I4detail
Member
Also, I wasn't actively looking for it, so might have missed it, but was there any connection between all the water imagery of Frodo's fugue state (as he loses a sense of himself and is drawn into the song of the Elves. Or maybe I'm stretching on that one), and the fact that the next thing that he becomes conscious of is Bilbo reciting the Song of Eärendil, which is mostly about someone sailing. You know, on water?
We could look at this from two ways, from Tolkien skillfully and masterfully drawing us into the song—and, let's be frank, he considered Eärendil to be the keystone of middle earth, so he's quite deliberately greasing the rails to guide the reader into his cornerstone tale—or from the perspective of the story itself: what is happening at this moment? What are the elves singing about?
If we look at this line: "visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world," could it be that they, too are telling the same tale? A warm-up act for Bilbo, or perhaps a coincidence? I know we invoked Ulmo, and that some of the metaphors don't really tie to the sea (an endless river, a dream of music that turned into running water), but both these things happen after Frodo has short circuited, after he has been overwhelmed by beauty, so things start to break down for him anyway. Or maybe it is just because they are elves and sing of the sea and of Valinor and of the past and of home.
We could look at this from two ways, from Tolkien skillfully and masterfully drawing us into the song—and, let's be frank, he considered Eärendil to be the keystone of middle earth, so he's quite deliberately greasing the rails to guide the reader into his cornerstone tale—or from the perspective of the story itself: what is happening at this moment? What are the elves singing about?
If we look at this line: "visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world," could it be that they, too are telling the same tale? A warm-up act for Bilbo, or perhaps a coincidence? I know we invoked Ulmo, and that some of the metaphors don't really tie to the sea (an endless river, a dream of music that turned into running water), but both these things happen after Frodo has short circuited, after he has been overwhelmed by beauty, so things start to break down for him anyway. Or maybe it is just because they are elves and sing of the sea and of Valinor and of the past and of home.