I would have guessed that we’d divide the Council of Elrond
chapter into at least three or four nights, but yesterday found us on a long
day-trip. Perfect travel weather for a road trip, and we all agreed we’d push
on through the Council chapter. Reading it in one day (though we took breaks
between some segments) was challenging and fun; it also gave us some
opportunities to unpack the back story a bit as we lunched in a tiny little
town we wandered into after missing a turn.
I’m pretty sure that this is the kind of chapter that
contemporary writing teachers would tell writers to avoid writing, more’s the
pity. Too much talk, not enough action for the current zeitgeist. Tolkien gives
us lots of exposition through dialogue, though he does change things up a bit
by having different people speak in turn, adding to the unfolding of the story
of the Ring up to the present. (My husband reminded me that they tried to up
the action quotient in the Jackson
film version, by having Gimli try to hammer the Ring and destroy it. I suppose
that is a dramatic visual of the frustration they’re all feeling toward the end
of the chapter as they discuss what to do with this indestructible, evil
object.)
As a read-aloud, I found this chapter somewhat challenging
because there were long, long passages to read in the voice of one character,
and then I’d need to make a sudden switch. My voices tend to have very subtle
differences, and sometimes I had to make a conscious effort in my head to
remember to slow down the cadence and lower the tone when Gandalf was talking,
for instance. So many Elf-lords interject various comments into the proceedings
that I sort of gave up trying to differentiate, though I tried to invest Elrond
with a bit more authority. I need to work on my Legolas. Boromir has a touch of
bravado. Dwarfs sound gruffer and grittier; Hobbits speak higher (especially
Frodo, whose voice I tend to make light and thin). Strider is grave and noble
but speaks more quickly than Gandalf.
Everyone gets a turn here, and almost everyone has something
surprising to share. If the stakes weren’t so high, and the concern over the
Ring so deep, it might almost be comical the way each person keeps piling news
onto the heap, and not much of it is good. We’ve
been fighting the good fight in Gondor, but things are looking grim, and by the
way, I had a strange dream about a sword and a halfing. What? There are
halfings here? And the sword that was broken? And you’re sure you’re Isildur’s
heir, Aragorn? What? And a Ring? You mean, it’s really THE Ring? We didn’t know
that! Are you sure? Well, why didn’t you do something sooner? What? You were
imprisoned, Gandalf? By Saruman? But we thought he was on our side! And he’s
raising an army to equal Sauron’s? Well, at least we captured Gollum. What? You
mean he escaped? Alas! And Frodo’s been chased here by Nine Riders, so the
Nazgul have been let loose again? Are we sure they’re not dead? Too bad, but
perhaps it will take them a while to regroup. And by the way, is there some way
to get rid of this Ring? Couldn’t we give it to Bombadil or chuck it into the
Sea? No? So it has to be destroyed, and it has to be destroyed in the fires of Mt. Doom
in Mordor? That’s really not good. Who’s going to manage to get it there?
I love that Bilbo, at the age of 128, offers to try to
finish the story he inadvertently “started” – though as Gandalf points out, the
Ring’s story is much older than Bilbo, and the Hobbit came into it late.
Everyone appreciates the offer though, knowing that Bilbo means it from the
bottom of his heart, even though he’s really not quite up to adventuring
anymore.
Frodo’s “I will take the Ring…though I do not know the way,”
may be one of my favorite lines in the entire story. I almost can’t read it
without choking up with emotion. Such great humility and courage in the face of
such overwhelming darkness.
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