Frodo's initial delay in leaving the Shire: What does it mean?

[Child of the 7th Age]

Firefoot - An excellent reminder of one of Tolkien's definite limitations and how he may have shared it, intentionally or unintentionally, with his chief Ringbearer.

Thanks to both of you -- Helen and Firefoot --for reminding me of a very simple but important human trait. Perhaps there was no deep and mysterious reason. Perhaps our hobbit hero merely was the kind of person who tended to procrastinate, a characteristic that Tolkien understood all too well.

Now I know why I like Frodo Baggins and Tolkien so much! Perhaps the three of us do share something in common. Forget the lure of evil or anything as elaborate as that. Give me good old procrastination any day!

Seriously, though, I am reminded of Clyde Kilby's book and his interviews on the net where he discusses his visit to Tolkien one summer. He had promised to help JRRT get the manuscript of the Silmarillion in shape. Needless to say, week after week went by, and they had a lovely time together but the Silmarillion never saw the light of day.

Kilby mentions how meticulous the author was about responding to mail from readers of his book, and that took away time from other pursuits. Also, Tolkien was highly distractable, seeming to flit from one topic to the next. Or perhaps it was more than that.....with such an eclectic and energetic mind, the author hated to stay focused on just one thing.

In any case, when you put it in these terms, I am definitely sympathetic. I have a long list of things I promised various people to do or write, and a great many of them are still sitting on my desk, or at the fringes of my mind!

[Morsul the Dark]

Frodo's delay was due to the Blackrider. Afterall that is the first big problem when The Gaffer stops the Blackrider. If Frodo had left earlier we would not have had that drama or the porblem at weathertop. In all honesty I believe it was a plotdevice also the birthday was an important time in the hobbit so as a continuence it was important in LOTR.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

Seriously, though, I am reminded of Clyde Kilby's book and his interviews on the net

...eh? Where do you find these?

where he discusses his visit to Tolkien one summer. He had promised to help JRRT get the manuscript of the Silmarillion in shape. Needless to say, week after week went by, and they had a lovely time together but the Silmarillion never saw the light of day.

Sounds like, um, most of my projects.

Kilby mentions how meticulous the author was about responding to mail from readers of his book, and that took away time from other pursuits. Also, Tolkien was highly distractable, seeming to flit from one topic to the next. Or perhaps it was more than that.....with such an eclectic and energetic mind, the author hated to stay focused on just one thing.

Thank God he didn't have a computer. Can you imagine if he'd had a net to surf? Well, it nabs me, anyway.

In any case, when you put it in these terms, I am definitely sympathetic. I have a long list of things I promised various people to do or write, and a great many of them are still sitting on my desk, or at the fringes of my mind!

You're lucky that they remain on the fringes. Mine tend to disappear completely until someone says "When are you going to finish...?"

Other folk dallied. Gandalf, in the Chamber of Mazarbul... Denethor, for his own reasons... But still, they don't seem in the same class as Frodo. You could also argue that if Frodo had gone straight home after A&A's midsummer wedding, the scouring would have been unnecessary? How's that for guilt...

After all that, I think it's not **pure** procrastination on Frodo's part; not completely. There's still the fact that he loves fall hiking, and he wants to follow Bilbo. And there's some sentimentaily there in wanting to celebrate Bilbo's birthday one last time in Bag-End. Did he expect to really find Bilbo, I wonder... if he really expected to find him, would he have delayed?