Understanding Frodo’s second dream in the house of Tom Bombadil, which stumped the class way back in episode 36.

Flammifer

Well-Known Member
This is a very important dream. I think it is the only dream in TLOTR that is referenced twice, once, when it happens in the house of Tom Bombadil, and the other time at almost the very end of ‘The Return of the King’, when Frodo sees Elvenhome from the sea, “And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”

(Is there any other dream that is recalled again in TLOTR? Can anyone find one?)

Now, the class discussed this dream way back in episode 36.
At the time that we encounter this dream, we have no idea that this green country should be associated with Elvenhome (though, by the end of the story, we know it is). The Prof. suggested at the time that the far green country was a metaphor, and, a metaphor of what the song was about.

I agree that this dream is working on several levels. It seems to be a pre-figuring of Frodo’s first view of Elvenhome, but, it also has a different message for Frodo at the time that he dreams it.

Prof. Corey was convinced that this was a ‘sent’ dream.
Corey asks, ‘What is the purpose of this vision?’ (What is the purpose intended by the dream sender.)
Corey suggests that the grey rain curtain may represent Frodo’s fears and trouble (barrow wights and Black Riders) and that, if Frodo can overcome those fears, he will see ‘hope’ more clearly.

But, Corey does not seem overly convinced by this reading.

Corey almost concludes by saying, “we are stumped by this dream, we cannot even judge its effect on Frodo, because we are not told what its effect was on Frodo.”

In episode 37, Merielle suggests that the ‘far green country’ is Valinor (which we know will be correct at the end of the Return of the King), but, Corey wonders what the real purpose of the dream is, at the time it is delivered to Frodo.

Corey, in that discussion, speculated that the vision might sort of conflate Frodo being healed of suffering in Valinor, with the idea of Arda being eventually healed through suffering into something more glorious than anyone could conceive.

Also, in episode 37, Kyle wonders why this dream is placed at the beginning of chapter 8, rather than at the end of chapter 7? This is a good question. But, not really answered. Corey concludes that the dream being placed at the beginning of chapter 8 means that it is part of the Barrow Wight story, not part of the House of Tom Bombadil story. Corey says ‘that if it had been the end of chapter 7 he could not help but connect it with what had happened to Frodo in Tom’s house, and the episode with the Ring, but placing it at the start of chapter 8, connects it more to what is to come in the barrow’.

I think that this was the clearest example, in all the previous episodes, of where Prof. Corey and the class were stumped by a passage (and an obviously important passage – the only dream referenced twice?)

Not that I think any of the explanations of this dream were wrong. Just that I think that they were incomplete, and did not really uncover the main ‘message’ of this dream. There were many attempts to read the dream and discover what the ‘far green country’ and the ‘pale light’ and the ‘veil of rain’ meant, but, although Corey concluded that this dream was ‘sent’, there was little attempt to discover why the senders sent it.

However, I will now attempt to clarify.

The following report comes from sources in Valinor. Delivered through the same secret back-channel that allowed the Red Book of Westmarch to report what Frodo experienced as he approached Elvenhome by ship (I could tell you what it is, but, then I would have to kill you).

“I remember well that time in the Ministry of Dreams and Visions in Valinor. Just a century earlier, this Ministry had been a sleepy backwater in the busy affairs of the Valar. But, now, Sauron was on the move! The Enemy was readying for war in Middle Earth! The Ministry, that had been staffed by scarce more than a dozen, now employed thousands of Valar, Maiar and Elves, busy writing, composing, singing and sending hundreds or thousands of dreams or visions every night winging their way to Middle Earth to alert, alarm, or prepare, key people for the struggle to come. The Valar had a policy of no longer intervening directly in the affairs of Middle Earth, but, we were not indifferent! Every possible resource, and available effort was mobilized to make all indirect channels of influence as potent as could be.

The night you asked about? Of course I remember! It was our most important channel. Direct to the Ringbearer. The Minister himself was there, surrounded by at least a score of juniors, assistants, and myself.

The finishing touches to the dream were being composed, and the overall content being reviewed by the Minister. He was muttering, sometimes to the assembly, but often to himself.

“Hobbits! So infuriatingly difficult! We sent him a dream last night, that should have been clear as a bell! Gandalf is on his way! How in the name of whatever did he scramble that one?”

“OK, team, listen up! The message we want to get through here is pretty simple. Frodo! Smarten up! Pay attention to what is going on! Ask the right questions! Think! Stop bumbling through your quest! Wake up and smell the coffee! What have we got?”

The chief composer answered, “Well, we are going to start with a song, but a muffled song. The song represents what is going on around Frodo that he is not thinking about nor processing well enough. The muffling will seem to him like a grey rain curtain. That should immediately get him to think about the grey rain curtain that accompanied Goldberry’s Washing Day, that has just passed. So, the song, that he can’t hear well is something that happened yesterday. If he listens hard, in the dream, thinks about it hard when he awakes, he will hear the song in the dream more and more clearly, and the veil of rain will turn to glass and silver, and he will see clearly. If he thinks hard about yesterday, he will wonder why he put on the Ring, he will wonder why he didn’t ask Tom better questions, ‘why didn’t the Ring affect you?’ ‘Is there any way I can prevent the Ring affecting me?’ and hopefully begin to analyze more instead of just bumbling along.”

“Sounds good”, said the Minister. “Are we ready to sing it and send it?” And the dream went out.

The mood of the team was mixed, when we met again the following night. “How did it go?” asked the Minister.
“I don’t think it went how we thought it would,” said the Chief Observer. “It did not appear that Frodo began to analyze anything, or deepen his understanding of the Ring, the World, or his Position, at all. At first glance, the dream just bounced off. But, I’m not sure it totally did. At a moment of great peril and temptation in the barrow, Frodo resisted putting on the Ring. Perhaps the dream played a part in that?”

“It would be nice to think so, but, I’m not at all sure that it did”, said the Minister. “Hobbits! Why in the name of Manwe, has no one around here done any study of hobbits?””


So, that’s the information that I have received. It rings true to me. The message of the dream intended by the dream senders was: Frodo! Think! Analyze! What happened in the day just past? What does it mean? Stop burying it! Stop ignoring it! You will be much more effective if you just allow yourself to become aware of what is going on.

Of course, those creative masterminds in Valinor, couldn’t help but layer on additional references, to Elvenhome, to healing, to the mending of Arda, in their dream, all of which confused their message to Frodo, though, in their own minds, it made it more powerful and compelling.

However, Kyle’s perceptive question, about why this dream was placed at the beginning of chapter 8, rather than the end of chapter 7, leads me to believe, that, although Frodo did not really get the message of this dream, he understood some of it subconsciously, and it did help him to resist the urge to put on the Ring in the barrow.
 
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