Gandalf is what stood out to me most in this chapter.
Yes, there's also the rich, immersive atmosphere of the mines of Moria (indeed, "The Old Forest" is already a forgotten memory); and there's the mounting sense of dread as they delve deeper into places where unnamed horrors far "fouler than orcs" reside; and there's the admittedly-awesome action sequences with the Wargs, as well as that Lovecraftian tentacled creature--all the more unnerving in its lack of a name--that snags after Frodo first (a fact so frightening in implication that Gandalf will scarcely acknowledge it), then traps them inside a place so dark and dreary that even battle-hardened Aragorn is wary to enter; and to top it all off is the insinuation that dear Frodo's wound has not healed as completely as we were maybe led to believe, for he now senses more keenly the evil things hidden in the dark--as well as his sense that something is following them--which narratatively is effective in ratcheting up the tension in a chapter where, frankly, not much happens.
Because let's face it: not a whole lot actually occurs in this chapter. Putting aside a couple short action sequences and that very palpable, primal fear of the dark, not much really happens. I don't mean that as a knock against this chapter, on the contrary: it speaks highly of Tolkien that I never once found myself skimming (not even during the poem!) throughout a chapter that doesn't feature much more than movement from point A to point B. I even felt bad for Sam when he had to say goodbye to Bill the pony--hardly a figure I'd gotten invested in.
Of course, these chapters are about so much more than mere movement from A to B--there is also the wonderful character development; for besides the aforementioned forebodings about Frodo's wound, we also get to see the beginning of the rivalry between Gimli and Legolas (as they trade barbs about which side first ruined relations between the Elves and the Dwarves), which as we all know will ultimately blossom into one of the most delightful bromances in fiction. But for my money, far more interesting (and subtle) is Gandalf's character development in this chapter--and his foreshadowing.
His power up till now has mostly been hidden--the Shire folk who didn't know better had always just assumed him some eccentric "conjurer of cheap tricks" for example. Through his frequent absences in both The Hobbit and Book I of Fellowship we began to sense that he's a figure of some importance away on more pressing matters, and his presence on major counsels, and his intimacy with important-sounding people, begin to confirm our suspicions of his prominence; but we've rarely gotten to see him in real action. We are told about his thrilling escape from Saruman, and he tells Frodo of how he added the flourish of the horses on the waves that wiped out the Dark Riders, but we are never shown him doing any of these things! The full extant of his power remains shrouded in mere rumor and hearsay.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first chapter where we begin to actually witness Gandalf the wizard in action. In that fight against the Wargs for example, we are told of how he appeared to grow larger than his usual stature--in fact, when he utters his terrible threats against the Warg leader, one senses that Gandalf has the ability to back those oaths up. Likewise, as the Fellowship comes before that password-protected magic door, we casually learn how Gandalf has memorized every spell in every language of Middle-Earth going back ages. Suddenly this wizard's intellect expands before us in all its staggering magnitude.
(On a side note, the reveal that "speak friend and enter" is just a password-hint from a more trusting, innocent age, far from feeling cutesy, instead had for me a deep melancholy about it, as a marker of how long and how far their world has fallen into darkness).
Once inside the darkness of Moria, one quickly gets the sense that if it were not for Gandalf, the entire Fellowship would be irremediably lost--and not just cause Gandalf is the only one with a light source (itself rather startling). The man has knowledge and skills far beyond all of them combined, such that he begins to feel like the lynchpin of this entire Quest. Now that we have a taste of Gandalf's abilities, we are well set up for both the believability of his battle with the Balrog in the next chapter, as well as for the gut punch of his loss by the end. It is as though we are now given a glimpse of his powers just in time for them to be snuffed out, and thus feel the full extent of that loss for our poor heroes--though I'm also genuinely curious as to how much savvy readers of the '50s sensed that this, the beginning of Gandalf's arc, had still to be completed in the novels to follow. For one can't just simply hint at Gandalf's full power without any follow-through--this Chekov's gun, while about to be taken from the stage, still needs to be fired.
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