Reviews (840)

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Poor Frodo. From the book's presentation, it appears he didn't share with Sam Gandalf's news about not being able to take Bill into the mines, for it seems to come as a complete surprise to Sam in a later scene. (And I'm with you; the only reason I could write the difficult chapters of this story was because I'd already written the wonderful reunion chapter! I'm sure that's not a spoiler since it's mentioned in the book. :) ) Thanks for reading and pausing to share your thoughts. Best wishes to you with all the assignments... I remember those days so well...

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I'm glad you liked this. In my imaginings, I can see Arwen very involved in the preparations for the journey, doing her best to make sure the Nine Walkers will have all they need to achieve their aim. At least until they reach Lórien, where she can expect her Grandmother to do the same. Thanks!

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I'm so glad! Dear Bill. He does the best he can with what he's got to work with.

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It must be such a wonder for a horse or pony (or dog or bird?) that has lived all its life among Men or Hobbits or Dwarves to meet an Elf, someone that can speak and understand their language! (JRRT hints that the Northern Rangers can do that, as well. Or is it only that the Bree-landers think Rangers can communicate with birds and beasts? But then again, they are all descended from Elrond's brother, Elros, unless I'm remembering wrong.)

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It's certainly not their fault! Especially since they were stolen from Rohan when the Rohirrim wouldn't sell them to Mordor. (poor horses, I feel sorry for them too)

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Well, there are wolves, and the Watcher in the Water, for starters... But he'll also have the hope of Gandalf's words of guard and guiding to help him, which sounds like a very good thing. Thanks!

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Alas, poor Bill! (Thanks for reading and commenting!)

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Very soon! Yikes. (And then this story will be complete, and its sequel will begin.) Author Reply: Oops, I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. This story will be complete after the Watcher in the Water attacks, of course, and Bill is separated from the rest of the Party.

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Oh! I'm so glad you mentioned your email here! I keep forgetting to check my email, it's true. It's probably been at least a week since I looked at it. (I imagine there are other emails that also need attention.) I will go and look for it and send an answer, and thank you again for your thoughtfulness. I think that Elves live on a whole 'nother level from mortals, to tell the truth. In addition, Gandalf has quite a reputation in the Shire (at least, in my stories he does). You may or may not have noticed mentions of turning people into toads in this story? ...which is one of the legends about Gandalf that has emerged and spread and grown in the Shire and the Bree-land over the years since hobbits first made his acquaintance. It may or may not be true, but it's been very handy for keeping Pippin in line (and preventing him from getting too cheeky with the wizard along the journey). I do believe Frodo and/or Merry may have reminded Pippin of the legend along the way when they thought he was getting out of hand. Haha! (laughing in delight) I know what your closing means! I began taking Duolingo Irish lessons when I found out our holiday would take us to Baile Átha Cliath for a brief time before travelling to the UK! Slán go fóil to you as well! (I only know how to ask for a sandwich and a drink, and engage in some small talk about the weather, at this point...) Author Reply: (Aargh, but my eyes are letting me know they're done for today... so I have put "email" at the top of tomorrow's to-do list.)

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All will be well, as Sam has promised. Unfortunately, neither of them knows at this point that they have to get through an awful lot of trouble before they come out the other side to where they will find "well" waiting for them. Anne is such a wonderful character! I suspect sometimes my portrayal of Goldilocks Gamgee has been heavily influenced by Anne, with her fire, determination, stubbornness, fierce loyalty, and imagination. From my research, it appears that most horses understand somewhere between 12 and 20 human words, including their own names. Some are said to understand as many as 30 words, but that's exceptional. Therefore, Bill in this story is a little unrealistic. But then, maybe ponies and horses in Middle-earth can understand more than their counterparts in our world? This is why I give Bill so much trouble with names, which are pure words. Equines can and do respond to human emotion, which makes me think they can recognize it, though I don't know if we give off certain smells or pheromones, or if they read our body language or tone or what. Therefore, Bill tends to identify most of the people he knows either by the emotion he detects or their smell or appearance, like "Tall Hat" or the shield Boromir carries. (In my research, one of the things I found out was that horses have a keener sense of smell than humans, though not so keen as some dogs' sense of smell.) Hopefully it works in the narrative!

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(pats Bill and offers a sugar lump) It will, poor fellow. (sigh)

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How well I know... but unless I want to label this "AU", I'm stuck with what the original portrays. (My recurring question: Why didn't they just ride Eagles? I believe I read a letter of JRRT's that explained that point, but still...) Here are some of the explanations that have occurred me regarding JRRT's choices in plotting the story (besides the simple fact that his intent was to write an epic based on the themes of the Pilgrim and the Journey), as well as not cutting the story short after two or three chapters: - Gandalf senses evil when he probes the energies in the direction of Rohan. He mistakes the energy as coming from the Rohirrim rather than Saruman. Then later, after he escapes from Saruman, he wants to keep as much distance between the Ring and Orthanc as he possibly can. When the Eagle rescues Gandalf from Orthanc after Saruman's treachery, he tells Gandalf that "if Saruman has become evil, as you say, then their doom cannot be long delayed.” This could give Gandalf good cause to believe that the Rohirrim have fallen to Saruman's wiles. It's only after Gandalf "dies" and is "sent back" again as the White Wizard that he goes to Rohan. Perhaps he didn't have enough power as Gandalf the Grey to deal with or counter Saruman's influence, but as the White Wizard, he knows he can prevail? - Assuming that the Rohan route is too dangerous: If you study the accounts of the Oregon Trail and the California Trail, you'll find that most of the emigrants used oxen. They were slow, but also sturdier than horses, and they could get by on what they could forage and very little water and still have the strength to pull a loaded wagon. Horses would be the fastest choice but were much more likely to break down as well as starve or die of thirst along the way. Horses require a lot of water! In addition, their digestive systems require a lot of fiber (like hay or grass, for example) to keep functioning. A wagon couldn't carry enough food and water for horses as well as people. In fact, even without horses, people ran out of food and water along the way. Mules fell somewhere between oxen and horses as a choice: they were faster and more hardy than horses, but not as hardy as oxen. As far as the Quest is concerned, oxen would have been too slow, cumbersome, and difficult to hide from airborne spies. - It's very doubtful that a horse could manage the climb to the summit of Caradhras, considering JRRT's descriptions of that part of the journey. In addition, horses would need more feed or forage than a pony. Bill's short legs also make him more stable and less likely to lame himself. Horses are also (in my experience) much more volatile than ponies, and I'd imagine a panicky horse would be more difficult to control than a pony. If they were forced to go the Moria route, Gandalf knew that neither horse nor pony would be able to negotiate the mines, for example, having to jump a seven-foot fissure. (Frankly, I'm astonished that the hobbits were able to do that!) Author Reply: Another thought: Frankly, llamas would have been a superior choice of pack-beast, even better than a pony, but they probably didn't have them in Middle-earth, I should think.

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These gaps were fun to fill!

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I've seen horses recognize people by how they held the reins; at least, the animals' behavior and responsiveness completely changed under different riders. So it made sense to me that Bill might recognize the different hobbits' touch.

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It's probably what I would have done in Pippin's place. When I was Pippin's subjective age (late teens, I think?), I often sought out our pony-sized family dog for comfort.

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I'm so glad you have such memories! I still remember climbing a tree to find a quiet place to read a book... Poor horses, indeed.

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I don't know the answer to this, but perhaps it seemed necessary to make a clean break, somehow? To explain Frodo's disappearance in a way that would stir less talk than Bilbo's departure? Of course, because of Gandalf's delay and Frodo's waiting until the last minute to leave, things didn't quite work out the way Gandalf intended, I think. Gandalf the Grey sounds a lot more fallible and limited, somehow, than Gandalf the White (who, even with the increase in power, doesn't sound all that eager about a direct clash with the Witch King at Minas Tirith's gate). An all-powerful Gandalf would take away a lot of the uncertainty and suspense that drive the plot forward and might have a negative impact on the reader's experience (kind of like the letdown you get from a "deus ex machina" solution).

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I should think that living with the Elves would seem like paradise... just think! Elves can talk to and understand animals!

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The mysterious elf was originally supposed to be one of the sons of Elrond. However, I kept getting a vision of a young Elf who marched with Elrond and Gil-galad to the battle with Sauron; he ended up finding his healing in his interactions with horses and ponies and thus sought refuge in the stables and pastures, never having any ambitions of leaving the realm he'd chosen for himself. Because I've left the question open in describing him and his interactions with Bill, you're free to imagine Elladan or Elrohir or that battle-weary Elf-lord I just described. (Although on second thought, Elladan and Elrohir appear together in a later chapter, making it unlikely that one of them is Bill's "guide". Sorry about any confusion I may have introduced here.)

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Just a quick reply as I'm pressed for time today. After Frodo woke up in Rivendell, he and Bilbo talked, and Bilbo described his journeys after leaving the Shire for the last time. I envisioned that he got Merrylegs on his last visit to Dale (and, I assume, the Lonely Mountain, since he says, "Balin had gone away," and that he returned to Rivendell to stay). That visit would have been 16 or 17 years earlier. Thus, Merrylegs could be anywhere from 20-30 years old, I believe. This age range comes from assuming 3 years old as about the earliest I can imagine him taking a rider and being able to journey for long distances. That said, he's probably closer to 30 since he's an "old pony", which would have made him as old as 13 or 14 when Bilbo acquired him in Dale. I seem to recall that 30 is old for a horse, so I'm imagining it's the same with ponies. Hopefully, that clears up the confusion. Thanks for asking!

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Horses are herd animals and naturally seem to establish a pecking order when in groups. The elf horses aren't necessarily bullying him but trying to establish Bill's place relative to theirs in the hierarchy. Without Asfaloth's intervention (because they were already friendly), he'd have found his place in the herd, one probably lower than most of the horses, meaning he might have to wait while the more dominant herd members ate from the hayracks. And unless he challenged them, they'd leave him alone and even look out for him (act to protect him) if the herd were attacked by, for instance, wild animals. (If they weren't in Rivendell, that is, for evil things do not come into that Valley, they say.)

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It was fun to imagine that Bilbo picked up a pony when he visited the Lonely Mountain for the last time before retiring in Imladris.

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I would be a basket-case there with my fear of heights...

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He intrigued me! (Though it took me a few chapters to figure out who he was...)

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It was so frustrating (the first time I read the book, and every time after) to get to the end of "The Flight to the Ford" and start "Many Meetings" and be confronted with such a huge gap! ...and then I had to re-read those two chapters (and Gandalf's account in "The Council of Elrond") many times to start to build an idea of what happened in between and then develop a smooth, plausible narrative. One of the questions that plagued me was why didn't Glorfindel (or Aragorn) just jump on Asfaloth and carry Frodo swiftly to Rivendell? I had to come up with reasons why the Elves sent out in response to the flood coming down met them carrying Frodo slowly while thinking he was dead "or worse"... It has been quite the exercise!