Tolkien Geek Threefer

I've been a bit remiss this week in keeping up, but Gary is carrying on his great journey through The Fellowship of the Ring.

First, he winds up the visit of the Fellowship to Lothlorien with FOTR, Book 2, Chpt 7 - The Mirror of Galadriel and FOTR, Book 2, Chpt 8 - Farewell to Lorien. Among other things, there is some good backstory about Galadriel. She is a far older and more important character in the history of Middle Earth than people who have only seen the Jackson movies might imagine.

Next, Gary sends the Company along in FOTR, Book 2, Chpt 8 - The Great River. As Gary notes, this is an important chapter insofar as the River Anduin represents the demarkation line between what might be called the Eastern and Western Theatres of Operation and sooner or later each member of the Company must decide which direction to take.

The only other observation I would add about these chapters is that they map out the steady decay of Boromir under the evil influence of the Ring. (I assume that I don't need to worry about spoilers in discussing all this.) While he had displayed some impatience at the Council of Elrond over the refusal of the Wise to use the Ring themselves, he had seemingly let that idea go after receiving Elrond's correction. It was only after his first meeting with Galadriel that Boromir began consciously to dwell on the notion of taking the Ring himself, although it is made clear that Galadriel did not put that thought into his mind - only that she forced him to become aware of it. However, once he did so, he never let it go, and it gradually ate away at him until the climactic moment in the final chapter of FOTR - The Breaking of the Fellowship.