Day Six: Sam Meets Elves

S. had a movie night a friend’s house last evening, so we decided to read right after dinner before we needed to leave. We knew it would be midnight before we got home.

We had been listening to music during dinner, and I turned it off when I brought the book the table. When S. looked at me questioningly, I said, “I can’t read aloud and listen at the same time. Two different kinds of music.”

“Is reading music?” she asked, sounding intrigued.

“Reading Tolkien is music,” I assured her, a sentiment which I wholeheartedly believe. The assertion was beautifully borne out by the fact that the last half of chapter three contained two songs.

I love that in Tolkien, almost everybody sings, most especially hobbits and elves. They’re both singing, storytelling peoples, prone to break into song in the course of the everyday as well as to set aside times specifically for singing and telling stories.

In this chapter, Sam, Pippin and Frodo are walking along, still headed for Buckland, still worried about the Black Riders who seem to be following them. When nothing happens and they begin to grow more peaceful, they begin to hum a walking song, one that Bilbo had written (setting words “to a tune that was as old as the hills") and taught to Frodo. It’s one of those deliciously sweet hobbit songs, all about home and hearth and bread and bed.

The shadow catches up to them again, but they’re once more saved from discovery (so many close calls in these early pages!) this time by Elves. And not just any elves. These are High-Elves, a fact which causes great wonderment to Frodo, who realizes who they are when he hears them sing a hymn to Elbereth. Frodo seems to have an intuitive way of understanding Elven speech and song, even though he’s only studied it a little bit with Bilbo.

The Elbereth song – “O Queen beyond the Western Seas!” has a deeply ethereal, spiritual quality. It reminded me, flittingly, of Tolkien’s Catholicism. I could understand how the song captured Sam’s heart. Sam is in awe – feeling both fear and wonder – the whole time they spend with the Elves, talking, feasting, and resting.

This is the first, but by no means last time, that Frodo finds help on the journey. He speaks with Gildor Inglorian (could there be a better name to evoke gold, light, glory?) and though he doesn’t tell him all he could, Gildor knows or senses enough to give Frodo some good advice. Gildor speculates that in their meeting “there may be more than chance” (Providence at work again!) but he admits he cannot clearly see the whole purpose of their meeting.

Still, he offers Frodo counsel. Essentially he tells him to flee the Black Riders without speaking to them and to press on, even without Gandalf. He also encourages him to take whatever friends he can trust along with him. He assures Frodo that he will spread the word to other Elves to be on the lookout for Frodo and friends and to offer them assistance as they can. “I name you Elf-Friend; and may the stars shine upon the end of your road!” A beautiful blessing, full of strength.