LOTR Read-Along: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Shadow of the Past

A great deal is unloaded and reveled in Chapter II. After Bilbo's unexpected departure, Frodo takes over Bag End and carries on in a normal hobbit-like lifestyle. However, as the years go by Gandalf is becoming disturbed at the Ring remaining at Bag End. Through a course of almost 10 years, Gandalf researches and studies almost 3,000 years of Middle-Earth history and begins to piece together the origins of the Ring, its list of masters and how it finally ended up first in Bilbo and then Frodo's possession. 

Gandalf also becomes aware that a growing evil is beginning to spread from the south of Middle-Earth and he believes the connection is coming from the Ring and its current residency in Hobbiton. Fearing for Frodo and the rest of the Shire, Gandalf sits the young hobbit down and recounts the findings of his decade long study. A history, a very long history, of the forging of the great rings (three for the elves, seven for the dwarves, nine for men and the one Ring of absolute power), the wars fought between the evil of Sauron and the rest of the races of Middle-Earth and how the Ring chose and controlled all who came into its possession.

Then Gandalf comes to the untasteful account of Smeagol, the most damaged of all the Ring's possessors. Smeagol's obsession with the Ring warped and twisted his mind and body, turning him into a haggard frightful creature who became known as Gollum. A side character from Bilbo's adventures with the dwarves and dragons years before. 

Eventually, Gandalf ends this with a warning to Frodo that if the Ring is not removed from Hobbiton and destroyed, all the hobbit holds dear will be laid to waste and ruin. Out of fear of losing his home and his people, but also out of a desire to go one great adventure, Frodo chooses to take the Ring out of his home and dispose it somewhere where it can be better handled. 

There was a lot covered in this chapter! Basically all of Middle-Earth's history is written out. Chapter II starts out slow. Going into Frodo's comfortable living as master of Bag End and of course the never ending gossip of the hobbits and how their topics of conversations eventually find their way into the story. Then all of sudden, Gandalf shows up and before we know it, the end of Middle-Earth is approaching and it's sitting right on your fireplace. 

Frodo's reaction to all that he received was rather understanding. Spending his whole life believing that his uncle's silly ring was just a trinket from his travels, only to be told that it's a weapon of ultimate evil. The idea that his home and his people are not exempt from the cruelty of the world really opens his eyes and for the first time he realizes that he cannot hide away. While it's not his intention to destroy the Ring, just the idea of leaving his home and treading into a dangerous world is terrifying. Especially now as a bearer of this Ring will make him a constant target for those hunting it down. Good thing he's not going alone. 

Heidi's question:

• What stuck out to you in this chapter?

Besides Aragorn just being casually mentioned as a friend of Gandalf's who helped him track down Gollum, definitely how most of Frodo and Gandalf's discussion in this chapter was moved to the Mines of Moria scene in the movie. 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

Gandalf's best quotes and advice were saved for his last interaction with Frodo before his conflict with the Balrog. Where in the book, Gandalf was trying to calm Frodo down, in the film he was giving him sound council probably knowing that he wasn't going to be around for much longer and Frodo needed words of stability and comfort to get him through his journey.