Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never now to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
​

[No image found for the guilty who promised to read.]

So finally, after 50,000 words, we have left the shire, and meet our first big movie vs book change. Jackson cut tom bombadil due to his lack of impact on the rest of the story. What are your thoughts on Tom?

My chapter by chapter:
Chapter 6:
"The mist opened reluctantly before them, and closed forbidingly behind them.". That is such a great way to sum how the ring wraiths and the hobbits interact here. A slow, overpowering dread that pushes then to move, but not with any haste.

When I consider where we are at 50k words, Frodo has left the shire, and collected now all 3 of his friends, with Bilbo and the ring as the only real hook.

And as an addendum to last week's, I am not including Mrs. Maggot and the three daughters in the list of women. She, and they lack a name.

When we consider how the hobbits of old handled the trees, and that there wasn't a second battle; and also consider the ninja assassin bowhobbits sent to Angmar, I think Sauron set up to be as far from the Shire as possible.
Trees vs hobbits, score: 0-1
Pippin is the first one to be captured (score now 1-1), and Sam gets the first rescue credit for not sleeping. This is a pattern that will continue.

Chapter 7
Our second woman- Goldberry
In this book, I felt she was of an adopted daughter of Tom, but the extra information puts her as his wife. I never got any married vibes from them, but who am I to argue with the author writing stories later about their characters.

We see Frodo with another dream, this time of Gandalfs escape.
Is he known to be prophetic?

And finally, Frodo puts on the ring for the first time. Nothing happens to Tom though. I wonder why

Chapter 8
I absolutely love the allegory of the hills and their anatomy.

The wight was really cool, and I like their poem, (as evidenced above)

So the dream was of Earendil. Good prelude for Bilbo's song coming up.

Next chapters will be Bree, where things will hopefully get moving.

What are you looking forward to in Bree?
If you were Peter Jackson, would you have cut Tom and the wight?

 

I completely forgot to make the thread this week, so props to Shouldabeenadog for that.

The journey into the Forest is really something. The character of the hobbits is kind of established incidentally, with a lot more focus put on the mood of the Forest itself. I'm looking forward to meeting Treebeard just to see if Merry and Pippin speak with him about it. I'm left with the impression that the trees of the Forest are very similar to the trees of Fangorn that swallowed up the Urak Hai that fled Helm's Deep.

Tom Bombadil appears, and there is indeed much singing. I would kill to know Tolkien's internal thoughts on the man, because there's something very sinister about him. The way the hobbits go up into the penthouse area of his home and find the four mattresses with a pair of slippers for each of them seems like the perfect lead in for a horror story.

I can't help but think that Tom and Goldberry are spirits of the land, or somehow connected to the seasons, just from Tom's song about his errand. "Eldest, that's what I am." Are there any theories that Tom is the land itself?

The passing of time as they listen to his tales is very Fae. It makes the more modern portrayals of the whole 'wander into the lands of the fae young and wander out old' seem overwraught and hamfisted. The scene with the Ring - man, the imagery of Tom peering through it - makes me wish we'd seen more of Tom speaking with people of note out in the larger world.

Tom coming in like the Kool Aid man to rescue them in the barrow was unexpected. Cannot believe we got 3 Hobbit movies and only three LotR movies when things like this could have been included. Could have easily been a 5 movie series, but perhaps it's for the best it wasn't.

Love the talk of old fallen kingdoms that fought dark kings, and of the men who still wander and keep to its ideals, protecting the unknowing from things in the shadows. Tom's final words as to why he cannot go with them only makes me think more that he's some kind of personification of the land.

Coming to the end of the chapter felt like waking from a dream, with the hobbits talking amongst themselves once more. There was very little dialogue really, and I think it's a very interesting technique to add to the queer sense of the Old Forest and its inhabitants.

I am hyped to meet Strider next chapter.

 

If memory serves, that's exactly what he is. One of Tolkien's letters goes into a modest amount of detail about he and Goldberry, explaining that they're both personifications of nature. Tom is the countryside, wild and untamed, while Goldberry is the seasons and the infinite cycle of growth, death, and rebirth.

 

I keep getting stuck with the writing of thoughts for some reason but I really do want to catch up so I'ma just do a handful of thoughts for each one and move on until I catch up.

I really enjoyed the description of the forest. The way it slowly led them astray until they gave up and went where it led them was great. I think the Old Forest is one of the best sort of "subtle magic" style thing, that helps the world feel magical and unknowable we see. However, that's contrasted with Tom, who is much more openly magical. He was fun, but cutting him from the movies was definitely the move. He's a very confusing section of the book that's never really explained in text.

Sam continues to be the best by feeling that shit was wrong, even if he didn't manage to get everyone out of trouble this time.

 

To answer Shoulda's question- I do agree with Peter Jackson's choice to cut out Tom.
I did like the little diversion but in the overall arch of the story, there was no weight to what happened in the Old Forest, compared to some other choices he made to rewrite/cut out things.

I did like what the dreams of the hobbits told us, their fears and their uncertainty- and then there was Samwise Gamgee, sleeping like a log.
I also liked the lore behind how Merry got his blade that ended up with (spoilers), about the old people that were at the barrows, and the encounter with the barrow wrights.
And despite the dangers in the old forest, the whole section felt like a side adventure from the main one. They have yet to really comprehend the dangers of the main adventure.

And yes from hence forth I shall begin to be known as Stride Fangirl thanks.