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Frodo's Encounter with the Elves in the Shire
Good Fortune Beyond Hope
11/22/07
"good fortune beyond my hope"
-- Pippin, on being invited to join the Elves (Fellowship, p. 90)
Tolkien was a master of symbolic forms of expression. Language is one such form of symbolic expression. So is myth. So is art. Tolkien was good at all three.
Maybe in part because he was a philologist, Tolkien was adept at using words with double meanings and sometimes even triple meanings. For instance, multiple meanings appear when the Hobbits were about to be attacked by one of the Black Riders, and the Elves appeared, and Pippin said, "This is good fortune beyond my hope" (Fellowship, p. 90).
Help or deliverance from someone or something else often happens in Tolkien's stories. Call it a 'theme' if you like. Help comes when things are hopeless, and it comes when it's least expected. The encounter in the Shire with the Elves is a good example.
Frodo and his friends were about to be scuppered by a Ringwraith when the Elves came along. The expression of supernatural providence in this case is also an instance of help beyond hope.
It soon became apparent to the Elves, after speaking with the Halflings, that the Hobbits were being pursued by one or more of the Nine. So the Elves offered the Hobbits security and protection and the chance to go with them for the night.
Pippin was the first to respond. Possibly not fully cognizant of the danger he was in, all Pippin meant was, this is better than I expected. "This is good fortune beyond my hope" (Fellowship, p. 90).
Pip's words, however, carry double or even triple meanings, unbeknownst to the hobbit himself.
It was certainly good fortune that Elves should come along when a Black Rider had discovered the Ring-bearer.
But this coincidence of the Elves coming along was also design. There is an unmistakable pattern of intervention throughout The Lord of the Rings. Just whose design--Elbereth's, another one of the Powers', the One's--we don't know for sure.
Good fortune, in this instance, is also help or deliverance from without.
So there you have it: three meanings, one phrase.
In addition, the Elves allowing the Hobbits to accompany them was, on the face of it, beyond Pippin's hope in the sense that it was better than expected.
However, there is a double meaning here as well. The Elves taking the Hobbits with them was also beyond hope in that the Hobbits' situation was beyond hope.