's departure and Gandalf's dramatic return. It says:

Frodo went tramping over the Shire with them [Pippin and Merry]; but more often he wandered by himself, and to the amazement of sensible folk he was sometimes seen far from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight. Merry and Pippin suspected that he visited the Elves at times, as Bilbo had done.
This doesn't quite fit the description of his expeditions given in Chapter 3, but perhaps he also visits his relatives in Buckland from time to time.

The line about him "far from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight" is difficult to reconcile with the Elves' assertion about not having seen hobbits in the woods at night since Bilbo went away. It's possible Frodo was just in other parts of the Shire, but that seems a pretty weak answer. It's a puzzle, all right. (As for meeting elves in the Woody End in spring and autumn, it's entirely possible Frodo has encountered other Elves - not Gildor's folk and probably not even High Elves - in the Woody End during the daytime during spring and autumn.)
 
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