LotR: ...Will Keep There (PG)
Summary: When Galadriel looked into the Ring-bearer's eyes, what passed between them?
Notes: In the movie, it's a silent greeting: "Welcome, Frodo of the Shire...one who has seen the Eye!" But in the book, Frodo doesn't see the Eye of Sauron until he looks into the Mirror of Galadriel, several pages later. Nor is it any mere greeting that Galadriel gives the Fellowship when she looks each of them in the eye. By this point it's an old and worn question, but this was written two years ago, the third LotR story I ever wrote, also freed from Vilya, and I wanted to know how Frodo would answer Galadriel's test.
*
...WILL KEEP THERE
*
"Yet hope remains while all the company is true." And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in silence looked searchingly at each of them in turn.
-- The Fellowship Of The Ring, Book II, Chapter 7
*
No, Lady. You can offer nothing I want.
The Ring is changing me -- already has changed me. So has the Morgul blade that pierced my shoulder, and in more ways than waking me in the night with bad dreams or making my arm twinge of a cold morning. I cannot see your heart as clearly as you can see mine, but I can see enough. I know what you would offer.
No. I will not, cannot give up the Ring. I made that decision in Rivendell. I know what I said to Gandalf, when he first told me what I innocently carried in my waistcoat pocket: "I wish it had never been found," I cried, "or that it had never come to me." Do not fling my own words back at me! Back then, evil was just a word, something abstract that couldn't touch me, safe in the Shire. I have learned differently.
Of course I want a few things for myself. I want a cozy fireside, a proper warm meal, family and friends to keep me company: the same things any well brought up hobbit wants. But I can't have those things, not even back in the Shire, not while I carry the Ring. The Nazgul made sure of that.
No, I don't want the Ring, not for itself. I've worn it, and all it's given me is an awful sort of invisibility that doesn't hide me from those I most wish to avoid. It doesn't give me Sauron's power, and it can't give me what I do want, any more than you can.
I told you. A home. Safety, I suppose.
Yes, Sam would be there. Dear old Sam.
No, he's younger than I am. A good twelve years. The Ring plays tricks with my appearance: I look the same age I was when I got it, and Sam is older than that.
No, not very experienced at all. I don't imagine he's seen much of the world. Only on this trip. Before then, he'd hardly been twenty miles beyond Hobbiton, poor lad! He used to love listening to Bilbo's stories, or to the tales I'd read him out of Bilbo's books, but I don't think he ever meant to leave the Shire. Left to himself, he'd probably have married Rosie Cotton this year, had a dozen children, and tended my garden until age gnarled his hands so much he couldn't do it any more, like his father before him.
Of course I'm not jealous.
Yes, I want to protect Sam! I told you, he's never been out of the Shire before. He couldn't know what he was getting into, when he offered to come along, any more than Merry and Pippin know, really.
...No. No, Lady. You'll not catch me so easily. The only way to keep Sam safe is to go forward. Only with the Ring destroyed will Sam's Shire be safe, and Sam too.
Yes. Yes, I suppose it is my Shire too.
Fear not, Lady. I know my duty. I'll keep my friends safe, if I can. I lost one. I won't lose another. But I won't give up my quest. If I must, I'll go into the heart of Mordor alone, and leave even Sam behind. I can't endanger him even more than --
No. It's nothing. I thank you for allowing us to rest here, Lady: we all need the time to grieve. Strider weeps as he walks; Pippin hasn't smiled once since our first night in Moria; Legolas' face seems carved from stone; and Sam watches me with worried eyes, as if he fears I'll do myself an injury, pretending he himself doesn't cry when he thinks I can't see him, still trying to protect me.
What? No. I have no regrets.
Yes, Lady. I shall choose my path carefully.
*
...as for Frodo, he would not speak, though Boromir pressed him with questions. "She held you long in her gaze, Ring-bearer," he said.
"Yes," said Frodo; "but whatever came into my mind then I will keep there."
-- The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 7
Notes: In the movie, it's a silent greeting: "Welcome, Frodo of the Shire...one who has seen the Eye!" But in the book, Frodo doesn't see the Eye of Sauron until he looks into the Mirror of Galadriel, several pages later. Nor is it any mere greeting that Galadriel gives the Fellowship when she looks each of them in the eye. By this point it's an old and worn question, but this was written two years ago, the third LotR story I ever wrote, also freed from Vilya, and I wanted to know how Frodo would answer Galadriel's test.
*
...WILL KEEP THERE
*
"Yet hope remains while all the company is true." And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in silence looked searchingly at each of them in turn.
-- The Fellowship Of The Ring, Book II, Chapter 7
*
No, Lady. You can offer nothing I want.
The Ring is changing me -- already has changed me. So has the Morgul blade that pierced my shoulder, and in more ways than waking me in the night with bad dreams or making my arm twinge of a cold morning. I cannot see your heart as clearly as you can see mine, but I can see enough. I know what you would offer.
No. I will not, cannot give up the Ring. I made that decision in Rivendell. I know what I said to Gandalf, when he first told me what I innocently carried in my waistcoat pocket: "I wish it had never been found," I cried, "or that it had never come to me." Do not fling my own words back at me! Back then, evil was just a word, something abstract that couldn't touch me, safe in the Shire. I have learned differently.
Of course I want a few things for myself. I want a cozy fireside, a proper warm meal, family and friends to keep me company: the same things any well brought up hobbit wants. But I can't have those things, not even back in the Shire, not while I carry the Ring. The Nazgul made sure of that.
No, I don't want the Ring, not for itself. I've worn it, and all it's given me is an awful sort of invisibility that doesn't hide me from those I most wish to avoid. It doesn't give me Sauron's power, and it can't give me what I do want, any more than you can.
I told you. A home. Safety, I suppose.
Yes, Sam would be there. Dear old Sam.
No, he's younger than I am. A good twelve years. The Ring plays tricks with my appearance: I look the same age I was when I got it, and Sam is older than that.
No, not very experienced at all. I don't imagine he's seen much of the world. Only on this trip. Before then, he'd hardly been twenty miles beyond Hobbiton, poor lad! He used to love listening to Bilbo's stories, or to the tales I'd read him out of Bilbo's books, but I don't think he ever meant to leave the Shire. Left to himself, he'd probably have married Rosie Cotton this year, had a dozen children, and tended my garden until age gnarled his hands so much he couldn't do it any more, like his father before him.
Of course I'm not jealous.
Yes, I want to protect Sam! I told you, he's never been out of the Shire before. He couldn't know what he was getting into, when he offered to come along, any more than Merry and Pippin know, really.
...No. No, Lady. You'll not catch me so easily. The only way to keep Sam safe is to go forward. Only with the Ring destroyed will Sam's Shire be safe, and Sam too.
Yes. Yes, I suppose it is my Shire too.
Fear not, Lady. I know my duty. I'll keep my friends safe, if I can. I lost one. I won't lose another. But I won't give up my quest. If I must, I'll go into the heart of Mordor alone, and leave even Sam behind. I can't endanger him even more than --
No. It's nothing. I thank you for allowing us to rest here, Lady: we all need the time to grieve. Strider weeps as he walks; Pippin hasn't smiled once since our first night in Moria; Legolas' face seems carved from stone; and Sam watches me with worried eyes, as if he fears I'll do myself an injury, pretending he himself doesn't cry when he thinks I can't see him, still trying to protect me.
What? No. I have no regrets.
Yes, Lady. I shall choose my path carefully.
*
...as for Frodo, he would not speak, though Boromir pressed him with questions. "She held you long in her gaze, Ring-bearer," he said.
"Yes," said Frodo; "but whatever came into my mind then I will keep there."
-- The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 7