Latest / Mythmakers / Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 1 Chapter 10

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Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 1 Chapter 10 · Mythmakers

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the MythMaker's Sidecast, Lord of the Rings and Orders journey.
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  And today we have we chapter 10 of Fellowship of the Ring, this is the chapter called Strider.
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  My name is Julia Golding, I am an author so I'm looking at it from the point of view of
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  trying to imagine what it was like to write this story and also drawing on some of the
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  things I found out about talking over the years. Now, off we go, the first thing about this
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  chapter that you'll notice is the change of pace. If you remember the last chapter began with
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  quite a long disquisition about Bri and all the roads and the history of the place and so it
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  took a long while to get going as we were ambling into Bri. This one is almost all dialogue.
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  It's very little outside the dialogue and dialogue itself is a way of increasing pace.
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  So this is a very pacy chapter, it feels quite short and it doesn't take that long to read as a result.
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  And what happens in this chapter is also quite limited which adds to the sense of it being
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  pacy. This is the aftermath of the disaster in the in-room when Frodo puts on the ring while singing
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  the song. This is the interviews he promised to have with Strider and with Butterbur and also we find
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  out what happened to Mary. So it's a compact little chapter. The first thing to notice here is we
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  get some answers. Very often in Nord of the Rings we get questions. What should we do about the ring
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  being the biggest of them all? Here though, there is some answers given which is very satisfying. I think
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  you do need to answer some of the questions in the mind of your reader and not keep them in, you
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  know, suspense for days and days. So this is a chapter that has a lot of answers in it. And one of
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  the first things we get is an answer as to who Strider is. And we get the detail that we've,
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  if you remember, I pointed out there was a moment where a dark shape is seen climbing over
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  the gate in the previous chapter, which is a little bit of an oddity because it's not really within
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  the point of view of Frodo and his friends at this stage. But here we get the answer as to who
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  it was. Strider tells us it was he who climbed over the gate. We're still in the negotiating stage
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  as the hobbits try and find out if Strider is going to be a friend or a foe. And here
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  Tolkien is already signaling that he is in friend territory. He signals his, you know, the basic
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  goodness of Strider by the way he reacts to their suspicion. He is pleased that they're asking
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  questions and they don't just take his word for it. He is described as laughing and he is almost
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  teasing them, which suggests a kind of familiarity with the nature of Hobbit kind, which is definitely
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  not within the remit of a black rider or anything on the dark side. The other thing that we see here
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  is that Strider possesses practical knowledge. He is making his case for why they should take him
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  with them. So not only does he know the road, but he also is able to give them a guide to who is
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  what's really happening that's beyond what the hobbits know. He tells them about Bill Furny,
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  who he names, like the southerner, who he has paled up with. He has this,
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  he is what you need, the local knowledge that you need in a guide. And so in a way, he is
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  replacing our first guide, which was Mary. If you remember, Mary had the knowledge of the old
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  forest and how to get out the shire. Then we had Tom Bumberdill with how to get them back on the
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  road and how to get past barrel whites. And so Strider is the next in that line of guides.
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  There are some wonderful seeds that are dropped here that don't come to flower until later.
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  And I'm looking at one of Strider's more expanded passages on why they should take him. He says,
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  you can do what you like about my reward. Take me as a guide or not. But I may say that I know all
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  the lands between the shire and the misty mountains, but I have wandered over them for many years.
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  And here we have the bells ringing back to the earlier passages when we hear about the rangers
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  from amongst others, Tom Bumberdill. And older than I look, I might prove useful,
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  understatement of the year, but that I am older than I look, of course, is a hint there that will
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  be unpacked later when we learn about his new minorian descent and the fact he's from a much older,
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  much more longer lived people a higher lineage than the hobbits have ever met before.
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  And I love this dropping of seeds because what happens here is I think this is why the book
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  feels fresh and is worth rereading because when you read it again, you're inside those hints,
• 5:33
  which you may not have noticed on the first reading. So it feels fresh and surprising on a second read.
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  But this isn't the world of comedy, though Barlim and Butterbur feels he belongs more in
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  the world of the shire. He's very much like that or the slightly silly people,
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  slightly pompous, slightly comics, all the sort of character types we get from the shire.
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  We get echoes of that in Bri, in the bustling Barlim and Butterbur. Strider is in another world.
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  I would say Barlim and Butterbur is comedy and Strider is epic because he
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  having done a bit of teasing and laughing, he morphs into pain. And this makes us take seriously
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  the world we're in. If it was one great vast comedy as a Terry Pratchett style spoof,
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  then these moments wouldn't work. But Strider is able to stop and say and hint at the
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  horror that is the Black Riders, so that we don't dismiss them as a threat. It's not worthy here
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  that Sam remains the skeptic. Sam is the slow to take up something new, a member of the
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  fellowship, his solidness and that resistance is part of his strength, of course.
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  But he is the one who keeps on questioning all the way through pretty much to the end of this
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  chapter. The bona fide is of Strider. He comes up the reasons why he might not be who he says he
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  is. But it's also interesting to see Frodo's growth here because Frodo, he also doesn't trust.
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  But he also goes with his instinct. So he wants more facts. He does, and he says, I don't agree
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  Sam. He doesn't agree that Strider might have done a way or want to do a way with them in a dark
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  place. He wants more facts. And this prompts Strider to begin to tell his story. We've actually got a
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  rare broken off line here. So we are about to hear Strider's life story and then Barleyman Butterbur
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  interrupts. Makes you wonder what Strider would have said. How far back would he have gone?
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  In his history, it's one of those unanswered questions in Lord of the Rings. What would have
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  been Arabons or Strider's self-description at this point? So the next part of this chapter is
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  Barleyman explaining why he didn't send the letter. He comes bustling in in full Barleyman
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  fashion and the tone turns comic again. So this particular chapter sort of flips between the
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  comedy and the terror and the scary side of the quest. Never going too far into the darkness.
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  It's saving all that for weather top. You don't want to shoot all your arrows at this stage in a
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  story, but you want to remember that the arrows are still there. And the comedy in particular here
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  is getting the hobbits to ask for an unflattering description of themself. Basically Frodo puts his
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  foot right in it when he insists on finding out what was said about him. And Barleyman Butterbur
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  repeats the words of his friend about a stout little fellow with red cheeks. So all the hobbits
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  start laughing at Frodo and then you get the detail of that goes for all hobbits. So then everybody
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  is swept up in that particular. I wouldn't say it was an insult. It's more of a gentle teasing.
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  And it takes a while a delay until we find out who is the person saying all this.
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  And we're probably beginning to guess at this stage if we didn't already know that it's Gandalf.
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  But the delay in Barleyman saying it was Gandalf means in speech he is the same as in his
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  character. He is slow to get to the point. He delays, giving the name just as he delayed in
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  sending the letter. So there's a sort of character unity between how he talks and what he does.
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  And then we get one of our big sets of answers in this chapter. We get an answer as to why there was
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  no Gandalf meeting Frodo and friends back in the Shire. And it's in the form of a letter.
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  The idea of manuscripts within a story is used on several occasions during Lord the Rings.
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  And this is one of them. You also get it again in Moria with the book of Wasabel
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  in the sort of broken books they find which gives fragments of the tale of the dwarves.
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  So it's a useful piece of technique as a way of bringing in a voice that isn't present. And in this
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  case we have got Gandalf's voice. This is helpful because whilst Barleyman is aping Gandalf's voice
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  are quite a sort of quite lengthy quotes from Gandalf which is actually if you stop and think
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  about it is not very likely that Barleyman would be able to remember and then trigger this length.
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  It doesn't seem part of his skill set should we say. But we don't worry about that because it's a
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  literary device. It's a technique which works in this context. You don't get that same problem
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  with the letter because of course you hand yourself over entirely to listening to a letter by Gandalf.
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  And you also probably just at this point might want to reflect on the ridiculousness
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  of Gandalf leaving the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of a man like Barleyman
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  whose mind is like a lumber room. But anyway, fate hangs by a thread on many occasions in Lord
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  of the Rings. It's interesting here before Frodo actually gets down to read the letter
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  that we also hear that Barleyman has confronted the Black Riders. And it shows that at this stage
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  in their evolution the Black Riders are still people who can be seen off by farmer maggot by the
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  old gaffer. They're not pushing their power. Again, this is another good thing. Another good
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  technical writer is don't rush offences. You want to unleash the Black Riders on weather top
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  and again at the Ford. And again at the Battle of the Pellet Norfield, you don't do it in Brie.
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  So they're holding back, they're plotting, they're planning, they're waiting for an opportune
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  moment. So someone like Barleyman can turn the way but we are getting the sense of
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  their uncanniness that everywhere they go they scare the living daylights out of everybody,
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  including poor old knob who had to go and confront them. So before we get to the letter there's
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  a confrontation between Barleyman and Strider which very much sums up this confrontation really
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  between the comedy world of Brie and the Shire and the epic world that Strider belongs to.
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  And this all sort of sparks off when Barleyman notices that Strider is present and he says
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  if I was in your play I wouldn't take up with a Ranger. Now, Rangers are actually people of great
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  lineage and worth but they have been forgotten by men like Barleyman. They don't know what they do
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  and that point is made on several occasions during Lord the Rings. And Strider of course is a
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  bit miffed to find his people look down on particularly when this is the moment when they're most
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  needed and he slaps back we would call it. Then who would you take up with our Strider? A fat
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  inkeeper who only remembers his own name because people shout it at him all day. He likes Barleyman
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  but he's angry here. There is a bit of insulting language that often happens at this level
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  in between men in the story. You know, Gandalf is quite apt to calling people full of a
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  tooth and so on. And it reminds me of the way there was no whole bars conversation in the
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  inklings. They weren't, I suppose, soft, politically correct people. It's not that era. So having
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  a little tiff here. And the site bar on some of the language used here again which shows the
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  age in which it was written. Barleyman says no black men would pass his doors. That's absolutely
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  not meant in today's modern understanding of black lives matter, black people. It wasn't a term
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  that was used in that way so often back when this was written. So please don't read it as referring
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  to anything to do with race. This is literally a way of referring to the black riders. I'm sure
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  you all know that but it's worth mentioning that it's a phrase that probably if Tolkien was writing
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  today he would rephrase in a different way at the time it didn't ring those bells that it does
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  now. I've been noticed how we're being delayed again. We are not getting to see what's inside
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  that letter. By now that letter should be burning in our mind. We want to find out what Gandalf said
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  and we've been held in suspense. It brings us through brings us on in the chapter. We have one
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  final little bit of business. A seed to plant which is a reminder that Mary is missing.
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  We don't want to forget how the members of our fellowship at this point. And I think here
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  Barleyman shows his basic sense because he says what we're probably all thinking which is
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  well you do want looking after and no mistake your party might be on a holiday. It's a sentiment
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  which Strider has been echoing. They need to get serious. They need to realise that a part of epic
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  events are not comic events anymore. So we now have finally a chance to turn to the letter
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  and Frodo breaks the seal. He introduces the voice of Gandalf and it's a classic piece of Gandalf
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  because notice just have a look at it. Notice how short all the sentences are. Bad news has
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  reached me here. I must go off at once. You had better leave back and soon and get out of the
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  shower before the end of July at latest. It's that what that does is it makes us feel the haste
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  as if he's literally standing up to scroll down, thoughts after thought here to as he's getting
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  ready to go. I always love the use of the Gandalf rune sign here because he signed his name and
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  then he adds it after each PS and the PPS and the PPS gets an extra big one to authenticate that
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  it's his PS. I always love seeing that sign being used there when I got this letter when reading it.
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  So it's a letter written in a rush not just in short sentences but he keeps adding things as he
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  thinks of them. Last minute packing as he gets ready to go on his unexpected journey that he's on
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  and then it slows down and what it slows down for is the pause for the verse all that his goal does
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  not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither.
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  Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes of fire shall be woken,
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  a light from the shadows shall spring, the new shall be blade that was broken, the crownless
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  again shall be king. Just a little sidebar note here that latter part of the verse was given as
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  a voiceover to Arwen in the Peter Jackson films when the sword is being reforged. I like it here
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  personally because those words go with strider and what's being set here is the whole story.
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  We have here the end of the story written at this early point. The crownless shall be again
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  shall be king is of course the coronation. A light from the shadows shall spring that will be
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  the overcoming of sirens. So this little verse is a prophecy of the entire plot which is very
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  canny because the first time we read this we are mystified and trying to guess what it all means
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  but when we come to it again we have that reassurance that yes here is the path on which this journey
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  is set. So again when we were talking about this chapter giving us answers it's also giving us
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  huge clues, massive clues as to where we're going in this story. And of course this is Gandalf so
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  from this lofty wonderful verse we then get his little snappy put down of Butterbur which is a worthy
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  man but his memory is like a lumber room, things wanted always buried. If he forgets I shall roast him.
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  I love that idea of a lumber room like our attic in my house. I feel my brain is like that very often
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  so I sympathise with Barlam and Butterbur. After the letter has been read we get another exchange
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  with the Hobbits. A Frodo is basically saying why didn't you tell us earlier who you were.
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  And here we get Strider giving his point of view and I think it's quite interesting to shift it around
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  Strider says I had to test that you were who you said you were that you weren't agents of the
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  enemy I'm also hunted. And this hints at a larger bigger story outside our quest. I like the way
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  that Tolkien is always opening up vistas into the past, into the future in his writing. It gives
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  it that sense of reality because we feel it's a whole network of relationships and information
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  beyond what our characters know. Tolkien referred to these as the vistas that you never
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  read. The stories you never hear the answer of. And these little touches like that are part of that
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  fabric that his weaving that make his imagined world seem so complete. Sam of course is still
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  skeptical. And this prompts Strider to give his most forthright speech yet. Wake comes right out
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  and says he knows about the ring. I don't think before this point he's actually named it. His
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  referenced it. He's never named it. So he shows that he knows their business. And then he ends with
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  the magnificent promise. I am arrogant son of Arathon. And if by my life or death I can save you
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  I will. This in the films, sorry to keep referring to them, but I know many of you will have
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  watched those and find stray bits popping up in places where they aren't meant to be. That's the
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  promise Strider or Arathon gives at the end of the Council of Elrond in the Fellowship of the Ring.
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  But he gives it right here at the beginning. He's already committed to the quest that Frodo has
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  right in the inn at Brie. And it also gives us the chance to see his symbols because after Frodo
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  comes up with this wonderful bit of wisdom saying that in Aragon wasn't a friend he would seem
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  fairer and feel fowler. And for those of you who are deep in your some really in law you will know
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  is exactly how Sauron appeared during the second age. He became the beautiful
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  version of himself who fooled the elves and fooled the people of Numenhofer a bit.
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  So that's how often how the enemy has functioned by seeming to be fairer. So this gives you the
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  impression that when Tolkien is imagining this character he isn't thinking of somebody with
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  batonate idol looks he's thinking of someone grizzled someone who is
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  road tested. You know he's been on the road in all four lots so he is someone who bears the weight
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  of years but also a warrior. So bear that in mind. I think we go more to the film so quite a good
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  job at skirting that line between the sort of person of the road who's got his mileage under
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  his feet and also the king. He only brushes his hair in the third film so that's a sign.
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  But we do get to see Striders symbols here. He shows the broken sword which of course is the
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  sword that struck the ring from Sauron's hand and it's not actually drawn to attention here but
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  this is the first time since that moment that the sword has been in the same room as the ring.
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  And we find this pairing is highlighted a bit later on when Borimir comes to the council
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  bearer and talks about the prophecy he heard seek for the sword that was broken that one
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  which brings the two objects together but here we already have it in his film that really.
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  So moving on we get one of those points where Tolkien is signaling that
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  pace is increasing we know where we're going next. We had that in earlier chapters where it's we
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  go from here into the the old forest and then we go from the old forest onto the towns and so on
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  we keep getting these almost like finger posts pointing us where we're going. In this case it's
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  Strider providing the finger post he talks about making for weather top and here we get the hint that
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  we might be able to meet Gandalf there if they're quick enough. Strider also reveals at this point
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  that he knew that Frodo originally planned to set off in September at the latest so he's in
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  Bri keeping a watch for him with increasing anxiety. What I like about this is it means that
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  meeting Strider in the in isn't chance it's not a coincidence it's intended and that's all
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  too many coincidences in the book mean that we stop believing in the world because it seems so
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  full of luck that people would meet at this particular moment in time. You can possibly get away
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  with a couple but you can't get away with keep on doing that and and here Strider is showing
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  how the mechanisms under the plot are working so he had this conversation with Gandalf but he also
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  mentions that Gildor has spread the news that the hobbits are walking on the road to Rivendell
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  on their own without Gandalf and this again means the next meeting with Glorfindel which comes
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  a chapter or so later is also not by chance that the actions of other people are being explained by
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  rational logical connections and it helps hold the plot together. There's also I think interesting
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  here that we get a perspective on Gandalf which is one of the first times we hear Gandalf talked
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  out talked about outside the world of the Shire. We get to see his greatness that he might have
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  more going on than the Shire folk thought and Aragorn actually makes this explicit he says that
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  Gandalf is greater than you Shire folk known but this business of hours will be his greatest task.
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  That's really interesting he's saying this business of hours not yours not your quest it's hours
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  and this is this little word is showing that not only is Strider signed up to help them on their way
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  but he also regards it as his business which of course it is because it's part of his role as
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  returning to the kingship undoing the wrong that Gildor did by not destroying the ring when
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  the chance was made it's also his business not just the hobbits okay so that's Strider joining
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  in the company but then we get another break so we had the interruption of Butterbur and we get
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  the final interruption here which is Mary rushing back in with the news that the Black Riders are
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  already in Bri. He says that he couldn't help himself he had to follow the Black Riders so we get
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  the sense that they have this power over people when they are on their own and this foreshadows
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  what Frodo is going to experience it's not entirely their fault they these powers that they are
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  caught up in are so strong that even the best intention hobbit it can't always avoid putting on
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  the ring when done doing a silly song in the pub or going out of the little areas into a darker
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  part of town where they're more vulnerable in the case of Mary and it's notable here that when
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  he is woken or rescued by not what he actually says is I thought I had fallen into deep water
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  if you've been really attentive you will remember that this is often Mary's way of
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  having a nightmare because back in Tom Bomberdale's house his nightmare involved being in deep water
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  even though that was Frodo's experience so there's this little connection there to his
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  nightmare world which is consistent so this is one of the occasions where the forces of evil
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  undo themselves because if they hadn't tried to approach Mary the hobbits might well have gone
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  to bed in the friendly hobbit bedrooms on the ground floor and they would have been vulnerable
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  but they're able to prepare for an attack overnight even though they don't think it was
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  likely to happen to a lit in they take the precautionary route of staying in the same room
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  and they fortify their position in that room stay together with Strider the Strider actually
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  refers to it as holding the fort as they close the shutters and build up the fire there's a little
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  touch here Frodo looks out the window and looks at the sickle and there's a footnote that says this
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  is how the plow is referred to by the shy folk and that confirms if it needs confirming that
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  middle earth is the same world as our earth it's not explicitly stated at any point because
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  obviously the landmasses and everything are different but these connections mean that we think
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  oh this is our story this is our world our prehistory and that reminds the reader of our connection
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  to these characters here the chapter ends on what is actually a surprisingly peaceful note
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  they're safe there's a really relaxation of the tension they've gathered together the forces
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  of darkness are outside but inside the room they're together they have a lit fire and they've
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  got Strider as part of the protection so it feels a quite a secure place to rest but they're just
• 29:59
  as well they did that because as we all find in the next chapter if they hadn't taken that choice
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  things might have gone very different and that would have been the end of the story
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  to come back again to find out what happens in the next chapter as they set out on the road thank you
• 30:15
  very much for listening thanks for listening to MythMakers podcast brought to you by the Oxford
• 30:27
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