There were several aspects of the second chapter that actually seemed to interest me. At times it almost seems like a forced interest where I have to care enough about a topic to be bothered to think about it and to come up with my own opinions. However, the first topic that sparked my interest was in the section about re-creations. Tolkien had observed the word “wodwos” at one point and had decided that the correct terminology for the singular version of that word was “wudu-wasa”. He cared enough to find a correct terminology, or at least what he had declared as the correct terminology.
I think that maybe Tolkien spent too much time looking for things that were real or had existed. It could have been just as easy to make up his own words without other influences, especially instead of searching through texts and trying to decipher something that he would change the meaning of anyway. I find it peculiar how Tolkien wanted to create a lost-history. With that thought in mind, it leads one to believe that Tolkien was fascinated by war and evil and that he wanted to become a part of it. Most post-war trauma victims wanted to forget all about those horrors, but Tolkien seemed to reject and accept those subjects at the same time.
Shippey also becomes rather confusing as well within this chapter, especially during the section about “Ironies of Interlace”. The interlacing seemed more complicated than it had once appeared, especially in the way that Shippey goes into detail to explain. Shippey extracted more significant coinciding moments of time between each major band of heroes within the trilogy than I had thought possible. He throws so much information into eight pages of text that the speed and lack of connection in which he does so makes everything more complicated and analytical than it should be.
Within the section of cultural contrasts, Shippey had discussed the yin and yang of elements within Rohan and Gondor. The comparisons between Merry and Pippin were intriguing since the two characters were the best of friends and inseparable within the shire. When both hobbits part ways along the journey, they diffuse into their true selves, each one not being affected by the flaws or benefits from the other. The two didn’t separate into extremes of good and evil, but they were still well distinguished from each other in several ways. Merry had become Theoden’s servant out of love, and Pippin had become Denethor’s servant out of pride, anger, and guilt. While these two hobbits have masters to look after, Sam also has a master as he takes care of Frodo. The brilliant thing that Tolkien must have done, whether intentionally or on accident, is how he made sure Frodo didn’t have a master, or at least not a flesh and blood master, to look after and to protect. Of course Frodo has the ring to look after and to protect until he ironically has to destroy it (unlike all of the other hobbits who merely protect their masters), but Frodo isn’t necessarily tied down by anything. Tolkien must have set this difference to accentuate the point of Frodo being different, being the leader of the four hobbits, and being the most important.
Lauren Brych? October 21, 2008, at 05:14 PM
