I forgot what chapter we’re on. But I picked the book back up and started on Chapter 3 it seemed like a good spot. Names will be miss spelled and locations have been forgotten.
Alright so Bilbo is planning his party he’s however many years and he’s names Frodo his heir. Gandalf has showed up to bring fire works everyone in the Shire is super excited. It’s this big deal and the post office is full of invitations and replies to the invitations.
And I’m like how big is this place really? Because … are we talking like Whoville big? Or Metropolis (1927 film) big?
Anyways… he’s leaving and his inner circle knows. He has his party tells off the town folk and pops this ring on and disappears with a poof.
He’s back at home and Gandalf shows up pretty much complaining about the ring stunt and how he had to make smoke appear.
That’s when Gandalf is like yo you got your stuff situated are you gonna leave this ring to Frodo? Well suddenly Bilbo doesn’t want to leave this ring and Gandalf is like oh yes you are.
While this is happening there are Dwarfs there helping him pack. So in the movie he leaves solo in the books his homies showed up to get him.
Anyways…. Frodo stays behind with the ring and Gandalf checks in on him to see how he’s doing. Asking if he’s doing well and just checking on his aging. Because it’s pretty clear that Frodo and even Bilbo before him aged slower than usual because of this damn ring. Lets be clear the beings in this universe that are not human age slow to begin with.
Eventually Frodo has a deep chat with Gandalf and Sam hears it all. He was gardening, which brings me to this he’s the Gardner that’s why he calls Frodo “Master Frodo.” In the movies I must have missed he was an employee I just figured he was polite.
So Sam is listening in and so entranced by this story he broke his cover of trimming the hedges gets caught and voluntold he will be going with Frodo on leaving the shire.
And Frodo tells everyone he’s going over to Buckland…Buckville look I’ve already forgotten this town. But it’s the town everyone in the Shire hates on whenever given the chance. And apparently not many like Frodo because his mom is from Buckland/Buckville so born to be disliked. His father is a Baggins and marries a buck foreigner they both died by drowning while out on a boat.
Let’s side quest into this for a second: Not only are the Baggins rich so are the Buckin’s on Frodo’s mom side, take note of the name of the village/town. That’s right—Frodo’s family established Buckland/Buckville whatever so he’s rich and born into a founding father’s family. I mean this entire time (3 chapters) and I’m wondering what does Frodo actually do for a living? He doesn’t work. Bilbo not working just felt alright because the lore is he went off and took some nice gold from a dragon. But now we find out that this is a wealthy family with generational wealth.
Frodo sets off after dragging his feet for a few weeks sighing about leaving and pout about it. You know who goes with him? PIPPIN AND MARY! In the movies I remember Pippin and Mary getting up to no good and running full speed into Frodo and Sam but in the book they leave together.
Don’t ask me how this came about I was working and listening to the audio and missed that part.
So the four of them set out to Buckin’s Buckland Buckville and see the Dark Rider. The Dark Rider is asking in one instant. The second Dark Rider encounter, Frodo got everyone to hide and fought the urge to put the ring on. The ring clearly wants to be found. This one sniffs the air and then leaves.
Well they survive the Dark Rider sniff and run into the wood elves, who are singing. The hobbits are entranced by the elves eternal beauty. The book says, ” and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes.”
And the elves know Frodo! They spot him and and everyone stops and gather around the little hobbits. Frodo asks the leader Gildor Inglorious of the House of Finrod…how he knows him. Turns out they’ve seen him with Bilbo and they know all about him. I want to say they even knew he was leaving the shire.
Full stop how did Tolkien come up with these DnD names and keep track of the lore.
Back to the elves so they chat ask Frodo what they’re up and then Pippin is like hey y’all know about the Black Riders? And the elves seem spooked by them and make the call to take the hobbits with them. They even make it a point to say they normally don’t do that.
They travel with them then the elves set up camp and everyone goes to sleep only to be awoken in the middle of the night for food and a party.
They eat, they drink, pass out and wake up the next morning to the elves not being there.
Sooooo we are three chapters in and already I’m pretty sure the movies were just INSPIRED by the books.
Also I’ve recently started playing DND and I’m reading this like …all this feels family so I google and sure enough LoTR also inspired Dungeons and Dragons.
My DND character is a tifling paladin … pirate. She’s a complex being.
See you in chapter 4.
Side note its been a busy year and while I did keep to my new years resolution pretty well I’m disappointed I didn’t keep up with this book blog.
But I haven’t read a lot of books this year; I’ve tried. Anyways the books have been bleeding into my gaming sessions with the bestie.
You can catch me on my twitch channel LoopyLu1928 and bring some insight.
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