The first timid bit of Sam point of view: 'Sam was the only member of the party who had not been over the river before. He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front. He scratched his head, and for a moment had a passing wish that Mr. Frodo could have gone on ( Read more... )

Frodo considers Gildor's hard-won advice to 'Take such friends as are trusty and willing' but immediately reacts 'No! I could not!...I don't think I ought even to take Sam.' He offers Sam several graceful exits and finds out that Sam had his own converse with the Elves (quite likely after Frodo was led to a bed beside Pippin) and, added to his ( Read more... )

The royal family of Erebor, while they cannot understand the speech of birds, have a long-standing relationship with the thrushes ( Read more... )

Here is what JRR wrote about what Bilbo saw ( Read more... )

Very subtle Frodo pov: The landscape is described, as are Pippin's and especially Sam's reactions, but there is no description of Frodo at all ( Read more... )

Sam's first words,'Queer things you do hear these days to be sure', have a poetic rhythm to them. This way of speaking is pointed out explicitly later: '"They are sailing, sailing, sailing over the Sea, they are going into the West and leaving us," said Sam, half chanting the words. (Sam has, as Owen Barfield might have said, poetic diction ( Read more... )

'"You have still got the ring in your pocket," said the wizard ( Read more... )

The configuration of sun and moon that Bilbo witnesses from the shelf outside the secret door is remarkable, and ought to be widely noted by all the races of Middle-earth if it were visible from many places. But in all JRR’s writings, it is only ever seen from that one place. Either JRR didn’t take it very seriously, which is possible but ( Read more... )

Durin’s Day ( Read more... )

Narrative ( Read more... )