Nine Walkers

[rabidsamfan]

Frodo, Climbing the Redhorn Pass

Somehow I imagined that mountains were much like hills -- just a bit taller -- but in three hours we’ve already climbed far higher than any hill the Shire has to offer. We’ve left the trees behind, except for twisted evergreens that lie nearly flat to hide from the endless wind.

Were Bilbo’s mountains this high? His path this narrow? The drop so steep? He talked about the bite of wind, and the breath of snow, but by the hearth in Bag End it sounded no worse than climbing to the top of the Great Smials with a toboggan at my heels.

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Comments

[mariole.livejournal.com]

How adorable of Frodo to think about Bilbo. How he loves him! *sniff*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I don't think Bilbo is ever very far from Frodo's thoughts.

Thank you!

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

These are lovely images here. I like the way in which you show, very succinctly, how impossible it is to imagine things so far from one's own experience. It seems as if Frodo is a million miles away from Bag End and his childhood. Brrr.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

He must have felt very homesick at times on that journey, not for Bag End as he left it at the last, but for that tweenaged time when Bilbo and he lived there together. Thank you!

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, lovely. The difference between the story and the life -- though perhaps the storyteller had something to do with the coziness of Bilbo's mountains. Great on Frodo's change in perspective, and the toboggan at the end is the perfect homey contrast to the vastness Frodo now faces.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't I love to sit and listen to Bilbo tell his tale!

I grew up next to mountains -- to me they are a nice comfortable size -- but I took a friend with me to visit Denver once and when we went up the canyons and into the "hills" she was really intimidated by them. It was amazing looking at what I had always known through her eyes.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

...but by the hearth in Bag End it sounded no worse than climbing to the top of the Great Smials with a toboggan at my heels.

Yes, of course. Poor Frodo! Why do real adventures have to lose their magic when you find out that they are exhausting and dangerous? And how nice would it be to stay near the fireplace and just to listen!

Wonderful and very good. Thank you.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

How does the quote go? Adventures are nasty disturbing uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner? Perhaps hobbit-sense isn't so far off!

But it's good that some people go anyway.

[azur-infinie.livejournal.com]

I love moments like this, when Bilbo's stories come to the hobbits' minds along the road, and this one is really lovely. I love the images it brings to mind. Thank you :)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if Frodo didn't offer to take the Ring just because he didn't want to disappoint Bilbo...

[angharad001.livejournal.com]

Beautifully done. Mountains (with the reference to narrow paths & steep drops --I hope I'm allowed to read this on levels of metaphor etc)--imagined and then encountered . . . *impressed*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

You may read this on whatever levels you like! Thank you!

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

your fame keeps growing, right along with Frodo's hills. :-)

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

...as well it should, as I should have finished saying. (blush)
I enjoy these glimpses into the inner psyche of our Heroes.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I don't feel famous, but I'm certainly enjoying writing the drabbles!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I love mentions of Bilbo, precisely because I have such a hard time imagining him myself, and this is a brilliant one. Also, as someone else said, the contrast between our imaginings of things beyond our experience and the reality of them.

*shakes head in wonder*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny? Bilbo is one of the easiest of the hobbits for me to imagine, and I haven't read The Hobbit half as often as I've read LotR... Thank you!

[danachan.livejournal.com]

Oh, Bilbo. I mean, oh, Frodo, but Frodo's mention of Bilbo in this really just does it, you know? *happy sigh*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

Thank you! I always feel like Frodo and Bilbo are as interesting a pair as Frodo and Sam!

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

I really like this. Frodo rarely spoke of Bilbo while on the Quest (it seemed only once the Quest was done that he talked of his need to see Bilbo a fair bit) but your including his thoughts of Bilbo here makes this mixture of intimidation and home-longing especially poignant.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Caradhras is actually one of the places where we see Frodo thinking of Bilbo, so this felt like a good lead in to that train of thought. I'm glad you liked it.