{"id":718,"date":"2012-01-05T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=718"},"modified":"2011-12-28T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T21:00:14","slug":"mark-reads-the-fellowship-of-the-ring-chapter-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2012\/01\/mark-reads-the-fellowship-of-the-ring-chapter-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’: Chapter 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twelfth chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em>, BY MY BEARD, THIS IS SO INTENSE<\/strong>. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Lord of the Rings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER TWELVE: FLIGHT TO THE FORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book truly is not at all what I expected it to be. Well, there is one<\/em> section in this chapter that falls along the lines of what I anticipated from The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, but by and large, this is all so exciting to me.<\/p>\n

Even if you take the rapid plotting away from this chapter, I find that I am continually impressed by how complete<\/em> Middle-earth feels to me, despite that so many details are utterly unfamiliar to me. I know I spoke about it earlier, but the way that some of the details of the imagined universe are used to build the fabric of the story help me to believe<\/em> all of this. I wrote of how communication in Middle-earth is so unlike\u00c2\u00a0 what our experience is, and I think “Flight To The Ford” elaborates more on the concept of travel<\/em> in this world. Let’s say that all these characters were of great health, and that they all possessed horses and ponies. The reality of Middle-earth is that it’s massive<\/em>, so large that even traveling twenty to thirty miles a day means that sometimes it takes months for one to travel between towns. Tolkien touched on that in The Hobbit<\/em> to some extent, and I know I pointed out how surprised I was by how much time passed in that book. Here, though, it’s a pervasive feature of this world. The story itself frames that, of course, since Frodo and his friends aren’t on a mission with a set itinerary.<\/p>\n

Well, yes, they’re specifically going to Rivendell, but this isn’t a leisurely adventure for them. The entire thing is plagued with problems, and the last few weeks have been haunted by the Black Riders. Simply put, they’re clearly not on vacation. Traveling is almost a burden<\/em> on these hobbits and Aragorn, and Tolkien constantly acknowledges the logistical nightmare along the way.<\/p>\n

First of all, though, he deals with the ramifications of Frodo’s actions at the end of chapter eleven. I am blissfully and beautifully lost about the Black Riders, what they are, and how the Ring holds this bizarre power over everything<\/em>. I suppose I do generally understand how it works, but there’s so much left to be answered at the end of this chapter. Namely, this:<\/p>\n

‘What has happened? Where is the pale king?’ he asked wildly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Who the hell is the pale king? I actually went back to read the end of the last chapter, and there’s no pale king? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?<\/p>\n
He heard Frodo’s voice, but it seemed to come from a great distance, or from under the earth, crying out strange words. They saw nothing more, until they stumbled over the body of Frodo, lying as if dead, face downwards on the grass with his sword beneath him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
!!!!!!!!! IS THIS REAL LIFE !!!!!!!! God, could you imagine if your friend disappeared as shadow dudes fell upon you and then you could only hear his voice and then you found his body nowhere near where you are and THIS IS REALLY FRIGHTENING OKAY.<\/p>\n
Chapter twelve also outright confirms that Aragorn is who he says he is. It’s said near the end when the Elf-lord greets him with joy, but even here in the beginning, I realized that it was time to cast aside any doubt towards his character. Truthfully, he could have just allowed Frodo to die from the enchanted knife wound and then stole the Ring. I can’t see it making any<\/em> sense for him to continue to let them believe he’s on their side if he was really with the Black Riders. More than ever before, I am glad Aragorn is here with the hobbits, and I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he weren’t around.<\/p>\n
Actually, I suppose that Frodo would not have survived the knife wound if Aragorn had not found athelas<\/em> to keep the poison at bay. But this is all part of the things at work in chapter twelve. It’s not just enough that these five characters have very little time to make it to Rivendell, nor is it enough that they don’t quite<\/em> know where they are. (Which is an important point: this book would not work if things were meticulously mapped out, and that cultural detail of Middle-earth is just so immense<\/em> to me. You know your way around out of sheer experience, unless something is off the main Road. This is not something that any ol’ traveler could pull off either.)<\/p>\n
Tolkien adds a couple factors to make this journey frantic and quietly damning. Frodo’s injury is, of course, a huge flaw in their plan, and it’s one they couldn’t have accounted for. The group has<\/em> made good time walking the past week, and certainly there is no better creature in Middle-earth suited for walking quite like the hobbit, right? But now Frodo has an injury that has taken away the ability for him to use his left arm. So, there’s that, and that’s bad in and of itself. He can’t walk properly, and then he also<\/em> has to deal with the pain and coldness that comes along with it. Frodo’s state slows down the whole party, which is also<\/em> a disaster because there are shadowy riders in black coming to destroy them. Then they get sort of lost, then they go too far, and by the time things get to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, that thing<\/em> we will discuss in a bit, I was just exhausted<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Part of that is a good thing, since I love an immersive novel, one that makes me feel the same things that the characters are going through. So I want to make sure that there’s a huge compliment here. Whether intended or not, this entire segment, in which the characters spend days doing their best to get to Rivendell, failing, and then having to find the Ford, certainly has the effect of creating a sense of despair. At the same time, while I acknowledge that I do like that Tolkien doesn’t just skip over a week’s worth of time in a few sentences, this drags just a bit. Again, perhaps it is supposed to, but it comes with the territory. I don’t really know if this is a complaint, to be honest, or any sort of criticism of the text. An author does what they want, and they generally have reasons for this sort of thing. Still, I was\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, not bored, but anxious for something to happen aside from walking in pain.<\/p>\n
I greatly welcomed the appearance of the trolls, and allow me to just take a second to beg all of you to go find a Norwegian horror film called Trollhunter<\/em> and watch it if you have even the slightest modicum of an interest in trolls because it’s genuinely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Okay, anyway, when the arrived at the cave with a door and Aragorn and Merry creep about inside and surmise it was a troll den, I seriously thought, “GREAT. THIS IS JUST GREAT.” Do they seriously need to worry about trolls<\/em> on top of everything else?<\/p>\n
But they had not gone very far before Pippin came running back, followed by Merry. They both looked terrified.<\/p>\n
‘There are<\/em> trolls!’ Pippin panted. ‘Down in a clearing in the woods not far below. We got a sight of them through the tree-trunks. They are very large!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
TOLKIEN, CAN ONE NICE THING HAPPEN TO THESE CHARACTERS?<\/p>\n
Strider walked forward unconcernedly. ‘Get up, old stone!’ he said, and broke his stick upon the stopping troll.<\/p>\n
Nothing happened. There was a gasp of astonishment from the hobbits, and then even Frodo laughed. ‘Well!’ he said. ‘We are forgetting our family history! These must be the very three that were caught by Gandalf, quarrelling over the right way to cook thirteen dwarves and one hobbit.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
All right, this is pretty damn wonderful. I don’t know that we will<\/em> see trolls at all in this entire book, but I’m perfectly fine with just this. It also gives me a good idea of just how far<\/em> they are from everything. How much time has passed? It was just October the fifth in the last chapter, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.mid-October now? Anyway, I love the idea that they pass things from The Hobbit<\/em>, that that<\/em> story is part of their own personal lore, since they all knew Bilbo Baggins rather well. Still, the comfort this provides is short-lived, as they’re back to trying to find the Ford to make it to Rivendell. When they hear horse hooves in the distance, they assume the worst, which is expected. But it turns out to be ELVEN-FOLK. FUCK YES. We get the chance to meet Glorfindel, who actually lives with Elrond in Rivendell. I think that since so much awful had happened and this chapter was already<\/em> so long, I just assumed that this is where this chapter would end, or perhaps after they arrived in Rivendell. We get a lot of new information about what’s happening around Middle-earth from Glorfindel, including the fact that no one has seen Gandalf around at all. What is that dude doing<\/em>? He’s just plotting<\/em> and planning<\/em>, isn’t he?<\/p>\n
Either way, the group, led by Glorfindel, and with Frodo on the elves’s white horse, head to the Ford, and, once again, it takes multiple days to get there. Frodo gets weaker, they all worry more, and then, just short of the Ford itself, everything goes to hell.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I thought that things wouldn’t be so eventful as they made it to Rivendell, but I clearly thought wrong. The Black Riders are upon all of them, and then the WEIRDEST THING HAPPENS.<\/p>\n
Suddenly he knew in his heart that they were silently commanding him to wait. Then at once fear and hatred awoke in him. His hand left the bridle and gripped the hilt of his sword, and with a red flash he drew it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’m sorry, WHAT IS THIS JEDI BULLSHIT?<\/em> Is it because he possesses the ring? HOW CAN THEY DO THIS? Frodo doesn’t know, and after snapping out of their hold, he and Glorfindel’s horse take off with the Black Riders in pursuit. It’s honestly such a terrifying scene because it’s Frodo against nine other riders. (They’re the Nine with the rings, right? Is that how they have power over Frodo?) Even when Frodo successfully makes it up the bank across the river, the Black Riders are somehow able to control him in some way, and he halts on his horse as they come ashore. THEY’RE SO CLOSE. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW. Where are the others? What’s going on? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND NONE OF THEM ARE BEING ANSWERED AT ALL.<\/p>\n
But this isn’t about getting answers! This is about the most phenomenal, confusing, bewildering, and overwhelming thing happening just as the Black Riders are about to close in on Frodo. WHITE RIDERS IN THE WAVES OF THE RIVER SWEEP AWAY THE BLACK RIDERS.<\/em> Oh, and there’s fire??? And some figure in white light and then the riders are possibly drowned? And then Frodo passes out and the chapter just ends<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
GODDAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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