Or the case of the missing road—more on that subject after your questions.
1. I love maps. I’ve spent many hours poring over a big book map of
Ohio that shows every stream and woodlot, trying to find the locations
described in Roger Conant’s wonderful 1951 natural history monograph,
Reptiles of Ohio.
I’d love to see a study as to which elements appear only on Tolkien’s maps and
not in the texts, and a discussion of how those elements work to support the
story. One important thing about Tolkien’s maps is Tolkien’s names, and
how he gives meaning to location.
TheLotR is readable without maps, but Tolkien did note that he needed the maps
to write it.
2. Tolkien tries to make the lack of roadside encounters plausible, when
he writes, “So far they had not met a soul on the road. This way was
not much used, being hardly fit for carts, and there was little traffic to the
Woody End,” and also, “It climbed away from the main road in the
Water-valley, and wound over the skirts of the Green Hills toward Woody End, a
wild corner of the Eastfarthing.” They’re passing through an
uncultivated backcountry. I’ve been on paths, only a few miles from small
towns, where I’ve walked all day and only met other recreational backpackers, a
class of people who are probably fewer in the Shire than in the real world
today.
3. Pippin argues against leaving the road because of the Golden Perch and
because he’s right about the off-road obstacles, as they find in the
undergrowth at the bottom of the hill and the confusing belt of trees
beyond. However, they don’t seem to have much trouble with bogs.
4. If Sam spoke against him, Frodo would at least listen, but Sam won’t
do that.
5. I’ve only skimmed Paul Kocher--doesn't he talk about the Road as a
metaphor for life?
Nice work on the discussion (and the maps) by the way—very impressive,
especially considering you stepped in after the last minute.
Finally, there’s some difficulty with the map:
1. In the previous chapter, when the hobbits reached the fork in the road
after sunset, we read: “At that point it bent left and went down into
the Lowlands of the Yale, making for Stock; but a lane branched right, winding
through a wood of ancient oak-trees on its way to Woodhall…‘That is the way for
us,’ said Frodo.”
2. When the elves agree to take the hobbits to their hall, Gildor
says: “It is some miles, but you shall have rest at the end of it, and
it will shorten your journey tomorrow.”
3. And from the passage you cite: “’We can cut straighter than
the road anyway,’ answered Frodo. ‘The Ferry is south-east from
Woodhall; but the 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.” [emphasis added]
Using the routes shown on your map, it looks to me like Frodo’s short cut
(dotted red line) would be less than half as long as walking back to the
road to Stock and around (solid blue line). And Frodo had already
made the choice to take the Woodhall road before meeting the elves.
And Gildor said that going east along the Woodhall road would shorten
the hobbits’ later journey, which it would not if they had to retrace their
steps back to the Stock road, with no dissent from the hobbits.
I think there’s a road missing from the map, that leads from Woodhall to Stock;
this road would parallel the Stock road a few miles to the south, still out of
the way, but not nearly so far. This missing road is the one Frodo refers
to. It’s seems quite unlikely, anyway, that Woodhall could only be
reached by a side road from the west, with no direct access to the next nearest
town.
