Chapter 3 A Short Rest
My 4 week old found Elrond enthralling. I said his name and she made the baby O face with big eyes. I weep for my her love of bishounen already. I'll start building a shelf to store her Sephiroth plushies.
As for me, I found the chapter title quite apt. It was a sweet morsel of story, giving us a better understanding of the elves, and giving us some plot details. i like how the key plot points aren't put front and center, but instead put to the end. more time is spent telling us about the sweet loot they got, and moreover even more on the songs of the elves.
Tolkien takes a moment to discuss how boring things are wonderful but uninteresting to write about, but terrible things are unpleasant to experience but good to write about. It is a good reminder of the problems of being a character in a novel.

 

I called the first bit of the last chapter transitory, but in reality it was this one. We've done the encounter, the loot, and now it is time to get into the real bones of the adventure. It's almost like the ending of an intro, were it a game. I like Bilbo's thoughts of food and tiredness, but still somewhat happy with his decision to go with the dwarves.

Rivendell serves the same function as in the LOTR, in my opinion, and that's the function of the last safe haven, the place where our crew will be at peace one last time before the open and wild world that stands between them and their goal. I like the silly song as well, since in the movies it's always the elves being serious and dwarves silly, but here we can that it's not always the case, and I liked it a lot, showing a bit more realism than the movies ever really managed.

When in doubt, talk to Elrond. I guess we're going to see much more parallels between this and LOTR than I first thought but ever since you've mentioned it I keep seeing them everywhere. It's interesting that Elrond has to ask what Durin's Day is and doesn't know it, but I think I like it as a step away from elves always being all-knowing kind. Maybe it speaks of Rivendell's isolation? Anyhow, I liked the chapter more than I liked the last one, somehow, but it's often case with Tolkien's work that the chapters I like the most are the ones where nothing really happens.

 

The differences to lotr is again interesting. Elrond is an "elf friend" descendants from mortal heroes and elves. his human side is more pronounced in his description.

Otherwise rivendell is still a place if healing and recovery. A timeless place of rest and joy. Elrond is wise even beyond Gandalf.

The Fall of gondolin is briefly mentioned (fallen to goblins and dragons).

Also the chapter is really short, shorter than I remembered it.

 

My main thought is just how much I'd fucking love to spend a month in Rivendell. It sounds absolutely fantastic. My second thought is that Bilbo says the valley smells like elves as they enter, but we get no other description of what that smell is like! Kind of upsetting, now I'm really curious about what this distinctively elvish smell is. We also get a note that Bilbo has interacted with elves before, so he's either had other mini-adventures or elves sometimes do visit the Shire. Not sure which it is.

 

In Fellowship, frodo and Sam meet elves as they are traveling to the Brandywine, so it's reasonable elves visit the shire.