Prologue
Tolkien uses the prologue to give the reader background he feels is necessary. We are told not only about the physical, cultural, and racial traits of the Hobbits, but also quite a bit about their history. He tells that they descended from three different breeds: the Harfoots, the Stoors, and the Fallowhides. He implies that the histories he talks about may have spanned many thousands of years.
Chapter 1: A Long-Expected Party. (Tolkien titled each chapter.)
Tolkien uses the prologue to give the reader background he feels is necessary. We are told not only about the physical, cultural, and racial traits of the Hobbits, but also quite a bit about their history. He tells that they descended from three different breeds: the Harfoots, the Stoors, and the Fallowhides. He implies that the histories he talks about may have spanned many thousands of years.
Chapter 1: A Long-Expected Party. (Tolkien titled each chapter.)
-Preparations begin
for Bilbo’s 111th birthday and Frodo’s 33rd, as
they both share
the same birthday, September 22nd. A party like no other
is planned. Rich
Bilbo spares no expense.
-Gandalf arrives
with fireworks. He and Bilbo discuss the Hobbit’s plan
to leave the Shire
and bequeath all he owns to his nephew Frodo, including The
Ring.
-The party goes off
as planned. At the end, Bilbo makes a farewell speech
and secretly dons
the ring. He disappears in a poof, to the consternation of
all his guests.
-At the last
minute, Bilbo experiences an inner struggle; he yearns to keep The Ring.
The Ring clearly owns a piece of his soul and works its evil, but with Gandalf’s
help,
he is able to walk away from it and leave it to Frodo.
-Before leaving,
Gandalf warns Frodo that The Ring may be dangerous and not to
use it.
Wonderful Quote:
I don’t know half of you half as well as I
should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
My Thoughts:
Chapter 1 serves primarily to paint the image
of the Hobbit and the Shire in the eye of the reader. It’s one thing to be told
that Hobbits love to eat and have hairy feet. It’s another to see them as a
people interacting, gossiping, drinking, blowing smoke rings, living with round
doors painted in bright greens and yellows, time marked only by the gentle
passing of the seasons. Their idyllic simplicity and lack of concern with the
outside world makes them both admirable and vulnerable. I want to both join
them and shake them up. But more than anything, I want to protect their world and keep them safe and innocent.
Chapter 2: The Shadow
of the Past.
-Frodo becomes his
own master. The years pass and he grows more like Bilbo.
Rumors of evil and
darkness seep into the Shire, but no one pays any mind.
Strangers are seen
crossing through the Shire.
-After a long absence, Gandalf reappears. He
tells Frodo all he has learned of The
Ring, and tests
the ring in fire. He tells Frodo of the making and losing of The
Ring, of how Gollum found it and was changed
by it, and how Bilbo truly got
The Ring. He tells that the Dark Lord seeks it because
it is the one master ring
that rules all the other rings.
-Gandalf warns
Frodo that the enemy finally is aware of the Shire and the name
Baggins.
-Frodo accepts that
to save all he loves, he must leave and take The Ring away
from the Shire.
Gandalf tells him he need not go alone. Caught eavesdropping
on the
conversation, Samwise Gangee is chosen to go with him.
My Thoughts:
This chapter is all about The Ring. Most of it is narrative in Gandalf's words. Here we finally get the true picture of The Ring's nature and its ability to influence and possess its bearer.
Here Frodo struggles with the decision of being the one who has to take The Ring away and his fear of being insufficient to the task.
The temptation of Gandalf is quite interesting too. As powerful and central a character as he is, he's always steady and unchanging at his core. He is not the dynamic character in this tale.
We also get a compelling image of Smeagol/Gollum. He has always, in my opinion, been the most moving and disturbing character in the series.
Chapter 3: Three is Company.
-Gandalf presses
Frodo to leave soon. Frodo promises to leave on his 50th birthday.
-Frodo sells Bag
End to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and buys a small house at
Crickhollow,
Buckleberry. He tells everyone that he is retiring there.
-Gandalf warns
Frodo never to use The Ring and leaves for the southern borders to
search for news.
He promises to be back before Frodo’s departure.
-On the evening of
Frodo’s departure, a stranger shows up at the village asking
about Frodo.
-Gandalf fails to
return. Frodo, Sam, and Pippin leave quietly. Merry left
earlier in the
morning with the moving cart.
-The traveling
party walks, talks, sings, eats, rests. The first encounter with the Dark
Rider happens.
Frodo feels a strong urge to wear the rings.
-The second appearance of a sniffing, tracking
Dark Rider is interrupted by the
appearance of a
band of traveling elves. Upon hearing about the Black Riders,
their leader,
Gildor Inglorion, invites the Hobbits to go along with the elves.
Sam is delighted
with the elves!
-They
reach a grassy clearing surrounded by woods under the starlit night. The elves
play the gracious hosts to the Hobbits. Later, Frodo and Gildor hold a long conversation.
The elf advices Frodo to go quickly toward
Rivendell, to take companions, and to
evade
the Black Riders, for they serve the enemy.
Wonderful quotes:
-The wide world is
all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for
ever fence it out.
-Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are
subtle and quick to anger.
-…advice is a dangerous gift.
-Courage is found in unlikely places.
My Thoughts:
If Chapter 1 was about Hobbits, this one is about elves! I cannot but share Sam's delight and awe of the beautiful, wise, glowing, merry but mysterious creatures.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Zeecé Lugo is a blogger and author of the Angel's Guardian Series.
Angel's Guardian is Zeecé Lugo's fast-paced, romantic paranormal suspense.
The vampire Maxim makes his home in New York City. Self-exiled from the vampire nation, he spends his days in quiet solitude and his nights prowling the heights and hunting evil, his prey of choice. On a cold November night, he chances upon a gang rape in a desolate back alley. He leaps at the chance to feed on predators of the worst kind, his favorite prey. But the situation takes a turn he never expected, and soon he finds himself wishing he'd made a different choice on that fateful night.
Angelica has been on the run for years. Kidnapped by a sex-trafficking ring at the age of fourteen, she escaped only to be relentlessly pursued by her enemies ever since. Tonight, they found her. As she lies dying on a cold, dark alley, her only fear is for the secret she desperately hid moments before they caught her. A secret she must protect with her life from her enemies and from the monster that destroyed them and now turns red, fiery eyes upon her.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Zeecé Lugo is a blogger and author of the Angel's Guardian Series.
The vampire Maxim makes his home in New York City. Self-exiled from the vampire nation, he spends his days in quiet solitude and his nights prowling the heights and hunting evil, his prey of choice. On a cold November night, he chances upon a gang rape in a desolate back alley. He leaps at the chance to feed on predators of the worst kind, his favorite prey. But the situation takes a turn he never expected, and soon he finds himself wishing he'd made a different choice on that fateful night.
Angelica has been on the run for years. Kidnapped by a sex-trafficking ring at the age of fourteen, she escaped only to be relentlessly pursued by her enemies ever since. Tonight, they found her. As she lies dying on a cold, dark alley, her only fear is for the secret she desperately hid moments before they caught her. A secret she must protect with her life from her enemies and from the monster that destroyed them and now turns red, fiery eyes upon her.
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