With Gollum missing in action, Frodo and Sam get ready to flee from whoever is making the mysterious bird-calls. Soon they’re trapped by tall men with tall spears and tall bows, and explaining themselves is going to be a tall order. But before the hobbits can give the Rangers of Ithilien a full account of who they are, what they’re doing, and whether they know anything about the skinny, toothless guy in the area fishing without a license, a skirmish begins with a passing regiment of Haradrim. All this, plus Sam reflects poignantly over the body of a fallen foe.
Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”, pp. 642-47
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
Hi Alan and Shawn!
On your discussion of Ungoliant’s origins, Christopher Tolkien gives his own analysis in HOME, Lost Tales v.1, p 160.
“In the Tale her origin is unknown, and though this element can be said to have remained in the Silmarillion (the Eldar knew not when she came”) by the device of “some have said”, a clear explanation is in fact given: she was a being form “before the world”, perverted by Melkor… The original idea of ‘the primeval spirit Móru is made explicit in an entry in the early word-list of the gnomish language, where the name Móru is defined as ‘a name of the primeval might personified in Gwerlum or Gungoliant”
She is Outside the world, the abyss made flesh. Not a Maiar!