The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – Sep 24, 2024

 

The Hobbit 1937 First Edition

Tolkien in The Hobbit was writing a high-fantasy adventure whose origins, linguistic as well as mythological, lie in Old English and Nordic tales dating from ca. 1,000AD. He himself translated Beowulf, an early work completed in 1926 but Tolkien never considered its publication.  His son Christopher edited and had it published by HarperCollins posthumously in May 2014. 

Beowulf- A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell

That classic Old English epic poem tells the tale of how Beowulf the warrior  kills Grendel, the marauding sea monster and its mother, but dies in the end fighting a dragon driven to fury by a servant stealing a cup. This bears a resemblance to Bilbo Baggins stealing the Arkenstone from the hoard of treasure that Smaug the fiery dragon was guarding in his lair.

Smaug the dragon laying waste Laketown

Tolkien wrote The Hobbit in 1937 in a dialect of English that is unlike anything a reader will encounter in modern prose. Many of the verbs are conjugated in an ancient fashion, for example: “he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild.“ 

Tolkien as a schoolboy

Tolkien was early introduced to Anglo-Saxon grammar at his school and his interest in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Welsh, remained strong throughout middle and high school. No surprise then that he became a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and brought out editions of the Old English classics. When he invented the hobbits they seemed to him to embody the gentleness, understated reliability and courage he loved.

About how the tale arose in his mind he wrote to fellow don and fabulist C.S. Lewis: “All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children. On the blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why."

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit‘

Full Account and Record of the Session to read The Hobbit

Thomo and Priya chose Lord of the Rings, originally for the September novel. Then Thomo’s son Rahul told them Lord of the Rings is unsuitable because it has far too many characters; he recommended The Hobbit. It is the backstory to Lord of the Rings which one can understand much better, having read The Hobbit. Some of the readers didn’t like the book, because it was written for children. Our children have read it, but we have not for the most part.

The Hobbit sold 100 million copies, and The Lord of the Rings, 150 million. They're second only to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which has sold over 500 million copies. Rowling considers Tolkien to be the inspiration for her writing.

Tolkien was not the first to write fantasy novels, he was the one whose great success entitled him to the label ‘father of modern high fantasy.’

Priya said she wants to read The Lord of the Rings to her grandchildren. Arundhaty said her grandson Rishi is waiting in line to read her copy of The Hobbit. 

Tolkien Bio

Thomo gave a brief bio  of  Tolkien who was born on 3rd January, 1892. He's been described as an English author of high fantasy and a philologist, which means searching into old literature and finding out about the language of those times.

He taught at Oxford University, where he was the Rawlinson and Bosworth professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945 and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. He later became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, a position he held until his retirement in 1959. He married Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior and they had four children, John, Michael, Christopher, and Priscilla. Christopher edited 24 volumes of his father's posthumously published work, including The Silmarillion and the 12-volume series The History of Middle-Earth, a task that took 45 years.

Tolkien was a close friend of C.S. Lewis, another Oxford don known for The Chronicles of Narnia, also belonging to the genre of high fantasy. 

When he proposed to marry Edith Bratt a close friend Jessop wrote: “he is a cultured gentleman, but his prospects are poor in the extreme, and when he will be in a position to marry I cannot imagine. Had he adopted a profession it would have been different.” How poor his prospects were may be  deduced from the fact that his only paid employment up to that point was to work on words beginning with the letter “W” while employed by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from 1919–1920: Waggle, Waistcoat, Walrus, Wander, Wain, Waiter, Wake, Wallop, Walm, and Walnut.

Tolkien married Edith Bratt in 1916. She died in 1971, aged 82. Tolkien died two years later, aged 81.

Grave of Edith Mary Tolkien and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

For more on Prof. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien one may consult his wiki entry.

People ask: why should we read Tolkien? He created something called Middle Earth and wrote as if he were recounting both its history and the legend to make it real for his readers. It has been described as bringing us into a world that feels more real than our own, so well-written that it's almost as if he created a mythology for England. Some say it is a fictional replacement for a presumed myth, which is overwritten by Christianity.

There's Greek mythology and Norse mythology, but somehow, there's no English mythology. These were created by him to fill a gap perhaps. Once he started imagining it there was a deluge of endless detail and invented words and languages and alphabets to go with it. It’s not surprising that he went into this kind of myth-creation, because he was, after all, a philologist, a student of old languages and tongues and scripts.

Arundhaty

Arundhaty said she has read this book many times before, first when her daughter Shubhra was studying it in her literature class in Rishi Valley School. She then read it several times on various occasions. However, to select a passage she had to re-read it.

This book starts with a lot of fun. Bilbo Baggins is a character of dual lineage. He's influenced by his paternal grandfather, who was a calm, quiet, comfort-loving fellow. He was also influenced by his maternal grandfather, a very adventurous and well-known treasure hunter.

Bilbo has an unexpected party when The Hobbit begins

And then a merry party of dwarves land up in his hobbit hole, bulldozing their way into his cottage to start a merry party. They carry him off to this whole adventure inspired by Gandalf, a wizard of great power.

Bilbo is being called a conspirator in this whole plan. He objects but the passage gives some idea of what the plot is about. They plan for a journey to the Lonely Mountain where Smaug the dragon lives guarding treasure, some of it looted from others who have a claim.

The ‘journey plot’ is one of the oldest in narrative literature and is the basis for many myths and fairy tales, as well as more modern novels.

Incidentally, if you use Adobe Acrobat to read the Consolidated Passages in PDF sent by Joe before each session, you can expand the text to any magnification with the menu item View —> Zoom To.

Devika

Devika hadn't read The Hobbit before, but she had read Lord of the Rings, and even watched the movie.

The paragraph she chose took her back to her childhood days, when books on dwarves, trolls, fairies, elves were part of the regular diet. Children loved such books.

This scene where the trolls debate whether to boil or squash the dwarves was amusing, quite hilarious really.

Yesterday, Devika was watching the Big Bang Theory, a show which follows the amusing misadventures and unique social habits of a group of nerds and geeks. There's a guy dressed as a hobbit in that particular episode. This was too much of a coincidence when were to read The Hobbit next day.

The other day, her sister Gopika told her their father was a big fan of Tolkien – which Devika didn't know or remember. They did have those books at home. But she has no idea where they later went.

She warned Joe, the blog writer, she would be ‘bad’ with her writing up her passage, since her mother's not keeping well at all.

The Hobbit – some characters

Joe said one of the things that's hard to make out in The Hobbit is who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys. There are trolls, there are goblins, there are elves. In some of the books we've read, trolls are good guys also. But in this particular book, they're bad guys.

What about Goblins? They're also the bad guys. The elves are fairly okay. Elves are halfway there. The elves play a big role in Lord of the Rings. But the character Devika used to hate when she read Lord of the Rings was that creepy fellow, what’s his name? Well, there’s Gollum whom you encounter in this book. Gríma Wormtongue is another, and The Nazgûl, one of the scariest. The Balrog, a terrifying creature in the depths of Moria. And the Orcs. etc.

KumKum

By way of preface KumKum said she was missing her hobbit hole in her DLF Riverside apartment. But Joe said that’s not a hole in the ground, it’s four floors above ground. Ah, but there are 14 floors above it which makes it a hole, comparatively speaking!

After reading the first two chapters KumKum was confused with all the elves and the trolls and was just lost. So she looked for a chapter where the characters were few.

The journey begins and the tribe of 15 pushes on through the Misty Mountains looking for the last Homely House of Elrond, The Elf. This Chapter marks a transition for Bilbo and the company of dwarves as they leave the dangerous wilderness and enter a more peaceful and restful environment of Rivendell. KumKum found the narration of this chapter poetic. Tolkein's superb writing skill is at its best here.

The fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House

Bilbo enjoys the beauty and serenity of Rivendell, appreciating the restful time after their challenging journey till now and what awaits them ahead.

She also found this chapter less crowded with action, trauma and a milling of characters. The other chapters of the book are confusing because of the abundance of new characters introduced. Like Bilbo, she too started "thinking once again of his comfortable chair before the fire in his favourite sitting-room in his hobbit-hole, and of the kettle singing."

She found the prose in chapter 3 very poetic. She had not read this book. Nor had her children read it. It was not in the ken of their parents. Here is a beautiful example of fine poetic prose:

"Morning passed, afternoon came; but in all the silent waste there was no sign of any dwelling. They were growing anxious, for they saw now that the house might be hidden almost anywhere between them and the mountain. They came on unexpectedly valleys, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet, and they looked down surprised to see trees below them and running water at the bottom. There were gullies that they could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them. There were dark ravines that one could neither jump over nor climb into. There were bogs, some of them green pleasant places to look at, with flowers growing bright and tall; but a pony that walked there with a pack on its back would never have come out again."

She agreed it is really meant for children. She complained to the selectors for the difficulty keeping track of the characters. But in chapter 3 she got with the story.

She wrote down the 13 characters in the party. And then, of course, the number increases. We meet the wise Elrond in this chapter. He could read the Moon Letters on Thorin's map. These special runes were only readable when the crescent moon shines behind them. Elron knew that secret. The moon-letters reveal the key to the secret entrance of the Lonely Mountain, with the clue that the door can be opened only on Durin's Day, the dwarves' New Year’s Day, by using the last light of the setting sun.

The fantasising about the smoke rings, and their sizes would not be appreciated by today’s parents. Smoking is not a done thing at all.

This author’s books have been redacted, KumKum heard. That’s not good. Just as Roald Dahl’s books, for example Matilda. Why people should feel so upset and think deeply about it is a mystery; it’s just a story.

Since Tolkien was a pipe smoker, you find Gandalf smoking a pipe, a very long pipe.

Saras

Bilbo Baggins first meets The Ring and Gollum in the passage Saras chose. It’s just before the actual riddling between Gollum and Bilbo Baggins begins. 

The first edition was slightly different. Then Tolkien re-edited The Hobbit so that it becomes a prelude to Lord of the Rings. The Ring and Gollum play a big role  in the Lord of the Rings.

There’s an insignificant little sentence in which they are introduced. You never realise that this ring picked up by Bilbo Baggins will play such a large role in the story: “suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel.”

When he wears it on his finger he becomes invisible by the ring’s power. Gollum from this chapter is a big character in Lord of the Rings also. In Lord of the Rings Baggins' nephew, Frodo, is asked to return the ring, destroy it. There are three rings and he's asked to destroy them, because whoever has all three rings will be able to control the whole world and Middle-earth.

After the passage Joe asked what is Gollum, a fish? No, he's just a creature, said Saras, a sloth-like creature. He's got huge, big, eyes, and skinny hands and feet. He's a slimy creature in the movie. His eyes are like bulbs. Does he walk on two feet? No, he’s a quadriplegic, sorry, a quadruped. But he sort of crawls on, just keeps crawling.

Gollum from Lord of the Rings

He can walk upright for a bit, but he also moves, something like an ape, or something like a walrus.

How is he depicted in the movie? – true that would be Peter Jackson’s version, not necessarily what Tolkien imagined. His head is big, and his body is thin, and the eyes are huge, lamp-like eyes.

Thomo-Geetha

Thomo is Bilbo Baggins and Geetha plays Gollum in the riddling between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum, a small slimy creature with large lamp-like eyes. This is the central event in Chapter 5.

Bilbo wants to find his way out of this tunnel. He gets an assurance that Gollum will show him the way provided he answers the riddles that Gollum poses. They ask each other riddles which Tolkien has made up in an amusing way, rhyming each riddle. For example here’s Gollum’s second riddle:

"Voiceless it cries,


Wingless flutters,


Toothless bites,


Mouthless mutters."

"Wind, wind of course!” Bilbo replies. And so on.

Bilbo and Gollum – the Riddle Game

It was all very amusing. Everyone congratulated Geetha on her assuming the character of Gollum in a piercing comic voice. That was a fantastic imitation of Gollum.

Yes, precious, KumKum told Geetha, you make a lovely Gollum!

Bilbo comes from a family of thieves. Gandalf introduces Bilbo as a burglar to the dwarves, writing the word on Bilbo's door.

Joe said next time he wants to order an egg, he’ll say: 

A box without hinges, key, or lid,


Yet golden treasure inside is hid,

The whole thing comes alive in the movie. They were very true to the book. All shot in New Zealand.

Fiordland – a region in New Zealand of green-sloped, snow-capped mountains that plunge to glacier-carved inlets feature prominently in LOTR movies

You can find more information here on where to find the real-life Middle-earth.

Shoba

Shoba read the part from Chapter 12 where Bilbo Baggins flatters Smaug into revealing his one vulnerable spot under his left breast, unprotected by armour.

The dragon hints that Bilbo is not going to get his one-fourteenth part of the treasure, and that he's going to be tricked. How is he going to carry this gold away, anyhow? He tries to plant some doubt in Bilbo's mind. Bilbo tells the dragon that they have come not just for the gold, but to take revenge.

Bilbo chats up Smaug

But he reveals that he has a soft spot under his body and that's how ultimately he's killed, with that weakness exposed. Even though they are all invented fantasy characters, they do have some qualities of real people. Here is a video of the entire encounter between Bilbo and Smaug.

Shoba didn't read these stories in her childhood, and perhaps would have really enjoyed them when young. But it was quite an experience reading this fantasy tale, one she wouldn't have read it had it not been selected for a KRG session. That's what’s good about belonging to the group.

Everybody agreed in the end we all loved the book.

Joe

Joe too had never read The Hobbit. Reading it gave him a true appreciation of Tolkien, whom h’ed heard of through the works of C.S. Lewis – not his fantasies, but some of his other works, the literary essays, and books on religion.

Just as Tolkien, C.S. Lewis was also a professor of literature at Oxford, and later awarded the chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University and elected a fellow of Magdalene College. 

Tolkien wrote The Habit in a kind of dialect of English that is unlike anything that you will read in modern novels. It is after all a modern novel written in 1937, so fairly recent. Joe noticed that many of the verbs are conjugated in a somewhat ancient fashion. For example: “he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild.

In the course of this novel, Tolkien displays his familiarity with older English. He is one of those who has translated Beowulf, a very early piece of literature in English surviving in a single manuscript.

Saras said in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien has created or made a language called Elvish, and there are whole conversations in Elvish. For a while, it was considered the thing to do: learn Elvish. One of the actors in the movie version, Orlando Bloom, learned the language, and he used to speak in Elvish while they were shooting for the movie. 

Tolkien signing in Elvish

Joe saw a video where Professor Tolkien was signing in Elvish. He very meticulously writes the script as though it was a regular living language, but it was something he made up with his fertile imagination.

He was introduced to Anglo-Saxon grammar very early in his life, around the age of 10, or11, in his middle school, and exposed to Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Welsh. That part remained very strong during his school studies. One can't imagine there's any school in England now that teaches Gothic or Anglo-Saxon to children. In the natural progression of things, he became the creator of a whole fantasy world centred on what he called Middle-Earth.

As professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford he brought out editions of old English classics like Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and so on. When he invented the Hobbits, they seemed to him to embody characteristics that he appreciated among the English people – not the kind of macho characteristics that authors like Kipling held up as exemplary, but gentler ones.

He wrote in a letter to C.S. Lewis, about how The Hobbit came about: “all I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting down to correct school certificate papers. In the everlasting weariness of that annual task, forced on impecunious academics who have numerous children. On the blank leaf, I scrawled, ‘in a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.’ I did not and do not know why.”

Now are there 250 million people at least in The Hobbit's debt.

He made his fortune out of that book. That's how his legacy began. His children and grandchildren probably are the beneficiaries of it, and the movies based on his books.

Bard the Bowman

The passage Joe selected concerns a great battle at Laketown. One of the humans in this story, Bard the Bowman, displays his skill. Though the dragon rains great destruction and fire and ruin on this town, his secret vulnerability, which was mentioned in Shoba’s reading, was revealed to the Bard by a thrush. And that is the ultimate downfall of the dragon, Smaug.

Bard the Bowman prepares to bring down Smaug

Joe then read the passage packed with battle action.

Priya

P’riya hadn’t done much preparation. She called the book ‘childlike’ and somehow she really enjoyed reading it and never thought it would be so good. But she couldn't complete the novel (the last chapter was left), for she  is busy in her new life at a business college.

She chose the part where the hobbit and the dragon converse for the first time. The dragon, of course, can't see Bilbo Baggins because he's invisible, wearing the ring. The dragon is sprawled on the treasure, on all the gold and the silver. Tolkien’s descriptions of the places are really lovely. Even when he's invisible, swooping here and there, going around. Then those green eyes and purple eyes. It's fantastic.

Bilbo and the Dragon

She likes the description of the darkness. The prose is terrific. And there's so much action and rhythm.

Priya tried to imitate a heavy voice that would be suitable for the dragon. She had missed Geetha’s version of Gollum recalling the striking riddles. Someone said the gentle Priya could never sound like a dragon.

Priya regretted she could not read the passage from her phone because the PDF lettering was too small. As an aside, you can magnify the size to anything you want using a "pinch" gesture with your fingers, but on a mobile phone you cannot get a whole line of text even in the landscape mode. It's better to use a tablet or laptop, not a phone to read. In Acrobat Reader, you can blow up the text to any size on a computer, using View —> Zoom to.

This dragon, though it has such a hoard of treasure and coins and jewels and so on, can sense that a single cup is missing. Joe said it's a remarkable coincidence because this resonates with Beowulf, which of course Tolkien translated himself. The hero, although he kills Grendel and the mother of Grendel, finally goes into action in his senior age because a dragon, another monster, had a cup stolen from its hoard by a stupid servant; the beast becomes furious.

That's in the story of Beowulf. The dragon goes mad with anger and starts destroying the kingdom, and the aged hero has to volunteer once more. That is when he is wounded mortally and finally dies in this encounter with the dragon. Just for foolishness of a servant stealing one cup from the dragon's hoard.

So here also the missing cup is the trigger for the dragon’s marauding.

Pamela

Pamela was  sorry she got late and missed the first part. She was in Chennai. Her network was down.

In her passage Bilbo meets Gandalf and the wounded warriors after the final battle with the goblins, and takes leave of the mortally wounded Thorin Oakenshield

It is a very touching scene when Thorin dies. Thorin was very proud of his lineage and power, and it was tragic for him to be humbled at the end. He realised, he had been angry with Bilbo Baggins for having given that precious Arkenstone as a peace offering, and became very upset. He got over that.

But Thorin did not negotiate with the bard and didn't come across as a good guy. He went back on his word. But he appreciated Bilbo Baggins. In that negotiation, he was stubborn. He was greedy also. They keep saying throughout the story that the adventurers are very attached to their gold. The whole journey was to seek and bring back the treasure they had lost. These are all reasonable demands according to them.

But then when it came to parting with the gold, Thorin said no. The dragon warns Bilbo he won’t get his share. So who gets that Arkenstone then?

Bilbo had it with him, but gave it up as a bargaining point to preserve the peace. That was actually an act of diplomacy to stop them from attacking. Very neat, his idea was. He took the risk of being called a traitor.

He wanted a negotiated end and leave after that. Thorin understood that much later. It’s a touching passage.

Pamela liked the final words of Thorin to Bilbo: “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.”

“There is more in you of good than you know”

Yes, indeed, human values exceed the comfort of hoarded gold. The same applies now. That line was the reason Pamela chose this passage.

Bilbo was somebody who didn't think much of himself. In the beginning of the story, they say nothing much happened in the hobbit's life, and nothing unexpected would ever happen. It's only when he got through the darkness with Gollum and came out on the other side that these people started looking up to him and considered him worthy.

He had help – that ring in his possession. Gandalf, the wizard, had chosen him, knowing he would measure up. 

KumKum was excited to announce that next month, she would be back in Kochi. It would be a Poetry Session in October.

Fri Oct 25, 2024 will be the Poetry Session date. And perhaps we can gather for a lunch on the 26th for the three birthday babies. In the Yacht Club, maybe, and invite some past members?

The fancy dress will be in early December at Arundhaty’s home, wondering? So let us mark December 16th for that final session of the year.

Readings of The Hobbit 

Arundhaty Ch 1 –  The map to find the dragon hoard

On the table in the light of a big lamp with a red shade he spread a piece of parchment rather like a map.

“This was made by Thror, your grandfather, Thorin,” he said in answer to the dwarves’ excited questions. “It is a plan of the Mountain.”

“I don’t see that this will help us much,” said Thorin disappointedly after a glance. “I remember the Mountain well enough and the lands about it. And I know where Mirkwood is, and the Withered Heath where the great dragons bred.”

“There is a dragon marked in red on the Mountain,” said Balin, “but it will be easy enough to find him without that, if ever we arrive there.” “There is one point that you haven’t noticed,” said the wizard, “and that is the secret entrance. You see that rune on the West side, and the hand pointing to it from the other runes? That marks a hidden passage to the Lower Halls.” (Look at the map at the beginning of this book, and you will see there the runes.)

“It may have been secret once,” said Thorin, “but how do we know that it is secret any longer? Old Smaug has lived there long enough now to find out anything there is to know about those caves.”

“He may—but he can’t have used it for years and years.”

“Why?”

“Because it is too small. ‘Five feet high the door and three may walk abreast’ say the runes, but Smaug could not creep into a hole that size, not even when he was a young dragon, certainly not after devouring so many of the dwarves and men of Dale.”

....

“Also,” went on Gandalf, “I forgot to mention that with the map went a key, a small and curious key. Here it is!” he said, and handed to Thorin a key with a long barrel and intricate wards, made of silver. “Keep it safe!”

…

“Also I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses, time required and remuneration, and so forth”—by which he meant: “What am I going to get out of it? and am I going to come back alive?”

“O very well,” said Thorin. “Long ago in my grandfather Thror’s time our family was driven out of the far North, and came back with all their wealth and their tools to this Mountain on the map. It had been discovered by my far ancestor, Thrain the Old, but now they mined and they tunnelled and they made huger halls and greater workshops—and in addition I believe they found a good deal of gold and a great many jewels too. Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the Mountain again, and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who lived to the South, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley overshadowed by the Mountain. They built the merry town of Dale there in those days. Kings used to send for our smiths, and reward even the least skilful most richly. Fathers would beg us to take their sons as apprentices, and pay us handsomely, especially in food-supplies, which we never bothered to grow or find for ourselves.

....

So my grandfather’s halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the toy market of Dale was the wonder of the North.

“Undoubtedly that was what brought the dragon.

(574 words)

Devika Ch 2 – The trolls debate whether to boil or squash the dwarves

It was just then that Gandalf came back. But no one saw him. The trolls had just decided to roast the dwarves now and eat them later—that was Bert’s idea, and after a lot of argument they had all agreed to it.

“No good roasting ’em now, it’d take all night,” said a voice. Bert thought it was William’s.

“Don’t start the argument all over again, Bill,” he said, “or it will take all night.”

“Who’s a-arguing?” said William, who thought it was Bert that had spoken.

“You are,” said Bert.

“You’re a liar,” said William; and so the argument began all over again. In the end they decided to mince them fine and boil them. So they got a great black pot, and they took out their knives.

“No good boiling ’em! We ain’t got no water, and it’s a long way to the well and all,” said a voice. Bert and William thought it was Tom’s.

“Shut up!” said they, “or we’ll never have done. And yer can fetch the water yerself, if yer say any more.”

“Shut up yerself!” said Tom, who thought it was William’s voice.

“Who’s arguing but you, I’d like to know.”

“You’re a booby,” said William.

“Booby yerself!” said Tom.

And so the argument began all over again, and went on hotter than ever, until at last they decided to sit on the sacks one by one and squash them, and boil them next time.

“Who shall we sit on first?” said the voice.

“Better sit on the last fellow first,” said Bert, whose eye had been damaged by Thorin. He thought Tom was talking.

“Don’t talk to yerself!” said Tom. “But if you wants to sit on the last one, sit on him. Which is he?”

“The one with the yellow stockings,” said Bert.

“Nonsense, the one with the grey stockings,” said a voice like William’s.

“I made sure it was yellow,” said Bert.

“Yellow it was,” said William.

“Then what did yer say it was grey for?” said Bert.

“I never did. Tom said it.”

“That I never did!” said Tom. “It was you.”

“Two to one, so shut yer mouth!” said Bert.

“Who are you a-talkin’ to?” said William.

“Now stop it!” said Tom and Bert together. “The night’s gettin’ on, and dawn comes early. Let’s get on with it!”

“Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!” said a voice that sounded like William’s. But it wasn’t. For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again. That is what had happened to Bert and Tom and William.

“Excellent!” said Gandalf, as he stepped from behind a tree, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of a thorn-bush. Then Bilbo understood. It was the wizard’s voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling, until the light came and made an end of them.

KumKum Ch 3 – The journey begins and the tribe of 15 pushes on through the Misty Mountains looking for the last Homely House of Elrond, The Elf

They did not sing or tell stories that day, even though the weather improved; nor the next day, nor the day after. They had begun to feel that danger was not far away on either side. They camped under the stars, and their horses had more to eat than they had; for there was plenty of grass, but there was not much in their bags, even with what they had got from the trolls. One morning they forded a river at a wide shallow place full of the noise of stones and foam. The far bank was steep and slippery. When they got to the top of it, leading their ponies, they saw that the great mountains had marched down very near to them. Already they seemed only a day’s easy journey from the feet of the nearest. Dark and drear it looked, though there were patches of sunlight on its brown sides, and behind its shoulders the tips of snow-peaks gleamed.

“Is that The Mountain?” asked Bilbo in a solemn voice, looking at it with round eyes. He had never seen a thing that looked so big before. “Of course not!” said Balin. “That is only the beginning of the Misty Mountains, and we have got to get through, or over, or under those somehow, before we can come into Wilderland beyond. And it is a deal of a way even from the other side of them to the Lonely Mountain in the East where Smaug lies on our treasure.”

“O!” said Bilbo, and just at that moment he felt more tired than he ever remembered feeling before. He was thinking once again of his comfortable chair before the fire in his favourite sitting-room in his hobbit-hole, and of the kettle singing. Not for the last time!

Now Gandalf led the way. “We must not miss the road, or we shall be done for,” he said. “We need food, for one thing, and rest in reasonable safety— also it is very necessary to tackle the Misty Mountains by the proper path, or else you will get lost in them, and have to come back and start at the beginning again (if you ever get back at all).”

They asked him where he was making for, and he answered: “You are come to the very edge of the Wild, as some of you may know. Hidden somewhere ahead of us is the fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House. I sent a message by my friends, and we are expected.”

That sounded nice and comforting, but they had not got there yet, and it was not so easy as it sounds to find the Last Homely House west of the Mountains. There seemed to be no trees and no valleys and no hills to break the ground in front of them, only one vast slope going slowly up and up to meet the feet of the nearest mountain, a wide land the colour of heather and crumbling rock, with patches and slashes of grass-green and moss-green showing where water might be.

Morning passed, afternoon came; but in all the silent waste there was no sign of any dwelling. They were growing anxious, for they saw now that the house might be hidden almost anywhere between them and the mountains. They came on unexpected valleys, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet, and they looked down surprised to see trees below them and running water at the bottom. There were gullies that they could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them. There were dark ravines that one could neither jump over nor climb into. There were bogs, some of them green pleasant places to look at, with flowers growing bright and tall; but a pony that walked there with a pack on its back would never have come out again. (650 words)

Saras Ch  5 – Bilbo Baggins first meets The Ring and Gollum

When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! He could hear nothing, see nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor.

Very slowly he got up and groped about on all fours, till he touched the wall of the tunnel; but neither up nor down it could he find anything: nothing at all, no sign of goblins, no sign of dwarves. His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment. 

…

Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum—as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it; but he took care they never found him out. 

...

He was watching Bilbo now from the distance with his pale eyes like telescopes. Bilbo could not see him, but he was wondering a lot about Bilbo, for he could see that he was no goblin at all.

Gollum got into his boat and shot off from the island, while Bilbo was sitting on the brink altogether flummoxed and at the end of his way and his wits. Suddenly up came Gollum and whispered and hissed: “Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it’s a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it’d make us, gollum!” And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself ‘my precious’.

The hobbit jumped nearly out of his skin when the hiss came in his ears, and he suddenly saw the pale eyes sticking out at him. “Who are you?” he said, thrusting his dagger in front of him.

“What iss he, my preciouss?” whispered Gollum (who always spoke to himself through never having anyone else to speak to). This is what he had come to find out, for he was not really very hungry at the moment, only curious; otherwise he would have grabbed first and whispered afterwards. “I am Mr. Bilbo Baggins. I have lost the dwarves and I have lost the wizard, and I don’t know where I am; and I don’t want to know, if only I can get away.”

“What’s he got in his handses?”

(571 words)

Thomo & Geetha Ch 5 – The Riddling between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum, a small slimy creature with large lamp-like eyes.

(Bilbo’s part is read by Thomo and Gollum’s by Geetha).

"You ask first," he said, because he had not had time to think of a riddle.



So Gollum hissed:


"What has roots as nobody sees,


Is taller than trees,


Up, up it goes,


And yet never grows?"



"Easy!" said Bilbo. "Mountain, I suppose."



"Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!"



"All right!" said Bilbo

"Thirty white horses on a red hill,


First they champ,


Then they stamp,


Then they stand still 



"Chestnuts, chestnuts," he hissed. "Teeth! teeth! my preciousss; but we has only six!" Then he asked his second:



"Voiceless it cries,


Wingless flutters,


Toothless bites,


Mouthless mutters."



"Half a moment!" cried Bilbo, "Wind, wind of course," he said, and he was so pleased that he made up one on the spot. "This'll puzzle the nasty little underground creature," he thought:



"An eye in a blue face

Saw an eye in a green face.


"That eye is like to this eye"


Said the first eye,


"But in low place,


Not in high place."


"Sss, sss, my preciouss," he said. "Sun on the daisies it means, it does."



"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,


Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.


It lies behind stars and under hills,


And empty holes it fills.


It comes first and follows after,


Ends life, kills laughter."



Unfortunately for Gollum Bilbo had heard that sort of thing before; and the answer was all round him anyway. "Dark!" he said without even scratching his head or putting on his thinking cap.



"A box without hinges, key, or lid,


Yet golden treasure inside is hid,"



he asked to gain time, until he could think of a really hard one. But it proved a nasty poser for Gollum. He hissed to himself, and still he did not answer; he whispered and spluttered.



After some while Bilbo became impatient. "Well, what is it?" he said. "The answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you are making."



"Give us a chance; let it give us a chance, my preciouss-ss-ss." "Well," said Bilbo, after giving him a long chance, "what about your guess?"



But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck-"Eggses!" he hissed. "Eggses it is!" Then he asked:



"A live without breath,


As cold as death;


Never thirsty, ever drinking,


All in mail never clinking."



After a while Gollum began to hiss with pleasure to himself: "Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?" He began to peer at Bilbo out of the darkness.



"Half a moment," said the hobbit shivering. "I gave you a good long chance just now."



"It must make haste, haste!" said Gollum, beginning to climb out of his boat on to the shore to get at Bilbo. But when he put his long webby foot in the water, a fish jumped out in a fright and fell on Bilbo's toes. "Ugh!" he said, "it is cold and clammy!"-and so he guessed. "Fish! Fish!" he cried. "It is fish!"



"No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs got 

As it was, talking of fish, "no-legs" was not so very difficult, and after that the rest was easy. "Fish on a little table, man at table sitting on a stool, the cat has the bones"-that of course is the answer, and Gollum soon gave it. Then he thought the time had come to ask something hard and horrible. This is what he said:



"This thing all things devours:


Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;


Gnaws iron, bites steel;


Grinds hard stones to meal;


Slays king, ruins town,


And beats high mountain down."


"Give me more time! Give me time!" But all that came out with a sudden squeal was:
"Time! Time!" 
Bilbo was saved by pure luck. For that of course was the answer.

Gollum was disappointed once more; and now he was getting angry, and also tired of the game. It had made him very hungry indeed. This time he did not go back to the boat. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo. That made the hobbit most dreadfully uncomfortable and scattered his wits.



"It's got to ask uss a quesstion, my preciouss, yes, yess, yesss. Jusst one more quesstion to guess, yes, yess," said Gollum. But Bilbo simply could not think of any question with that nasty wet cold thing sitting next to him, and pawing and poking him. He scratched himself, he pinched himself; still he could not think of anything.



"Ask us! ask us!" said Gollum.



Bilbo pinched himself and slapped himself; he gripped on his little sword; he even felt in his pocket with his other hand. There he found the ring he had picked up in the passage and forgotten about. "What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset. "Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"



Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask stuck to his question. "What have I got in my pocket?" he said louder. "S-s-s-s-s," hissed Gollum. "It must give us three guesseses, my preciouss, three guesseses."



"Very well! Guess away!" said Bilbo.



"Handses!" said Gollum.



"Wrong," said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. "Guess again!"



"S-s-s-s-s," said Gollum more upset than ever. He thought of all the things he kept in his own pockets: fishbones, goblins' teeth, wet shells, a bit of bat-wing, a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on, and other nasty things. He tried to think what other people kept in their pockets. "Knife!" he said at last.



"Wrong!" said Bilbo, who had lost his some time ago. "Last guess!" Now Gollum was in a much worse state than when Bilbo had asked him the egg-question. He hissed and spluttered and rocked himself backwards and forwards, and slapped his feet on the floor, and wriggled and squirmed; but still he did not dare to waste his last guess.



"Come on!" said Bilbo. "I am waiting!" He tried to sound bold and cheerful, but he did not feel at all sure how the game was going to end, whether Gollum guessed right or not.



"Time's up!" he said.



"String, or nothing!" shrieked Gollum, which was not quite fair-working in two guesses at once.



"Both wrong," cried Bilbo very much relieved; and he jumped at once to his feet, put his back to the nearest wall, and held out his little sword. He knew, of course, that the riddle-game was sacred and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures were afraid to cheat when they played at it. But he felt he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise at a pinch. Any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient laws.



But at any rate Gollum did not at once attack him. He could see the sword in Bilbo's hand. He sat still, shivering and whispering. At last Bilbo could wait no longer.



"Well?" he said. "What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way."

(1269 words)

 

Priya Ch 12 – The first encounter where Smaug smells the dwarf in Bilbo Baggins

“Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to spare!”

But Bilbo was not quite so unlearned in dragon-lore as all that, and if Smaug hoped to get him to come nearer so easily he was disappointed.

“No thank you, O Smaug the Tremendous!” he replied.

“I did not come for presents. I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them.”

“Do you now?” said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it.

“Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities,” replied Bilbo.

“You have nice manners for a thief and a liar,” said the dragon. “You seem familiar with my name, but I don’t seem to remember smelling you before. Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask?”

“You may indeed! I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen.”

“So I can well believe,” said Smaug, “but that is hardly your usual name.”

“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.”

“I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.”

“These don’t sound so creditable,” scoffed Smaug. “I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider,” went on Bilbo beginning to be pleased with his riddling. “That’s better!” said Smaug. “But don’t let your imagination run away with you!”

This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don’t want to reveal your proper name (which is wise), and don’t want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise). No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it. There was a lot here which Smaug did not understand at all (though I expect you do, since you know all about Bilbo’s adventures to which he was referring), but he thought he understood enough, and he chuckled in his wicked inside. “I thought so last night,” he smiled to himself. “Lake-men, some nasty scheme of those miserable tub-trading Lake-men, or I’m a lizard. I haven’t been down that way for an age and an age; but I will soon alter that!”

“Very well, O Barrel-rider!” he said aloud. “Maybe Barrel was your pony’s name; and maybe not, though it was fat enough. You may walk unseen, but you did not walk all the way. Let me tell you I ate six ponies last night and I shall catch and eat all the others before long. In return for the excellent meal I will give you one piece of advice for your good: don’t have more to do with dwarves than you can help!”

“Dwarves!” said Bilbo in pretended surprise. “Don’t talk to me!” said Smaug. “I know the smell (and taste) of dwarf—no one better. Don’t tell me that I can eat a dwarf-ridden pony and not know it! You’ll come to a bad end, if you go with such friends, Thief Barrel-rider. I don’t mind if you go back and tell them so from me.” But he did not tell Bilbo that there was one smell he could not make out at all, hobbit-smell; it was quite outside his experience and puzzled him mightily.

“I suppose you got a fair price for that cup last night?” he went on.

“Come now, did you? Nothing at all! Well, that’s just like them. And I suppose they are skulking outside, and your job is to do all the dangerous work and get what you can when I’m not looking—for them? And you will get a fair share? Don’t you believe it! If you get off alive, you will be lucky.”

Shoba Ch 12 – Bilbo Baggins flatters Smaug into revealing his one bare vulnerable spot under his left breast, uncovered by any armour

“Revenge!” he snorted, and the light of his eyes lit the hall from floor to ceiling like scarlet lightning. “Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep, and where are his sons’ sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows!” he gloated. “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!”

“I have always understood,” said Bilbo in a frightened squeak, “that dragons were softer underneath, especially in the region of the—er— chest; but doubtless one so fortified has thought of that.”

The dragon stopped short in his boasting. “Your information is antiquated,” he snapped. “I am armoured above and below with iron scales and hard gems. No blade can pierce me.”

“I might have guessed it,” said Bilbo. “Truly there can nowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug the Impenetrable. What magnificence to possess a waistcoat of fine diamonds!”

“Yes, it is rare and wonderful, indeed,” said Smaug absurdly pleased. He did not know that the hobbit had already caught a glimpse of his peculiar under-covering on his previous visit, and was itching for a closer view for reasons of his own. The dragon rolled over. “Look!” he said. “What do you say to that?”

“Dazzlingly marvellous! Perfect! Flawless! Staggering!” exclaimed Bilbo aloud, but what he thought inside was: “Old fool! Why, there is a large patch in the hollow of his left breast as bare as a snail out of its shell!”

After he had seen that Mr. Baggins’ one idea was to get away. “Well, I really must not detain Your Magnificence any longer,” he said, “or keep you from much needed rest. Ponies take some catching, I believe, after a long start. And so do burglars,” he added as a parting shot, as he darted back and fled up the tunnel.

Joe Ch 14 – The downing of Smaug by Bard the Bowman

Before long, so great was his speed, they could see him as a spark of fire rushing towards them and growing ever huger and more bright, and not the most foolish doubted that the prophecies had gone rather wrong. Still they had a little time. Every vessel in the town was filled with water, every warrior was armed, every arrow and dart was ready, and the bridge to the land was thrown down and destroyed, before the roar of Smaug’s terrible approach grew loud, and the lake rippled red as fire beneath the awful beating of his wings.

…

Roaring he swept back over the town. A hail of dark arrows leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales and jewels, and their shafts fell back kindled by his breath burning and hissing into the lake. No fireworks you ever imagined equalled the sights that night. At the twanging of the bows and the shrilling of the trumpets the dragon’s wrath blazed to its height, till he was blind and mad with it.

…

Fire leaped from the dragon’s jaws. He circled for a while high in the air above them lighting all the lake; the trees by the shores shone like copper and like blood with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down he swooped straight through the arrow-storm, reckless in his rage, taking no heed to turn his scaly sides towards his foes, seeking only to set their town ablaze.

…

But there was still a company of archers that held their ground among the burning houses. Their captain was Bard, grim-voiced and grim-faced, whose friends had accused him of prophesying floods and poisoned fish, though they knew his worth and courage. He was a descendant in long line of Girion, Lord of Dale, whose wife and child had escaped down the Running River from the ruin long ago. Now he shot with a great yew bow, till all his arrows but one were spent. The flames were near him. His companions were leaving him. He bent his bow for the last time.

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!”

…

“Arrow!” said the bowman. “Black arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you. I had you from my father and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the Mountain, go now and speed well!”

The dragon swooped once more lower than ever, and as he turned and dived down his belly glittered white with sparkling fires of gems in the moon—but not in one place. The great bow twanged. The black arrow sped straight from the string, straight for the hollow by the left breast where the foreleg was flung wide. In it smote and vanished, barb, shaft and feather, so fierce was its flight. With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down from on high in ruin.

…

And that was the end of Smaug and Esgaroth, but not of Bard.

(587 words)

Pamela Ch 17 – Bilbo meets Gandalf and the wounded after the final battle with the goblins, and takes leave of mortally wounded Thorin Oakenshield

“It’s me, Bilbo Baggins, companion of Thorin!” he cried, hurriedly taking off the ring.

“It is well that I have found you!” said the man striding forward. “You are needed and we have looked for you long. You would have been numbered among the dead, who are many, if Gandalf the wizard had not said that your voice was last heard in this place. I have been sent to look here for the last time. Are you much hurt?”

“A nasty knock on the head, I think,” said Bilbo. “But I have a helm and a hard skull. All the same I feel sick and my legs are like straws.”

“I will carry you down to the camp in the valley,” said the man, and picked him lightly up.

The man was swift and sure-footed. It was not long before Bilbo was set down before a tent in Dale; and there stood Gandalf, with his arm in a sling. Even the wizard had not escaped without a wound; and there were few unharmed in all the host.

When Gandalf saw Bilbo, he was delighted. “Baggins!” he exclaimed.

“Well I never! Alive after all—I am glad! I began to wonder if even your luck would see you through! A terrible business, and it nearly was disastrous. But other news can wait. Come!” he said more gravely. “You are called for;” and leading the hobbit he took him within the tent. “Hail! Thorin,” he said as he entered. “I have brought him.” 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!”