"At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" - Eric's Thoughts

Okay, so now after three chapters of writing scathing reviews, it looks like I have to go back to giving compliments. The chapter was a fun read.

Now, the beginning was really dry, with all of the geography and historical descriptions. Proably better to put all that in an appendix. I think describing the actual town was good, with its stone houses, and describing the Prancing Pony was fine too, and a good choice. But strangely enough the hobbits themselves have never been described. Nor did I see any description for Nob or Bob.

Early in the chapter, after the gatekeeper scene, there’s a jarring point of a view switch where suddenly the narrative is no longer covering Frodo, but is omniscient viewpoint of the gate itself. Tolkien writes:

“As soon as [the gatekeeper’s] back was turned, a dark figure climbed quickly in over the gate and melted into the shadows of the village street.”

Obviously this foreshadows that the black riders are in Bree, but a paragraph break would have been really helpful in letting the reader know about a different point of view.

Going back to the inn scene, I still remember Nob after all of these years. Good old Bob. Nob and Bob. (Oin and Gloin, cough cough). And Barliman Butterbur too, what a great name. I remember his absent mindedness as well, which though cliché, for some reason this innkeeper in particular stuck with me.

Nob states, about his role as a servant, “It’s hard work for two legs, but I don’t get thinner.” Interesting to compare this to Shire ideals, where fatter is sexier. Here in Bree it seems beauty is correlated more with skinniness, as Nob seems to suggest that he wants to get thinner.

The best parts of course are the Strider interaction and the accidently slip the ring on at the table scene. Strider blames Frodo for being an idiot, but it may be the ring itself betrayed Frodo, showing that even the best-laid plans could go amiss. I think Frodo was right to try and shut Pippin up, but better yet they should have just stayed in their rooms.

Of course, then they may not have met Strider, though it seems that Strider was aware of the ring and Frodo Baggins, so I think Strider would have found them anyway. Long story short, the hobbits never have seemed very bright so far. Even Merry, who cautions them before they go into the common room, decides to take a stroll when black riders may be about.

All of this goes back to Gandalf’s blunder. Certainly I can understand to some degree the hobbits incompetence—they are inexperienced adventures who don’t really know yet what they’re up against, besides Gildor’s warning. But Gandalf, he should have known about this, and he should have sent Frodo packing much sooner than he did. Wasn’t the language of Mordor on a golden ring enough? The stupidity of the wise old wizard still astounds me. All of this could have been easily avoided, but then I guess we wouldn’t have a story then, would we?