Worthless and Weak

Chapters 3 - 10.

So, running myself sore on Saturday, and feeling otherwise lazy, I read chapters 3 through 10 of Book One of the Fellowship this Sunday.

These chapters become a little repetitious, or at the very least a pattern emerges. Frodo and company are accosted by danger, they are aided by a stranger, but the stranger does not continue with them, even though the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The first stranger is Gildor the elf, who they meet after their first encounters with the black riders. Gildor would normally never camp with hobbits, but due to the black riders, does so. Similarly, once the hobbits travel through the old wood, they are saved from Old man willow by Tom Bombadil, and again in Barrow Down. Finally, when they are in the inn of the prancing pony, they are aided by the Butterbur, and Strider.

With Gildor and again with Bombadil, it almost seems as if they only reason they don't journey with the hobbits is due to plot reasons. But almost. With both characters, we see people who are in many ways human, but in many other ways completely different. The elves are described as "so old and yet so young, so gay and yet so sad," which I think is a hauntingly beautiful description of these characters, something which isn't quite human.

Bombadil sings. He sings to old man willow, he signs to the barrow wights, and he sings to himself and to Goldberry. If I recall the Silmarilion correctly, and if you'll forgive some rampant speculation on my part, he is singing a variation (perhaps corruption would be a better word, although corruption is probably a better term for Morgoth's song) of the song began by Illuvitar at the creation of the universe.

But just like Gildor, when given the opportunity to escort them to Rivendell, he instead refuses. In both cases, the characters are more witnesses than actors. They seem to see their roles as outside of the fate of humanity; that whatever happens they will either retreat to the Gray Havens or continue living in the old forest.

Finally, I'll note some things about the world and setting. It seems very static, that while there is history, it seems only to be a list of events and stories, there is no sense of history in the Hegelian sense, there's no momentum, no sense of progress, or even of steady-state equilibriums. The men of Bree-land don't attempt to colonize the lands around Bree because, well it doesn't say. The hobbits don't turn back the old forest, don't try to use it. Everybody seems to think of the world as what it is, and no individual tries to change it, even slightly. I realize this may be part of my 20th century thinking, (dare I say bias?) that we live in an age where we do things everyday that weren't possible a decade ago, and we see changes in the world around us (in terms of architecture, styles and fashions, even music, art, politics, etc) within our lives, so that we can go back to place we used to live, and note how much it changes, and I think that as Americans we get even less of this than average, for instance: Shanghai.

But I think it's more than just a return to pre 20th century thinking. It's a pattern of Tolkien's world, that the world is primarily a place of myth, not an actual realized world, a backdrop to explore heroism, which is certainly not empty, (far far from it), but rather the background just is, the minor characters seem to know that the story isn't about them, but not just for plot purposes, rather because thats their purpose, their platonic essence if you will.

While I'd love to continue writing, and perhaps if I continued to do so long I'd find a combination of words that make a little sense, but it's past midnight, so I will say goodbye, and perhaps I can continue onward with a better understanding and better way to say what I'm saying.

Labels: LOTR