Today we turn to some questions about the chapter as a whole.
What is the chapter for?
At the beginning of the week, I said nothing really happens in this chapter.
A. Do you agree? How many things typically “happen” in an LotR chapter?
B. How does this chapter fit into Book IV – and into The Lord of the
Rings as a whole? Are there structural similarities with other chapters or
sections of the book?
C. What do you think is the “central” episode of the chapter: the Rabbits, or
the Battle, or the Landscape? Or something else?
“That is hidden”
D. Why is the Ring never mentioned in this chapter of all of Book IV?
The Road Goes Ever On and Off (reprise)
In a little while Gollum led them
down on to the southward road; and after that they went on more quickly, though
the danger was greater.
Ah, hobbits and a guide, on the Road again, for the first time since when!
E. How does this Road work in the story, compared to other roads? Does this
Road fit into Bilbo’s poem about going ever on and on?
Their ears were strained for the
sound of hoof or foot on the road ahead, or following them from behind; but the
night passed, and they heard no sound of walker or rider.
In my March
2005 discussion, “A Shortcut to Mushrooms” (see question 4), we discussed
Tolkien’s repeated use of the suspense device of walkers on a road hearing the
approaching “sound of hoof or foot”. Here we are about three yards from Mordor
itself, and Tolkien prepares us for another good and scary one, and then tosses
it away, unused.
F. Why? And are there any other “Tolkienian” plot devices or mechanisms
you’ve noticed in this chapter?
Meanwhile, in another part of the epic
‘Seven companions we had: one we
lost at Moria, the others we left at Parth Galen above Rauros: two of my kin; a
Dwarf there was also, and an Elf, and two Men. They were Aragorn; and Boromir,
who said that he came out of Minas Tirith, a city in the South.’
G. Had you forgotten the others when Frodo says this?
Here
is a grid of various ‘chronologies’ that Tolkien prepared for himself while
writing the book, and of course the final one that appears in the Appendices in
the Tale of Years.
H. What is happening elsewhere in the plot? Do those events have any
relationship to what Frodo and Sam are going through now? Does Tolkien make any
connection between Books IV and III-V in our chapter?
I. Did you notice while reading the chapter that that “inserted” extra travel
day and night is rather eventless? How does the sudden addition of an extra
20-25 miles of distance from the Morannon affect where the campsite, battle,
and eventually Henneth Annun all were ‘meant’ to be on the map?
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
squire online:
Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!" (improved!)
The Valaquenta discussion
A Shortcut to Mushrooms discussion
