Full of Surprises

"Soft as butter they can be, and yet sometimes
as tough as old tree-roots" (47).
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)

Points for Reflection

J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Bk 1 chps. 1-5

1. In the forward, does Tolkien tie the plot of his novel to contemporary events?
2. At what points does our author, an English professor, intentionally employ poor grammar, and to what effect?
3. Can you identify any ideas or motifs in this early fantasy novel that have found their way into later fantasy series by other authors?
4. Do we find in Tolkien’s legendarium the sort of thinking, talking animals present in his friend C. S. Lewis’s Narnia?
5. Why does Frodo not venture forth from Crickhollow, passing out of the Shire, on his own?
6. Does Frodo possess the qualities needed to be a hero?
7. What do Frodo’s dreams reveal?
8. Does Tolkien normalize or problematize the casual drinking of alcohol?
9. To what purposes do Hobbits turn mealtime?
10. Is Frodo athletic?
11. Does Tolkien’s fantasy epic intimate any sort of transcendent, divine design or purpose behind any of the events that happen to the characters?
12. Why do the hobbits today speak Westron, the Common speech?
13. What word do hobbits use to refer to a dozen people, and why do they avoid using this word?
14. Do Bilbo and Frodo share a similar moral framework?
15. When Frodo leaves Hobbiton, does he have to abandon any part of his identity?
16. Prior to their adventures, how insulated have our heroes been from the larger world?
17. In what situations should the hobbits distrust their eyes?
18. In this novel, pity is not configured as condescending or demeaning, but as what?
19. Can pity ever be a dangerous quality?
20. What ideas and events occasion the singing of lyrics by the hobbits?
21. When elves sing, what topics do their melodies trace?
22. Is Tolkien’s posture towards smoking tobacco similar to his implied position on drinking alcohol?
23. Does storytelling serve as a vehicle for truth-telling within the story itself?  To what end, that is, to characters spin narratives?
24. Why does Gildor refrain from telling the hobbits more about the Black Riders?
25. Why does Gandalf wish Bilbo to leave the ring with Frodo instead of holding onto it when he (Bilbo) leaves the Shire?
26. The One Ring, which has a will of its own, exerts power over its various possessors’ will, choices, and actions.  Is it possible to resist, overcome, or destroy this influence?
27. Why does Gandalf wish Bilbo to leave the ring with Frodo instead of holding onto it when he (Bilbo) leaves the Shire?
28. Who else besides Gandalf and Frodo knew about Bilbo’s possession of the ring for many years?
29. Has the One Ring begun to alter Frodo at all?
30. How did the One Ring affect Gollum?
31. Why did Gollum not “fade” like others who long possessed rings of power made by Sauron?
32. What happened to the other rings of power?
33. What about the process that created the One Ring makes it so powerful?
34. Who successfully tracked down Gollum when Gandalf failed to do so?
35. How do Bilbo’s birthday guests react to what they consider a “prank”?
36. What should Bilbo have not told Gollum years earlier?
37. What small but important role does Fatty Bolger play in Frodo’s plans?
38. Why does Bilbo raise Frodo?
39. Why doesn’t Frodo leave the Shire with Bilbo?
40. How close have Bilbo and Frodo grown over time?
41. How has Frodo learned some Elvish?
42. What does Frodo feel about the Shire?
43. Does Gandalf grow or lessen in power as he ages?
44. Is Gandalf all-knowing?
45. Does Sméagol’s inquisitive exploration of “roots and beginnings” deepen his appreciation of what the roots lead to above ground?
46. Why do Sméagol’s relations begin to call him “Gollum”?
47. What does Gandalf feel towards Gollum, and why?
48. Why does Gollum tell Gandalf as much truth as he does, and why no more?
49. Why has no one killed Gollum?
50. What qualities does Meriadock (Merry) add to the traveling group?
51. What is Sam Gamgee’s obsession—besides serving and protecting Frodo?
52. As configured by Gandalf, is Sauron . . . invincible?
53. To whom does Bilbo leave most of his wealth?
54. Why does Frodo formally relocate to a house in Buckland?
55. To whom does Bilbo leave most of his wealth?
56. What role does Farmer Maggot play in our plot?
57. What competing feelings overwhelm Frodo whenever the Black Riders are near?
58. What unwittingly scares off a Black Rider who happens upon the hobbits as they’re leaving come within a few miles of Buckland?
59. What do we learn about the Black Riders from Farmer Maggot’s account of meeting one?
60. From what people group do the hobbits in the Shire receive most of their news of far-off places?
61. Where are the High Elves (incl. Gildor) heading when the hobbits run into them?
62. Do the elves teach or preach in didactic fashion?  Why or why not?
63. Do hobbits’ clannish tendencies make them competitive and materialistic?
64. To what other bipedal race are hobbits most similar?
65. Is Frodo a Fallohide, Harfoot, or Stoor?  Why does this matter?
66. Why do hobbits disappear from the history of men and elves?  Is their insularity a blessing?
67. Do hobbits appear to have an enviable code of ethics?
68. In what surprising ways do hobbits prove unique, as concerns susceptibility?
69. Are hobbits prone to violence?
70. Do shifts in weather patterns mirror plot movements and character emotions in this novel, or create uncomfortable dissonance?

original illustration
J. R. R. Tolkien

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu