The Tale
Frodo and Sam return to
their beds in the camp behind the waterfall and rest a bit, while around them
the men are stirring and preparing for the day. Water is brought for them to
wash, then they are led to a table where they join Faramir for breakfast. He
hasn’t slept since the battle the day before but doesn’t look tired at all.
After they stand up after
their meal, Faramir begins to advise them. He has provided the hobbits with
some food for their packs. There’s plenty of water while they walk through
Ithilien, but they shouldn’t drink any that flows from Imlad Morgul, ‘the
valley of Living Death.’ And the scouts report a strange thing: the land is
empty all the way up to the mountains of Mordor. There is no movement or sound,
but a brooding silence is over the land, like something is waiting to happen.
They should hurry while they can before the sun rises.
‘The hobbits packs were brought
to them … and also two stout staves of polished wood, shod with iron, and with
carven heads through which ran plaited leathern thongs.’
Faramir has no fitting gifts
to give them, but he gives them these staves as help while walking or climbing through
the wild. They have been cut down to hobbit-size and reshod. They are made from
the wood of the lebethron tree, ‘and a virtue has been set upon them of
finding and returning.’ He hopes that virtue won’t fail under the Shadow where
they are heading.
They prepare to leave, and
Gollum is brought to them, who seems ‘better pleased’ but avoids Faramir’s eyes
and stays close to Frodo. Faramir says that Gollum must be blindfolded. Gollum
squeals and squirms until Frodo declares that he and Sam must be blindfolded as
well, to show that there is no harm intended.
Their eyes are covered and
they are led out. When Faramir finally orders that they be uncovered, they are
at the edge of some woods, and they cannot even hear the waterfall of Henneth
Annun where they stand.
Faramir gives some final
advice. He thinks they can travel by daylight a while, ‘while all evil is
withdrawn.’ He advises them to go straight on, not turning East yet. They will
have the cover of trees for miles and avoid climbing up and down some sheer
hillsides. He embraces the hobbits and stoops and kisses the hobbits’
foreheads. ‘Go with the goodwill of all good men!’ He and his men turn and fade
into the forest. It is as if ‘a dream had passed.’
Frodo sighs and turns to
find Gollum already scrabbling in ‘the mould’ under a tree. Sam notes that he’s
hungry already, so they’re back to that worry again. Gollum asks if the nasty wicked
men are gone at last, and if they can get going. Frodo rebukes him for speaking
ill of those who showed him mercy; he should rather stay silent.
‘Nice Master!’ said Gollum. ‘Smeagol
was only joking. Always forgives, he does, yes, yes, even nice Master’s little
trickses. Oh yes, nice Master, nice Smeagol!’
The hobbits hoist their
packs and start walking. They go all day through the silent land, stopping
twice to eat their supplies from Faramir: bread, salted meat, and dried fruit.
Gollum eats nothing. At last they stop in the evening, having walked ‘seven
leagues’ during the day. Frodo cast himself down to sleep in the mould under an ancient tree, Sam’s rest is more
uneasy, waking now and then to note the absence of Gollum, whether he rest
somewhere nearby on his own or prowls the night. Gollum returns at the the
first sign of light and rouses Frodo and Sam.
‘’Must get up, yes they
must!’ he said. ‘Long way to go still, south and east. Hobbits must make haste!’
Bits and Bobs
‘Lebethron’ was a hardwood,
rather like mahogany; it translates to ‘Finger + Tree’. Tolkien first called it
melinon, then lebendron, then lebethras, before finally settling
on lebethron. Sounds rather like Lebanon and its famous cedars, doesn’t
it?
One wonders how 'a virtue' is set upon the staves by the carvers; it sounds much like a spell or a blessing. In the original draft, they were described as being like 'shepherd's crooks': Tolkien changed them to having leather thongs to solve a later problem of the hobbits having to carry too many objects with only two hands each.
The blindfolding episode
recalls something similar that happened with Gimli and Lothlorien.
'Staves' is the plural of 'staff'. A 'woodwright' is some one who works with wood. ‘Mould’ is a British
spelling; in this context it does not mean a fungus or mildew, but the soft
moldering collection of old leaves that are turning to earth under the trees. “Mould”
was also used in Middle English as a synonym for earth or dirt, as in ‘man upon
mould’, or humans upon the earth.
Seven leagues equals 21 miles;
the same distance you can take in one step if you have the fairy tale ‘seven
league boots.’
While Gollum’s speech seems
fawning at first, there might be a sting underneath. Referring to ‘Master’s
little trickses’ reveals his less than charitable interpretation of Frodo’s
actions among the men, and ‘nice Master, nice Smeagol’ implies that if the
Master is not so nice, Smeagol won’t be so nice either. As Sam says, ‘Well, now
for it again!’
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