📖👀 Chapter 6 (📔Book IV): The Forbidden Pool

[Rivendell_librarian]

There are some helpful diagrams and maps of Henneth Annun in Fonstad's Atlas of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Frodo is mysteriously woken up by Faramir in the middle of the night. Faramir wants Frodo to see the beauty of the full moon but there is another matter. Sam wakes up and follows on of course. The Window on the West adopts a different silken beauty with the setting full moon but Sam does not pause to admire it. Anborn, one of Faramir's scouts, had earlier spotted a hissing large squirrel like creature which we know to be Gollum. Now Gollum is diving for fish in the Forbidden Pool: forbidden because of the need for secrecy of their hideout.

Faramir asks Frodo whether they shoot arrows to kill Gollum but Frodo, citing Mithrandir, says no. Sam is of a different opinion but stays silent on the matter. Frodo tells Faramir that Gollum is allured here by a "mastering desire". Faramir, not incorrectly thinks this is the Ring but Frodo actually meant hunger. Both desires apply to Gollum here. To avoid Gollum being killed Frodo lures Gollum to a place where he can be captured, hooded and taken back for questioning.

When questioned by Faramir, Gollum feigns ignorance and innocence but Gollum cannot look into Faramir's "clear unwavering eyes". Faramir knows Gollum is holding something back but accepts this is the first time he has approached their refuge. Faramir grants Frodo his freedom to continue his quest and Gollum to accompany and guide Frodo and Sam.

There is some interesting use of place names. When Frodo says "Minas Ithil" Faramir corrects him to Minas Morgul, the name for it now under Sauron's sway. When Faramir names the high pass, Cirith Ungol, Gollum at first vehemently denies it and again feigns innocence about the name. Gollum doesn't want his plan involving Shelob divulged.

After Anborn takes Gollum away, Faramir counsels Frodo not to trust Gollum and not to go via Cirith Ungol but he doesn't know why. If the place is named, old men and masters of lore blanch and fall silent. How does Faramir know this? I think we can deduce that Faramir has posed such questions to old men and lore masters the better to understand the enemy and his situation.

But Faramir doesn't have an alternative to suggest and Frodo comes out with this remarkable observation:

“You cannot yourself, you say, guide me to the mountains, nor over them. But over the mountains I am bound, by solemn undertaking to the Council, to find a way or perish in the seeking. And if I turn back, refusing the road in its bitter end, where then shall I go among Elves or Men? Would you have me come to Gondor with this Thing, the Thing that drove your brother mad with desire? What spell would it work in Minas Tirith? Shall there be two cities of Minas Morgul, grinning at each other across a dead land filled with rottenness?“

"I would not have it so" replies Faramir. I think this insight is clear evidence that Frodo has grown in wisdom since leaving Rivendell.

I noticed that the Rangers have Anglo-Saxon sounding two syllable names: Mablung, Damrod, Anborn whereas the Gondor elite have three syllable names ending in r: Boromir, Faramir, Denethor. Is this to distinguish the descendants of the Numenoreans?

 

[Eljorahir]

I always liked this bit where Gollum's promise to serve Frodo and Frodo's command for him to answer Faramir's questions truthfully manifest in a physical sense as he tells a lie in violation of his promise. Within himself, he is compelled to tell the truth.

Faramir tells Frodo the name of the pass to which he's being led is Cirith Ungol. Then, he asks Gollum: "Is not that its name?"

'No!' said Gollum, and then he squealed, as if something had stabbed him. 'Yes, yes, we heard the name once...'

 

[TrackerOrc]

Dear me, how big do the squirrels get in Ithilien if Gollum is mistaken for one!

Once again we see Sam's pretty much unrelenting hostility to poor old Gollum, so it's a good thing that Frodo answered quickly.
'Where is the other one, the cross rude hobbit?' A very good description of the increasingly boorish Mr Gamgee in my opinion.

'We are lost, lost.' said Gollum. 'No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry; yes, we are hungry. a few little fishes, nasty bony little fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are; so just, so very just.'
This is heartbreaking stuff; how much more has this pitiable little creature got to go through?

'I do take Smeagol under my protection.' said Frodo. Sam sighed audibly'. What a petty little hobbit Sam is becoming!

'There is some dark terror that dwells in the passes above Minas Morgul'. Yep. Huge great spider monster name of Shelob...

 

[Eljorahir]

bony little fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are; so just, so very just.'

An excellent bit of biting sarcasm by Mr. Smeagol.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

You guys would likely enjoy reading some posts by @YayGollum. 😄

 

[TrackerOrc]

You guys would likely enjoy reading some posts by @YayGollum. 😄

I had a very enjoyable time reading some of his posts.
Very balanced I would say...

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

"I would not have it so"

I was prompted to think again about this conversation between Frodo and Faramir from a study course I am doing and I realise now I didn't emphasise these 6 crucial words of Faramir's enough. Faramir shows here a deep understanding of good and evil and clearly rejects the evil of his father Denethor for the good that Frodo has shown him here. He is not tempted by the Ring because he understands the damage it can do - and he can see that in the damage that it has done to Gollum. A great man.

 

[Eljorahir]

A Fable and a Moral:

The Fox and the Hedgehog
By Aesop​

A fox, swimming across a river, was barely able to reach the bank, where he lay bruised and exhausted from his struggle with the swift current. Soon a swarm of blood-sucking flies settled on him; but he lay quietly, still too weak to run away from them.

A Hedgehog happened by. "Let me drive the flies away," he said kindly.

"No, no!" exclaimed the Fox, "do not disturb them! They have taken all they can hold. If you drive them away, another greedy swarm will come and take the little blood I have left."

Better to bear a lesser evil than to risk a greater in removing it.

Applying the fable and the moral to Boromir and Faramir:

The Hedgehog advocating the simple/obvious course of action: “Let me drive the flies away.”
Boromir advocating the simple/obvious course of action: “Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely defeat the Enemy… … …why not Boromir? The Ring would give me power of Command…”

The Fox advocating the more thoughtful course of action: “If you drive them away, another greedy swarm will come…”
Faramir advocating the more thoughtful course of action: “I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good…”

Tolkien’s (coincidental???) use of “fox” and “hedgehog” in Ithilien (both times associated with Gollum):

Faramir meeting and questioning two tired travelers: “Where is the third of your company? … he gave us the slip by some fox-trick.”

Anborn and his friends capturing Gollum by the Forbidden Pool. One says: “Hold still!” ... “Or we’ll stick you as full of pins as a hedgehog. Hold still!”

Final Comments:
I find it very interesting that Anborn’s friend is threatening to stick Gollum as full of pins as a hedgehog. However, it is, in fact, Boromir who fits the hedgehog character in the fable quite well, IMO. And, I’m afraid it’s also Boromir who was stuck full of pins.

Did Tolkien plant the words "fox" and "hedgehog" into this part of the story because of this fable? Or, is it simply a strange coincidence?