Chapter VI & VII: Many Partings & Homeward Bound

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Finrod Felagund

Significance of the jewel that Arwen gives Frodo?

I never thought the jewel had much significance, other than a gift to remember Arwen by. She seemed to know that Frodo would depart soon and that they would not meet again. But in relation to later scenes, I wonder if it was (aside from a memory of her) also a remnant of the peacefullness and healing powers of Rivendell itself.

Bilbo's age catching up with him, the affect of the ring on bearers after its end?

The Ring kept him 'preserved' for longer than usual. It is logical that with the destruction of the Ring, time takes hold again of Bilbo.

The significance of Galadriel's final greeting being the ring, Nenya, held aloft?

It always gave me the feeling that, though the days of the Ringbearers are numbered, the power of Nenya is fading too but not gone immediately.

Why do you think Bree was attacked, or targeted by ruffians, what is there that would make it an ideal target.

If I'm not mistaken Bree is the largest settlement around and the only one region in Eriador where there is a significant population center, aside from the Shire. It's also on the Road, so it could be of relative strategical importance.

What will Gandalf and Bombadil discuss?

I remember, when once reading this passage, saying out loud: "Oh come on, you cannot NOT tell us what they're going to talk about!"

To this day I'm still rather clueless about what they would discuss, but I remain very curious.

Originally Posted by jammi567

"The final meeting of Treebeard and the Lord and Lady of Lorien." This, i think, is showing that the nature that elves and ents love has been utterly distroyed, and it'll never come back, not even with a new king.

It definitely fits with the overall theme, that although evil has been beaten, not everything can return back to its glory days. The human populations have the flexibility to rebound and regain some of the stature they lost in the centuries before. But Elves and Ents seem to have lingered too long and are no longer are part of this age and they cannot regain what they've been.

But even so they're not without hope completely as in Galadriel's words there's a promise of a new world, where things and places that are now lost can be once again.

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

I do find it odd that the Ents faded at the same time as the Elves departed, since they were created to protect the olvar from ravaging dwarves. This suggests that at the start of the fourth age the world changed in more ways than simply due to the departure of the Rings.

I quite agree. But the Dwarves also are fading in a way. They are far less in number and only have a handfull of dwelling places left. It won't be them that the Ents have to fear for their forests in the future.