What did YOU think about Frodo meeting Bilbo in Elrond’s House?

[Alcuin]

I finally started re-reading LotR Tuesday. I’m about to begin “Council of Elrond�.

In “Many Meetings�, there is a passage that bothers me. It’s a little obscure. Peter Jackson interpreted in a way very different what I had always imagined. I’ve reread it many times, but it still looks to me like what I had always seen before in my mind.

First the passage, followed by how I’ve always interpreted it, then what Jackson did with it. Finally the question to Entmoot: What did you think of this passage when you first read it?

“Have you got it here?� [Bilbo] asked in a whisper. “I can’t help feeling curious, you know, after all I’ve heard. I should very much like just to peep at it again.�

“Yes, I’ve got it,� answered Frodo, feeling a strange reluctance. “It looks just the same as ever it did.’

“Well, I should just like to see it for a moment,� said Bilbo.

When he had dressed, Frodo found that while he slept the Ring had been hung about his neck on a new chain, light but strong. Slowly he drew it out. Bilbo put out his hand. But Frodo quickly drew back the Ring. To his distress and amazement he found that he was no longer looking at Bilbo; a shadow seemed to have fallen between them, and through it he found himself eyeing a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and bony groping hands. He felt a desire to strike him.

The music and singing round them seemed to falter and a silence fell. Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo’s face and passed his hand across his eyes. “I understand now,� he said. “Put it away! I am sorry; sorry you have come in for this burden; sorry about everything. Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story. Well, it can’t be helped. I wonder if it’s any good trying to finish my book? But don’t let’s worry about it now – let’s have some real News! Tell me all about the Shire!�

Frodo hid the Ring away, and the shadow passed leaving hardly a shred of memory. The light and music of Rivendell was about him again. Bilbo smiled and laughed happily. …

The passage Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo’s face and passed his hand across his eyes is ambiguous. The antecedents of his hand and his eyes are not clearly set forth: Does it mean:

1. Bilbo’s hand and Bilbo’s eyes
2. Frodo’s hand and Frodo’s eyes
3. Bilbo’s hand and Frodo’s eyes
4. Frodo’s hand and Bilbo’s eyes

I have always taken it to mean Bilbo’s hand and Frodo’s eyes. To me, when Bilbo reached out, under the influence of the Ring, Frodo misinterpreted Bilbo’s desire to touch the Ring as a desire to take it from Frodo. Because of the Ring, Frodo saw Bilbo like a caricature of Gollum. Bilbo looked quickly at Frodo’s face, realized what was happening to his heir, and passed his [Bilbo’s] hand across his [Frodo’s] eyes. Bilbo sees that Frodo is falling into the power of the Ring. Bilbo feels terrible about this: he loves Frodo as a son and understands how horrible this is for Frodo. Bilbo immediately changes the subject, leaving Frodo with almost no recollection of the passion (in the original sense of undergoing suffering) momentarily imposed upon him by the Ring.

Peter Jackson interpreted this passage to mean that Bilbo transformed into a hissing Gollum, horrifying and repelling Frodo, whereupon Bilbo passed his [Bilbo’s] hand across his [Bilbo’s] eyes.

Because Tolkien left the antecedents for his and his ambiguous, all four interpretations are possible.

I’m out this thread. All I want to know is,

What did you think when you read the passage?