Watching the first one, I’m again reminded of one of my peeves about some interpretations of these works. This one comes from the late Karen Wynn Fonstad’s excellent The Atlas of Middle-earth. It’s a wonderful work, but in it, she claims to be perplexed that Frodo’s journey to Rivendell takes longer than Bilbo’s since the latter’s party was mounted.
After shaking my head, I feel the need to point out a few things she’s evidently not considered:
1. Ponies are not speedy. There are exceptions, but most ponies are bred for one of two things: burden bearing and comfort-riding. When a speedy mount is wanted, generally one breeds for longer legs, and that’s not a feature of a pony. So, unless they cantered all day long, Thorin and company probably didn’t make much better time than they would have walking: they simply did so in more comfort, which suits the general tenor of the expedition.
After shaking my head, I feel the need to point out a few things she’s evidently not considered:
1. Ponies are not speedy. There are exceptions, but most ponies are bred for one of two things: burden bearing and comfort-riding. When a speedy mount is wanted, generally one breeds for longer legs, and that’s not a feature of a pony. So, unless they cantered all day long, Thorin and company probably didn’t make much better time than they would have walking: they simply did so in more comfort, which suits the general tenor of the expedition.
Aragorn, on the other hand, led Frodo’s company on a forced march, suffering deprivation for the sake of speed.
2. The Dwarves didn’t make speed a priority. How do I know that? Simple: they carried instruments for a thirteen-piece band with them. Sure, the Dwarves are engaged in ‘dark business,’ but they're also traveling in style, including a train of baggage ponies. This, to me, jibes well with Thorin’s way of doing things as presented in The Hobbit. I think or at least hope they left those nice instruments at the House of Elrond once they realized there was a time limit (Durin’s Day), but this new urgency clearly caused a change in plans. I’m not sure the Dwarves even planned to take the pass behind Rivendell in the first place: without a blizzard blocking them, passing the Redhorn would've been easy, even for such a large cavalcade. Steering the expedition away from the Dimrill Dale seems to have been either luck or Gandalf and Elrond’s machinations, since they knew the White Council might move against the Necromancer (Sauron) soon: even though Gandalf had warned Thorin off that foe, the tale bears ample evidence the king followed his own mind. I think it most likely the diversion was the result of that ‘higher power’ at work, moving Bilbo towards the Ring.
Frodo’s company made speed their top priority, especially after Frodo was wounded. They pressed hard, so it’s natural they’d make better time.
3. Thorin and Co. followed the road as long as they could. For whatever reason, Gandalf didn’t lead them by the swiftest way, possibly because he was having enough trouble herding Dwarves as it was without making the more comfort-loving of them. Thorin seems not, to me, to be the least of these, but Dori and Nori are described as liking their meals ‘plenty and often,’ and Bombur was obviously not a hardened trekker.
By contrast, Aragorn led the Hobbits directly across country, skipping great loops of the road and generally making as straight a line as possibly while avoiding being seen.
4. Even fast mounts eat up time because of the care and rest they require. There’s a reason post riders have new mounts and people to care for them stationed at regular intervals: if the rider has to care for and rest his own horse, he’s slowed down. True, ponies don’t require frequent resting the same way a fast horse does, but consider that someone had not only to remove the gear from the Dwarves' mounts (presumably each dwarf took care of his own, but again, I wonder about Thorin the Haughty), but to tend to the baggage train. That meant, even if one Dwarf handled each pack pony, twice as long to set up camp and to get going the next day. Who knows? The Dwarves may've unlimbered all that musical gear for a song or two each night. Since they were toting it, I certainly hope so.
The Hobbits, led by Aragorn, seem to have usually settled in the brush after Sam, probably with help, tending to Bill.
I haven’t done a long journey like this, but I have had the thrill of caring for my horse after a fifteen-mile trail ride. It takes a little bit of time and effort, and I wasn’t removing tack and every day, nor to multiple mounts. I can see cutting the travel time to ten miles or so for the sake of taking on all this at a relaxed pace.
5. The Trolls. Bilbo’s party obviously stopped to recover from the ‘Troll incident’ not only to recover from their mistreatment, but to find and cache the Troll’s treasure. Frodo’s party only briefly stopped at the same place.
As for the speed of the Dwarves ‘picking up’ after that, rough country is one place ponies are faster than people, so long as there’s no actual climbing to be done. Too, by then, the Dwarves were suffering privation and now willing, no doubt, to press on. More than that, they didn’t have Ringwraiths to dodge: Aragorn did.
All in all, it’s quite easy for me to see how Bilbo took ten days (or more) longer to come to Rivendell than Frodo. And yes, I know my objections don’t account for all the inconsistencies between the two journeys many of which are no doubt due to Tolkien’s new vision of the world he’d created by the time he was writing The Lord of the Rings. But it’s an amusing exercise, and I think that my objections make at least some sense.
Tune in later when (or if) I tackle the ‘why didn’t the eagles carry them into Mordor?’ toe-suckers.
