noWizardme
Gondolin
Jun 19 2018, 5:42pm
Views: 4799
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I think it's also possible to see Frodo's furious defence of Bilbo...
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Good examples - I also wonder whether all hobbits were entirely honest during the stresses of The Scouring.
I think it's possible to see Frodo's furious defence of Bilbo as being more than loyalty to his race or his kinsman. For me, his reluctance to believe that the degraded and repulsive Gollum could possibly be any sort of hobbit reflects the ignorance of the Shire folk, who after many years of good fortune have come 'to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk' (LOTR Prologue). It's a handy point of view if you'd like an excuse for not helping anyone who does not enjoy peace and plenty - it's bound to be their fault somehow. Gandalf, of course, has just suggested that Gollum's 'sad story' 'might have happened to others, even to some hobbits that I have known'.(LOTR, Bk 1 Ch2)
Another possibility is that Frodo is thinking defensively about the legitimacy of Bilbo's claim to the Ring, which is of course the sole basis of his own claim to it.
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Where's that old read-through discussion?
A wonderful list of links to previous chapters in the 2014-2016 LOTR read-through (and to previous read-throughs) is curated by our very own 'squire' here http://users.bestweb.net/...-SixthDiscussion.htm
(This post was edited by noWizardme on Jun 19 2018, 5:45pm)
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