World-Building in The Fellowship

 

The Fellowship of the Ring features well-defined characters and an intricate fictional world.

The Fellowship is divided into two books. This analysis features some of my favorite passages from the first book, which convey interesting details about the book’s characters, social setting, and world.

 

 

 

 

Beginnings 

 

In the prologue, Tolkien offers further details about mathoms. The Fellowship featured its own definition of mathom, which I had overlooked when creating the Tolkien Dictionary. 

 

Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort. (Prologue) 

 

I find it endearing that hobbits kept things for sentimental value, despite their lack of practical use. I and many others share a similar impulse. But it does lead to the unfortunate gradual accumulation of things you don’t need, which can lead to difficulties, especially when you prepare to move. 

I feel Tolkien must have had a lot of fun coming up with names for the various hobbit families that attended Bilbo’s 111^th birthday party. 

 

There were many Bagginses and Boffins, and also many Tooks and Brandybucks; there were various Grubbs (relations of Bilbo Baggins' grandmother), and various Chubbs (connexions of his Took grandfather); and a selection of Burrowses, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Brockhouses, Goodbodies, Hornblowers and Proudfoots. Some of these were only very distantly connected with Bilbo, and some of them had hardly ever been in Hobbiton before, as they lived in remote corners of the Shire. (Chapter 1)

 

One of the most important qualities of a work of fiction is how well it allows readers to suspend their disbelief that they are reading a work of make believe.

The amount of thought Tolkien put into the family trees of various characters, Bilbo included, really makes his fictional world seem complete, and to an extent, believable. 

Following Bilbo’s birthday party and Bilbo’s departure from the Shire, Gandalf, a wizard, tells Frodo goodbye.

As Gandalf departs, he advises Frodo, among other things to, “Expect me when you see me!” and “Look out for me, especially at unlikely times! Good-bye!” (Chapter 1) 

These lines are silly and somewhat nonsensical. Frodo can’t expect Gandalf when Frodo isn’t expecting him. But they add to the light-hearted and mysterious nature of Gandalf, who alone among wizards takes an interest in the affairs of hobbits. 

 

 

 

The plot thickens 

 

In Chapter 2, Gandalf informs Frodo that Frodo has the Ring of Power, which the Dark Lord Sauron seeks to aid him in conquering the world.

After Gandalf throws the ring into a fire, an inscription on the ring identifies it as the Ring of Power. Specifically the inscription contains the final two lines from an elven poem. 

 

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. (Chapter 2)

 

The poem does a good job briefly describing the ominous power of the ring. It also rhymes and has a pleasant rhythm. 

In a bit of foreshadowing, Gandalf tells Frodo that he believes Gollum, who possessed the Ring of Power prior to Bilbo, will play an important role in future events. Bilbo chose not to kill Gollum during their meeting, even though Gollum attempted to kill him.

“My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many, yours not least,” Gandalf said. (Chapter 2) 

In the book, Bilbo and Frodo share the same birthday, September 22. Bilbo left the Shire to pursue his retirement on Frodo’s 33^rd birthday. On Frodo’s 50^th birthday, he left on his own adventure to keep the ring away from Sauron. Bilbo had been 50 when he had set off on his own adventure in The Hobbit.

A movie based on The Fellowship was released in 2001. In the movie, Frodo departs on his quest on the night of Bilbo’s going-away party. In the book, 17 years pass between those two events. 

Elijah Wood, the actor who played Frodo in the movie, was 20 years old when the movie was released. The movie doesn’t explicitly state Frodo’s age, but he appears to be in his late teens or early 20s.

That seems a bit different than the 50-year-old Frodo who sets off on his adventure in the original book.

Gandalf told Frodo that he would return by Frodo’s birthday-departure and join him on the quest. Instead Gandalf does not return as promised, and Frodo set off with his hobbit friends Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Fatty. 

Gandalf is a powerful and knowledgeable wizard. Gandalf’s absence throughout the rest of the first book weighs heavily on the hobbits as they set out on their perilous journey.

 

 

 

Word choice 

 

Throughout Tolkien’s books, he frequently uses the word “queer” to describe things that are strange or unusual. This was the term’s original meaning.

The Fellowship was first published in 1954, and the use of the word “queer” has changed considerably since then. 

For a while, Queer was used as an insult against gay people.

Recently, the term has been reclaimed and is now used as an umbrella term to describe anyone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, or has a less common sexual orientation or gender identity. 

For readers under 30, the term’s contemporary use will be more recognizable. It may be more difficult for them to recognize the term’s older meaning, as used in The Fellowship.

That’s not the only word that sounds peculiar to modern ears.

Sam Gamgee, Frodo’s friend and gardener, as well as the narrator, regularly refer to Frodo as Sam’s  “master.” Several other male characters are referred to using the honorific “master” as well. 

The term evokes a world where social relationships are more hierarchical, similar to how they were during feudal times.

If I were to ever hire a gardener, cleaner, or other domestic employee, I wouldn’t want them to refer to me as “master,” which reminds me of the historical relationships between slaves and their masters. 

The term also seems inegalitarian to more modern sensibilities.

In some ways, it almost seems more reassuring to think of Frodo and Sam as secretly having a gay BDSM relationship, rather than “master” reflecting a purely employment-based relationship. 

A respectful and loving BDSM relationship would at least have some level of intimacy that an employment relationship normally lacks.

But Frodo and Sam are friends on top of their professional connection, so that’s at least a little less strange, or as Tolkien would say, queer. 

 

 

 

Bath Song

 

When Frodo and his friends arrived at a house in Crickhollow, they took a much deserved break. 

Frodo had told his neighbors in the Shire that he was going to be moving there. This was a ruse to prevent the Dark Lord’s minions from discovering Frodo’s true intentions, in order to keep the ring safe.

At the homey residence, Pippin sang one of Bilbo’s favorite bath songs. 

 

Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet! (Chapter 5)

 

The song reinforces the innocence of the hobbits and the joy they take in simple things. Compared to the elves, dwarves, and men who the hobbits meet, the hobbits seem child-like and sheltered.  

 

 

 

Tom Bombadil

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tom Bombadil and his romantic partner Goldberry. They live together in a house in the wilderness, far away from anyone else. 

They are essentially nature spirits who live in harmony with wildlife. Bombadil twice rescues the traveling hobbits. Bombadil and Goldberry are gracious hosts to the hobbits, who stay at their house along their journey.

Neither Bombadil nor Goldberry make an appearance in the movie, which didn’t have time for many of the side stories featured in the book. 

Tom Bombadil tells the hobbits that he won’t discuss a serious topic until morning, and he does so in a very quotable way.

“Some things are ill to hear when the world is in shadow.” (Chapter 7) 

Later, Bombadil talks at length about various topics, and his guests listen attentively.

 

When they caught his words again they found that he had now wandered into strange regions beyond their memory and beyond their waking thought, into times when the world was wider, and the seas flowed straight to the western Shore; and still on and back Tom went singing out into ancient starlight, when only the Elf-sires were awake. 

Then suddenly he stopped, and they saw that he nodded as if he was falling asleep. The hobbits sat still before him, enchanted; and it seemed as if, under the spell of his words, the wind had gone, and the clouds had dried up, and the day had been withdrawn, and darkness had come from East and West, and all the sky was filled with the light of white stars.

Whether the morning and evening of one day or of many days had passed Frodo could not tell. He did not feel either hungry or tired, only filled with wonder. The stars shone through the window and the silence of the heavens seemed to be round him. (Chapter 7) 

 

Tolkien is a storyteller who has written several books full of long and detailed fictional tales.

It strikes me as a kind of wish-fulfillment to imagine having an audience so interested in the stories you tell that they lose track of time and don’t even know how many days have passed since they started listening. 

I also like to tell long and drawn-out stories about things that interest me. Look no further than this blog for proof of that.

I can say from experience that it’s fairly hard to keep most people’s attention through a long story. 

I imagine the hobbits would be interested in Bombadil’s tales of the past about wonderous things they were largely unfamiliar with. But I find it a bit difficult to believe they would so completely lose track of time.

But as a fellow story-teller, I share Tolkien’s wish fulfilment here.

  

 

 

Cliff hanger

 

The first book ends with Frodo facing great peril. A black rider stabbed Frodo, and Frodo was still recovering from the wound. 

The black riders, or Ring Wraiths, had almost captured Frodo when they were swept away by a surge of water released into a river by the elven king Elrond. Gandalf conjured several white riders from the waves to assault Frodo’s pursuers.

 

White flames seemed to Frodo to flicker on their crests and he half fancied that he saw amid the water white riders upon white horses with frothing manes. (Chapter 12)

  

The waves were so fierce they engulfed Frodo as well.  

 

The black horses were filled with madness, and leaping forward in terror they bore their riders into the rushing flood. Their piercing cries were drowned in the roaring of the river as it carried them away. Then Frodo felt himself falling, and the roaring and confusion seemed to rise and engulf him together with his enemies. He heard and saw no more. (Chapter 12) 

 

That’s how the first book ends.

The ending compels the readers to immediately read the beginning of the next book, which is in the same volume. 

I believe that if an author is going to divide their volume into separate books, the dividing line should be a logical stopping point for the reader to set down the volume, reflect on the journey thus far, and speculate where the story will go.

This ending doesn’t appear to allow the reader to do so, and I would have chosen for the chapter to end another way, perhaps with Frodo waking up after his near-death experience, talking to Gandalf, and learning he has made it to Rivendell. 

That would mark the successful completion of the goal Frodo and his friends had set upon their departure from the Shire.

 

***** 

 

If you’re still in the mood for more Tolkien, here are some additional Lord of the Rings related content.

In this video, Lindsay Ellis discusses the languages Tolkien constructed, which are featured in his fantasy worlds. 

 

 

If you’re looking for some light-hearted entertainment, several voice actors read the opening scenes from movie The Fellowship of the Ring using iconic character voices from other pieces of media. My favorite has to be Christina Vee’s rendition of Pikachu as Bilbo Baggins (which begins at 39:53).