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Up the Withywindle  by Dreamflower 1 Review(s)
FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 2 on 6/7/2004
Oh, my poor Frodo. All the rest can joke and laugh, but he's lost so much of what it meant to be a hobbit, struggling with what a hobbit should never have had to deal with.

The Old Forest is older than the evil they've defeated, isn't it? So it isn't surprising that it is still watchful, even if a great darkness has been vanquished. And as Tom sees the obvious and the less visible, so the forest recognizes their growth. Sounds just right to me.

Author Reply: The time has drawn near for him to leave, and at this point he has finally given up on recovering his old life. You are right, it is not in a hobbit's nature to have to deal with evil and war; yet their inner strength to resist it ironically comes from just that fact.

Yes; it was in my mind that perhaps what wakes the malice of the Old Forest is the fearfulness of those who enter. The Travellers are cautious, but no longer fearful, and the Ent-draughts left their own mark on Merry and Pippin as well.
After Fangorn and the Huorns, the Old Forest is not going to seem so bad.

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