Another LOTR Read-Along: The Muster of Rohan (ROTK 5, 3)

Isn't Merry great in this chapter? He starts out feeling oppressed by all the mountains and "long[ing] to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire" (p. 774). He's sad because his friends "have all gone to some doom" (p. 779), and I get kind of melancholy myself over the course of this chapter. But he doesn't let that sadness get him down -- he refuses to be left behind, and when Theoden says he can't ride to war with the Rohirrim, he says, "It is a long way to run; but run I shall, if...