Sign-up for Chapters 4 & 6

[ex-lbilover.livejournal.com]

It's that time again! This round of Reading LOTR Aloud will work a little differently. I've been counting up chapter pages, and Chapter 4 is a very short one at only 12 pages, as are most of the following chapters up until 'The Council of Elrond' (which is a whopping 32 pages long and will present a different challenge!) Tolkien clearly wasn't consistent with his chapter lengths, lol!

Because of the shortness of the upcoming chapters, my fellow mods and I have decided it would make more sense to do two chapters at once rather than severely limit the number of participants or give each person only a few paragraphs to read.

When I did a trial run of this project a while ago, the chapter we read was Chapter 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked. For that reason, we will be skipping over Chapter 5 and instead read Chapters 4 & 6. (I will post links to the previous reading of Chapter 5 when we are done with this month's readings.)

I hope this is as clear as mud! :)

Ideally, it would be great to have 20 readers, 10 for each chapter, without duplication if possible so everyone has a chance to participate. In signing up, if you have a preference for either Chapter 4, A Short Cut to Mushrooms, or Chapter 6, The Old Forest, please let me know. I will do my best to accommodate everyone's requests. If you don't have a preference, I'll randomly assign a section to you.

Additionally, if you are one of those brave souls who doesn't mind reading a bit of poetry or singing a song, let me know! I already have the names of a couple of people who are willing to do this, but it's helpful to know in advance who else is game for the challenge! :)

So, sign-ups will run from today until next Monday, January 19th. You will then have a week to practice and the actual readings will begin on January 26th.

I'm really looking forward to another reading!! Yay! :D

ETA: we have a full complement of readers! Thank you all so much!

Comments

[ex-lbilover.livejournal.com]

Okay, here is your section to read, Janet. It's from Chapter 6:

Sam sat down and scratched his head, and yawned like a cavern. He was worried. The afternoon was getting late, and he thought this sudden sleepiness uncanny. 'There's more behind this than sun and warm air,' he muttered to himself. 'I don't like this great big tree. I don't trust it. Hark at it singing about sleep now! This won't do at all!'

He pulled himself to his feet, and staggered off to see what had become of the ponies. He found that two had wandered on a good way along the path; and he had just caught them and brought them back towards the others, when he heard two noises; one loud, and the other soft but very clear. One was the splash of something heavy falling into the water; the other was a noise like the snick of a lock when a door quietly closes fast.

He rushed back to the bank. Frodo was in the water close to the edge, and a great tree-root seemed to be over him and holding him down, but he was not struggling. Sam gripped him by the jacket, and dragged him from under the root; and then with difficulty hauled him on to the bank. Almost at once he woke, and coughed and spluttered.

'Do you know, Sam,' he said at length, 'the beastly tree _threw_ me in! I felt it. The big root just twisted round and tipped me in!'

'You were dreaming I expect, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam. 'You shouldn't sit in such a place, if you feel sleepy.'

'What about the others?' Frodo asked. 'I wonder what sort of dreams they are having.'

They went round to the other side of the tree, and then Sam understood the click that he had heard. Pippin had vanished. The crack by which he had laid himself had closed together, so that not a chink could be seen. Merry was trapped: another crack had closed about his waist; his legs lay outside, but the rest of him was inside a dark opening, the edges of which gripped like a pair of pincers.

Frodo and Sam beat first upon the tree-trunk where Pippin had lain. They then struggled frantically to pull open the jaws of the crack that held poor Merry. It was quite useless.

'What a foul thing to happen!' cried Frodo wildly. 'Why did we ever come into this dreadful Forest? I wish we were all back at Crickhollow!' He kicked the tree with all his strength, heedless of his own feet. A hardly perceptible shiver ran through the stem and up into the branches; the leaves rustled and whispered, but with a sound now of faint and far-off laughter.

'I suppose we haven't got an axe among our luggage, Mr. Frodo?' asked Sam.

'I brought a little hatchet for chopping firewood,' said Frodo. 'That wouldn't be much use.'

'Wait a minute!' cried Sam, struck by an idea suggested by firewood. 'We might do something with fire!'

'We might,' said Frodo doubtfully. 'We might succeed in roasting Pippin alive inside.'

'We might try to hurt or frighten this tree to begin with,' said Sam fiercely. 'If it don't let them go, I'll have it down, if I have to gnaw it.' He ran to the ponies and before long came back with two tinder-boxes and a hatchet.

Quickly they gathered dry grass and leaves, and bits of bark; and made a pile of broken twigs and chopped sticks. These they heaped against the trunk on the far side of the tree from the prisoners. As soon as Sam had struck a spark into the tinder, it kindled the dry grass and a flurry of flame and smoke went up. The twigs crackled. Little fingers of fire licked against the dry scored rind of the ancient tree and scorched it. A tremor ran through the whole willow. The leaves seemed to hiss above their heads with a sound of pain and anger. A loud scream came from Merry, and from far inside the tree they heard Pippin give a muffled yell.