"The Old Forest" - Eric's Thoughts

Wow. I have to agree with a post Ben made earlier about some of these middling chapters. This chapter makes chloroform taste like caffeine.

Fatty Bolger is an entirely pointless character. I started laughing out loud just thinking about how stupid Tolkien was to include Fatty in the journey to the hedge, only to watch Fatty Bolger halt and say, “Goodbye, Frodo!” “I wish you were not going into the Forest.” Perhaps we will see later what critical role Fatty plays later on, but I am skeptical about this pathetic attempt at a character.

Merry seems to be the most interesting character so far. He competently gets them through the hedge, and into the Old Forest, and maintains himself as the true leader in the group. But how easily he gets caught by the Old Man Willow undercuts this. So characterization seems shaky at this point for the characters, besides Pippin, who consistently plays the airhead by shouting at dangerous man-eating trees.

The tree subplot was kind of funny, I guess, but since the chapter was bogged down with serious pacing problems, I think it should have been a cut. For those of you who don’t remember, the tree subplot story reveals that the hobbits many years ago battle Old Forest frees, and burnt them with fire, until the Trees finally gave up attacking the hedgerow.

In terms of writing technique, one thing I noticed that I thought was really cool was how Tolkien puts the reader in the forest scene. Notice what Tolkien does is not describe the individual steps a character is taking, but the overall atmosphere of the place. Description, then feeling. Well done, Mr. Tolkien.

They picked a way among the trees, and their ponies plodded along, carefully avoiding the many writhing and interlacing roots. There was no undergrowth. The ground was rising steadily, and as they went forward it seemed that the trees became taller, darker, and thicker. There was no sound, except an occasional drip of moisture falling through the still leaves. For the moment there was no whispering or movement among the branches; but they all got an uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched with disapproval, deepening to dislike and even enmity. The feeling steadily grew, until they found themselves looking up quickly, or glancing back over their shoulders, as if they expected a sudden blow.

One quote brought me directly back to the Hobbit. “What a foul thing to happen!” cried Frodo wildly. “Why did we ever come into this dreadful Forest? I wish we were all back at Crickhollow!” This copy could be pasted directly from the Hobbit, if the name were changed to Bilbo: Oh me, oh my, I wish I had never left my hobbit hole!

Okay, finished reading. So, after reading this chapter as a whole, there wasn’t really any character development, and there wasn’t really any tension at all until the Old Man Willow shows up and tries to eat the hobbits. 

Now, perhaps this chapter might have carried more depth if it introduced us to a critical character in the story, i.e. Tom Bombadil. But the problem is, as I recall, Tom has nothing else to do with the story except for a quick mention in the Council of Elrond, when Elrond notes that the ring doesn’t affect Tom, but that he would probably lose it, or forget about it.

Overall, I found myself skimming this chapter, which is the first time I’d felt the inclination to do that. So I have to agree with Jacob on this one: this chapter should have been cut, or made significantly shorter. The writing wasn’t bad on a micro level—the descriptions and moods were compelling—but structurally the chapter was lacking in poignancy and purpose until the latter fourth of it. And since I already know that none of these scenes carry any weight later on in the story, I probably would have just had the hobbits take a backroad into Bree, instead of this elaborate (and not particularly interesting) subplot with no overarching purpose.

I’m intrigued by Tom at this point, because I don’t remember the character very well, but still I think this chapter should have been cut, and probably the next as well. We shall see.

Responses to Jacob and Ben:

Jacob: "There's a fine line between tension and tedium, and this chapter crosses it.  I suppose this chapter is performative, because whatever the Old Forest did to make the hobbits fall asleep put me to sleep, too."

Lol! I think Jacob nailed it with this zingy one liner. Plus Jacob likes some pretty deadly boring books (cough cough Ulysses), so if you're boring Jacob, you're probably doing something wrong.

Ben: "About the Hobbits -- they don't really seem to have thought this plan through very well. They're cutting through the Old Forest to -- wait for it -- join back up with the east road as soon as possible on the other side?"

Lol again. Anyway, I have to agree with Ben, and as I noted before I read the others' blog posts, the descriptions in this chapter can be quite good. So Tolkien is definitely stepping up his game after sparse descriptions of the Shire.

And "While "The Old Forest" wasn't that fun to read, except for the beautiful descriptions, it was fun to write about." This I have to agree with as well. Making fun of this sad excuse of a chapter was probably the most fun I've had yet blogging this stuff.

Descriptive Phrases:

• "The leaves of trees were glistening, and every twig was dripping; the grass was grey with cold dew."
• "The hobbits began to feel very hot. There were armies of flies of all kinds buzzing round their ears, and the afternoon sun burning their backs."
• "Frodo lifted his heavy eyes and saw leaning over him a huge will-tree, old and hoary. Enormous it looked, its sprawling branches going up like reaching arms with many long-fingered hands, its knotted and twisted trunk gaping in wide fissures that creaked faintly as the boughs moved. The leaves fluttering against the bright sky dazzled him, and he toppled over, lying where he fell upon the grass."
• "White mists began to rise and curl on the surface of the river and stray about the roots of the trees upon its borders."