Aragorn becomes straight minded and stubborn, his mind very firmly on the chase to the detriment of the company. Both Frodo and Sam could be seriously injured from their time in Moria, Sam’s cut being especially worrying. Aragorn is stepping up as the leader, but it is clear that he is a little flustered at this moment in time, missing very important things in his zeal to get clear of the mountains. It all works out, his skill in healing coming into play again, and the discovery of the mithril coat is a nice diversion, but it’s worrying: Aragorn is making mistakes and it won’t be the last time.

On Lothlorien, the new destination for the party, we learn little, which might rankle considering how it has suddenly come into view without much fanfare. It’s an elven kingdom, a mysterious place known far and wide as “perilous” for visitors. It’s more of that fear of outsiders stuff that was so evident in the Shire. Lorien is the country far away you know a bare smidgen about, and even that is distorted by time and lack of contact. But Aragorn remembers the place like it some kind of pleasant memory, so that’s enough to banish any fear the reader might be getting from the text.

Boromir is the obstacle again though, but he has some good reasons this time. He was the one dead set against Moria, and he was somewhat right. Now he’s being dragged into another place that he doesn’t like the sound of. Moreover, it does seem that, unlike Gandalf, Aragorn has made a kind of executive decision here, without consulting the wider group. [It might also be that Aragorn is remembering that it was Gandalf's plan to "go down the Silverlode into the secret woods" and a need to honour the Fallen Chief's plan is making him hasty - NoWiz.] Boromir’s whole attitude and character is summed up by his response to where else they could go: “A plain road, though it would led through a hedge of swords”. Boromir is a straightforward kind of guy, a leader of men who puts his faith in what he knows. He doesn’t like all of this mystery, the tramping through lost kingdoms. Boromir is beginning to tip further towards the dark place he’ll end up at the end of this specific book and the new leader of the group isn’t helping in some ways with his very testy response:

“‘But lore wanes in Gondor, Boromir, if in the city of those who once were wise they now speak evil of Lothlorien. Believe what you will, there is no other way for us – unless you would go back to Moria-gate, or scale the pathless mountains, or swim the Great River all alone.’

‘Then lead on!’ said Boromir. ‘But it is perilous.’

‘Perilous indeed,’ said Aragorn, ‘fair and perilous; but only evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them.”

It’s spreading too, the Fellowship being strained by the travel and the grief. As they cross the Nimrodel River, another opportunity for elvish myth and magic to be expanded in the form of a poem, Legolas is suddenly very mean-spirited to Pippin, telling him to “dig a hole in the ground” when the hobbit expresses reservations about sleeping in a tree. It’s really harsh and it’s only the start of a very arrogant attitude being expressed by the elf in this chapter. Perhaps Gandalf was the only thing holding the group together in a useful way. That sense of troubled minds and party members feeling hopeless continues throughout, giving “Lothlorien” an ambiance that at times approaches an unsettling place: Gimli’s utterance “Now long shall I journey ere I have joy again” is just one example.