Frodo entered Rivendell unconscious, but because of his friends, unbeaten.
Thoughts on the Passage – Book I, Chapter 12 (p215, 50th Anniv. Ed.)
Finally! We have arrived in Rivendell! There were no parties, no celebrations, no Elvish women jumping out of cakes. There were only a whole slew of decisions to make and back stories to tell.
Frodo and his friends arrived in Rivendell on October 20th, twenty-seven days after leaving Hobbiton. With only one day off at Tom Bombadil’s house, they averaged about seventeen and a half miles each day.
They would stay in Rivendell until December 25th. Since this blog is necessarily following the movements of Frodo, I can’t exactly take two months off to wait until they get moving again. Tomorrow, I’ll pick up with the Fellowship leaving Rivendell.
In my writing (as well as exercising) I cover about five miles each day. For the first (roughly) 220ish miles, Tolkien is in his best montage mode. We learn amazingly little about the walk and even less about those walking. In all, it takes only a few sentences. At my rate of five miles each day, this will take me around a month and a half. Rather than writing nothing (as there’s literally nothing to write about), I’m going to delve into the first two chapters of Book Two (the second half of Fellowship of the Ring. I’ll try my best to take it in chronological order, as Tolkien unfolded it in the book. I’m sure, however, there will be forays into other subjects and texts.
Prior to reading the Lord of the Rings, my thoughts on the the Council of Elrond could simply be summed up: “And my axe!” But there is oh so much more. I’m really looking forward to digging into it.
Of course, I’ll also keep track of where the Fellowship is moving. I’ll even try to sneak in a detailed map or two.
If anyone has ideas for topics (based upon the first two chapters of Book Two, of course), please let me know. I’m sure I’ll need a bit of help.
Camera: Imperial Savoy
Film: FujiChrome Provia 400D
expired 10/1994
x-pro
About the Photo
To me, Rivendell is bridges. I mean, I know it’s not, but I can’t think of the place without imagining needlessly ornate concrete bridges. Also, art deco anything. But in this case, here’s a photo of Diablo Dam in Washington. Personally, I absolutely abhor dams. Yet, I love bridges. This dam is both.
- Day 93
- Miles today: 4
- Miles thus far: 458
- 462 miles to Lothlórien
- 1,320 miles to Mt. Doom
Today’s stopping place: Book I, Chapter 12. Rivendell! (map)
It's a Dangerous Business, Frodo 
Topic : Exactly how Gandalf calls upon Gwaihir for aid
Topic : Who did Tolkien originally intend to be part of the Fellowship? A bunch of Elf-Lords from Rivendell? A fifth Hobbit?
I these are definitely things I’ll be covering. I really want to dig into the council, and see when he came up with what and why.
I always loved this because he arrives in Rivendell on my bday. So that’s cool.
Regarding topics- definitely be interested in who else Tolkien considered for the Fellowship. (Ghan -Buri-Ghan riding on Giant Moles? Please be that.)
Also more on his ever changing ideas of Elves… I mean I personally adore the goofy singing elves from The Hobbit… I sing their song to my kids quite often. “Oh where are you going… with beards all a-wagging.” (Arkaedi, “I do not have a beard.”)
For a second, I thought, “wait! Today’s your birthday?!” This, combined with being four months ahead on the Civil War blog means that I have absolutely no idea what date it is ever.
The changing of the Elves thing is really weird. By the time he wrote the Hobbit, he had a VERY clear idea of what Elves were like – and they were the tra-la-la-lali Elves. So I really don’t have much of an idea why he shifted so much.
At first, he played with the idea that he fading of the Elves meant that they went from the Elves of the Silmarillion to the Elves we “have” now – small fairies, basically. He wanted to explain how they got that way. He gave that up before the Hobbit. It’s just weird.
When he started writing the Hobbit, it seems as if he wasn’t really trying to tie it in with everything else he was writing. He did the same with the time travel story he wrote on CS Lewis’ urgings. That became the Numenor story, while the Hobbit got sucked into Middle-earth, too. But really, I wish I knew more about this.
Oh! And as far as how Tolkien built the original Fellowship, I think we’ll have to wait. I’m probably going to take the two and a half Rivendell chapters bit by bit pretty much as they appear in the books. The naming of the Fellowship comes right before they leave (few days, anyway). There’s a LOT to cover before we get there. But we’ll get there.
And I promise you, it’s complicated. In the original draft, Tolkien added characters to the Fellowship as he wrote. Just picked them up along the way without explanation.
Topics: Numenor. Numenorians. Numenorian kings and heroes. History of the Second Age as it relates to Numenor. History of the Third Age as it relates to Numenor. Roots of the Numenorians in the Edain. Etc.
Easy to get to via Aragorn and Boromir at the Council of Elrond.
(Why would one wish to talk about anything else? : ) )
Goodness! That’s a lot of topic to talk about! We’ll see, we’ll see.
But really, I’ll probably address it at the very least. Maybe I’ll do something with Tolkien’s letters he wrote about the Numenoriens, etc. Hmm.
Bilbo. I want to know more about Bilbo at Rivendell. How did Tolkien develop his arc through all his rewriting?
Ohhh! Great idea! I’ll definitely hit on that as much as I can. I think I’ll do that right after I cover the Elendil the Mariner poem.
Yay!