Mattias Amnefelt
New Member
During the field trip after last weeks class, Prof. Olsen talked about how the game's depiction of West-gate was in line with the book as it had the small hut outside of the gate where Harry would have been when the hobbits first came to Bree. In my mind I had always envisioned that Harry's hut was inside the gate so I went back to actually look at the book. This is what the text says:
"They came to the West-gate and found it shut, but at the door of the lodge beyond it, there was a man sitting. He jumped up and fetched a lantern and looked over the gate at them in surprise. [...] He stared at them darkly for a moment and then slowly opened the gate and let them ride through. 'We don't often see Shire-folk riding on the road at night,' he went on, as they halted a moment by his door.
So Harry is sitting in front of his door and when he hears them he takes a lantern and looks over the gate at the hobbits. This could of course be another gate, say one in a fence around his lodge but that doesn't seem likely as there is no mention of there being two different gates, and also the hobbits halt by his door after they have ridden through the gate. I think a much more reasonable reading is that the beyond in the first sentence is relative to the hobbit's position and that the lodge is on the inside. The gate is a relatively low gate, at most chest-high to a man allowing Harry to peer over it, and also allowing Strider to climb over once Harry's back is turned.
"They came to the West-gate and found it shut, but at the door of the lodge beyond it, there was a man sitting. He jumped up and fetched a lantern and looked over the gate at them in surprise. [...] He stared at them darkly for a moment and then slowly opened the gate and let them ride through. 'We don't often see Shire-folk riding on the road at night,' he went on, as they halted a moment by his door.
So Harry is sitting in front of his door and when he hears them he takes a lantern and looks over the gate at the hobbits. This could of course be another gate, say one in a fence around his lodge but that doesn't seem likely as there is no mention of there being two different gates, and also the hobbits halt by his door after they have ridden through the gate. I think a much more reasonable reading is that the beyond in the first sentence is relative to the hobbit's position and that the lodge is on the inside. The gate is a relatively low gate, at most chest-high to a man allowing Harry to peer over it, and also allowing Strider to climb over once Harry's back is turned.
