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Sidecast - LOTR: Wrap Up of The Fellowship of the Ring · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythBakers. MythBakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding and
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  this is our wrap up of our sidecast in which we have been reading our way through chapter
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  by chapter through books one and two of the Lord of the Rings and you may know that better
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  as the Fellowship of the Ring. Now we've taken some highlights from the favourite chapters
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  as people have listened to it so we're going to begin by looking at the aftermath of the
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  attack on weather top. So if you're following along in the book this is book one chapter 12.
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  So one of the first things you notice about the response to the weather top attack is that
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  Tolkien shows how fiction can do very easily what is much harder for say a film to do which is
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  have a section where the characters explain how they experience the same event very differently.
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  So whereas for the Hobbits it was a very the Hobbits aside from Frodo that is it was confusion
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  there were cries in the dark they weren't sure what was happening. Frodo is the one who sees
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  the pale kings the race because he is in the half world of the Ring and of course
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  Aragorn is seeing it as a scene of combat because here's the one who comes in with fire and drives
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  them off. And many of you will have watched the films of course I expect almost all of you
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  and what a film can't do is break off very easily to show the different points of view. So in the
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  film all of the Hobbits are equally threatened and they're cleared out of the path until Frodo is the
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  last man standing, falls over, gets stabbed, Aragorn arrives. So there isn't that confusion
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  in the same way as there is in the narrative and that's because the film in a way tidy
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  sings up because it's trying to give a clear description in Selunoyed what's going on.
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  And the book is allowed to let the confusion the fog of war carry on existing it's an experience
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  of battle which no doubt Tolkien knew very well from his own time on in the Great War.
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  It's interesting here that if you remember we all have sort of having read the whole series
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  it's hard to go back to the innocent first reading and Sam in a way is reflecting perhaps what we
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  should be feeling which is a distrust of what exactly Strider is. In this section what we see
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  is Strider almost wooing Sam to trust him and he asks Sam to help him as he tries to
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  heal Frodo and he sort of confides in Sam it's as though he recognizes that Sam is the one
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  responsible for looking after his master it's an old fashioned relationship the kind of thing
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  you might get with a like a valet or a body man or as they would call it in the military in the
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  First World War so that puts him in relationship to saying I've got to go through Sam if I'm
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  going to do something for Frodo and by recognising that it's almost trying to persuade Sam to trust
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  him. There's some lovely features in this section we've got the arrival of the Grey Dawn which
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  is the same point to which the knife melts and here these images of grainess disappearance of the
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  knife connects with the fact that Frodo is in serious peril of turning into a race or going
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  to the race world that kind of disappearance grainess is fading is how his jeopardy is described
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  and we see Strider taking on a sort of even more authoritative tone than he has to date with Frodo
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  out of the picture to a certain degree because Frodo was the leader of the Hobbits before this
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  he is taking over with a series of declarative statements and authority and you also get a hint
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  of what later is revealed as his kingship in the ability to heal so he finds the Atholass
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  Kingsfoyle clues in the name and we are told that the men of the West brought this to Middle
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  Earth so we're getting a glimpse of his background a hint, very subtle which we can enjoy on a
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  second reading probably not notice on a first and then we get the description of the smell
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  of the Atholass once it is broken down and sort of turned into a Roma therapy moment shall we call
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  it where it's sort of put in hot water and the smell is released. Now there's a learning point
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  here for all of us who are doing descriptions if we're going to have a dominant sensory moment which
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  isn't sight it's very good to do it when sight is excluded or dimmed so in the gray light of dawn
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  is a perfect time to do this and we get as a result as a reader a much stronger impact of that steam
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  and how it is described by those who are feeling it so it lightens their spirits and it also connects
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  to our own memories of scent. Scent is one of those things which really mainlines it straight to
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  recreating experiences in our head. I've got various scents which immediately
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  catapult me back to places I've smelled the same thing like my primary school and you know those
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  sorts of things the first place I worked in London the scent does it in a way that a picture
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  and I think this is going on with scent and for Tolkien it might mean something like
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  the use of incense in church because as a Catholic he would be used to the burning of incense
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  which has a wonderful powerful slap in the face scent which associates with something holy
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  something healing something spiritual, sacramental. I think all of these are wrapped up
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  in the use of affolas and of course this is one of our prefiguring events because this little
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  moment of healing then becomes a bigger moment in gondor when he aragon is brought in to heal those
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  who have fallen under the witch king but that's that's coming later.
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  Our next excerpt we're going to be looking at the beginning of book two. This is when Frodo
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  wakes up in Rivendell and finds a very welcome visitor by his bed and Gandalf has a chance to explain
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  what exactly delayed him not meeting Frodo as expected.
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  Lord the Rings is famously a story that doesn't have the presence of the valar or gods or sort of
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  divine will as you get in the Silmarillion but these little hints that somehow it was better so
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  suggest that there is a bigger pattern behind the works of evil in this story and actually this
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  as I was making notes on this chapter I almost kind of wanted to write everything Gandalf said
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  down it's full of wonderful stuff Gandalf at his best he says you know he was delayed
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  and held captive and Frodo shocked by this because he feels that Gandalf is somehow you know
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  superhuman super super powerful and Gandalf responses yes I Gandalf the Grey there are many
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  powers in the world for good or for evil some are greater than I am against some I have not yet
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  been measured but my time is coming the mortal lord and his black riders have come forth war
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  is preparing so as well as giving us a sense of Gandalf's place in events with the oversight
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  where he fits in the power structure it's very economic this passage it also gives us a foretaste
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  of where we are going Frodo may think okay I'm stopping here the my job dust off my feet you know
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  shake the dust off my feet go back to the shower already there are hints from Gandalf actually
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  there is a much bigger struggle that is not just about taking ring to Rivendell and then we have the
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  passage where with Gandalf Frodo is thinking back over what has happened and he's sort of reviewing
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  how he feels about his companions particularly strider I love the way here Frodo is only just
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  coming to terms with it because he's self correct he first all says oh I'm fond of him and then
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  he says hmm fond is not the right word I mean he is dear to me though he is strange and grim at times
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  and one of the things that is a theme through this chapter and through the whole book is this
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  perspective of here is what the hobbits feel about things and here is the wider world and coming back
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  to this hobbit perspective is the strength of this story it's why we feel much more affectionately
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  about this book than say a story in the Silmarillion when we don't come back to this hobbit level
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  Frodo looking at Aragon and saying well I'm fond of him he's dear to me but he's also someone I
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  don't understand because he's grim and strange at times is the position the hobbits are in all
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  through this story there people and places that they grow fond of but they're also beyond them
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  and that is also the position of the reader we feel like hobbits in this world not like elves
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  and not like men of great renown so it goes from strength to strength this conversation
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  they then have a little chat about men and again we've got this difference between what a
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  hobbit understands and how things might actually be in the wider perspective because they go
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  to talk about barley man and Frodo sort of was a bit dismissive says oh his you know his kind
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  and stupid and Gandalf says well actually he's wise enough on his own ground you don't understand
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  men if you think that's what men are about and he goes on to talk about there's a different kind
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  of man in Aragon that Frodo is only just meeting and you cannot dismiss someone as only a ranger
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  so in a way Frodo's hobbit understanding is being pushed up and elevated in this chapter
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  quite deliberately and we also here have more trailing of what is to come and heightening of our
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  anticipation in what Gandalf is saying he says that Aragon is from the race of the kings from over
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  the sea and that race is nearly at an end and it may be that this war of the ring will be their
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  last adventure you don't want to have a expectation at this point even though the last part is called
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  return of the king we don't want to know that the king is going to return we think they're going to
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  we want to believe that they might lose it all that it may not be a happily ever after ending
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  and so we need characters like Gandalf to put in seeds of doubt these are great people strong and
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  powerful but yet this may be last time we see them in history they may it's mainly to failure
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  so this is all the I suppose in a sense what Tolkien is doing here is he's running up
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  a series of future promises it's going to be a war it's going to be about the race of kings
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  from over the sea this mysterious people we don't yet understand certainly when I first read this
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  I had had no idea he was talking about Numenor it was just a mysterious phrase but gave them
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  a sort of royalty and mystery and awe and wonder about them you run up all these expectations
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  so that you can start to pay them off later in well by book three in this case
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  so our third extract is from what may well be the longest chapter in all of lord of the rings
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  I'll have to check that as I go along it's very much the longest one in fellowship with the ring
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  and this is the council of Elrond and we're going to have a look here at the tension that
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  is already present between Boromir and the rest of the company
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  so Elrond mentions that Isildur took the ring and this is an interesting little
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  interjection here from Boromir Boromir is going to keep breaking in because we have to remember
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  that Boromir is the one who breaks the fellowship in many ways and he's already breaking up the
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  council of Elrond so good character note here it's consistent but he says we didn't know that we
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  didn't know that Isildur took the ring and it shows how men's knowledge gets lost over time
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  a little bit later on in the same chapter we'll hear how Gandalf goes to the libraries and finds
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  a record of Isildur looking at the ring so the information was available but it's just not access
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  not retrieved or not generally known by somebody of Boromir's level of education others may have
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  known but for him it's a surprise and then Elrond comes back in again and completes the story
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  from the moment when Isildur took the ring and it was lost to history and then he sort of
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  hop and skips over the rest of history to the present day now there are so many treasures here
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  for talking fans it's the kind of thing which might put off someone who's reading it for
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  the adventure or for pace you know sort of action things happening but I certainly love reading it
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  and always see something new in it when I go back to it and it with that sense of history weighing
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  we then move from that to what brings Boromir here so we've got the establishment of
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  who and what gondor is that's quite important it's first time we're hearing about it properly
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  in the in this book and Boromir then gets his moment to talk about his journey here
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  and why he came as a result of a prophecy we also get a very brief mention of it came to his
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  brother as well that we have to wait until two hours until we meet for a minute there's an
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  element in Boromir of special pleading so he's just heard how the elves and the dwarves and
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  and everybody had been fighting the dark love for a long time but he sort of wants everyone to know
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  that they've been trying really hard in ministerous and they're basically the ones holding back
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  the sea that's about to come over the sea of evil that's about to come out of
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  model and there's a sort of gentle correction given by Aragorn in the next few exchanges
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  because Aragorn outs himself he says here I am here is the sort that was broken and Frodo is
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  immediately clicks in his head who Aragorn is so up to this point he's had lots of hints given him
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  in the conversations with Tom Bomberdale and Bilbo referring him to the Dunardine all these
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  kind of things but Frodo now realizes oh yes that is the king of the northern and the southern
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  kingdom so therefore heir of Isildal therefore the ring should go to him and it's always really
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  important how people respond to being offered the ring so rather than Aragorn say oh yeah
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  thanks very much I'll take it I'll use it in this point it's not given much time but Aragorn
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  very importantly and elegantly rejects the ring he says it does not belong to either of us
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  it being the ring but it has been ordained that you should hold it for a while and because Aragorn
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  has that ability to reject unnecessary power that proves that he is worthy of being the king that
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  is why he gets rewarded in the end because he plays his part supporting others in the destruction
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  of the ring rather than going the route which Boramir is arguing for is to take it for yourself
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  and use it to fight evil with its own powers now at this point we're entering into the political
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  section um as a result of Frodo's speaking up and offering the ring to Aragorn
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  Gandalf is the one who commands him to bring it out and share everybody it's not like how it happens
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  in the film there's no suggestion he kind of puts it down and says my job done uh I think the
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  suggestion is he's holding it out and it's he's the still still the one as Aragorn said it's still
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  the one holding it at this point but what is important to notice here is there is a hint of Boramir's
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  greed and need for it very good writers will seed into their story just that it's like I'm doing
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  a murder mystery you want to put in the little hints that then will bear fruit later and here is one
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  from Boramir and it got it we have after Aragorn says behold is Aldo's bane we've got this line
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  Boramir's eyes glinted as he gazed on the golden thing thing the halfling he must have is then
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  the doom of minister earth come at last so he's putting it together and you can you can sort of see
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  the cogs in his brain putting it all as to you know what does this mean this is the the end of my
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  city and he's corrected at this point by you know he's feeling pretty much like the doomsday has
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  come one of the people he attacks is Aragorn by saying what do we need with a broken blade not
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  understanding that it can be reforged of course and at this point Bilbo steps forward and defends
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  Aragorn and repeats the all that is glock gold does not litter the the verse that we had back at
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  Bri and this is where we get Aragorn's gentle correction so Aragorn is a very good diplomat
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  he doesn't bristle with offense but he just says what the Rangers have been doing
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  their ways of defending the north and sort of basically telling Boramir looks
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  that we've been working hard too and making the argument that it's not just in one place that
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  the tide of evil has been kept back now for our fourth extract we are setting out with the ring
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  and in this excerpt I look at the ways in which different members of the company are aware of
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  the bigger picture and how some of the hobbits are delightfully close focused
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  and there is a theme in this chapter about who sees the bigger picture there are hints always
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  that Elrond Aragorn Gandalf Legolas sees the bigger picture and Sam Pippin and
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  the hobbits bar Frodo are sort of more close focused living in the moment but it's also used this
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  chapter this section in this chapter to remind us of certain things that Tolkien wants to foreshadow
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  so we've got golem mentioned again remember we've not actually met golem in person yet but he's
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  been popping up again and again as a character and we also get an answer to what happened to
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  the black riders which can be summed up as they're down but not defeated so once the messengers
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  come back Elrond is ready to send everybody out and this is where we get one of the
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  Elrond ceremonial moments he summons Frodo and gives him the chance second chance to say if he
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  wants to go again this is important he's undertaking this of his own free will and this is where
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  he gathers the fellowship and what I like about this section after we get the sort of courtly roll
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  call of Aragorn saying may I accompany you again and with that kind of thing we get Pippin's
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  protest about being left off the list and this bathos is bringing it down to the level of
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  ordinary people I think is what keeps the Lord of the Rings with its feet firmly on the ground
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  and Pippin has the particularly powerful protest that he will follow anyway and he has to be
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  sent home tied in a sack it is left off the list and this is persuasive enough for Elrond
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  for him to then announce okay Pippin and Mary you're on the team except his words for this are
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  now the tale of nine is filled so we're back to the more courtly tone of Elrond after the Pippin
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  protest I think Tolkien is particularly good at this flexibility of rising up and down registers
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  from the very antiquated high flown language of some of the heroic characters down to the
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  absolutely commoner garden language of someone like Sam and we'll see this all the way through the
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  book just a note here for those of you who may have missed it because it's not given a huge
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  emphasis considering its role in the story but this is the point in the book where the sword is
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  forged and new it doesn't come later as in the film version and it's a decision taken by Aragon
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  because he knows he is in a sense going out to fight a battle on the borders of Mordor as it's
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  described and this is a moment where he either rises to his ancestry or fails and in order to
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  mark the moment because the sword was broken in the battle on the borders of Mordor it's reforged
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  and given a new name and do a real flame of the west and I would say that in his chapter it's
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  full of important swords and artifacts it's one of those chapters which is delightful to imagine
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  all these things being dusted off and brought out of keeping or polished to go on this journey
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  and characters are often associated with key artifacts as we'll see as we go on
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  and it's particularly sweet I think at this moment that Bilbo immediately after Anduril is
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  reforged gives sting to Frodo so sting is given its own little hobbit style lineage very important
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  artifact in its own right and it will go on to do great deeds and has already done them
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  but I think it's important here to reiterate that Bilbo is the hobbit who can give things up
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  that he cares for he gives up sting because he knows that it's no longer something he needs
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  and he gives up the mithril coat this is what he says was given to him by Thorin
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  he calls it a pretty thing and useful and it later comes into its own in Moria of course
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  and its value is mentioned there I think I'm in the camp that Bilbo knows for well that it's very
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  valuable he's been spending a lot of time in the world to know exactly how valuable it is
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  and he is very happy to hand over something that's worth more than the shire in order to save and
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  protect his beloved nephew but of course the hobbits are not really comfortable in this world
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  of helms and shields and swords and these things so the dwarven male is hidden under his clothes and
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  that kind of stands for what hobbits alike of course and that is a parallel made later that they
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  are more than meets the eye in our final extract which is chapter four of book two we are going to be
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  looking at the connections between the Lord the Rings and the hobbit we also get a connection
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  made here in this overview of what's going on in the world from Gandalf back to the hobbit and the
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  battle of the five armies another of the points in the story where a Tolkien has decided to connect
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  the stories Gandalf was already a connection as was Bilbo but as the hobbit was written as a story
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  that was sort of separate from this to begin with and was then folded into the middle earth story
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  this is one of the points where Tolkien is kind of making those connections it's like fusing them
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  together. Gimli of course is this is one of Gimli's best chapters from the point of view he's
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  having the time of his life in a sense because he wants to he wants to go there and he offers timely
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  support so it ends this section with Boramir intervening by when he has failed to persuade Gandalf
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  of his own wisdom he kind of appeals to everybody else he goes to Legolas he goes to the hobbits
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  who will you know they don't want to rush into danger either so he doesn't he gets some support
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  from them for his reluctance but Frodo is the one who realizes well we can't go back at this point
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  he has to go on is this I suppose the steal in the soul of Frodo is one of his defining characteristics
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  is why he chooses to go on alone later the end of this particular volume and he but he also isn't
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  what's the word he isn't a foolish reckless hero he is a very considered one and he actually
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  wants delay because he knows that it's difficult to take the decision it's similar to the delay
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  that you see in the breaking of the fellowship he knows he has to make the decision but he just
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  wants a bit more time the outcome of this is different from when Boramir intervenes at the end of
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  the book and forces him to go off alone here we've got something quite different that forces
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  them to take action and that change of pace is of course the walls another thing from an author's
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  point of view I wanted to mention is the number of line breaks in this chapter that aren't scene
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  changes they're almost used for like rests in music there's either a pause for thought or a
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  change in pace and obviously music of creation is talking's thought about how the world became
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  so perhaps it's not unusual to find him using a similar technique pacing pause in his own writing
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  and we get a definite change of pace here and that is reflected in not only the speed of activity
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  that takes over when they're preparing to defend against the walls but it's also in the language
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  have a look at it one particular point is Boramir and Aragorn topping each other in rhyming sayings
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  and Aragorn is the one who tops Boramir's saying so it's like a battle in a sense of old sayings
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  that happens and that adds to the rhythm and the change in pace I think here that Pippin might be
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  the person we most sympathise with because he's just plain terrified and then we get Sam giving his
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  hobbit sense which will carry him all the way through the novel and also a dip into his more
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  colloquial language perhaps the more colloquial language comes out when he is least guarded
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  because he says we aren't ettern yet whatever may be installed for old Gandalf our wager it isn't a
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  wolf's belly and that little conversation is the first of a bookend watch out for when it comes
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  back again so we then get some echoes here and some interesting developments of how the fellowship
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  works the first echo I think for those of you who have read the hobbit is that this feels a bit
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  like the attack of the walls or the world's after they escape from under the mountains it's as this
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  is before going under the mountains but we know if we have hobbit readers that walls and orcs
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  and mountains are all come in a bundle you know three for two you get them all together
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  and it starts here with a sort of like a prelim an initial threat where legulus and Gandalf
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  team up to drive off the first of the watching walls it's like the first salvo a probe of how their
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  defenses are and then we get the main attack and we get a beautiful paragraph of the fellowship
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  in action in the middle of let me just turn to the page middle of page 312 in my volume
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  and it's a great way of it's a summing up a battle scene now skirmishes battles incredibly
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  difficult to to write because they're really they are confusing and and a lot is happening so Gandalf
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  so keep on him Gandalf that's a Freudian slip isn't it and Tolkien shows us how to do this by
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  first of all he chooses his point of view on this scene so he's chosen Frodo thank you very much
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  for listening to the side cast and come the autumn we're going to be tackling of course the two
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