 “‘By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair,’ said Frodo with a last effort, lifting up his sword, ‘you shall have neither the Ring nor me!'” |
Flight to the Ford
I am exhausted! The constant pursuit and extremity of plot complications is tiring–not tiresome so that I don’t want to keep reading (like The Silmarillion at times). Naturally, it’s not as miserable as The Silmarillion which is okay by me. When our protagonists start getting killed off one by one, then it would start to resemble The Silmarillion more (but then again, some of our dwarf friends in the Hobbit got wasted in the Battle of the Five Armies, huh?). Who needs realism? 😉
Revisiting locations from the Hobbit was kinda fun. It was a little jarring, though, because the feel of these two novels is different (not that different, but still). Then, Sam Gamgee turns out to be a heck of a lyricist. Mark my words, there’s something special about that hobbit…maybe he won’t turn out to be a magician or a warrior like Frodo suggests, but there is something about him.
I’ve heard that Tolkien originally wanted to publish each of the different “books” separately–a sextology (or hexology?) instead of a trilogy, I guess. Is that true? Cause I couldn’t imagine reading a book that ends where Book One of the Fellowship of the Ring does!
As for the Black Riders– I think I was right about them being the 9 mortal men enthralled with the rings of power. And although I doubt they actually perished, the flash flood with its foam white riders is a spectacular image. The cover art (by Ted Nesmith) on my copy of Fellowship of the Ring is the flash flood scene, but he doesn’t quite pull it off in my opinion. It makes me think that the movie-makers are going to have a tough go of realizing some of Tolkien’s more fantastic imagery.
till next time, keep thinking
Mark-Edmond
Kanazawa Japan
