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Note that half-orcs are another mixed race in AD&D - but this surely is also a Tolkienism - one of the patrons in The Prancing Pony is described as looking like a half-orc, if memory serves.
Yes - Saruman gets the dubious credit for mixing Men and Orcs, possibly in breeding his Uruk-Hai.
I guess they're the equivalent of the half-elven, seeing as how orcs were made in imitation of elves.
Maybe Aragorn's press releases for former followers of Saruman never included the tagline "he's just like an Uruk-hai... only better..."?
Chapter IX: Barrels Out of Bond
This chapter is pretty much unchanged in the revised edition (a statement you should get used to me saying for a while).
Wood Elves
Wood elves (and for that matter dwarves) don't always fare that well in Tolkien. By that I mean they aren't always as sympathetic as his human or hobbit characters. In fact, I'd say Tolkien enjoyed hobbits in all of their ways. Even their negatives are things to generally laugh at. (At their worst, in the scouring of the shire, they are largely cast as victims, reluctant conspirators, or on rare occasions toadies. There's no mistaking that once Saruman is dealt with, it's over.) But here we are made to see both the stubbornness of dwarves and elves. We learn that the elves are covetous too, especially of silver (and presumably mithril, though that hasn't been named yet in The Hobbit) and white gems. Tolkien may be setting up the squabble over the arkenstone or just generally making a characterization. Either way, we are left with Bilbo as the rational, rather humble perspective looking on in chagrin at the ways of the other races.
Having said that, these elves have always felt a bit more worldly than Elrond's clan. We see them pretty much given over to feasting and drinking themselves into a stupor, aside from their xenophobic, isolationist existence. As Tolkien writes in the previous chapter, "“ These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise”
Boring?
Honestly once we get past the escape, I feel like Tolkien enters a somewhat tedious phase, at least by the standards of The Hobbit. Until now there are have been major dangers and escapes, or at least reveals in most chapters. But the journey by barrel to Laketown and camping on the doorstep are a fairly sleepy period in the narrative. It's like you get sealed in a barrel with the dwarves and wake up with a start when the thrush knocks and the last light of the setting sun on Durin's Day shines on the keyhole.
Was this intentional? I feel like it was Tolkien pausing for a breath before hitting the climactic events.
Chapter X: A Warm Welcome
This chapter is pretty much unchanged in the revised edition.
People of Laketown
There's not much to say about this chapter, but chasing what I said about elves and dwarves in the previous chapter, here we get a picture of men as a rather superficial folk. (So perhaps we are just geting a look a the worst side of these peoples, and I'm really just taking cues from the overall gloominess of the narrative.) Lake-townies are caught up in the rat race, and all they care about is trade and get rich quick schemes. We can see perhaps what caused Peter Jackson to go so far off the rails in his portrayal of these chapters, as they are pretty much consumed by interested scenery and a sense of dread.
Chapter XI: On the Doorstep
This chapter is pretty much unchanged in the revised edition
Again, not much to say here. But a couple of points worth noting.
The Layout of the Mountain
Tolkien gives us a pretty good visual representation of the mountain. I have heard him criticized over his geographical veracity, specifically in regards to The Lonely Mountain, but he's pretty clear that it is the last big one at then end of a chain. So is it really all that singular? Other than in a mythical sense? There are other peaks in the real world that I can name that appear as a kind of stand out.
The one that mystifies me a little is the river issuing out of the gates, but I would presume this is because of dwarven works. How else would the people living inside the mountain get fresh water for drinking and quenching steel and whatnot? I don't recall, but I feel like Tolkien even mentions something like an aqueduct later. I'll keep an eye out for it anyway.
The Dragon, Alive or Dead?
The sense of dread is again built up pretty effectively in this chapter. There is an almost enchanted sleepiness and ruin on the area. But we do get the steams issuing out of the gates and the dragon's footprints to show that he's still around. I've always loved that line Balin voices "all the hall within must be filled with his foul reek."
I love this whole passage, in fact.
“Out of it the waters of the Running River sprang; and out of it too there came a steam and a dark smoke. Nothing moved in the waste, save the vapour and the water, and every now and again a black and ominous crow. The only sound was the sound of the stony water, and every now and again the harsh croak of a bird. Balin shuddered. “Let us return!” he said. “We can do no good here! And I don’t like these dark birds, they look like spies of evil.”
Luckily he is at least partially wrong about the birds, but that statement does seem to echo thoughts we will get again in The Lord of the Rings.
By the way, here is the part about the dragon's tracks. Perhaps not as conclusive as I remembered it, but still an interesting tell. “On this western side there were fewer signs of the dragon’s marauding feet..."
Punctuation
Tolkien was pretty unorthodox with his punctuation, even for the time I would imagine. And editors seem not to have touched it. I have seen a number of examples, mostly in long sentences saturated with dependent clauses. Here is one of the more humorous trespasses on proper punctuation.
“I don’t think I could bear to see the unhappy valley of Dale again, and as for that steaming gate! ! !”
I don't think I ever noticed that triple exclamation mark before.
The biggest problem with the Jackson movie was the move from two to three movies. It was "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread." There was a fan-cut two-movie version that was far better.
And of course, Jackson can never stand taking a breath. Tolkien understood it's importance. It makes the violence of Smaug and the five armies all the more powerful.
YES
Chapter XII: Inside Information
Talk about being jolted out of your mythic dream-state induced by the travelogue of the last few chapters. Holy moly. What a great chapter this is. Lots to unpack, so here we go. But first, the obligatory:
This chapter is pretty much unchanged in the revised edition.
(When I say this, I mean it's verbatim, as far as I can tell. But there may be a word or two different that I didn't catch, so I'm hedging.)
Dwarf Personalities
The door is open. The hoard (and its guard dragon) are accessible. This is when Thorin plays the burglar card. "Now is the time for our esteemed Mr. Baggins..." As we know, Bilbo accepts the mission, and we can't blame him if he is a bit salty about it. He calls for volunteers to accompany him, and of course gets no one (other than Balin who follows him halfway down). But we can't blame the dwarves for that either, can we? They don't have a magic ring of invisibility and they have zero skills at stealth. They know that Bilbo has both of these things. Anyway, Tolkien has this commentary for us:
"The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls at the beginning of their adventures before they had any particular reasons for being grateful to him. There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don’t expect too much.”
If you don't expect too much. Definitely a strong back-handed comment on dwarven nature and well-timed, since we are going to be disappointed in them more than once over the next few chapters. Oddly, it's when they are at their worst, I think, that we really start to care about the dwarves the most. Only a few of them are even really characters, per se. Most of them are filler, including the youthful Kili and Fili who are the brunt of most of the quick or dirty work. Bombur is comic relief at best. That leaves us with Balin and Thorin really as characters. We see Thorin as officious and stubborn but pretty solid when the chips are down. Balin is the most kind-hearted (and least dwarf-like?) of the characters who is really Bilbo's true connection to the group. Their relationship begins, I suppose, when Bilbo sneaks by Balin's watchful eyes in the eastern foothills of Mirkwood. But in these chapters they get more "life." For me, they feel more dimensional than they have since the Unexpected Party. I feel the disappointment keenly, still, but especially when I was a young reader and felt more need to empathize with a story's protagonists.
By the way. Are we just going to gloss over the fact that an ancient dwarf king was named Bladorthin? (Bladder-thin?) Was this an unintentional pun, or is Tolkien sneaking one in?
Smaug
Awesome. There's no other word for it. Perhaps the most colorful and best dragon in all of literature. His dialogue is extensive and superbly written. I basically have it memorized, and not just because it was nearly quoted verbatim in the Rankin Bass cartoon (the story-record of which I played endlessly as a tween).
Tolkien plays all the levels of the "sleeping dragon" routine to the hilt, then dials up the vanity to 11. All the while making us feel the immediacy of the threat Bilbo is under. Great, great stuff. And some of Tolkien's best imagery and figurative language is pulled off in this chapter. I could endlessly quote it. I won't, but I have to make a few quick observations.
This is a great bit of truth that Tolkien writes, as Smaug misses a singular cup out of a million other treasures.
“His rage passes description—the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted. ”
Another truth Tolkien shows us is the way words poison.
"The talk turned to the dragon's wicked words about the dwarves.
"Bilbo wished he had never heard them, or at least that he could feel quite certain that the dwarves now were absolutely honest..."
A bit of the riddling language, high speech, and figurative language.
“I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number.”
“Lovely titles!” sneered the dragon. “But lucky numbers don’t always come off.”
“My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”
“The Arkenstone! The Arkenstone!” murmured Thorin in the dark, half dreaming with his chin upon his knees. “It was like a globe with a thousand facets; it shone like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain upon the Moon!”
Finally, I really love how Tolkien describes Smaug's stealthy approach to the mountain in his attempt to catch out the thieves. Before he has been anything but subtle. They hear his flapping wings coming and going, and his roaring. But here we get this nice bit of work:
“Smaug had left his lair in silent stealth, quietly soared into the air, and then floated heavy and slow in the dark like a monstrous crow, down the wind towards the west of the Mountain, in the hopes of catching unawares something or somebody there...”
Gliding in like a monstrous crow. It would be like getting hit by a totally silent freight train. Wow.
The Moon
I really hadn't thought about this much until the image of "rain upon the Moon" blew my mind (what a freaking great image - I take it literally and struggle to imagine it, but he might have just meant rain falling in front of a bright moon), but the moon in general plays a sort of poetic role in The Hobbit. The moon-letters reveal the location of the secret door. And the moon is in the sky when the last light of the sun pinpoints it. It is used as imagery or at least referenced nearly 60 times in the book. And I suppose it might have some connection to the world of dreams? Not only does Bilbo have prophetic dreams, but Bombur and Smaug do too. (Bombur dreams of the elf-king and his feast. Smaug dreams of a thief as Bilbo steals his two-handled cup.)
The Cup
When I first read this chapter as a lad I don't know that I was familiar with the idea of a "two-handled" cup (or "two-handed" in the case of Thror's goblet). As a child I imagined it first to have two handles between base and bowl, as if they were connected by the Roman numeral II. Then I imagined it with a long handle, like a two-handed sword. It was only much later in life that I read that and laughed, as I realized it meant something like a Greek Krater - a trophy-like giant cup with a handle on either side of the bowl.
Anyway, the stealing of the cup is CLEARLY a reference to a work that Tolkien loved, Beowulf. Many students are made to read the Grendel tale from Beowulf. Not so many go on to read of his end, in the battle with the dragon, or how the dragon's ire was raised by someone discovering his lair and escaping with a singular, jeweled cup. I don't have a version handy to check if it was in any way "two-handled."
Every time I read this I kind of wonder if it's my last time, outside of perhaps reading it aloud to grand-children. These days I have to find ways to slow down and engage with the work, or it just flies by. My brain tries to tell the story to me, instead of taking input from my eyes and transforming it into meaning. Is there such a thing as knowing a book too well?
Yes, when you can justify all your misdeeds by quoting a verse from scripture.
Not that that's what's happening here, of course!
For fun, here is the relevant part of Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf:
So he has "gem-studded". Other translators choose "golden", "costly" or similar so I suppose that the original word is suitably ambivalent. However, there are some clear parallels with The Hobbit including the thief and the revenge on the surrounding community as well as the cup.
There;s an interesting speculative article on the cup and hoard at https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2020/02/beowulf-mound-and-dragon.html written by Mark Patton, who has written some historical fiction of his own. In short, he builds on the poem's statement that the hoard is from an even older civilisation to suggest that it originates from a Bronze Age barrow, and he includes some nice pictures of barrows and cups, eg
Thanks @RichardAbbott, I knew someone would come through for me so that I didn't have to make that long walk to the bookshelf! LOL. I'm so lazy. I really appreciate it though and I love that image.
In my own naïveté I presumed that the hoard was from an older culture. I mean, the dragon didn't fashion all that stuff and the dragon is old. But I suppose if I had known more about viking culture that might not have been an automatic assumption. We know that vikings buried gold, so it's not implausible that it could have been a viking hoard (someone's great-great-great-grandreaver). But I still liked the idea that it was ancient. Also, we know the vikings had commerce with other cultures, making their way around to the Mediterranean by the sea route and by river and trek over modern Russia. So they knew a little about the age of civilizations and the wonders of bygone cultures.
Chapter XIII: Not at Home
Dwarves and Their Mountain of Gold
“The mere fleeting glimpses of treasure which they had caught as they went along had rekindled all the fire of their dwarvish hearts; and when the heart of a dwarf, even the most respectable, is wakened by gold and by jewels, he grows suddenly bold, and he may become fierce.”
Tolkien does an incredible job of making us feel the desire for treasure in the dwarves. He doesn't just leave it at commentary, as above. He changes their mood and their behavior. In this chapter they go from fear to all-consuming greed. They get a spring in their step and forget all about the dragon. (So much so that after not having eaten for a few days, they are willing to undertake a five-hour march to find an interesting place in which to grab a bite of cram.) Talking and handling treasure is a drug – we presume its a psychological thing but it would be interesting to imagine it as a chemical thing in dwarves: that their DNA somehow responds to contact with precious metal.
We also see that this is dwarves in their element. Their long-lived nature means that some of them used to call this place home, and they remember it like you would if you went back to the town you grew up in but left as a young adult (if indeed you ever did). They "tour" it, exploring its psychographic locations. Meanwhile, Tolkien gives us some inclination as to the interior map of the place and some of the surrounding geography/dwarven works.
The River
I get confirmation in this chapter that the dwarves engineered the path of the river, to some extent. But it seems to be vigorously spring-fed.
“There is the birth of the Running River,” said Thorin. “From here it hastens to the Gate. Let us follow it!”
Out of a dark opening in a wall of rock there issued a boiling water, and it flowed swirling in a narrow channel, carved and made straight and deep by the cunning of ancient hands. Beside it ran a stone-paved road, wide enough for many men abreast. ”
There seems to be a small divergence about the way the structure of the paths around the gate is described by Tolkien. I wouldn't even mention it, but it comes up again in a future chapter and - being somewhat isolated as a change, when all the surrounding text is left unrevised - it stands out.
1937: "So on they trudged among the stones on the left side of the river - to the right the rocky wall above the water was sheer and pathless - and the emptiness and desolation soon sobered even Thorin again.”
1951: “Under the rocky wall to the right there was no path, so on they trudged among the stones on the left side of the river, and the emptiness and desolation soon sobered even Thorin again.”
(Note the choice of verb, "sobered," in reference to my previous comment.)
I'm going to jump ahead here to the chapter The Gathering of Clouds (which I just started reading) to show you the other change I've noticed about this same area.
1937: "Approach to the Gate was now only possible, without swimming, along a narrow path close to the cliff on the right (as you looked towards the gate from the outside)."
1951: “Approach to the Gate was now only possible, without swimming, along a narrow ledge of the cliff, to the right as one looked outwards from the wall. ”
Wait. Uh. This is messed up isn't it? Looking out there should be no path to the right. Looking from the outside, the only path is to the right (left from the inside).
I'm confused. Though I guess it's not clear in the original that the orientation is looking out of, rather than at the gate. I just assumed it was because the dwarves and hobbit are the only ones with eyes to see the area in that chapter, other than ravens and such.
The Coat
It's worth mentioning the famous mail coat that Bilbo is given here, as it of course returns in The Lord of the Rings. The only other change I caught in the chapter is in reference to this artifact.
1937: "With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some elf-prince long ago. It was of silvered steel and ornamented with pearls, and with it went a belt of pears and crystals."
1951: "With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago. It was of silver-steel, which the elves call mithril, and with it went a belt of pearls and crystals."
I don't believe mithril is ever named in the 1937 edition and I would really like to know when it was first mentioned in Tolkien's writings, personal and/or published. (Not that nearly all of his personal stuff hasn't been published at this point.)
My guess is Tolkien - being a fuss-arse pedant - realized he was using two different viewpoints in describing the path and river, and tried to use the same viewpoint, even though the natural, default viewpoint when describing a character's movements is from the position of the character and it actually complicates things using the omniscient viewpoint throughout, particularly as it isn't described as such with the character's movement.
According to Wikipedia:
Mithril is a fictional metal found in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, which is present in his Middle-earth, and also appears in many other works of derivative fantasy. It is described as resembling silver but being stronger and lighter than steel. The author first wrote of it in The Lord of the Rings, and it was retrospectively mentioned in the third, revised edition of The Hobbit in 1966. In the first 1937 edition, the mail shirt given to Bilbo Baggins is described as being made of "silvered steel".
Chapter XIV: Fire and Water
This chapter is pretty much unchanged in the revised edition.
The Thrush and The Moon
There are two things I want to comment on in this pivotal passage.
“Suddenly out of the dark something fluttered to his shoulder. He started—but it was only an old thrush. Unafraid it perched by his ear and it brought him news. Marvelling he found he could understand its tongue, for he was of the race of Dale.
“Wait! Wait!” it said to him. “The moon is rising. Look for the hollow of the left breast as he flies and turns above you!” And while Bard paused in wonder it told him of tidings up in the Mountain and of all that it had heard.”
The first is going back to this idea of animal speech, and specifically bird speech, which will come up again. Here it is suggested it's almost a DNA-encoded ability: something that comes with a bloodline. In the beginning of the next chapter, we get this related passage:
“I believe he is trying to tell us something,” said Balin; “but I cannot follow the speech of such birds, it is very quick and difficult. Can you make it out Baggins?”
“Not very well,” said Bilbo (as a matter of fact, he could make nothing of it at all); “but the old fellow seems very excited.”
“I only wish he was a raven!” said Balin.”
And we go on to find out that rather than the dwarves speaking 'raven' the raven “used ordinary language and not bird-speech.”
It's all very cool. For some reason in my earlier readings of this I imagined the dwarves being able to speak, or at least understand, raven as well. Maybe that comes up later. In any case, we get the idea that being able to understand bird-speech is a matter of a well-tuned ear and perhaps a genetic inheritance. Interesting.
And of course I've tipped my hat as to what the second thing is. Here again we have the moon being a prominent omen. It appears when 'the time is right' to illuminate things in the dark when heroes need help. How else would Bard have seen that patch, if it weren't for both the act of heroes (Bilbo's foray into the mountain and Bard's shot) and the providence of Fate (the presence of the thrush at the mountain and a scion of Dale in Laketown, and the moon to mark the time and spot for Smaug's undoing)?
The Carcass and the Master
This passage fired my imagination as a child, and it still does. The idea of a place where a thing died being tainted by evil and the treasure lying dormant there. It's a very "game-able" concept if you are into fantasy adventure games (e.g. D&D) because it gives a great explanation for a dangerous, hard to access environment filled with riches.
“... under the Master’s direction they began the planning of a new town, designed more fair and large even than before, but not in the same place. They removed northward higher up the shore; for ever after they had a dread of the water where the dragon lay. He would never again return to his golden bed, but was stretched cold as stone, twisted upon the floor of the shallows. There for ages his huge bones could be seen in calm weather amid the ruined piles of the old town. But few dared to cross the cursed spot, and none dared to dive into the shivering water or recover the precious stones that fell from his rotting carcase.”
Note that in The Hobbit (unlike some of the pop-culture renditions of it), the master is no idiot. Selfish, yes. Conniving, yes. But not stupid. He is exactly the sort of politician that seems to prosper, and frankly under which a people seem to prosper, in times of peace. Bard is the kind of king you want for founding a new country in a strange land, whereas the Master understands the tit-for-tat of long term politics and trade.
When I was young, I always assumed the thrush was really Gandalf in disguise, and hence his ability to speak.
Ravens and crows, like parrots, can indeed learn to speak human words.
Yes, I recently saw an article that year old ravens test above dogs in intelligence or some such. Which explains why dogs are great and ravens are a pain in the ass.
Chapter XV: The Gathering of the Clouds
From here on, there are no changes of note from the 1937 to modern editions in this chapter. In fact, there have been very few changes and almost none of note since the Riddling Chapter.
Thorin's Goldlust
Early in this chapter Thorin is brooding over the news that elves and men are coming for a share (or all) of "his" gold. In response, the dwarves broke out the harps and "made music to soften his mood." Which, of course, was all about dwarves and treasure. Gloomy stuff. Reminds me a bit - no, a lot - of how David in the Christian Bible would play his harp for Saul when the latter was in a mood. If Thorin had thrown a spear half-heartedly at Bilbo it would have completed the picture - but of course he comes close later. So here we have a classic picture of a troubled king.
Chapter XVI: A Thief in the Night
He's Baaaaack
The way Gandalf "pops up" in The Hobbit is super cool. I don't recall him doing this as much in The Lord of the Rings or it feeling at all the same. (The biggest pop-in moment is when he comes back in Fangorn, but his friends mistake him for Saruman and Gandalf barely knows his own name.)
"'Well done! Mr. Baggins!' he said, clapping Bilbo on the back."
And boy do I, as a reader, love that scene. Bilbo takes a huge risk that sets him apart from his friends and earns the respect of the men and elves. He has to do that alone, and we feel for him. So to have Gandalf come back right then and validate him -- that's good stuff.
Chapter XVII: The Clouds Burst
The Fourteenth Share
When Bilbo goes back and fesses up to the Dwarves that he was the one who took the Arkenstone, and that he ... gave. it. away. THAT feels to me like the bravest thing he does in the book; not going down to face Smaug. I enjoy how in these chapters he adds to his courage with a kind of self-worth or backbone that allows him to be confident in his choices even when they are not go against the will of his (foolish) friends.
“Dear me! Dear me!” said Bilbo. “I am sure this is all very uncomfortable. You may remember saying that I might choose my own fourteenth share? Perhaps I took it too literally—I have been told that dwarves are sometimes politer in word than in deed. The time was, all the same, when you seemed to think that I had been of some service. Descendant of rats, indeed! Is this all the service of you and your family that I was promised, Thorin? Take it that I have disposed of my share as I wished, and let it go at that!”
Dain's Folk
This is one of the better descriptions of a people and their gear in The Hobbit.
“Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and his legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dain’s people. The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height, but most of these were strong even for dwarves. In battle they wielded heavy two-handed mattocks; but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side and a roundshield slung at his back. Their beards were forked and plaited and thrust into their belts. Their caps were of iron and they were shod with iron, and their faces were grim.”
A mattock is an interesting idea of a weapon shape. Modern mattocks have one, forward facing blade that is perpendicular to the handle, a bit like a hoe but sturdier and with a thick neck. The back side is either a similar blade parallel to the handle or a spike. I tried to find medieval or earlier examples of a mattock and got everything from a tool that looked more like a double-bitted axe to something with no back side at all, e.g. a heavy hoe. I like to imagine the spike on Dain's folk's mattocks so that it comes out a bit like a war pick with a blunt axe head turned 90 degrees and slightly hooked on the front in place of a hammer head. The use would be like a mace (front side) and have the bonus of being able to hook an enemy's shield and pull it down. Something with a multipurpose head like this seems like a way better weapon for a crafty folk like dwarves than a simple battle axe. Also it makes me think of the multipurpose tool firemen use to break into cars and buildings, a Halligan bar I believe they call it.
Sadly, dwarves may look ready for battle and yet make foolish mistakes when out of their elements.
"“Fools!” laughed Bard, “to come thus beneath the Mountain’s arm! They do not understand war above ground, whatever they may know of battle in the mines. ”
He's Back. Whatever.
When Gandalf jumps into this chapter:
“Halt!” cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted, between the advancing dwarves and the ranks awaiting them. “Halt!” he called in a voice like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like the lightning. “Dread has come upon you all!”
It somehow feels less dramatic after he has already revealed himself in the previous chapter. But of course you have to remember that he revealed himself to Bilbo. One gets the impression that he hadn't revealed himself to anyone else yet, not even the men or the elves, though I don't believe that's entirely clear.
(Same chapter)
Bolg Is Awesome
“The Goblins are upon you! Bolg of the North is coming, O Dain! whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! the bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!"
"Ever since the fall of the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the dwarves had been rekindled to fury. Messengers had passed to and fro between all their cities, colonies and strongholds; for they resolved now to win the dominion of the North. Tidings they had gathered in secret ways; and in all the mountains there was a forging and an arming. Then they marched and gathered by hill and valley, going ever by tunnel or under dark, until around and beneath the great mountain Gundabad of the North, where was their capital, a vast host was assembled ready to sweep down in time of storm unawares”
I mean ... c'mon! I think my love of goblins in fantasy literature really started right here. Bat clouds, riding on wolves, meeting up at some crib with the cool name of Mount Gundabad!? It's all just so cool. Later on we get this little tit bit.
"“Day drew on. The goblins gathered again in the valley. There a host of Wargs came ravening and with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel. Soon actual darkness was coming into a stormy sky; while still the great bats swirled about the heads and ears of elves and men, or fastened vampire-like on the stricken.”
Is this the first mention of orcs with scimitars? I think it is. It has become such a trope now to see them with scimitars, or more properly falchions.
XVIII: The Return Journey
The Passing of Thorin
Yes, he was kind of a dick at times. But he was also a real leader at times and this bit of closure ... it's so great. If it doesn't choke you up a bit when your read it after having been on the long journey with Bilbo and the dwarves, I'm not sure I can help you.
“There indeed lay Thorin Oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent armour and notched axe were cast upon the floor. He looked up as Bilbo came beside him.
“Farewell, good thief,” he said. “I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate.”
Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. “Farewell, King under the Mountain!” he said. “This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils—that has been more than any Baggins deserves.”
“No!” said Thorin. “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!”
“Then Bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse.”
By the way, this is the version of the speech now printed. In 1937 it read "If more men valued food and cheer" instead of "if more of us." Not sure if that was an edit Tolkien made or something perpetrated by a modern editor.
I do remember being slightly shocked that they buried him with Orcrist and the Arkenstone. I mean, that's cool, but...
Beorn
“He came alone, and in bear’s shape; and he seemed to have grown almost to giant-size in his wrath. The roar of his voice was like drums and guns; and he tossed wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers. He fell upon their rear, and broke like a clap of thunder through the ring. The dwarves were making a stand still about their lords upon a low rounded hill. Then Beorn stooped and lifted Thorin, who had fallen pierced with spears, and bore him out of the fray. Swiftly he returned and his wrath was redoubled, so that nothing could withstand him, and no weapon seemed to bite upon him. He scattered the bodyguard, and pulled down Bolg himself and crushed him.”
Beorn is a total badass. This is such a strong visual too. I'm sure I've seen a painting of it somewhere haven't I?
Later on in this chapter our love for this character gets tempered slightly.
“Beorn indeed became a great chief afterwards in those regions and ruled a wide land between the mountains and the wood; and it is said that for many generations the men of his line had the power of taking bear’s shape, and some were grim men and bad, but most were in heart like Beorn, if less in size and strength. In their day the last goblins were hunted from the Misty Mountains and a new peace came over the edge of the Wild.”
Some were grim and bad, huh? They must have been terrifying.
The Long (and wonderful) Goodbye
For me, Tolkien hits a bunch of awesome notes in these final chapters. I LIKE the long-drawn journey home and all the closures. I feel like more modern fantasy are in a sprint to wrap things up and it's just not as satisfying. There's the wonderful moment where Bilbo says goodbye the dwarves and then turns to the mountain and says farewell again to Thorin, and to Fili and Kili - all three having fallen in battle. And when he forces a necklace of emeralds into the hands of the wood elf king with an apology for ripping him off for weeks. Great stuff. One thing of note in that passage though...
“I will take your gift, O Bilbo the Magnificent!” said the king gravely. “And I name you elf-friend and blessed. May your shadow never grow less (or stealing would be too easy)! Farewell!”
Um. Does this mean the wood elf king knows about the ring? Even down to the detail that Bilbo's shadow is still visible? That's interesting.
I also remember reading this line as a young person and feeling just a tad cheated ...
“He had many hardships and adventures before he got back. The Wild was still the Wild, and there were many other things in it in those days beside goblins”
It would have made a good subject for an appendix or some extra tales, that journey home.
Chapter XIX: The Last Stage
Gandalf's Story
YES! I was so excited to read this passage the first time I completed The Hobbit! I really wanted to know more about that Necromancer business.
“It was in this way that he learned where Gandalf had been to; for he overheard the words of the wizard to Elrond. It appeared that Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards, masters of lore and good magic; and that they had at last driven the Necromancer from his dark hold in the south of Mirkwood.
“Ere long now,” Gandalf was saying, “the Forest will grow somewhat more wholesome. The North will be freed from that horror for many long years, I hope. Yet I wish he were banished from the world!”
“It would be well indeed,” said Elrond; “but I fear that will not come about in this age of the world, or for many after.”
Ok. First of all "white wizards," plural. In Lord of the Rings we get a reference to the White Council, but there is only one white wizard (one at a time, at any rate). That's interesting.
Also of interest is Elrond's final words. It provides a bit of dramatic irony for modern readers who have also completed The Lord of the Rings or, in these days, have seen the movies. (Sigh.)
A Second Goodnight
Hobbits like to sleep as well as eat, and Bilbo has earned his rest. Again, my heart was glad when I read about him nodding off and waking up with the moon (yes, there it is again) shining in on him. His little bit of banter with the elves and then going back to bed with a "second goodnight."
It's soooo satisfying when you wake up in the middle of the night and you feel completely rested and yet so comfortable that after lying away and just feeling good for a while you go back to sleep and have nothing pressing you to get up early on the next day. Wow. As an adult those times are so few.
We also get a little hint of the weariness that, once The Lord of the Rings is published, feels more ominous.
[Elves to Bilbo] “Tomorrow, perhaps, you will be cured of weariness.”
“A little sleep does a great cure in the house of Elrond,” said he; “but I will take all the cure I can get. A second good night, fair friends!” And with that he went back to bed and slept till late morning.”
There is certainly enough to explain his weariness without knowing anything about the ring, THE ring. But again, having read LotR provides us with a different perspective.
A Changed Man ... er Hobbit
What was the Greek who said you can't step in the same river twice? Yeah. That's some real truth. The places that we really get to know and then leave behind. When we leave them, they seal up in our memories and they never really exist ever again. If you go back, they aren't the same place. And even if they haven't changed much, you have. All very obvious stuff of course to anyone who has lived a good time on this Earth, but these kind of universals really sing in literature.
“As all things come to an end, even this story, a day came at last when they were in sight of the country where Bilbo had been born and bred, where the shapes of the land and of the trees were as well known to him as his hands and toes. Coming to a rise he could see his own Hill in the distance, and he stopped suddenly and said:
Roads go ever ever on [...]
Gandalf looked at him. “My dear Bilbo!” he said. “Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were.”
Mere Luck?
I love this ending, partly because it brings in one of Tolkien's biggest themes, the "will" of a benign creator (or if you don't like that, then of and abstract force for "good" or of the "good earth" itself) and the role that human beings (of all species) take in its accomplishment.
"Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!” said Bilbo.
“Of course!” said Gandalf. “And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole bene-fit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”
“Thank goodness!” said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.”
The End
Again. For now.
I love that all bats in Tolkien's world are blood suckers... Great coverage, Ray! But disappointed there were so few differences in the later chapters.
Yeah, surprisingly I didn't find anything to say about that. For me it's a funny little joke on Bilbo that works well every time you read it. I mean, he's been dreaming about his home for the whole book and getting back to it ... and when he gets back to it, it is barely his home! Another few hours and it wouldn't have been, I suppose, or at least he wouldn't have had anything left. But I didn't really have any "new" thoughts on the matter.
> Yes, I recently saw an article that year old ravens test above dogs in intelligence or some such. Which explains why dogs are great and ravens are a pain in the ass.
Sufficiently so that the UK relies on ravens to keep the monarchy going
We often see ravens up on the fells around here and they are magnificent. The males' party trick when impressing females is to fly upside down for short distances, which makes for fun watching
> XVIII: The Return Journey
> ...
> For me, Tolkien hits a bunch of awesome notes in these final chapters. I LIKE the long-drawn journey home and all the closures. I feel like more modern fantasy are in a sprint to wrap things up and it's just not as satisfying.
People write whole books on closure in novels and poems! One of the interesting contrasts I like is between Star Trek ToS and Stargate. ToS regularly finished with the bridge scene banter - whatever crazy things had happened and been said, you knew that ftiendship was restored and everything was back to normal. Stargate normally left the protagonists at the point where they had achieved the victory of the week, and although they hadn't tidied everything up, it was obvious how things would pan out. Essentially, they had just about fended off yet another existential threat to Earth, and you didn't need to see the return to the gate room.
So the closure highlights the things that the author considers important. I guess with Tolkien we find out (with no great surprise) that simply finding the treasure and winning the battle isn't enough... the main characters need to resolve other loose ends on their journey home, whether the literal destination of Bag End or the metaphysical one of wherever Thorin goes after death.