Summary — Flight to the Ford
When Frodo comes to, the other hobbits are standing over
him. When he put the Ring on, they saw only shadows rushing by and Frodo
disappearing and then reappearing, collapsed on the ground. The
Black Riders are gone, having been repulsed by Strider’s defense and
by the Elven names Frodo invoked.
After hearing Frodo’s account and examining his wound,
Strider becomes concerned—even more so when he finds on the ground
the knife that gave Frodo the wound. Strider takes Sam aside and
tells him that the wound will soon have an evil power over Frodo,
and may well be deadly. Strider goes down the hill and returns carrying leaves
of athelas, a plant with healing power. He uses
the leaves to tend to Frodo’s wound, which has begun to spread a
cold numbness through the hobbit’s side.
Day finally comes. Strider leads the hobbits down from
Weathertop and across the road. They suddenly hear two shrill cries
from far off. They scramble along in the forest to the south of
the road. The next several days are difficult going, and Frodo gets
weaker all the time. Strider finds a beryl, a pale green elf-stone,
in the path; it appears to have been left for them, and he considers
it a good sign. A few days later, they stumble across the three
trolls that turned to stone on Bilbo’s journey many years
ago (an episode from The Hobbit). This reminder
of Bilbo’s adventure cheers them.
The party is forced to return to the road to make the
last leg of the journey to Rivendell. Soon after they take to the
road, they are alarmed to hear the sound of hooves behind them.
They hide, but the rider turns out to be not a Black Rider but an
Elf-lord, Glorfindel, a friend of Strider who lives in Rivendell
and was sent out several days ago to help them. They put Frodo on
Glorfindel’s white horse and tell him to ride ahead. The hobbit
is at first reluctant to abandon his friends, but Glorfindel reminds
Frodo that it is he, not the others, whom the Black Riders are after.
Frodo slips in and out of dark dreams as he rides. The
party walks on through the night and rests only a few hours before
heading out again at dawn. After another hard day’s march, they
stop again. Glorfindel and Strider, despite their desire to push
on, are forced to stop, as the hobbits are exhausted.
The next afternoon, they approach the Ford of the Bruinen
River, beyond which is Rivendell. As they exit the forest just a
mile before the Ford, Glorfindel suddenly hears the sound of the
Black Riders behind them. He cries to Frodo to run for the Ford.
Glorfindel’s horse, still bearing Frodo, sprints ahead. Suddenly,
four Riders, who have been waiting in ambush, leap out from the
trees ahead to intercept Frodo before he reaches the Ford. Glorfindel’s
horse carries Frodo across the river just in time, but there the
hobbit waits helplessly on the opposite bank.
