I was just listening to the latest session (212) , and the discussion about the seasons both in Bilbo's poem and the Ent-song made me wonder if the seasons play a role in the story as a whole. I have not had time to go through this carefully, and since the main action takes place during a little more than one year, there are some constraints, but while I have seen several discussions of the significance of certain dates, I don't know if anyone has considered the seasons.
Autumn seems to have some significance for Frodo; he feels the pull of adventure the strongest in autumn and decided to leave at that time partly because of that (as said in the beginning of "Three is Company"). He also leaves for his final journey to the Havens around the same time. How this ties to the season, I have not worked out, but I find it worth observing that for Frodo, autumn seems to be the time for change.
Sauron is defeated in the spring, which makes all kinds of sense and probably one of the easiest to see a significance to: Evil/death is overcome and new life begins, like nature comes back to life in spring.
Aragorn and Arwen are wedded at midsummer. This is the fulfilment, or final part of the restoration of the kingship of both the North and South kingdoms, like summer can be seen as the fulfilment of spring.
Winter I fidn more difficult to say something about. In some ways it feels like not much happens in winter, but that is not quite right. They have a long pause in Rivendell, but they set out close to midwinter, and the fist part of the journey from Rivendell takes part in winter. At first I was tempted to see winter as a kind of rest - like the plants rests - but that is only true for a part of that season.
Not a developed though, but I wondered if there could be something here.
Autumn seems to have some significance for Frodo; he feels the pull of adventure the strongest in autumn and decided to leave at that time partly because of that (as said in the beginning of "Three is Company"). He also leaves for his final journey to the Havens around the same time. How this ties to the season, I have not worked out, but I find it worth observing that for Frodo, autumn seems to be the time for change.
Sauron is defeated in the spring, which makes all kinds of sense and probably one of the easiest to see a significance to: Evil/death is overcome and new life begins, like nature comes back to life in spring.
Aragorn and Arwen are wedded at midsummer. This is the fulfilment, or final part of the restoration of the kingship of both the North and South kingdoms, like summer can be seen as the fulfilment of spring.
Winter I fidn more difficult to say something about. In some ways it feels like not much happens in winter, but that is not quite right. They have a long pause in Rivendell, but they set out close to midwinter, and the fist part of the journey from Rivendell takes part in winter. At first I was tempted to see winter as a kind of rest - like the plants rests - but that is only true for a part of that season.
Not a developed though, but I wondered if there could be something here.