I am reading the Fellowship for the third time, and I have noticed that Frodo
has many dreams that are very mysterious (as they were probably intended to
be). I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on these dreams, or could shed
some light on their significance.
The first is in the last two paragraphs of “A Conspiracy Unmasked”. Frodo
dreams that he is looking out of a high window over dark forest, and he senses
that there are dark creatures below that will eventually smell him out. Then he
thinks he hears a strong wind rustling over the tops of the trees, but realizes
that it is actually the sound of the Sea, a sound he has never heard in real
life. Then he founds himself in the open on a dark heath (what exactly is a
heath?) and notices a strange salt smell in the air. He sees a white tower and
desires to climb it and see the Sea. As he struggles toward the tower there is
a great light and thunder. (At the beginning of the next chapter he is awakened
by Merry holding a candle and banging on the door.)
The next dream (actually Frodo was unsure of whether it was a dream or not) is
in the first paragraph of the “Fog on the Barrow-Downs”. Here it is in full:
But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a
sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light
behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass
and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened
before him under a swift sunrise.
I recognize these words as those spoken by Gandalf in the third film about the
after-life, but I wonder what Tolkien meant by them. I think Frodo as more
dreams later and if I recall correctly they are usually related to the
goings-on of Gandalf at the time. Perhaps these ones are related to Gandalf
too. Any thought or
insights?
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I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few shall find it."
Mt.7:13,14
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"It needs but one foe to breed a war, Master Warden," answered Eowyn. "And those who have not swords may still die upon them. Would you have have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?"
ROTK pg. 255
Freedom is NEVER free.
