[doubled]

And so we are off. Bill is looking fitter. The troop has hopes for good fortune. In a few days there will be the fight with the wolves. The attempt over Caradhras. The first of the threats to the whole company. It would seem the forces of evil have some idea that something is happening, but not sure what. The communication links seem a little slow though. Between the birds and the wolves and Gandalf announcing himself on the pass when he lights the fire (although if there were any to see they were pretty tough.) Was Caradhras controlled by someone or was there a malevolent spirit in the mountain itself that turned them back? I have always read it as just the mountain didn't want the group on it, but I have seen elsewhere that there is some thought that Sauron or Sauruman might have been in control. If so why wasn't there a party waiting for the fellowship when they came off he mountain? It would have been the perfect spot and time for an ambush.

Just a few things to get the discusssion going.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hmmm, well, Tolkien hints that it was "the enemy" here:

Gandalf halted. Snow was thick on his hood and shoulders; it was already ankle-deep about his boots.

"This is what I feared,' he said. `What do you say now, Aragorn?'

'That I feared it too,' Aragorn answered, `but less than other things. I knew the risk of snow, though it seldom falls heavily so far south, save high up in the mountains. But we are not high yet; we are still far down, where the paths are usually open all the winter.'

'I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy,' said Boromir. "They say in my land that he can govern the storms in the Mountains of Shadow that stand upon the borders of Mordor. He has strange powers and many allies.'

'His arm has grown long indeed,' said Gimli, `if he can draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three hundred leagues away.'

'His arm has grown long,' said Gandalf.

[Sam Cree]

I vote for Caradhras acting out of its own malevolence, but with encouragement (of which it may or may not have been aware) by Sauron.