The Lord of the Rings: Strider

The Tale

Frodo, Pippin, and Sam make their way back to the parlour of their rooms and find that Merry is not there and the fire burning low. When they have stoked the embers up, they turn around and are surprised to find that Strider has slipped in behind them and is sitting in a chair by the door. Strider says he will give Frodo some good advice, at the price of allowing him to join him on his journey.

Frodo is understandably cautious and wants to know more about Strider before he agrees.  The ranger reveals that he was in hiding when he witnessed their final leave-taking with Tom Bombadil and heard Frodo’s right name. He says he was already seeking a Frodo Baggins, knowing that he was carrying a secret that concerned him and his friends. He tells Frodo he must be very careful and watch every shadow. Black Riders have already passed through Bree, coming by North and South.

Strider says that after Frodo’s little ‘accident’ with the Ring they will know more than enough. Bill Ferny, the man who left with the Southerner, will sell anything to anyone, and would likely sell Frodo out just for mischief. If the hobbits try to leave by the Road, they will be hunted down in the wild and darkness. Strider says he knows the method and number of these Riders, and they are terrible. He says he can lead them by paths that are seldom trodden. Will Frodo have him?

Frodo hesitates, and Sam pipes up against it. Frodo agrees to a degree and asks Strider for more information about himself. Strider says he will answer some of his questions, but if the hobbit isn’t willing to trust him now, why would he believe his answers?

At that moment there is a knock at the door. The ranger draws back into a dark corner. It is Butterbur, come to have a word with Frodo as he promised. The landlord reveals he’s finally remembered that he was asked to look out for hobbits of the Shire, and that one would be a Baggins going by the name of Underhill. He even has a description: ‘A stout little fellow with red cheeks’ but ‘taller than most and he has a cleft in his chin: perky chap with a bright eye.’  And the one who gave him this information was Gandalf. ‘A wizard they say he is, but he’s a good friend of mine, whether or no.’

He further tells Frodo that Gandalf gave him a letter to send to the hobbit three months ago, but with one thing and another he never got around to it, then completely forgot about it. He hands it over to Frodo now. Butterbur also says that Gandalf told him if ‘Mr. Underhill’ turned up without the wizard, he may be in trouble and need the innkeeper’s help.

Butterbur says he’s obviously in trouble, with these ‘black men’ going door to door throughout Bree, looking for Baggins. Why, even that Strider has been poking his nose in with questions, trying to get in to see him …

Strider suddenly comes forth into the light. Butterbur jumps. Frodo explains that Strider’s there with his leave. Butterbur is still suspicious, but Strider has a few choice words for the ‘fat innkeeper, who only remembers his own name because people shout it at him all day.’ He reveals that the Black Riders come from Mordor. Butterbur almost melts with fear at the name, then becomes more than ever willing to help Frodo and his friends.

He and his folk will keep watch through the night. ‘Spooks or no spooks, they won’t get in The Pony so easy.’ He turns to bid them all good night, then notices Merry is not there. Frodo remembers him with an anxious start. Butterbur says he will send someone out to collect him, then tells them good night.

Frodo opens the letter from Gandalf and finds that bad news has sent the wizard out on a mission. He advises Frodo to leave by the end of July at the latest (remember that this was three months ago and it’s now the end of September) and head for Rivendell. He says Frodo can trust Butterbur, and to look out for a friend of his, Strider, who can help them. To be sure they have the right man, his real name is Aragorn, and Gandalf encloses a verse about him. Do not use IT, and don’t travel by night.

Frodo is reassured by the letter, but Sam still has his suspicions. Why didn’t he mention Gandalf before? Maybe he’s a play-acting spy and has killed the real Strider and taken his place. What about that?

Strider says that Sam is a stout fellow, but if he was a spy who had killed the real Strider, he’d have killed them by now without so much talk. But he is the real Strider, Aragorn son of Arathorn, and if by life or death he can save them, he will. He repeats a line from the verse in the letter (which he has not read) and draws the broken sword mentioned in the rhyme, thus further proving his bona fides. ‘With Sam’s permission, we will call that settled.’

Strider says they should leave early tomorrow, and he will take them by obscure roads into the wild. Then they will head to Weathertop, a hill about halfway between Bree and Rivendell. Gandalf will make for that point if he follows them.

Frodo asks if he knows where Gandalf is or what he is doing. Strider says no, and that is worrying him. It would be a powerful danger indeed to hinder the wizard. But not to give up hope; Gandalf is greater than the Shire-folk know.

At that moment Merry comes bursting in, accompanied by Nob, Butterbur’s assistant. In taking his sniff of air, he has seen two Black Riders in the town. He tried to follow them to see where they’d go, but he was suddenly overcome with what Strider identifies as the Black Breath and fell senseless in the street. This is where Nob found Merry, with two dark figures stooping over him. They fled at his shout, and after he roused Merry, they bolted back to the inn. Strider marvels at Merry’s bravery.

Strider says they will almost certainly attack the inn that night. He tells them they must not go to their rooms (which the enemy will surely have identified by now) but stay in the parlour and bar the door. While he and Nob go to get their baggage from the rooms, Frodo fills Merry in about what has happened that evening.

Strider and Nob return, and Nob explains with a chuckle how he set the beds up with bolsters, as decoys. He bids them good night, and the hobbits settle down to sleep. Strider sits in a chair against the door. Merry laughs about Frodo’s Man in the Moon song and says the Bree-folk will be discussing it a hundred years hence. Strider says he hopes so, with the implication that another possible future could be very dark indeed. One by one, the hobbits drop off to sleep.

Bits and Bobs

Strider’s ‘right name’ is revealed here to be Aragorn (‘royal tree’) son of Arathorn. He says that he is older than he looks; he is in fact eighty-seven years old, having been blessed with the long life of his Numenorean ancestors. Gandalf has mentioned Aragorn to Frodo once already, but the hobbit had no reason to connect him at first with the ranger Strider. Strider is ironically self-deprecating, saying his rascally looks are against him, yet hoping Frodo will accept him on his own merits.

When Strider reveals that the Black Riders are from Mordor, Butterbur exclaims “Save us!” This comes across in the Bakshi movie as a plea for help, but it is simply an exclamation, like “Mercy me!” or “Lord help us!”

Gandalf’s description of Frodo to Butterbur is the closest we ever get to a ‘portrait’ of Frodo. It is ambiguous enough so that I wasn’t quite sure in the first depictions I saw from the Brothers Hildebrandt which figure was supposed to be Sam and which Frodo.

The rune that Gandalf signs his letter with is from the ‘Cirth’ script, an angular alphabet well adapted for inscriptions on stone. Some of his fireworks are marked with it, as is a rock he later leaves to show he has been on Weathertop.

This will not be Merry’s last personal meeting with the Black Riders (or Nazgul); it will culminate in a surprising ultimate encounter with the Lord of the Nazgul himself. The ‘Black Breath’ is a debilitating fear and despair, an emanation that appears to be the Nazgul’s chief weapon.

Nob is one of a pair of Butterbur’s employees (Bob and Nob); he is a hobbit, but it is never explicitly stated if his counterpart Bob is human or hobbit. Nob disguises Frodo’s decoy with a wooly mat for hair. Pippin laughs. ‘Very lifelike!’

Frodo always seems to be looking up at the stars. Here he peeps out and sees the Sickle swinging bright over Bree-hill. The Sickle is the Hobbit name for the Plough or Ursa Major, also called Charles’ Wain (Wagon). Its full Elvish name is the Valacirca (‘Sickle of the Valar’) and was placed in the sky by Varda Star-Kindler in anticipation of the awakening of the Elves and as a challenge to Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Varda is also known as Elbereth, the Queen of the Valar.