3. Three is Company
With this chapter, the adventure begins, in the sense that Frodo finally leaves the Shire and ventures into the unknown. As he departs his underground burrow, four notable events unfold: the Shire changes, a fox reflects, hostile riders appear, which are replaced by protective elves.
The Shire Changes
Frodo celebrates his (and Bilbo’s) birthday with his friends before leaving the Shire. This is the first time we see Frodo (or Bilbo) in the company of friends. The hobbits Sam, Merry, and Pippin will accompany him on the adventure, indicating an expansion of Frodo’s personality. Frodo himself delayed his departure as long as possible, hoping Gandalf would return first. But the wizard is gone, and it will be a long time before we see him again. For now, he has fulfilled his role - awakening the hobbit’s calling. Frodo must now rely on his own, now broader, personality.
Lobelia, who tormented Bilbo during his 111th birthday, reappears as Frodo prepares to leave the dead end, now to torment him instead. She is a greedy, irritating, and self-absorbed person. She is also the only woman in the Shire, as far as we have seen. This reveals that while Frodo/Bilbo lives a carefree life of abundance in the embrace of the Great Mother, they struggle with real women. In dreams and other unconscious expressions, figures reflect our attitude toward the content they represent. While the receptive, nurturing mother archetype is soothing and caring, the concrete woman with her own will is a disruptive element that Bilbo and Frodo prefer to avoid. Bilbo even put on the ring to disappear into the Great Mother’s embrace - we will have reason to return to this image - when he saw Lobelia further down the road.
This concretization of the feminine element thus enters the picture as Frodo prepares to leave the hobbit-hole to, so to speak, confront reality. Lobelia, as a concretization of feminine value, is underscored by the fact that she is now a widow and has her son in tow. This is the first time we encounter a child with a parent in the story. This image conveys that Lobelia has had sex and endured childbirth - very concrete, physical, human experiences otherwise absent in this childlike landscape. Her status as a widow symbolizes her independence. Frodo clearly struggles with this real, independent femininity, as it disrupts his symbiosis with the Good Mother as an archetypal image or experience. It is significant that this figure appears in his life (if we stick strictly to what the story tells us) as he prepares to break this symbiosis. He leaves the Shire with bitter words about this Lobelia. She thus represents a conflict for him. Notably, when he returns after his adventure, as an individuated man, they reconcile. Through the individuation process described in the story, he has matured as a man and can establish a good relationship with this feminine, concrete reality.
The third change in Frodo and the Shire as he prepares to leave this land is the presence of a “big folk” prowling among the hobbits’ burrows. This is the first time (according to the story) an adult man is present in the Shire. Naturally, he is shady, seems dangerous, and makes Frodo uneasy. Just as Lobelia, as a real woman, reflects Frodo’s attitude toward her - she is irritating - the big folk reflects his attitude toward adult men. For the Shire to remain a delightful childlike land dominated by the generous but entirely abstract Mother, it cannot, of course, accommodate adult men. An adult man implies that hobbits need to grow up into independent individuals, which they do not wish to do.
Gaffer Gamgee, who converses with the mysterious man, Sam, who talks to Gamgee about the conversation, and Frodo, who overhears the exchange between Gamgee and the stranger, all find this man eerie; they perceive him as something foreign. They also note that he is asking specifically about Frodo. This shadow symbolizes Frodo’s inner need to grow up, to become a man. For someone living in the Great Mother’s embrace, this is, of course, an unsettling prospect, which is why the man is perceived as dangerous and malevolent.
Thus, we see that in connection with Frodo’s departure, the separation from the world of childhood, there is an expansion of his personality, a concretization of and conflict with independent femininity, and a hint of what he fears but must himself become.
The Fox - Nature’s Light
Frodo, Sam, and Pippin set out as a group of three. The fourth friend, Merry, goes ahead, as if a group of exactly three is required to leave the Shire. The number three represents the active, masculine, and dynamic qualities needed to break free from the maternal inactivity that dominates the Shire. The number four represents a dormant quality that cannot break the slumber, so the group of four must split into one and three to depart.
As the three hobbits sleep in the forest on their first night after leaving the Shire, a fox appears and observes them. This is the first time the story’s focus shifts from Frodo/Bilbo to another being. This happens while the hobbits are asleep, that is, unconscious.
The fox not only observes the sleeping hobbits but reflects on the strangeness of three hobbits sleeping under a tree in the forest. It even reasons with itself - it has a language, a consciousness. In folktales, the fox is a guide, in folklore associated with the “other side”; it is something of a nature spirit. It is, of course, significant that the fox is the first creature to encounter the hobbits after Frodo has definitively left the hobbit-hole; it is an animal representing the unconscious and our ability to navigate it.
As a symbol, the fox represents “nature’s light” (lumen naturae), as alchemists often called it, which psychologically can be described as sparks of consciousness in the unconscious. The fox symbolizes the gateway to “the other” within us. As we see in our dreams, when we step into the world of the unconscious, there is an intelligence within us that is not under the conscious ego’s control. The fox’s appearance in the forest while the hobbits sleep, and its self-reflection, tells us that from now on, we will encounter independent symbols with their own wills, which together form the pattern we discussed in an earlier chapter.
The fox remarks that it is exceedingly strange to find three hobbits sleeping under a tree in the forest, just as the hobbits would find it strange to encounter a fox that can reason - a spark of consciousness in the forest’s darkness. The fox, in turn, finds it strange to encounter a consciousness, as Frodo represents, in its domain. The animal thus signifies a meeting between the conscious and the unconscious. From this moment, the hobbits’ world is irrevocably transformed, as becomes evident in what follows.
The Black Riders
After the first night and the unconscious encounter with the fox, the hobbits are confronted for the first time with the black riders. The hobbits hear a horse along the road, and Frodo suggests they hide. He knows the forces of darkness are after him. Sam and Pippin hide on one side of the road, Frodo on the other. In this scene, too, Frodo is by a tree. We have mentioned that trees symbolize psychological development. Frodo hiding by a tree as the rider approaches suggests that the threat is part of the individuation process. Earlier, we saw that the big folk in the Shire represents the inner drive to become an adult, but because Frodo has repressed this, the content appears as something unpleasant; what one does not wish to acknowledge about oneself appears, for instance, in dreams as something one simply does not want to face. We can also note the detail that Frodo hesitates - should he hide or not? Ultimately, he does, but there is already an impulse to confront the other.
When the rider stops on the road near him, Frodo feels a rising urge to put on the ring to escape the danger. He wants to flee into the mother’s darkness and dissolve, cease to exist as an individual. But he does not need to, as the rider moves on. Frodo watches the rider and then uses the same word to describe the event as the fox did - this was queer. The fox, as “the other,” was a precursor to the black rider. Like a fox, the rider also sniffed, using its sense of smell to find what it sought. The nose and smell are associated with intuition, the unconscious’s way of navigating, and are, of course, highly developed in foxes as well.
“What do the big folk want with us?” Pippin asks anxiously. “What are they doing in our part of the world?” The anxiety stems from the fact that, as we mentioned, “becoming an adult” has now become part of their lives. Pippin, the most childlike hobbit, naturally finds the change deeply unsettling. Frodo notes that big folk has been seen more frequently at the edges of the hobbits’ world lately. He says there has been “trouble” in parts of the land as a result; that is, conflicts between the opposites that hobbits and adult men represent.
Until the hobbits reach the town of Bree, the black riders will be the only “adult men” they encounter. This content is exclusively dangerous until then, but when they reach Bree, they meet the helpful adult man Aragorn. What has occurred between the encounter with the black riders and Aragorn is an initiation at the Barrow-downs, as we shall see. The adults are no longer solely a threat after this rite of passage.
In the next scene, the hobbits symptomatically crawl into a hollow tree to rest. Immediately after encountering the dangerous adult man, they thus retreat into the Good Mother, regressing when the outside world becomes too difficult.
The Bright Elves
In the twilight, they step out of the Great Mother’s hollow tree and continue into the darkness of the night. Now, for the first time, they encounter elves. They are beautiful, pleasant, and belong to the night’s moon and stars; with clear voices, they sing of the white queen, their eyes and hair sparkle, and they have a shimmer around their feet. To Frodo’s astonishment, these are High Elves - yet another “strange coincidence”!
When the unconscious is activated in connection with the beginning of the individuation process or at crucial points in its progression, meaningful coincidences, which Jung called synchronicity, are common; what occurs within us in the activated unconscious is mirrored in events outside us. Thus, it is fitting that as the hobbits leave their old state and are prepared to face the unknown, the story presents three “strange coincidences” - the fox, the black rider, and the elves. Once again, the number three appears, here as a symbol that the unconscious, autonomous dynamic has been set in motion after the previous stagnation.
Since the concrete feminine, as we have already touched upon, has not yet found a place in the story, this distinctly feminine people is represented, at least initially, by rather infantile, feminine men. At first, they refuse to join the hobbits because the elves do not “need” them and, moreover, find hobbits “dull,” they laugh. The elves come across as carefree, eternal, and superior beings, clear symptoms of inflation - a consequence of identification with the mother archetype.
When Pippin mentions the black rider, they become more serious, as the black riders, in this context, represent the elves’ shadow, and they allow the hobbits to follow them to a special resting place in the forest. As always when the hobbits are with a group of elves, they are now completely safe.
The elves bring a series of symbols associated with the mother archetype - night, moon, nurturing, abundant platters of food and drink, and finally, sleep. From the ensuing conversation, we understand that now, as evil begins to cast its shadow over the world and challenges the established order, the superior elves are strangely passive and elusive. These High Elves, for instance, are heading to the sea to sail to the other world, never to return. The elves are characterized by preserving what endures; they are sentimental and backward-looking. But when the very good and enduring is challenged, they leave this world instead of going to war to defend it. This, at a superficial glance, unexpected behavior is, in fact, expected of a people identified with the Good Mother.
Indeed, the elves, as a result of their identification with the Mother, are almost bodiless. This suggests a certain dissolution. They are like “shadows” with “dimly shimmering light”; they move completely silently, more like spirits than humans. Their pleasant manner and feminine expressions, combined with lightheartedness and superiority, give them childlike traits. As mentioned, they are essentially immortal, just as children cannot imagine illness, aging, or death. Such things do not exist in the world of the Good Mother.
These admirable High Elves thus represent an ideal for the hobbits, which is why they perceive them as wholly positive, while the black riders, the elves’ shadow, are naturally perceived as wholly negative. Both the elves and the riders are more or less bodiless. We know they are connected because the elves replace the rider in their encounter with the hobbits. Frodo had seen a black rider along the road they had just left, tracking them with its sniffing. But then he heard the elves’ song and laughter, and the rider vanished. The elves came from the same direction as the rider, thus literally replacing it. Jung called this phenomenon enantiodromia (after Heraclitus). It means that an extremely one-sided orientation gives rise to an equally strong unconscious opposite position, which can cause the situation to flip into its contrary.[1]
The first time Frodo saw a black rider, it stopped near him and sniffed but, for some reason, rode on. As we know, the hobbits took refuge in a hollow tree. As they continue, they encounter another black rider, who dismounts and crawls toward them. When the situation repeats but shows no sign of the rider turning back this time, it becomes untenable, and, as if by magic, it transforms into its opposite. We will discuss Tolkien’s intuitive writing further, but this was likely something that “happened” to him rather than something he planned. The story had reached a dead end, a conflict arose, and the opposite impulse sprang up from within. A “strange coincidence” followed, and the hobbits’ state shifted from impossible to dreamlike.
Sam walks as if in a “dream” with the elves. Pippin is on the verge of falling asleep as they walk, but each time he is about to doze off and fall, a maternal hand reaches out and catches him, just as a mother repeatedly prevents her sitting one-year-old from toppling. Sleep - which we will have reason to return to - is always a symptom of the unconscious influence of the Great Mother. When they reach the campsite, the hobbits begin to doze while the elves speak softly to one another, just as children fall asleep securely to the sound of adults’ voices in the background. Then they are awakened, and the elves, in a traditionally feminine manner, go around with platters and goblets, offering them food and drink. Now it is Pippin who is described as being in a dream; he eats the most delicious bread and the tastiest fruits - feminine dishes suitable for children. When he finally falls asleep, the elves carry him to a comfortable bed. Indeed, it is clear that the elves represent the Good Mother who saved the hobbits from the big black rider.
Frodo remains perceptive and speaks with the leader, Gildor, about the wider world and the wars raging far away. The elves, as representatives of the Good Mother, do not wage war themselves, as mentioned, but are passive and evasive. Gildor tells Frodo that he cannot return to the Shire; it is no longer safe. We have already established this - as Frodo set out, the protective symbiosis with the Mother ceased. Now that he has also encountered the black riders - they have become a concrete reality for him - there is no possibility of regressing to the state he was in before the adventure began. Gildor advises him to press on and avoid the riders at all costs. This becomes a theme in the story: no matter how hopeless it seems or how tired he becomes, Frodo must keep going. Except for the blissful pauses with the elves in Rivendell and Lothlórien, it falls to him to persevere and not give up.
Eventually, Frodo, too, falls asleep at the elves’ safe place in the forest. Elves, as a group, always offer protection after a danger in the story. Here, they were threatened by a black rider, whom the High Elves replaced, leading the enchanted hobbits to a safe place, providing them with food, care, and beds. When they are pursued by the nine black riders on the way to the Ford, they are rescued and find themselves in the elves’ haven of Rivendell, where they are safe and cared for. After the dreadful experiences in the Mines of Moria, they arrive at the dreamlike Lothlórien, where they are once again protected from all the world’s dangers. The elves always offer, as the Good Mother they represent, safety, food, song, and sleep; however, they do not (as a group) offer any help in matters of weapons or violence, despite the fact that success in “The War of the Ring” (as Tolkien calls the story in the foreword) is entirely decisive for their world.
Footnotes
[1] Jung, Psychological Types, par. 793/708ff.