Frodo finished his breakfast in silence. Then standing up he looked over
the land ahead, and called to Pippin.
'All ready to start?' he said as Pippin ran up. 'We must be
getting off at once. We slept late; and there are a good many miles to go.'
"'You" slept late, you mean,' said Pippin. 'I was up long
before; and we are only waiting for you to finish eating and thinking.'
'I have finished both now. And I am going to make for
Bucklebury Ferry as quickly as possible. I am not going out of the way, back to
the road we left last night: I am going to cut straight across country from
here.'
'Then you are going to fly,' said Pippin. 'You won't cut
straight on foot anywhere in this country.'
'We can cut straighter than the road anyway,' answered
Frodo. 'The Ferry is east from Woodhall; but the hard road curves away to the
left -you can see a bend of it away north over there. It goes round the north
end of the Marish so as to strike the causeway from the Bridge above Stock. But
that is miles out of the way. We could save a quarter of the distance if we
made a line for the Ferry from where we stand.'
Here is the map from the book to help us imagine Frodo’s plan. The blue is the
Road. To reach it, they would retrace their steps somewhat from the Elven
“hall” above Woodhall, and then follow it North around the Marish country,
through Stock, to the Ferry. The red is Frodo’s short cut: the dotted line is
how he imagines it will go, straight East to the Ferry, and the solid line is
their actual path in the end.
Here is a photo of the English Fens country, upon which I believe the “Marish”
is based; and just for giggles, a redrawn 1600s map. If
the Shire around Hobbiton is the green and hilly Midlands, the Marish is the
low and flat wet country of Lincoln and Norwich.
1. Tolkien spent a lot of effort in his first drafts just imagining Frodo’s
journey to Buckland, because he was inventing The Shire on the fly, starting
only from The Hobbit’s simple Road east. He finally settled on this geography
by making a map. Would The Lord of the Rings be readable without its maps? Are
Tolkien’s maps better than the host of maps included in the host of ripoff
fantasy romances ever since?
2. Is it plausible that the hobbits walk from Hobbiton to the Marish without
meeting anyone except Elves? Just how populous and well-cultivated is the
Shire?
"'Short cuts make long delays,'" argued Pippin. 'The country is rough round
here, and there are bogs and all kinds of difficulties down in the Marish -I
know the land in these parts. And if you are worrying about Black Riders, I
can't see that it is any worse meeting them on a road than in a wood or a
field.'
'It is less easy to find people in the woods and fields,'
answered Frodo. 'And if you are supposed to be on the road, there is some
chance that you will be looked for on the road and not off it.'
'All right!' said Pippin. 'I will follow you into every bog
and ditch. But it is hard! I had counted on passing the "Golden Perch" at Stock
before sundown. The best beer in the Eastfarthing, or used to be: it is a long
time since I tasted it.'
'That settles it!' said Frodo. 'Short cuts make delays, but
inns make longer ones. At all costs we must keep you away from the "Golden
Perch". We want to get to Bucklebury before dark. What do you say, Sam?'
'I will go along with you, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam (in spite
of private misgiving and a deep regret for the best beer in the
Eastfarthing).
'Then if we are going to toil through bog and briar, let's
go now!' said Pippin.
3. Why does Pippin argue against leaving the Road? Has he been this assertive
before?
4. Does Sam really have a vote in this decision?
5. This is the first time Frodo has gone “off the Road”, but it will not be the
last. Bilbo’s lore and songs emphasize the importance of sticking to the Road,
but he too constantly left it in The Hobbit, with many an adventure in
consequence. What is the purpose, or meaning, of “The Road” in Tolkien’s
fiction?
Everyone is headed for Maggot's Farm! Join us in the Reading Room this week to discuss the "The Lord of the Rings" Chapter IV: A Short Cut to Mushrooms
"I'm fond of mushrooms out of a field."
-J.R.R. Tolkien.
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