The Fellowship Of The Ring Book 2 Chapter 2 Summary
Marie Ota
The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings is a novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is divided into Book I and Book II. It was originally released on July 29, 1954 in the United Kingdom by Allen & Unwin. Its story is followed by The Two Towers and concluded by The Return of the King.
The book begins with a prologue summarizing the events of The Hobbit. It gives the backstory of the One Ring and how it came to be. It tells the backstory of Smagol and his friend Dagol, and how they came upon the Ring after Sauron was temporarily defeated. It also explains how Bilbo Baggins found the Ring once Smagol (who had become Gollum) had lost it. Bilbo returns to Bag End in the Shire, and the story of Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's nephew, begins.
The first sets the stage for the adventure and follows Frodo Baggins as he flees from his home in the Shire to escape the minions of the Dark Lord Sauron. Sauron seeks the One Ring that will allow him to control the Bearers of the nineteen other Rings of Power and control the three major races of Middle-earth: Elves, Men, and Dwarves. The One Ring has been inherited by Frodo who finds himself unwittingly in the midst of a struggle for world domination.
The first chapter in the book begins quite lightly, following on from The Hobbit which is more of a whimsical children's story than The Lord of the Rings. It begins with Bilbo celebrating his 111th (or eleventy first, as it is called) birthday, on the same day that Frodo celebrates his 33rd birthday (his 'coming of age'). At the birthday party, Bilbo disappears after his speech, to the surprise of all. Frodo later learns about the ring which he had used to make himself invisible, and also about some of its darker powers.
Heeding the advice of the wizard Gandalf, Frodo leaves his home, taking the Ring with him. He hopes to reach Rivendell, where he will be safe from Sauron, and where those wiser than he can decide what to do about the Ring.
In his journey he is accompanied by three hobbit friends, Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Samwise Gamgee, often referred to as Merry, Pippin and Sam. From the start they are pursued by Black Riders, the Ringwraiths who serve Sauron. Narrowly escaping these and other dangers and meeting other interesting characters en route (e.g., Tom Bombadil) they eventually come to Bree, where they meet Strider, another friend of Gandalf who leads them the rest of the way to Rivendell, through further hardships. Frodo is stabbed upon the mountain of Weathertop by the Lord of the Nazgl with a Morgul-knife - as part of the knife stays inside him, he gets sicker on the rest of the journey. They also pass the trolls which had been turned to stone in the previous book, The Hobbit.
Book II chronicles Frodo's stay at Rivendell, where a plan is hatched at the Council of Elrond to destroy the Ring in Mordor. Early on Frodo meets his uncle Bilbo, whom he had not seen since he left Hobbiton seventeen years earlier. Frodo sets forth from Rivendell with nine companions: two Men, Aragorn and Boromir, son of the Steward of the land of Gondor; an Elven prince, Legolas; Frodo's old friend and powerful wizard, Gandalf; Gimli the Dwarf; and Frodo's original three hobbit companions. These Nine Walkers, the Fellowship of the Ring, were chosen to represent the free races of Middle-earth and as a balance to the Nine Riders. They were also accompanied by Bill the Pony, whom Strider and the Hobbits acquired in Bree as a pack horse. Their attempt to cross the Misty Mountains is foiled by heavy snow, so they are forced to take a path under the mountains via Moria, an ancient Dwarf kingdom, now full of Orcs and other evil creatures, such as the Watcher in the Water guarding the west gate. Just before escaping Moria, Gandalf falls into the abyss while battling a Balrog.
The remaining eight members of the Fellowship then spend some time in the elf-haven of Lothlrien, where they receive gifts from the Elf-lady Galadriel that in many cases prove useful later in the quest. They leave Lrien by river, but Frodo begins to realize the Ring is having a malevolent effect on some members of the party, especially Boromir, who tries to take the Ring from Frodo. In the process, Frodo puts on the Ring to escape him. Later Boromir is attacked by Orcs while trying to defend Merry and Pippin. This book ends when Frodo and Sam depart secretly for Mordor and the Fellowship of the Ring dissolves.
Behind the events that befall the Ring-bearer and the Fellowship, the reader begins to sense an awakening of the true nature of the story. There lurks always an idea of destiny, and in the end, it will be a concatenation of the effects spawned by the nature of Good itself, that undoes the greatest Evil. Frodo says of the ring's first slave, Gollum, "What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!" and Gandalf's response is
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel[1] The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The action takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. The book was first published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom. The volume consists of a foreword, in which the author discusses his writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits, and other matters", and the main narrative in Book I and Book II. This book helps the readers to understand the world of Hobbits.
Scholars and critics have remarked the narrative structure of the first part of the volume, which involves five "Homely Houses", the comfortable stays alternating with episodes of danger. Different reasons for the structure have been proposed, including deliberate construction of a cosy world, laboriously groping for a story, and Tolkien's work habits, involving continual rewriting. Two major chapters, "The Shadow of the Past" and "The Council of Elrond", stand out from the rest in consisting not of a narrative of action centred on the Hobbits, but of exceptionally long flashback narrated by a wise old character.
The volume was in the main praised by reviewers and authors including W. H. Auden and Naomi Mitchison on its publication, though the critic Edmund Wilson attacked it in a review entitled "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!". The two flashback chapters have attracted scholarly discussion; Tolkien called "The Shadow of the Past" the "crucial chapter" as it changes the tone of the book, and lets both the protagonist Frodo and the reader know that there will be a quest to destroy the Ring. "The Council of Elrond" has been called a tour de force, presenting a culture-clash of the modern with the ancient.
Tolkien envisioned The Lord of the Rings as a single-volume work divided into six sections he called "books" along with extensive appendices. The original publisher decided to split the work into three parts.
Before the decision to publish The Lord of the Rings in three volumes was made, Tolkien had hoped to publish the novel in one volume, possibly also combined with The Silmarillion.[2] However, he had proposed titles for the individual six sections. Of the two books that comprise what became The Fellowship of the Ring the first was to be called The First Journey or The Ring Sets Out. The name of the second was The Journey of the Nine Companions or The Ring Goes South. The titles The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South were used in the Millennium edition.[3]
The volume contains a prologue for readers who have not read The Hobbit, and background information to set the stage for the novel.The body of the volume consists of Book One: "The Ring Sets Out", and Book Two: "The Ring Goes South".
The prologue explains that the work is "largely concerned with hobbits", telling of their origins in a migration from the east, their habits such as smoking "pipe-weed", and how their homeland the Shire is organised. It explains how the narrative follows on from The Hobbit, in which the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring, which had been in the possession of Gollum.
Bilbo celebrates his eleventy-first (111th) birthday and leaves the Shire suddenly, passing the Ring to Frodo Baggins, his cousin[a] and heir. Neither Hobbit is aware of the Ring's origin, but Gandalf (a wizard) suspects it is a Ring of Power. Seventeen years later, in "The Shadow of the Past", Gandalf confirms to Frodo that the Ring is the one lost by the Dark Lord Sauron long ago and counsels Frodo to take it away from the Shire. Gandalf leaves, promising to return by Frodo's birthday and accompany Frodo on his journey, but fails to do so.
Frodo sets out on foot, offering a cover story of moving to Crickhollow, accompanied by his gardener Sam Gamgee and Frodo's cousin Pippin Took. They are pursued by mysterious Black Riders, but meet a passing group of Elves led by Gildor Inglorion, whose singing to Elbereth wards off the Riders. The Hobbits spend the night with them, then take an evasive shortcut the next day, and arrive at the farm of Farmer Maggot, who takes them to Bucklebury Ferry, where they meet their friend Merry Brandybuck. When they reach the house at Crickhollow, Merry and Pippin reveal they know about the Ring and insist on travelling with Frodo and Sam.
They decide to try to shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. Merry and Pippin are trapped by Old Man Willow, an ancient tree who controls much of the forest, but are rescued by Tom Bombadil. Leaving the refuge of Tom's house, they get lost in a fog and are caught by a barrow-wight in a barrow on the downs, but Frodo, awakening from the barrow-wight's spell, calls Tom Bombadil, who frees them and equips them with ancient swords from the barrow-wight's hoard.
The Hobbits reach the village of Bree, where they encounter a Ranger named Strider. The innkeeper gives Frodo a letter from Gandalf written three months before which identifies Strider as a friend. Knowing the riders will attempt to seize the party, Strider guides the Hobbits through the wilderness toward the Elven sanctuary of Rivendell. On the way, the group stops at Weathertop, a hill. While there, they are again attacked, though by only five of the nine Black Riders. Their leader wounds Frodo with a cursed blade. After fighting them off, Strider treats Frodo with the herb athelas, and is joined by the Elf Glorfindel, who has been searching for the party. Glorfindel rides with Frodo, now deathly ill, toward Rivendell. The Black Riders pursue Frodo, but when they enter the Ford of Bruinen, they are swept away by flood waters summoned by Elrond.
c80f0f1006