Reading “The Lord of the Rings”: Chapter 5: “A Conspiracy Unmasked”

This is one of the shorter chapters in The Fellowship of the Ring but, despite that, it’s still full of important information, with some significant revelations and actions that shape the ways in which the quest to destroy the Ring unfolds over subsequent chapters. Having finally made their way to Crickhollow, the little place in Buckland where Frodo will, ostensibly be living (at least in the eyes of most of those in the Shire), the hobbits gather together to plan their next steps. It quickly becomes apparent that Pippin and Merry have known about Frodo’s predicament for quite some time and are determined to come along with him, despite all of his protests. They decide to go into the Old Forest, in order to hopefully avoid pursuit for as long as possible.

The beginning of the chapter, in many important ways, a liminal space between what happened before and what happened after. For Sam, of course, it marks a defining moment, the instant in which he leaves his old life behind once and for all and moves ahead into an uncertain future. We can’t help but sympathize with him and, in some part of our reading minds, wish along with him that Frodo could have stayed living in Bag End rather than leaving all of that behind. It’s all well and good to read about such adventures from the safety of our own hobbit holes, but Tolkien allows us…