Another LOTR Read-Along: The Forbidden Pool (TTT 4, 6)

I'm sorry I haven't posted a new LOTR post in almost a week, and I haven't replied to a whole bunch of comments either.  My 10-year-old came down with the flu on Friday, and my 6-year-old came down with it today.  The influenza flu, not the stomach flu.  So my life is filled with doctor visits and medicine and thermometers and trying to keep people hydrated.  :-(

BUT I have 5 minutes before I need to start making supper, so here we go!

I hate this chapter. Hate it hate it hate it hate it. All those warm fuzzies from last chapter? Gone. This is pretty much the only time I truly sympathize with Gollum -- how betrayed he must feel when Frodo coaxes him closer and then strange men pop a bag over his head and tie him up. It's awful! Hate it! Yeah, yeah, it's necessary for the plot and whatever. But I'm still sitting here glaring.

When Faramir says "I will declare my doom" (p. 675) to Frodo and then says he's going to let Frodo and Sam and Gollum go free, I always took that to meant that he was dooming himself to death if Frodo and Co. didn't behave themselves, that it was his doom. Like Eomer letting Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go with the warning that his own life would be forfeit if they proved false. But that's not it, is it. He's declaring his decision, a doom for them, a verdict. Huh. Fascinating the things you re-understand when you re-read a book!

Favorite Lines:

"It is a place of sleepless malice, full of lidless eyes" (p. 677).

"I must take such paths as I can find" (p. 678).

Discussion Questions:

Do you think there's any way that Frodo could have kept Gollum from feeling so betrayed?

Have you ever re-read a book (or re-watched a movie) and discovered you'd misunderstood something the previous time(s) through?