The Breaking of the Fellowship!

A poignant scene in the final chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring – Book Two has served as the inspiration for a new artwork that I will be working on in oil paints in the coming months; for now though I have worked up a preparatory drawing in charcoal that will serve as my go to reference for the work ahead.

For this post I won’t be delving too deep into the writing itself, I like to save that for the final post with the finished painting like I did recently with ‘The Passage of the Marshes’.

I will however do a little bit of digging in order to set the scene nicely!

So at this stage in the story, Frodo has done one of his famous ‘disappearing acts’ in order to give Boromir the slips but in the process given everyone else in the Fellowship a bad case of anxiety as to his whereabouts.

They all split up in order to search for the missing hobbit and it’s when Sam falls behind Aragorn in the search that he has a real lightbulb moment –

‘Whoa, Sam Gamgee!’ he said aloud. ‘Your legs are too short, so use your head! Let me see now! Boromir isn’t lying, that’s not his way; but he hasn’t told us everything. Something scared Mr. Frodo badly. He screwed himself up to the point, sudden. He made up his mind at last – to go. Where to?’

I love the way that Tolkien here gives us a glimpse into the way Sam’s mind is working and his thought processes; we here see a very strong character who has the ability to think on his feet and think rationally despite pressure and panic.

Sam passed his hand over his eyes, brushing away the tears. ‘Steady, Gamgee!’ he said. ‘Think, if you can! He can’t fly across rivers, and he can’t jump waterfalls. He’s got no gear. So he’s got to get back to the boats. Back to the boats!’

Now the true lightbulb moment for Samwise, he figures out the most logical conclusion as to where Frodo would be going and he comes to that realisation ahead of the others.

Sam turned and bolted back down the path. He fell and cut his knees. Up he got and ran on. He came to the edge of the lawn of Parth Galen by the shore.

The Farewell Speech!

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Until next time, farewell!

JGlover