Chapter 26. Stone Trolls, Revisited

Ferdibrand and Haldoron had not walked all that far from the troll-hole when Pip-lad came running back to them, followed by young Faramir. Both teens' faces were alight with wonder. 

'We've found the trolls!' Pip-lad panted. 'Just as the Red Book says, they're down in a clearing in the woods not far below. You can see them through the tree-trunks, and just as Farry's dad says in Mister Frodo's account, they are very large!' 

'We will come and look at them,' said Haldoron, though he did not pick up a stick as his kinsman had in that earlier journey they were tracing.

Faramir nodded, turned, and raced back the way he had come. But Pip-lad took a firm hold of the Man's free hand, (as if to reassure me, the Man thought in surprise), and trotted along by Haldoron's side as they continued onwards to the clearing. 

The Sun, still high in the sky, shone down through the branches of the trees. 'In their time,' Pip-lad informed the adults, 'the trees were half-stripped of their leaves and not in full leaf as they are now.'

Nevertheless, bright patches of sunlight lit the clearing and danced on the ground as a summer breeze teased the treetops. Faramir and Robin Bolger stood at the edge of the clearing, and the rest of the party halted just behind or to one side of them as of one accord and peered through the tree-trunks, holding their breath. There stood the trolls from Bilbo's stories: three of them, enormous by a Hobbit's standards and large even to a Man's reckoning. One was stooping, and the other two stood staring at him. 

Pip-lad covered his mouth with his hand and chortled.

'What is it? Ferdi and Haldoron asked together. 

The tween looked up at them, mischief dancing in his eyes. 'My old dad was scared; he told me so himself! He also said that Mister Frodo wasn't going to put that in the Red Book, but my dad told him he ought to, because he had been scared, and almost out of his wits, and he didn't want the Book to make him out to be some sort of hero that he wasn't, if you take my meaning!'

'But the Mayor was and is a hero!' the Man said in surprise, only to have his surprise grow at the answer the young Gamgee returned.

'He's not a hero at all!' protested Pip-lad. 'He just did what had to be done, and he'd be the first to tell you so himself!'

'And my da was terrified at the prospect of encountering one live troll, much less three of them! He told me so himself,' Farry put in.

Ferdi tugged at the Man's sleeve, and meeting the Took's gaze, Haldoron changed the subject. 'So what happened next, Pippin?'

Momentary protest forgotten, the young Gamgee teen laughed. 'Mister Frodo described Strider as acting as if he were walking to The Green Dragon from Hobbiton without a care in the world. He'd picked up a stick when Farry's da told him about seeing the trolls, and now he walked up to the stooping troll and broke his stick against the stone. "Get up, old stone!" said he, as if the creature were merely drowsing in the sunlight.'

As a group, the New Travellers walked into the clearing and advanced upon the stone figures that dwarfed them all, even the Man.

'What happened then?' Ferdi said, keenly interested. He put out a cautious palm but stopped short of touching the nearest troll.

'Nothing!' Pip-lad shouted. 'The Man stood there, as grim-faced as he'd ever been, though my dad said he thought he saw a twinkle in Strider's eye to see his companions' astonishment. And then even Frodo laughed and said, "Well! We are forgetting our family history! These must be the very three that were caught by Gandalf, quarrelling over the right way to cook thirteen dwarves and one hobbit".' 

‘My da had no idea they were anywhere near the place!’ said Farry. 'Though he'd heard Bilbo and Frodo tell the story many times, he had never more than half believed it until that moment. And now, there he was, confronted with something completely beyond his experience and understanding, and feeling uncertain and suspicious. Why, he even worried that some magic might suddenly bring them to life again!'

'And then the Ranger told them that they were forgetting not only their family history, but all they had ever known about trolls,' put in Pip-lad. 'For then, as now, the Sun was shining brightly from her high place, flooding the glade with her light!' 

'As I recall, my kinsman told me that one of them had an old bird’s nest behind his ear,' Haldoron said, his keen eyes moving from one figure to another. 'He called it "a most unusual ornament for a live troll"! ...but that was years ago.' He scrutinised the heads of each of the trolls in turn and added, '...but I see no signs of nests behind any of their ears now, or on top of their heads, or anywhere else, for that matter...' 

'Still,' Ferdi said thoughtfully, 'they all look to be growing a mossy skin in some places, especially on the northern side. So they've not been rolling stones at all, I should say.' He looked up to see the Man's quizzical expression and added, 'A rolling stone gathers no moss, as they say.' 

'One of your Hobbit riddles, I presume?' came the Man's dry response.

The older Took looked thoughtful. 'More of a proverb, I should say, though I suppose one could pose it in the form of a riddle.'

'In any event,' Pip-lad resumed, 'the Company found the glade a satisfactory place to rest, and so they rested there. Mister Frodo wrote about being heartened by the laughter and remembering Mister Bilbo's tale, and the sunlight seemed to relieve the chill he was feeling from the Morgul-blade.'

'The Sun is bright – and hot! – this day, and these great trolls cast quite a shadow! Let us take our mid-day meal in their shade,' Ferdi said.

'That's just what they did!' Pip-lad said with a grin.

'Well then, in the interest of authenticity, we can do no less,' Ferdi said firmly.

They made a hearty meal, no doubt much heartier than their predecessors had enjoyed in that place. According to Haldoron, Rangers seldom kindled fire, much less cooked while travelling, but that did not mean such Men did not cook at all! ...as the former Steward's fellow travellers had discovered. 'The next outpost is not far from where we will return to the Road, and our plans call for us to replenish our supplies there,' Haldoron said as he handed round plates filled with hearty stew he'd concocted from dried meat and vegetables, along with wild roots that the Hobbits had dug near the clearing.  

Ferdi eyed their Ranger-guide. 'That's hardly "authentic",' he observed.

To the surprise of all the younger Hobbits, the Man actually grinned! 'You may elect to go on short commons if that is truly your desire,' he said, at his most gracious.

'Pity it's not the right season for mushrooms,' Robin commented. 'With a few mushrooms added, this stew would be fit for a King!'

'Ah well,' Haldoron said dismissively. 'It only needs to be fit for a former Steward and current Chancellor-on-detached-duty... and their travelling companions. Luckily my kinsman is not here with us, for he would be at risk of going hungry since the stew is lacking mushrooms and, therefore, unfit for a King according to Shire standards.'

The three younger Hobbits stared in astonishment, but Ferdi guffawed, pointing an impotent finger at the Man when he tried to speak and ended up laughing instead. Soon the entire party had joined in the laughter – including the Ranger-guide.

At last, when he recovered his composure, the Man warned his companions. 'Don't let the food go cold now.'

'Not when you've been labouring over a hot fire on such a warm day!' Ferdi confirmed. 'Why Haldor, I'm beginning to think we'll make a Hobbit of you yet!'

'Not surprising, with the Company I'm keeping these days,' the Man mock-grumbled, eliciting another round of laughter with his pun. 

Later, after they had resumed walking, Ferdi said quietly to him, 'I do believe I can assign you high marks for your mastery of the lessons on Hobbitish humour that you have worked your way through – at least thus far.'

'My thanks, Master Chancellor,' the Ranger-guide said, sketching a bow to the Hobbit walking at his side.

'Not at all, Master Steward,' came the answer, sounding more friendly than polite to the Man's ears. 

Perhaps, Haldoron thought, my Tookish companion is not simply making a joke of our shared endeavour, at least not at this time?

Perhaps Elessar's chosen approach to his Northern Steward's remedial schooling was not so nonsensical as Haldoron had originally thought upon setting out on this journey of discovery and learning.

In truth, the more he learned of Hobbits, the more interested he was in learning still more.

***  

Author's note: In talking with the hobbits in 'Homeward Bound' in The Return of the King, Gandalf describes Bombadil as a moss-gatherer and himself as a stone doomed to rolling. It is conceivable both that he is using an idiom familiar to Shire-folk and that a Man who had previously had little interaction with hobbits might not know the saying.

***