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N.E. Brigand
Half-elven
Sep 1 2012, 9:56pm
Views: 317
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** Flies and Spiders: 2. "a dreadful wail from Bilbo put all thoughts of venison out of their minds" **
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The party reaches the foretold magic river and find the ruins of a bridge. Bilbo spies a boat on the far side, and Fili throws a rope and hook to draw it across. As the last of the expedition is disembarking, a hart (male deer) runs into them, and though Thorin shoots it as it jumps across the water, Bombur is knocked in. The dwarves fish him out, but he has fallen under the sleep-spell.
How did Beorn know the stream was enchanted? How did he (or Gandalf) exect the party to get across it?
Who built the bridge and why has it not been repaired?
Shouldn't there be at least a small break in the trees over a 36-foot wide river, sufficient to let in enough light to see across it during the day?
What color is the boat?
Can someone clearly describe or find a picture of such iron hooks as the travelers have used to secure their packs to their shoulder straps? I'm having trouble understanding how that would work. Why aren't the straps simply sewn to the packs themselves?
If Dori is the strongest (and how do you supposed that was determined), why doesn't he help when the boat is stuck and four dwarves work to pull it free?
When the rope holding the boat fast breaks, "suddenly they all fell over on their backs". Is the reader meant to compare this moment and Bombur's stumble on the far bank to the pile of dwarves on Bilbo's porch?
Do Gloin and Gimli have to cross this stream when they journey to Rivendell seeking Elrond's counsel in The Lord of the Rings?
In what sense is Balin using the word "job" when he says it was "a good job that our rope was the stronger"?
There aren't any oars, so the dwarves rig two pull-lines. How do the boat's regular passengers cross?
Is the catastrophe of Bombur's dunking Thorin's fault, for prophesying that "something bad" would happen if Bombur continued to grumble? Bombur's, for grumbling? Would "something bad" have occured had Bombur not grumbled?
Does Tolkien mean to suggest that the hart is not a deer when he first describes it as "the shape of a flying deer"? (Emphasis added.)
"Thorin was the only one who had kept his feet and his wits" -- and yet it does our heroes no good. Why?
Further thoughts on this section?
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** Flies and Spiders: 2. "a dreadful wail from Bilbo put all thoughts of venison out of their minds" **
