Book 1, Chap. 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

The Hall of Fire's extended chapter by chapter discussion of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
User avatar
Inanna
Meetu's little sister
Posts: 17680
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:03 pm

Post by Inanna »

Lalaith wrote:
Voronwë_the_Faithful wrote:So what's stopping you from rereading it now, and jumping in with your thoughts? Eh?
Honestly, I'd feel a bit like a child trying to say something while the grownups are talking. :D (The talk has moved beyond, "I liked this" and "I didn't like that.")
That's all I can usually think of saying too. :P

But I do enjoy reading, and I do that! :)
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
User avatar
Inanna
Meetu's little sister
Posts: 17680
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:03 pm

Post by Inanna »

V wrote: If the Hobbits follow the Elves lead in referring to the Sun as She (and the Moon as he), doesn't that imply that they have learned something from the Elves of the "real state of affairs in Arda"?
Or the implication that Moon is a "he" has just reached the Hobbits through songs and stories. That's how mythology is usually handed down from culture to culture and generation to generation.
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
User avatar
solicitr
Posts: 3728
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:37 pm
Location: Engineering a monarchist coup d'etat

Post by solicitr »

V-man wrote:What's really amazing is how much of the language remained relatively unchanged, even when the significance of what was being said changed mightily.
A lot of the fun, really, of reading the drafts of Book I and on into II as far as Moria is how Tolkien kept prose, even dialogue, largely intact whilst the dramatis personae rotated beneath it, so to speak. But perhaps the most striking example of keeping language relatively unchanged when "the significance of what was being said changed mightily" is found back in Chapter 3 (the second one written:)
They ran quickly to the left down into a little hollow beside the road and lay flat. Bingo slipped on his ring and sat down a few yards from the track. The sound of hoofs drew nearer. Round a turn came a white horse, and on it sat a bundle -- or that is what it looked like: a small man wrapped entirely in a great cloak and hood so that only his eyes peered out, and his boots in the stirrups below.
The horse stopped when it came level with Bingo. The figure uncovered its nose and sniffed; and then sat silent as if listening. Suddenly a laugh came from inside the hood.
'Bingo my boy!' said Gandalf, throwing aside his wrappings.....

Then Tolkien went back with a pencil and corrected a few words on the manuscript:
Round a turn came a white [> black] horse, and on it sat a bundle -- or that is what it looked like: a small [> short] man wrapped entirely in a great [added: black] cloak and hood so that only his eyes peered out [>so that his face was entirely shadowed], and his boots in the stirrups below...
User avatar
Voronwë the Faithful
At the intersection of here and now
Posts: 45926
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:41 am
Contact:

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Are we done with this chapter? Time to move on? If anyone wants to take a shot at opening the next thread, go for it!
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Post Reply