With this we conclude the last 3 chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring. And they only got lost...a lot of times.

Chapter 8
Galadriel continues to badass-
She one line reads the Company's intentions to keep going from a glance and their silence.
She and her team weave the cloaks that will become the Swiss army knife of the story going forward.

Thank you Merry for reminding us of your boating skills. This is the second river that he sails, and is nice to see cultural traits from the prologue (the Stoors and the Harfoots) be applied to Merry and Sam.

"Are these magic cloaks?". And the Lembas. The elves really do not see what they do as magical, but how they move through life. This is repeated often, and here is no exception. Which is something I'm hopeful the new series is able to portray well.

Much has already been said about Gimli getting Galadriel's hair, and in the movie we see a half smirk on Legolas. Here we get the entire elf pavilion stopping in shock. And I was deeply impressed too with how diplomatic Gimli is. That was the best way to ask for something without ever actually for it.

I did not think Gimli would get so much character development here. He has seen Moria, but said quite little in comparison to here. He spends more words on Galadriel than the entire Weathertop fight. So in overall character development, he is now up there with Frodo Sam and Aragorn. Sorry Legolas, I guess you just look pretty and climb trees so far.

Chapter 9:
Question for the erudite. What caused the brown lands?
I like this technique. Aragorn is the most knowledgeable member of the company, and he didn't know what caused the brown lands. This adds more mystery then if it was stated, and it keeps us in the story.

This chapter reminds me of earlier chapters, where we are driven by the threat of the riders, even though they don't actually attack. Here Gollum takes the role of spurring then along.

Finally, with just a chapter to go, Aragorn, son of Arathorn enters the book, and Strider leaves. I can find the poetry in it, especially in Frodo looking with instinctual fear. Frodo with the ring is terrified, Aragorn is joyful. Aragorn steers the ring back to Isildur's outstretched hand.

Chapter 10

The fall of Boromir is really well done. The line, "Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons and the mustering of men and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise." Boromir is rambling, and it's clearly about things Frodo the hobbit has no knowledge of. But the clever bit is the sentence structure. This is a huge run on sentence, which exhausts and frightens the reader beyond the words it contains. We are like Frodo getting talked at by Tolkien.
Sam's character is a paragon of loyalty and empathy, and we finally see the bits of that we saw in the shire play out.

With this we conclude our tour of book one. Next week we discuss overall impressions of the first book. Then a one week break, followed by The Two Towers.

 

Chapter 8: Farewell to Lórien

• I'm again loving the take on magic the elves have. It's a bit long so I won't rewrite it, but the description of the cloaks and why we might call them magic but to the elves it's just how you make a good cloak is great.
• Sam being delighted with the rope is great
• I kind of want to listen to the audio book now just so I can learn the tune to all the songs.
• GIMLI WITH HIS STRAND OF HAIR REQUEST IS KIND OF ADORABLE
• "To that fair land Frodo never came again." doesn't say if dead or just never made it out there again, but it's a good way to keep the 'low' stakes of death real and present

Chapter 9: The Great River

• Gollum feels a lot more present in his pursuit of the company than in the movies, and the build up for Boromir's moment of madness is a lot more there as well. Benefits of a book vs movie in that I think.
• Oooo an eagle off flying. I wonder if Gandalf is already back, timeline on that was never very clear to me.
• Oh damn maybe it wasn't an eagle but the nazgul instead
• We're again reminded that Boromir is going home no matter what. That tension being there from the start provides a much nicer backdrop for the eventual attempt to take the ring imo
• The struggle to get the boats past the rapids is the type of nice small challenge that makes the world and adventure feel that much more full, but doesn't serve "narrative purpose" which means it gets cut in a film adaptation. This is why books tend to be so much better imo, you can tell a far less streamlined story which makes it feel a lot more real.
• Aragorn's conflict about which way to go is great, it really is interesting to me just how different everything feels when the entire fellowship wasn't set on going with Frodo till the end from the start

Chapter 10: The Breaking of the Fellowship

• Start of this chapter is 33% of the way through the full three book volume I have on my kindle, very fitting
• Ugh poor Boromir. I take comfort in the fact that his redemption is imminent
• The description of the Eye and the struggle Frodo underwent was great. All mental and will and down to a choice in the end
• Sam knows Frodo so well!
  
• Chapter ends at 34%, very neat division lol
• Honestly kind of surprised we didn't see the fallout of Frodo leaving and everything else here. I think the movies do the split better in that sense, but I'm curious as to how the book will feel starting with the drama of the fall of Boromir and the hobbits being taken