📖👀 Concluding thoughts on The Fellowship of the Ring

[Rivendell_librarian]

1. I was struck by the rhythm of the book: a period of hospitality and then a period of movement and action. The book starts with hospitality since Gandalf is welcomed in Bag End. This continues throughout the book.

2. I was struck by the importance of the three long dialogues (verging on the Socratic) about the Ring: between Gandalf and Bilbo, Gandalf and Frodo and finally Frodo and Boromir.

3. The hobbits and later the Company encounter a wide variety of terrains all well described by Tolkien. They also encounter and overcome a wide variety of dangers, often with external aid.

4. Choosing is a very important feature: when to set off from the Shire and Rivendell, what to do with the Ring, who should be the Ringbearer, mountain pass, Moria or longer route, east or west of the Great River?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

You've hit on several of the features of the "parallel structures" of Books I and II:

Each book begins with a chapter of festivity, followed by a chapter of consultation, in which the history of the Ring is revealed, and a decision about what to do with it is taken.

Each ends with a river crossing, where the Ringbearer is separated from the main company.

In between, the Fellowship faces a number of threats, most of which are symbolically parallel, such as the Night Journeys in the Barrow and Moria, or Old Man Willow and Caradhras.

Now, on to Two Towers? The parallels continue, and in fact proliferate, though concurrently, rather than consecutively.

 

[H0bb1t4]

It really sets you onto a precipice as it ends at a critical moment, where a dire yet important choice is to be made on a path that will not leave you unscathed.

 

[Muskrat]

Dozens of tableaux! I can envision many paintings based on this book. It is very nostalgic, but also hopeful. The scene is enchanting, the possibilities limitless. It is my favorite of the three, and have sometimes stopped reading here.