"The Breaking of the Fellowship" - Eric's Thoughts

So we've finally reached the end of the first book of the Lord of the Rings. I feel as though we've come a great journey just blogging about it. The experience really has been fun. I enjoyed reading Ben and Jacob's posts. Jacob of course is a literary scholar, and knows the proper terms for things, and Ben of course is a Tolkien scholar, who always adds a little Similarion backstory that us little people don't know.

This and Moria are the two best segments in the book. Boromir, an altogether flat character for most of the book, reveals himself to be the first to fall to the Ring, and also reveals depth that we haven't seen anywhere in the books so far. Maybe, he falls first because he's the most desperate to save his people. That makes his fall even more tragic. I didn't particularly mind his grand soliloquy like Ben did. When Boromir starts discussing how he will become a great leader and lead men to victory, it shows that the Ring draws out a person's wildest fantasies of what they could do with unlimited power. In fact, for us readers, his speech even seems comic, especially in light of how serious he's taking himself. I'm don't think that Galadriel necessarily put those thoughts in his head as perhaps merely teased out what he already felt? And what ruler wouldn't want more lands, to better serve his people?

I agree that Aragon, and the rest of the company, come off as a little bullheaded. They seem to be forgetting that the whole purpose of this expedition was because there was no other choice. Surely Aragon should have known that. Better to leave the Ring with Tom Bombadil than let it fester in the heart of Minas Tirith. But of course, it had to be that way to allow for the confrontation between Frodo and Boromir, which is one of the most intense scenes in the book.

I think that Ben and Jacob both really captured the highlights of this chapter, so I think I'll use this space to reflect on Fellowship as a whole.

The sense that I got from the reread was that there are some great scenes, but also a flawed early-middle portion where Tolkien doesn't really know where to take the story--the scenes with Tom Bombadil feel out of space, as does the scene where the Hobbits are attacked by ghosts and find their swords, and travel through the Old Forest. Let's look at the structure as a whole:

Bilbo's Party --> Gandalf Throwing Ring into Fire, Warning Frodo --> Frodo Leaving with Hobbits, including Farmer Maggot --> Black Riders sniffing, and elves --> Appearance of Merry and the Conspiracy --> Old Forest, Bombadil, Wraiths --> Bree --> Flight with Strider and Weathertop, and Frodo getting stabbed --> The River Crossing --> Rivendel, rest chapters --> Traveling to Cadharas, getting stuck on the Mountain --> Moria --> Lorien and the Elves, and Galadriel --> More Elves and Gifts from Lorien --> a Trip down a River --> and Boromir's Fall and Frodo and Sam Running off

I might be missing something, but I think that about covers it. Overall, the drag chapters, for me at least, seem to occur when Frodo is waiting around early on, some of the early travels of the Hobbits, the three terrible chapters of which you know I speak, Lorien, Farewell to Lorien, and the Great River.

Still, at this point in the book I don't really have a good sense of character. I think a big part of this is Tolkien's choice of omniscient narrator, where point of view shifts interchangeably without pattern in any given chapter. As a result, we are not left with a single character to identify with, do not know his thoughts, and therefore they feel flat. As a fun writing exercise, maybe when Lord of the Rings becomes public domain someone could rewrite it from the point of view of a particular character for each chapter, but still keep to the main narrative. Jacob? Ben? You want to try?

Overall, in writing these blog posts, I really feel like I've accomplished something. And yet, suddenly thinking that there are TWO MORE BOOKS of similar length, I feel terror just as Frodo does. There are a daunting number of chapters yet to blog about.

Onward we go!