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Um, if I admit that this is one of my least favorite parts, will OT let me join her in Tooks Corner? I have to say it's just kinda boring. Slow and - well, it's a nice rest for the Company, but the readers are falling asleep. Remember the line from The Hobbit about how pleasant things take so little time to tell about, and that's why Tolkien doesn't talk about Bilbo's first stay in Rivendell much? I wish he'd remembered that when it came time to write this.

Ok, so the really important bit here is the Mirror scene. Frodo's vision is basically a foreshadowing of everything that will happen. Sam sees something that's coming soon but doesn't understand it. I like the way Tolkien shows us just a hint of what's to come here.

Lothlorian is a resting spot, but for whatever reason, not as fun to linger in as Rivendell. Maybe we know too well by this point in the story that these rests will be followed by darkness.

At the mirror Tolkien gives Galadriel away as a ring-bearer, why just her do you suppose? Perhaps so that she can best prepare Frodo for the last leg?

My favorite part of our rest here is the gift scene at the end. I so look forward to that part in the extended DVD! From the pictures we have seen already (which I will post later) it looks beautiful.

"it's a nice rest for the Company, but the readers are falling asleep."

Well... I don't know, I like it pretty well. It sets the stage for the next part of the book, but also has an interesting otherworldly feeling. Sam described it as "more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning." What a nice concept.

It lets us (who haven't read Silmarillion) see more into the world of the elves.

I went to boarding school in my teens (long ago, of course) in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Friends and I, when we had an afternoon off, would walk for miles in wild and lonely forests, sometimes finding ancient and abandoned log cabins or other signs of long lost human habitation. When we reached a mountain top, we'd find 2 or 3 pines growing close to each other. Then, we'd climb to near their tops, carrying small timbers scavenged nearby and rope we had carried. The timbers would be lashed between the tree tops and more timbers lashed onto those until we had a platform in the sky atop a lonely mountain. The whole arrangement would rock and sway in the breeze as we lay there looking over the hollows, valleys and mountains and watching clouds rushing by over our heads. I have never forgotten the feeling of the wind brushing our bodies, the smell of the pines, the vista of the mountains, the feeling of independence.

Anyway, I identified with and enjoyed the "flets" and tree houses of Lorien right away. Although I think I'm not that convinced with Jackson's version of them.

"And taking Frodo's hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as living man."