I always had a nostalgic feeling about the beginning of The Lord of The Rings. Very idyllic atmosphere of the Shire always gets me, even those pesky Sackville-Bagginses who may be complete jerks, but ultimately are harmless jerks, because people like them have little to no power in the Shire. Hobbits's love for nature and "things that grow" is what I share, simple life they have... sometimes You can't help, but *want* to live there. In fact to me Shire and Ponyville have almost the same vibes in them  Small, happy and mostly wholesome communities, where worries are small, but peace infinite ;-;

In this book, this peaceful period - description of Shire, Bag End, Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday party is what makes later events so intense to me. I, as a reader know what the fight is for. If Frodo fails in his quest there will be no more Shire. No more laughter. The stakes are high, personal and You get a little taste of them before embarking for that journey. 

I wish movie had dwarves coming along with Gandalf and his cart loaded to the brim with fireworks. But then movie still gave away plenty of his playfulness instead so that's a nice exchange to me! 

Overall what a fun chapter it is. It was so perfect that I've read it on friday, a nice, wholesome summary of my own very beautiful day! 

And here we have big revelation. We learn that we should never take peace for granted and that there are beings full of malice in the wide world, who need little to no reason to go after us. Frodo learns the truth about the magical ring that Bilbo has given him in chapter 1 and that he is no longer safe as the owner of the ring - Sauron knows of its whereabouts and his agents may arrive at any moment. Gandalf gives us a lot of exposition, describing how the ring works, consequences of using it as well as story behind the one, from whom the ring was taken by Bilbo - a creature Gollum. 

This chapter quickly creates ominous atmosphere to me. Suddenly it turns out that Frodo is not safe in the Shire. Even more - he has to leave and deliver the ring to somewhere, where it can be safer while the road for him will be a perilious one with the nazgul and other foul creatures searching for it relentlessly. Sauron never had any interest in the Shire as it's just a remote realm, disconnected from events of the wide world, but now that he learns of its existence he's willing to enslave it, even if his reason is as simple as prefering to see hobbits as slaves than free folk. He would take the One Ring but raze Shire itself as well.

I think it's amazing that this very ominous tale of the One Ring's origins takes place mostly during the day. Gandalf tells of events of old and meanwhile we can hear Sam's work in Frodo's gardens. There's something about it that creates a perfect atmosphere throughout entire chapter. And well, of course eventually we get Sam eavesdropping leading to him having to join Frodo on his journey to Rivendell, one of cities of the elves. 

The way this chapter combines with chapter 1 is what really gets me. As I said before - there are high stakes. If Frodo's quest fails then peaceful atmosphere of chapter 1 will become a thing of the past, soon to be forgotten. It makes me want to blitz through the rest of the story (despite already knowing how it ends, obviously : D), but I will be patient! 

And of course there is always something to smile about. Here it would be Sam's childlike excitement to see the elves. My heart melted from that