The Lord of the Rings: A Conspiracy Unmasked

 

The Tale

Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry, and Merry’s pony board the ferry to cross the Brandywine River. On the other side can be seen the red and yellow windows of Brandy Hall, twinkling in the darkness. Merry has to pole the flat vessel across. Sam, who has never been across the river before, feels like his old life is slipping away behind him. Looking behind, he gives a hoarse whisper.

They turn to see what looks like a dark bundle on the landing stage behind them. It sways back and forth a bit, as if seeking something, then slinks off into the darkness. Frodo asks if there is any other way to follow across the river, and Merry says the nearest is the bridge over the Brandywine River, twenty miles away. Frodo does not explain to him just yet that they are being hunted, but they seem safe enough for a while.

Once on the other side, Merry rides ahead to Crickhollow to prepare their welcome. When the others arrive and Merry and Fatty Bolger welcome them, Frodo finds that the long low house, now filled with things from Bag End, looks very much like home, and he experiences a stab of regret that he’s not really staying.

But Merry has prepared steaming baths for the wanderers, ‘to wash the weary mud away’! Pippin sings a happy bath song, and his antics swamp the room.

They eat a bounteous supper, featuring Mrs. Maggot’s mushrooms. “Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even the greediest likings of the Big People.” After they eat, Merry asks for the full story, as obviously they have been having adventures. And what are the Black Riders? Pippin recounts the tale, and says it’s time for Frodo to come clean, as he obviously knows or guesses more than he's telling.

Frodo goes so far as to admit the strange doings have something to do with Bilbo’s old adventures but is reluctant to go any further and tell them he is leaving. The others exchange significant looks, then Merry says maybe he can make it easier for Frodo if he tells him some of the story himself.

To Frodo’s astonishment Merry reveals that they know he is leaving the Shire. It has been obvious to his friends from his actions since April, with his muttering and visits to all his old haunts to say goodbye. They tell him not to worry; his secret is safe with them. And that Merry and Pippin are determined to leave with him, to help keep the Ring from the Enemy.

Frodo is flabbergasted that they know so much. Merry says that he covertly saw Bilbo use the Ring once to escape the Sackville-Bagginses, and even got a quick look at his secret book. He kept the knowledge to himself until things started to look serious, and Frodo’s friends formed a conspiracy to find out what was going on, and even set a chief investigator onto Frodo’s moves. To Frodo’s final amazement, this turns out to have been Sam himself, although his information dried up after Gandalf caught him and the gardener considered himself ‘on parole’. Sam says anyway he should take Gildor’s advice to take people he can trust with him. Frodo says he shall never again believe that Sam is asleep, even if he snores.

So it is decided. Merry and Pippin shall leave with Frodo and Sam. They sing a song based on the dwarf song that started Bilbo’s adventure, saying they’re off ‘to Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell’. Merry already has their bags packed and ponies prepared. Fatty will remain behind and impersonate Frodo to keep up the illusion he is still in the Shire for as long as possible. They will leave early in the morning, trusting the Black Riders will not be able to pass the guarded North Gate at night.

To further stymie pursuit, Frodo declares they will leave the main road and pass through the Old Forest, a suggestion that fills Fatty Bolger with horror, but Merry calmly says the Brandybucks go in occasionally and are fairly familiar with its ways. Even so, Fatty is relieved that he’s staying at Crickhollow to reconnoiter with Gandalf if he seeks Frodo there. “They little thought how dangerous that part might prove.”

They go to bed, and at first Frodo has difficulties getting to sleep. When he does, he has troubling dreams filled the with the sounds and the smells of the Sea, which he has never seen with waking eyes. In the dream he tries to get to a tall white tower to look out on its waters, when suddenly there is a bright light and a sound like thunder.

Bits and Bobs

There is much information about Buckland and the Brandybucks at the beginning of the chapter. The Brandybucks are one of the oldest families in the Shire, and Buckland is their ‘folk land’. The rest of the Hobbits consider them peculiar, partly because they are fond of boats, and some can even swim. You might remember that Frodo’s parents drowned when out in a boat, and that his mother was a Brandybuck.

There is a foolish ‘theory’ going around the internet that Gollum in his search for ‘Baggins’ went as far as the Shire and finding Frodo’s father Drogo and wife killed them to get the Ring. There is no record of him ever getting even close to the Shire, nor is there any reason that, not finding the Ring on their bodies, Gollum would not search farther in the area.

In later writings Tolkien identifies the Black Rider at the ferry as Khamul, the Shadow of the East, the second most powerful Nazgul of the Nine after the Witch-King, and the only one that ever gets a name. For a while Tolkien dallied with the thought that the Nazgul could not cross running water (like other traditional Undead, such as vampires), but abandoned the idea as too difficult to sustain.

Earlier in the drafts it is revealed that, although always going barefoot, Hobbits disliked having muddy or clay-caked feet. In one of the recordings Tolkien made before the books were published, he reads aloud Pippin’s Bath Song, and his concluding laugh reveals much of his merry side.

Pippin in this chapter says ‘Cousin Frodo’.  Pippin is Frodo’s first and second cousin, once removed each way, while Merry is his first, second, AND third cousin, once removed each way. Frodo is the head of the Baggins family, while Pippin is the presumptive heir/head of the Took family, and as Merry is of the Brandybucks. All three are therefore, in a sense, Shire ‘nobility’.

My brother John pointed out to me that the Bakshi movie actually preserves the sense of this chapter fairly well, with Merry and Pippin’s joining with Frodo a more conscious decision, as opposed to their accidentally being caught up in the adventure as in the Jackson films.

The end of the chapter reports the first of Frodo’s several recorded dreams. These visions, if enigmatic, sometimes prove to be veridical, and can be seen as subtly guiding or hinting things to him. In the larger context of the legendarium, they can be seen as possibly images sent by Irmo (Lorien), the Vala in charge of dreams, perhaps at the ultimate behest of or by Eru himself. Gandalf (as a Maiar) was associated with Irmo as well as other Valar in his ‘youth’; maybe Frodo’s long involvement with the wizard made him particularly apt for this kind of mediation.