After having three fantastic sessions from our topic last week, we return to our chapter by chapter discussions of the Fellowship of the Ring. This week, we cover one of the most tense moments of the Fellowships journey before Rivendell.

Chapter XI: A Knife in the Dark

A fantastic chapter, the highlight of this section is obviously the confrontation between the Fellowship and the Ringwraiths at Weathertop. But there is so much more to this chapter than just this!

For the first time in the books we see Strider take a leadership roll as the group departs from the Prancing Pony inn. We also see a more humane part of Sam as he takes the ill treated Bill the Pony from it’s cruel master in Bree.

This scene is also one of the most documented from the upcoming film, creating a set of images that have most Tolkien fans faith in not only Peter Jackson as the film’s director, but in Viggo Mortensen as the character of Strider himself.

And of course, this scene is the first time Frodo falls foul to the temptations of the ring, and through his actions see the Nazgúl for the fallen kings they once were.

No matter what you know are and what you’ve read, this is bound to be a fantastic discussion, and anyone and everything is invited to one of our three scheduled hosted sessions!

Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .

Saturday Chat: 7:00 pm ET (19:00) [also 12:00 am Sunday (0:00) BST and 9:00 am Sunday (09:00) AET]

Sunday Chat: 8:00 pm (20:00) AET [also 11:00 am (11:00) BST and 6:00 am (06:00) ET]

Sunday Chat: 6:00 pm (18:00) BST [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 3:00 am (03:00) Monday morning AET]

ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
BST = British Summer Time, GMT +1 hour
AET = Australian Eastern Time, Australia’s East Coast

Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here.