Posted: April 07, 1999 at 17:43:49: by Jon
: Possibly, but your inference that Bilbo was affected by this power is only partially correct. Bilbo would have eventually faded -- that is not the kind of preservation the Elves had in mind. They were trying to prevent fading. Forget the Bilbo thing, I was just writing and it popped into my head so I wrote it down. I realize it's improbable, that doesn't matter, forget I ever said it.
: Time is not distorted in Bombadil's house. No one lost track of the days. Nor does anyone seem to have lost track of the days in Rivendell (although a time distortion there would have been consistent with the time distortion in Lorien since Elrond had one of the Three). Being captivated by songs is not the same as time distortion. "The hobbits under the spell of Tom's words may have missed one meal or many, but when the food was before them it seemed at least a week since they had eaten." IN THE HOUSE OF TOM BOMBADIL
Are we to infer that time slows in Tom's house too? I'm not so sure. : No, we must use Sam's reckoning, where he says he can remember three nights for certain and maybe several more. That's a far cry from 30 days. Even Aragorn agrees with Frodo that time moved quickly in Lorien, "as for the Elves". It is certain that they experienced far fewer than 30 days in Lorien.
The fact that he says he can only "remembers" some things imlies that he has forgotten some things, and who's to say how much. Let's just say that it's far more plausible that Sam forgot 20 days than it is for the Lady to hold back time in the way you are speaking of. And it is certainly NOT certain that they spent fewer than 30 days in Lórien.
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