Day Five: Frodo Takes to the Road

We were all tired last night and got to reading late, but we pushed on with the first half (or a bit more) of Chapter Three, entitled “Three is Company.”

Frodo sets out at last from the Shire, after a longer delay than you might expect after his conversation with Gandalf. When push comes to shove, it’s hard for Frodo to leave, especially not knowing when he might ever come back. At this point in the narrative, his sense of danger is still so small and his deep connection to home is still so strong. Despite occasional twinges of wanderlust, inspired by all the tales Bilbo told him over the years, desire for adventure is not an innate part of him.

He waits to go until his birthday, having published the news to the neighborhood that he’s selling Bag End (to the Sackville-Bagginses!) and moving to Buckland to be with his relatives there. Sam is going with him, supposedly to do the gardening at Frodo’s new house. The plan is for Frodo to head to Buckland first, then onward to Rivendell.

Frodo, Sam, and Pippin decide to walk to Buckland, a journey of a couple of days – and the fact that they decide to walk, so Frodo can begin to get into shape and also enjoy a last look at the beautiful autumnal Shire, is indication enough that they have very little sense of urgency. This despite the fact that Gandalf promised Frodo he would come back by his birthday at the very latest, and has not shown up.

Gandalf’s absence, which Tolkien manages to highlight a few times, is just one of the ominous notes in the proceedings. A stranger, someone from among the “big people,” as Pippin calls them, has been asking Sam’s father, the Gaffer, about Frodo’s whereabouts. Sam knows about this but they’re so busy getting on the road, he forgets to tell Frodo, yet another way Tolkien underlines the hobbits’ lack of sense of danger at this point. Sam only remembers to tell Frodo after the trio is beset by a very strange personage – a cloaked “black rider” who appears to be sniffing as well as looking for Frodo. At least that’s the sense that Frodo gets while lying hidden in the tall grasses waiting for this mysterious person to pass.

Frodo shows a keen sense of intuition to hide here. Tolkien doesn’t give us a glimpse into his reaction over the behavior of the ring, which seems to pull his hand toward it when the rider is present, but even without that, we realize that Frodo is definitely on his guard and definitely feels something is “off.”

I love the masterful way in which Tolkien shows the hobbits stepping further and further away from all that is comfortable and familiar. He recounts this early part of the journey in amazing geographical detail, showing such familiarity with the world of the Shire that we revel in its realness. Sam’s awed look across land he’s never seen, when they’re still only about twenty miles from home, rings especially poignantly when you already know just how long and far their road is going to take them, and how long it will be before they see their beloved Shire again. Well, that’s the re-reader response. I’m not sure how it played for my daughter, hearing these tales for the first time, but I think she definitely caught the sense that they’re moving into mystery. We spent a little more time poring over Tolkien’s maps when we finished reading.