It does appear that Gandalf may have been aware of the Black Riders, and wanted Frodo to get away in order to avoid them. I was kind of surprised this didn't throw them into more of a panic to leave immediately, especially since they knew the Black Riders were around Bree.

(*) When the three Hobbits return after their eventful visit with the other customers in the common-room of the inn, Merry is not in the parlor. No one seems concerned - should they have been/were you (perhaps in light of Pippin's comment in the previous chapter that it is "safer indoors")?

A key moment, I think, in two ways. We lose Merry's established trustworthy insight here, and we see how absurdly unaware these Hobbits are, even the brave Merry, to looming danger. I can somewhat absolve Merry here, as it is Strider who stands up at Weathertop and blows their cover (tough as Tolkien points out, almost as an alibi, the Ring draws the Nine too). So here we have Pippin actually being right, like the broken clock, I think.




(*) Aragorn and Frodo discuss what happened in the common-room at the end of Frodo's song. Frodo claims it was an accident. "I wonder," said Strider. "Accident, then." What do you think Strider wonders?


Maybe he is wondering at that point how much the Ring is already affecting Frodo's choices?






(*) Three months past, Gandalf was in Bree and asked Butterbur to send a letter to Frodo. We learn Gandalf intended Frodo to leave no later than July, and that he himself has not been seen since Spring. What might we surmise has happened? Frodo speculates that Gandalf's mysterious disappearance is connected to the Black Riders. Is this authorial misdirection?


I think the tie-in here is the knowledge imparted that Gandalf has been going into great danger for years. It may not be as much misdirection as the muddying of Gandalf's mysterious errands in order to change his status from the Wizard in TH to the Olorin of LOTR. I think the veil of unknown peril is a good literary way of piquing the reader's interest in this character, as well as developing the dual-nature of Gandalf: the crotchety Wizard and the sacred Kindler from the (unnamed) Valar.




(*) We learn black horsemen have come through Bree. Strider tells of it, and Butterbur describes his own interaction with them. We know Bill Ferny and the Southerner slipped out right after Frodo's disappearing act. Merry, after passing out, needs to be rescued by Nob from two men who are about to carry him away. What is the impact of all these developments?


More suspicion on Ferny and the mysterious Southerner: which perhaps widens the scope of what the world at large is doing, and also underscores Gollum's long standing hatred of Bilbo. Because without Gollum, there would be no Southerner, I think.




(*) Our heroes make plans for the immediate future. Butterbur's folk will keep watch.The Hobbits will spend night hiding out in parlor while dummies sleep in the Hobbit rooms of the Inn. Butterbur's folk will They will leave early, and make for Rivendell by way of Weathertop. Thoughts on these various plans?


We have that emphasis on Gandalf's instructions here: do not travel by night. And Weathertop is such a mixed blessing, in truth. It feels to me a very habitual place for Strider, and thus by long habit and casualness maybe it leads them into a mistake of sorts. The exposure of their location to the Nine and the wounding of Frodo.




(*) Harking back to Black Fox's discussion and Todorov's "fantastic hesitation" - I saw three instances of this sort of language appear in this chapter. When Strider falls silent after describing the Black Riders, we learn "the light seemed to have grown dim" . Also relating to Strider, when he tells Sam that if he were the villains Sam suspects he is, he could kill them now - he "seemed suddenly to grow taller". Finally, Merry in his account of his decision to follow a Black Rider states, "I could hardly help myself. I seemed to be drawn somehow". What are the similarities and differences of these instances? What purposes do they serve?


I think they all seem to have some relation to the way that the spirit of the beholder reacts to events in the real world. As an authorial device, they are juuuust this side of magic: does it happen, or does it not? As Tolkien I think wanted to avoid too much 'magic' this is a way to express those things without the tale descending too far into the overwrought and unbelievable.




(*) Before lying down to sleep at the end of the chapter, Frodo peers out the window and sees "The Sickle was swinging bright above the shoulders of Bree-hill". The footnote informs us this is the constellation known as the Great Bear, or also the Plough. Google tells me the Plough is the name of the constellation we call the Big Dipper here in the United States. Do you like this reminder that Middle Earth is supposed to be our world? Why is this included, just to add scenery? Does it have a meaning?


Yes, I like it for just that reason: the linking of that world with this world.