The Tale
The last Ranger to return is named Anborn, and when Faramir
asks him if he has anything to report, the man tells him of a strange, doubtful
sighting. It was no Orc at least, but what it was he is not sure; the gathering
dusk made it hard to judge the size of the thing. Maybe a large squirrel? But
if it was, it was black and had no tail. He didn’t shoot at it, as Faramir had
directed them not to kill any wild animal needlessly. He watched it a while to
see if he could figure out what it was, then hurried on. Anborn thinks it
hissed at him as he left.
Maybe as the Unnamed (Sauron) extends his influence over
Ithilien some of the beasts of the overshadowed Mirkwood are making their way
into the land. Mirkwood is said to have black squirrels. If so, says Faramir,
that would be an ill-omen for the land: ‘We do not want the escapes of Mirkwood
in Ithilien.’ Sam thinks he sees Faramir shoot a glance towards the hobbits, as
if he suspects they know more about this dark, furtive, hissing creature.
Frodo and Sam lay back on the bed provided for them,
watching the men passing in the torchlight, until Frodo suddenly falls asleep.
Though Sam is exhausted as his master is, and there’s really nothing he could
do against all these men anyway, he determines he must stay awake and on watch.
As the cave grows darker and darker and the falling water whispers of sleep, ‘Sam
stuck his knuckles in his eyes.’
Notes
The black squirrels of
Mirkwood are of course mentioned in The Hobbit, when Bilbo, Thorin, and
the rest of the dwarves are passing through the dark, tangled forest. When they
are running low on food, they waste a lot of arrows bringing down one lone squirrel.
‘But when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more
squirrels.’
The name Anborn is
nowhere explained by Tolkien, but some have speculated it is from Elvish an-,
meaning long, and -boron, meaning steadfast. It’s a good thing Faramir
had given orders about not killing needlessly, or Gollum might not have been
around at the Cracks of Doom.
I find the use of escapes
for ‘overflow or leakage from’ to be an interesting and uncommon use.
Sorry this segment is so short; perhaps I will have another bit later this week. Remember back when I could get a whole chapter in one post?
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