Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked
Not the most action packed of chapters, this chapter mainly serves to bridge the gap between the journey from Hobbiton to Frodo’s new house in Crickhollow, and the next set of adventures “short cut” through the Old Forest. It feels very much like the beginning of a new phase.
Somewhat fittingly, the Four Hobbits (the three original travellers now joined by Frodo’s cousin Meriodoc “Pippin” Brandybuck) cross the Brandywine River. There is an eerie feeling as we slide with the Hobbits across the water and through the rising mists, leaving, as Sam later reflects, their old lives behind..with only dark adventure lying ahead. Of course Frodo, Merry and Sam are no strangers to Buckland, and it is technically a sort of annex of the Shire…still, it is with the crossing of the River that the adventure really begins — for all of them. They will spend a cosy night in Buckland…but they will soon encounter a world of magic.
They have narrowly missed a Black Rider, as they see, looking back at the landing. This actually seems like a much bigger stroke of luck than it seemed when I first read it. There is really no explanation about how he missed them. Surely the Rider, had he known about Buckleberry Ferry, would have been watching the Ferry. (One presumes he did not know.)
Or, another likely explanation is that the Rider had checked out the Ferry ahead of the hobbits and found that the Ferry was drawn up on the other bank; thus he discounted it as a means of getaway. He did not expect that Merry Brandybuck would later bring the Ferry back to the West bank.
Or perhaps he had ridden back along the road a good ways one way or the other searching for the Hobbits. Either explanation is good enough for me.
After this, there is one of those expository “historical” sub chapters summing up the history of Buckland and Buckleberry Hill. This is the kind of thing that I think a lot of readers have no patience but which I have always found most charming about the Lord of the Rings. These little tidbits of information connecting the place where the plot is happening with historical events give a sense of presence to the geography and create a very real context for the story. It all sounds so plausible too. It is hard to believe that this kind of world-building, casually dropped, yet seemingly fully formed, was really something that was unheard of in fantasy at the time; it is rather culled from real life.
Tolkien’s imagination must have been constantly stoked, living in the Old World and passing by places with hundreds, even thousands of years of history behind them.
The hobbits of Buckland are a bit different than the rest of the Shire in the fact that they lock their doors at night and like swimming and boats — and are perhaps a bit more aware of the dark world that presses around the Shire’s borders, being, as they are, on the very edge of it.
Once they have safely reached Frodo’s new house in Crickhollow, a sort of country cottage tucked away into the country, they have a bath and Pippin sings a song…written by Bilbo of course. Bilbo seems to have been a very prolific songwriter. Nearly all of the songs that have been sung in this book so far have lyrics attributed to Bilbo! Unlike Bilbo’s other more melancholy song, the Bath Song celebrates the simple joys of having a bath after a long journey. I’m not even a bather, by which I mean I prefer a quick, functional shower in the morning. But this chapter makes me want to take a hot bath! I haven’t had one in years!
Anyway, Pippin gets carried away and makes a big mess (as usual, because Pippin as a character is very much a fool) the hobbits come out drying themselves and they settle down for a nice second supper of mushrooms. We are informed that Hobbits have a great passion for mushrooms.
Here in the Czech Republic, one could say the same thing. ON rainy late summers/early autumns, like this year, the Czechs will go into the woods by the hundreds and emerge with baskets — big baskets, like the ones Little Red Riding Hood always carries in the pictures — brimming with mushrooms.
Of course, I have tried my hand at this practice — I really love the idea of gathering the fruits of the earth and living off of it, but I confess that I am really terrible at it. My father and his family back in America are also big mushroom hunters, so it may be genetic, but if so it has skipped a generation — I have never even found one!!! My wife is only a little better. Still, looking for mushrooms at the very least guarantees a pleasant walk in the woods.
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After they eat, the hobbits sit around digesting and it comes out that the rest of the Hobbits know what Frodo is up to: that he is leaving the Shire; that he holds the One Ring. Furthermore they inform him that they are coming with him.
This is an interesting and wise decision on Tolkien’s part to expand the party of adventurers from two to four. Not only will it allow him to tell, from their perspective, many different sides of the story; but it makes sense in terms of character. These are his friends and he is safer with a larger party. Well, I am not sure if that is true actually. Because the other hobbits (especially Pippin) often land their party into danger one way or the other . But it feels true. Frodo needs support. And he will need it more in the wilderness.
In fact, his insistence on going alone seems more like the trick of the Ring, even though I suppose it is rather based in genuine concern not to lead his friends and kin into danger.
His decision to set off by going into the Old Forest is sound enough, though obviously a risk. Fatty Bolgers hysterical warnings of course set us up for the adventure to come!
The chapter ends with an interesting dream. In the first half of it Frodo can feel something snuffling around for him in the dark, an obvious echo of the fearsome sniffing Black Riders who have been chasing him for the past two days; afterwards, he looks up to see a White Tower standing on a ridge. He has an urge to climb the ridge and see the sea from the tower. And then he wakes up.
What does the the tower and sea represent here? It seems spiritual. A holy world where the fears of life are washed away? The world of the spirit? The afterlife: a boundless place that looks neverending but has a far shore?
There is no real answer, and I don’t think it foreshadows anything in particular, other than Frodo’s final journey he undertakes across the sea to leave Middle-Earth and all its travails behind.
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