The Hobbit

”I should think so—in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them.”

True to form, Bilbo informs Gandalf that “adventure” is a dirty word in his neck of the woods and that wandering around looking for someone to partake in one is bound to end poorly (additionally, being late for dinner is a cardinal sin in the eyes of a hobbit). Hobbits’ quietness is one of their principal qualities, and an adventure would only spoil that; the irony is that the “nasty disturbing” nature of Bilbo’s impending adventure will be the very thing that refines his virtue and character for the rest of his life.

”The dark filled all the room, and the fire died down, and the shadows were lost, and still they played on. And suddenly first one and then another began to sing as they played, deep-throated singing of the dwarves in the deep places of their ancient homes.”

Music plays an absolutely essential cultural role for the various peoples of Middle Earth. Throughout the book, songs are sung by the dwarves, by Bilbo, by the elves, and even by the goblins. Every race of beings capable of reason in this world is capable of song, and songs often relay what is most important to the singer. Ancient myths and ancestral events are narrated within the lines of the songs, and here the dwarves relate the tragedy of their history in just a few stanzas.

”As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

While song is essential to the singer, it can also impact the audience exponentially more than can the same words relayed in spoken prose. The song of the dwarves awakens something in Bilbo that he hadn’t known was there; The “Took” side of Bilbo’s family is the adventurous side, and the Tookish blood in his veins begins to overpower that of the Bagginses. He feels drawn to the quest for the mountain treasure. The call of the wild flows through the dwarves’ song, and it demands an answer.

”Two caught their eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jewelled hilts. Gandalf and Thorin each took one of these; and Bilbo took a knife in a leather sheath. It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit.”

After escaping the grasp of the trolls who turned to stone, the company loot the spoils in a nearby cave. Thorin and Gandalf select the two most beautiful swords without knowing that they are famous swords of old that were forged for battle in the infamous goblin wars. The swords will later be of great significance, acting as signs of terror to the goblins and a sign of good fortune in the sight of the elves. Even Bilbo happens to select an enchanted weapon that will glow with a faint light in the presence of goblins.

”His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.”

The Last Homely House of Elrond in the valley of Rivendell is described in paradisal terms. In this place of tranquility and rejuvenation, where nothing wicked or harmful can enter, the company rest after their ordeal with the trolls. This way station is timely and providential since they will need all the rest they can get (considering their upcoming trials). In Tolkien’s follow-up work in The Lord of the Rings, Rivendell is a place of great counsel as well. In the Middle Earth cosmos, it is a source of comfort and wisdom.

“Even the good plans of wise wizards like Gandalf and of good friends like Elrond go astray sometimes when you are off on dangerous adventures over the Edge of the Wild; and Gandalf was a wise enough wizard to know it.”

As the old saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” and the same is true for Gandalf and Elrond. While the imposing figures of wizard and elf (or half-elf, as revealed in other Tolkien texts) might seem immune from the vicissitudes of fate, even these two are subject to the whims of fortune. Outside the safety and warmth of the shire, the world is a wide and wild place, and on a dangerous adventure such as the company have embarked, anything at all is possible.

“Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.”

In Tolkien’s work, a difference between good and evil manifests in the distinction between those who can produce and appreciate beauty, and those who cannot. The elves, hobbits, and men all create beautiful things—lush gardens, fine homes, beautiful weapons, enchanting songs—but the goblins (and the Wargs) do not. The goblins are not, however, incompetent, nor are they a caricature. They can be clever and cunning and resourceful, and they have technical skill—but not craftsmanship.

”‘Why, O why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole!’ said poor Mr. Baggins bumping up and down on Bombur’s back.”

A recurring motif is Bilbo’s persisting desire to have stayed safe and warm at home, where he could count on things to stay exactly as they had always been. At times, this desire comes from his reluctance to buy completely into his quest; at other times, it comes simply from the fact that he loves his home regardless of his present circumstances. This desire never completely leaves Bilbo, and it is ultimately what drives him to leave his friends when peace is restored and to return to the shire. He even entitles his memoirs “There and Back Again,” locating the home under the hill as the central place in his mind.

”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.”

In an event that will ignite the entire narrative of The Lord of the Rings a few decades later in Bilbo’s life, he finds by happenstance a ring that grants the power of invisibility. At the time, Bilbo slips it into his pocket with no more ceremony than a pebble. However, as the narrator tells us, the moment will decide the fate of the entire company, for it is with the power of the ring that Bilbo accomplishes his most daring feats: escaping the goblin tunnels; defeating the spiders; facing Smaug and living to tell the tale; even sneaking out to the besieging army’s camp to parley with Bard and the Elvenking. Bilbo is smart and resourceful, but the ring plays no small part in his successes.

”He wanted it because it was a ring of power, and if you slipped that ring on your finger, you were invisible; only in the full sunlight could you be seen, and then only by your shadow, and that would be shaky and faint.”

At this point, the reader is still unaware of the ring’s true power, but they see Gollum’s ravenous desire to possess the ring—not only because of his insatiable greed but because he knows that with the ring, he can overpower Bilbo. Here the reader also learns that the ring Bilbo finds is actually Gollum’s; The Hobbit offers no storyline of Gollum’s ownership of the ring, but The Lord of the Rings develops a narrative that underscores the ring’s corruptive power. 

”All at once there came a blood-curdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair. Gollum was defeated. He dared go no further. He had lost: lost his prey, and lost, too, the only thing he had ever cared for, his precious.”

Once Bilbo suspects the true cause of Gollum’s rage and angst upon the island—finding the ring to be missing—he escapes by slipping the ring on and following Gollum through the dark maze of tunnels. In a moment of crisis, Bilbo must make the decision to either slay Gollum where he stands, or to run past him; feeling in that instant a deep pity for the miserable creature, Bilbo decides that he must escape without spilling any blood, and he leaps over his antagonist toward the exit. Realizing too late what is happening, Gollum can only grasp at empty air and despair at losing his only possession.

”Indeed we are now a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you, for after all this is not my adventure.”

Gandalf intimated previously that he would not make the entire journey with the company, but here he makes it very clear, admitting that he hadn’t planned to come even this far; this suggests that their encounters with the trolls and the goblins necessitated his presence among them for longer than he had foreseen. Acknowledging their anxiety at his impending departure, however, he gives them two assurances. First, he tells them that he will attempt to check in on them from time to time and that he will be absent not out of apathy but out of duty. Second, he will accompany them for a few more days. Gandalf intends to ensure they make Beorn’s acquaintance before venturing off on his own.

“There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”

Bilbo, ever the practical one, dislikes the idea of traversing the treacherous depths of Mirkwood, and he asks Gandalf if there isn’t a different route. Gandalf assures them there is indeed, but that it would greatly prolong their journey and, even then, there would be dangers aplenty. Still adjusting to the chaotic world outside the shire, Bilbo needs reminding that the wilderness is always fraught with danger to life and limb, and there are no routes to bypass this.

”Yet if they had known more about it and considered the meaning of the hunt and the white deer that had appeared upon their path, they would have known that they were at last drawing towards the eastern edge, and would soon have come, if they could have kept up their courage and their hope, to thinner trees and places where the sunlight came again.”

In one of the few moments where the narrator lets the reader know something that the characters do not, the characters are near the end of their journey through the Mirkwood. However, since the company is unaware of this fact, they feel no comfort or hope. All they have is what is right in front of them, and so far, their only experience has been one of darkness, hunger, and thirst.

”He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath. ‘I will give you a name,’ he said to it, ‘and I shall call you Sting.’”

In the encounter with the trolls, Bilbo was the one caught, and it was the dwarves who attempted rescue. Gandalf was even there to solve the problem in the end. Here, however, the situation is reversed: Bilbo is utterly alone, and it is he who must save the dwarves from certain death. With the ring and his sword, he wins a victory, striking fear into the heart of the giant arachnids who fled the tiny creature with a stinger. This gives Bilbo the inspiration for his weapon’s name: Sting.

”Thorin, of course, was really the grandson of the King under the Mountain, and there is no knowing what a dwarf will not dare and do for revenge or the recovery of his own.”

The dwarves have so far shown themselves to be: ravenously hungry; skilled musicians; loyal companions. Here, there emerge some dwarvish qualities that could lead to darker ends. In his quest for dominion of the Lonely Mountain and repossession of the treasure within, Thorin evinces his dwarvish royalty: proud and willing to do whatever it takes to exact vengeance.

”Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.”

A principal theme in The Hobbit, as elsewhere in Tolkien’s literature, is the war waged in the heart, the true battlefield of between good and evil. The contrast here is stark: Bilbo is about to enter the dragon’s lair, to face the fantastic and immense creature of legend and nightmare, and yet “the real battle” is the battle of the heart’s fear and its courage. Bilbo acknowledges and confronts that fear.

”To say that Bilbo’s breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.”

Bilbo’s first glimpse of the dragon’s dazzling hoard confounds him. The narrator explains there is no way to narrate, on a literal level, the wonder that passes through Bilbo’s heart; language itself can no longer express such a sentiment. Tolkien, a scholar of language, hints at an ancient, perfect, forgotten language of Middle Earth—a mythological premise common to many cultures on earth. This ancient language, taught by elves, could have voiced the depths of Bilbo’s wonder, but there is now no existing language that can; the tales of Smaug’s work are lofty, but even they pale in comparison.

“Suddenly Bilbo’s arm went towards it drawn by its enchantment. His small hand would not close about it, for it was a large and heavy gem; but he lifted it, shut his eyes, and put it in his deepest pocket.”

At last laying eyes upon the Arkenstone—the infamous gem that Thorin so desperately desires—Bilbo is overcome with an unconscious urge to take and hide it. In many ways, the Arkenstone is like Gollum’s ring of power: Seemingly inert pieces of jewelry, they both hold an almost bewitching power that clouds the mind and inflames the passion, making the object seem the center of existence (this power of the ring, however, is unexplored until The Lord of the Rings). The concept of the Arkenstone clearly grips Thorin, and here the gem practically calls out to Bilbo and bids him take it up and hide it away.

”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.”

Once the company are sure that Smaug has left the mountain, they explore the treasure and the vast halls of the mountain kingdom. While searching the vast stores, the dwarves also arm themselves anew, taking up new weapons and armor. Thorin, in a moment of deference and magnanimity, offers Bilbo a chainmail coat of armor forged from mithril, the famed silver steel of the elves. The gift will come in handy in later battles (as well as in the adventures of the young Frodo Baggins many years in the future).

“Bilbo longed to escape from the dark fortress and to go down and join in the mirth and feasting by the fires. Some of the younger dwarves were moved in their hearts, too, and they muttered that they wished things had fallen out otherwise and that they might welcome such folk as friends; but Thorin scowled.”

Sitting on the walls of the mountain fortress, Bilbo and the dwarves spy an approaching army of men and elves. Under different circumstances, the meeting of men, elves, and dwarves at the Lonely Mountain would have been a time for rejoicing the defeat of Smaug, but greed and pride get in the way. From his perch, Bilbo hears sweet melodies from the harps of the elves, and he longs to venture down into the camps as a friend; even some of the dwarves feel similarly. However, even if the company were divided in their opinion on the wisest course of action, they would follow Thorin as their leader and king. 

”The Elvenking looked at Bilbo with a new wonder. ‘Bilbo Baggins!’ he said. ‘You are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in it. But I wonder if Thorin Oakenshield will see it so.’”

Apart from Gandalf, who always stands above the tensions between the various figures of the narrative, the Elvenking is the most rational and prudent of the leaders. Not as proud as Thorin and not as rash as Bard, the leader of the elves is wise and patient, and he keeps the big picture in mind. Acknowledging Bilbo’s daring in the theft of the Arkenstone, he realizes that Thorin will view Bilbo’s great deed as a betrayal. He therefore invites Bilbo to remain in the camp with them to protect himself.

”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.”

Once the battle is won and Bilbo returns to camp, Thorin wishes with his last breaths to be reconciled to the hobbit. With Thorin’s last words, the armies’ (and especially Thorin’s) overwhelming fixation on wealth appears retroactively pathetic; Thorin now goes where “gold and silver […] is of little worth.” The cosmic perspective shift underscores the thematic fruitlessness of greed.