the hobbit (tolkien)

8/9/2019 The Hobbit (Tolkien)

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The Hobbit (Tolkien)

I think the thing that must seem most curious about this adventure to slay a dragon andreclaim a homeland and its treasure, is how the hell could adding a burglar to this motley

crew be adding the decisive factor? What's the trick? or there must be one, since the

dragon has only gotten larger and more deadly as the years have gone by! "eter #acksonchanges things so that a burglar is needed because someone small and stealthy needs to

enter $maug%s lair to &erha&s snatch one es&ecially bright, one es&ecially brilliant ewel

the rkenstoneostensibly readily noticeable even given its being shrouded by lesserdelights! With that stone Thorin will earn control over seven kingdoms of dwarves, and

with their might the dragon would finally look to be overmatched! In the book, it

develo&s into a situation where, regarding the fighting and the killing the dragon, they

decide that a full frontal attack of ust themselves is their best bet, even as they agree thateven the best armor hasn't a chance against $maug!

I like to think that the one who recruited the hobbit *ilbo, the one who insisted on him

the wi+ard andalf, of coursehad an inkling that their only chance now was not to &itthemselves against $maug's might but against his -overwhelming &ersonality!. If to take

on a dragon you need a -dragon,. tremendous &hysical mightseveral armies, or asingular hero of renownand you haven't any, then maybe it's best to match personas

&ut a Watson ne/t to his Holmes, and see what com&atibility might ostle your way! nd

where do you find any such these days, &eo&le with considerable layers of self, of &ersonality, and yet alsoneeded to effectively &lay sidekick while the other lu/uriates

as starhumility? mongst those always at work or &er&etually at war? 0o, this wears,

doesn't develo&! In great kings? 1aybe not evenfor 2lrond is -noble,. -strong,.

-wise,. and -kind,. which makes him seem a great figurehead but not someone you cansafely invite over without taking over! 3ertainly not Thorin, for, -for being im&ortant,.

means this is all he%s leant to doing, as -if he had been allowed, he would have &robablygone on like this until he was out of breath, without telling any one there anything thatwas not known already!. 1aybe not, interestingly, even andalffor you notice how he

can at times lose himself into becoming a &henomena, &ure vengeance, not ust when he

blinds a cave of goblins and wrenches off the king goblin%s head, but more so where-4t5he sudden s&lendour flashed from his wand like lightning, as he got ready to s&ring

down from on high right among the s&ears of the goblins! That would have been the end

of him, though he would &robably have killed many of them as he as he came hurdling

down like a thunderbolt!. 6ou actually find them in &laces so far removed from the restof the world, they can, like *ilbo, e/ist undisturbed for fifty years in one &lace,

ruminating in their books, com&ounding their reading and daily encounters into their

com&iling selves!

He may not a&&ear to have a great tale yet to tell but as a fre7uent host he%s already great

at conversing, great at managing all the emanations of the human so to &ro&erly register,com&liment and encourage rather than toil, try and discourage those he%s talking with! In

my &referred reading of andalf the most im&ortant thing he did for *ilbo%s self8

develo&ment wasn%t so much his &rom&ting his going out on an adventure as it was his

testing his already highly develo&ed social skills with re&eat doses of the unaccounted


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for! (What ha&&ens when you have to accommodate something strange within the strides

of your conversation, *ilbo?) That is, his making a hash out of *ilbo%s initial greeting

his initial efforts to manage him by way of -good mornings.and, as well, hissubse7uently besieging him with dwarves, in through the door! 3onfronted with a dragon,

he%ll be dealing with someone who loves conversation, riddles, and comfortably lounging

amidst ac7uired clutter as much as he does! *ut as much as he might find himselfsur&rised at how strangely accustomed he feels during his &innacle heroic moment, it%s

still not going to be like sitting down for tea with the *randybucks! He%s going to need to

adust and e/&and his skills before he could &ossibly be ready!

The dwarves will serve as cara&ace, armor to get him through the wild! It%d be &ointless

to e/&lain to them how *ilbo is actually akin to $maug-he%s actually a what? a

dragon? and that's why he's useful? 9 $moking a bit too much Halfling weed there, arethee, andalf?.so andalf e/&lains him in terms they%ll get! Thus: -I tried to find 4a

hero5; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this

neighbourhood heroes are scarce, or sim&ly not to be found! $words in these &arts are

mostly blunt, and a/es are used for trees, and shields as cradles or dish8covers; anddragons are comfortably far8off (and therefore legendary)! That is why I settled on

burglaryes&ecially when I remembered the e/istence of a $ide8door!. With that thedwarves would look at small *ilbo, of a stealthy race, and it would look to a&&ear good

common sense on behalf of the wi+ard! nd so off on the trails, to business, before any of

them consider ust how one even highly stealthy burglar could &ossibly hel& them reclaima kingdom of gold!

In my reading, andalf deliberately misleads *ilbo as well, convinces him that his

ourney is to become more a Took, someone great not for knowing fifty years of comfort but rather a lengthy s&ell of adventure! nd he%ll become that, reclaim his heritage, when

he too can &ossess things beyond what hobbits could be e/&ected to accommodate

themselves to, very much including the dis&atching of fearsome beasts! This, after all, isthe enticement you offer anyone who%s delighted himself on stories but who%s been still

most of their lives! 6ou besiege him as if all the faeries in the world he%s reoiced in

reading and hearing about would reect him if now, finally, after &assing him by his wholelife, they dangled o&&ortunity before him! 6ou do this, even if the truth isas it looks to

be as soon as he ste&s outside, where they go -far into the


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key that &rovides access to a &rovisioning troll hoard! The second is a backhanded

accom&lishment: it's because he is too nervous to slee& well that he awakens to goblins

sneaking u& on them in the dark, thereby kee&ing andalf safe from being caught! ndsince his real talent is not in sneaking around but in agreeable conversationhowever

sli&&ery and dece&tive and sly he might &rove thereinit%s a&&ro&riate that the first time

he makes an im&ression u&on the dwarves is when he%s elated out of having used a skillhe%s actually very good at!

This is after his encounter with ollum, of course, when he a&&ears miraculously beforethem ust after being discounted as lost to them for good! *ut before getting to this, it%s

interesting to ask yourself how much more *ilbo distinguishes himself to us when he has

his chance to &rove commendable in combat than he does when he does so in

conversation! =oes being a warrior dis&atching a large number of fiends reallydemonstrate his worth as much as his matching wits with great named deni+ens of the

wild? In 1irkwood forest, he kills a lot of giant s&idersa lot! He%s brutally efficient

with a sword and sublime with a sling (a &roficiency, we note, the film steals from him to

em&hasi+e in the wood elves)! nd it sure means a lot to him-4s5omehow the killing ofthe giant s&ider, all alone by himself in the dark without the hel& of the wi+ard or the

dwarves or of anyone else, made a great deal to *ilbo! He felt a different &erson, andmuch fiercer and bolder!. *ut, well, of course it does, because he%d been convinced that

maybe not ever having done what *ull8roarer had done meant he%d been aslee& all his

life! *ut it%s &ossible that however much it meant for him to go on the offence &hysicallywith sling and sword, it may have been ust his going on the offence which thrilleda

talent, an orientation, maybe not sufficiently e/ercised in all his duties as a good host

easing conflicts while 7uick with a re8su&&ly of tea! *ut without that talent too, being

someone who knows how to calm agitation and thereby kee& a conversation going, hemight never have mani&ulated ollum into acce&ting that their interaction might be

bound by rules out of a gentleman's clubinvolving res&ect for fair &layrather than the

gutters! clever stratagem that however much it wasn't decisive in his besting ollum,did stretch out his encounter with him, giving him e/tended &ractice as a

conversationalist in a dangerous situation!

andalf couldn't have known *ilbo would meet ollum, but he knew there was a good

chance that before his encountering $maug he'd find himself alone with foes maybe with

enough to them that &art of the engagement would involve dialogue and the bandying of

wits! *eing a burglar and a scout to the com&any guaranteed as much, for he'd be the firstto encounter enemiesand andalf would know *ilbo would default to his true

familiarity and e/&ertise every time an alien situation gave signal it would be amenable to

it! Indeed, he's out in the lead with the com&any's first encounter in the wild, theirtangling with the mountain trolls, *ert, Tom and William! He's not es&ecially good here;

unlike the film, he isn't the one who strings out the conversation so that -dawn claims

them all. but rather only andalf solo who does so! However, he wretches himself out ofsim&ly being caught out and bewildered to in fact converse with them, endeavoring a

stratagem, built out of what he's seen of them, that might have develo&ed their encounter

in an une/&ected and fortuitous ways&ecifically, his offering to fill their gi++ards in a

different way, as their cook!


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He doesn't initiate the riddle game with ollum, but he reads that ollum's abilityafter

having seen *ilbo's swordto restrain himself means that he might be dealing withsomeone who may not be sim&ly -fierce and hungry,. so he certainly goes along with the

&ro&osition! He blends courtesy in with slyness, giving ollum the chance to go first and

thereby &ossibly stymieing *ilbo before he's had any chance to ask his own riddle, &resumably out of generosity or decorumthe &erson who &ro&oses goes firstbut

really because he -hadn't had time to think of a riddle!. He's skillful to em&hasi+e

elements of their game which make it less a terrible struggle than ust good s&ort betweengamesmen! He teases ollum, when he -whis&ered and s&luttered. in frustration, that

-4t5he answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you're

making,. which leads to ollum%s actually &leading with him! He also restrains him

through reminding him of the allowance (of time) that had ust been given him, -4h5alf amoment,. -I gave you a good long chance ust now!. There's not ust a lot of back and

forthing but significant on the s&ot thinking involved! His life was on the line and he

managed his way &ast numerous moments of doubt and &ossible misste&s to &ush the

thing to a finish in his favor, favorably &re&&ing him for $maug!

The riddle game is about withholding information, kee&ing secrets, releasing them onlywhen earned! $ince it wasn't earned, *ilbo never tells ollum what he had in his &ockets!

*ilbo doesn't at first tell the dwarves nor andalf about the magical ring either-not ust

now,. he ruminates! andalf es&ies that *ilbo may not have revealed everything abouthow he esca&ed the goblins, but doesn't &ress him on it! I &refer to think he does this

because he reali+es one of the things that makes *ilbo different is that he isn't one who%ll

divulge before he's had a chance to &rocess what he's learned or ac7uired that he knows

holds value, even as he himself might be inclined to do! There may not be muchsignificance to the fact that ust after *ilbo chooses to withhold information we hear of

the wi+ard's eager willingness to disclose-4t5he wi+ard, to tell the truth, never minded

e/&laining his cleverness more than once.but then again, there might be 9 and hemight well have been aware of it! t any rate, I like to think that andalf reali+ed that

individuality, interestingness, doesn't come if you don't &rocess the world to some e/tent

on your own, refusing to share if it means you hadn't given your e/&eriences a chance tori&en inside of you first! *ilbo had read a library of books, and you're kidding yourself if

you think that after every tale he didn't sit back and think about and argue with and

otherwise &ersonally sift through what he'd been &atiently engaging with, before

discussing what he had ust read with a neighbor! If that had been the case, he wouldn'thave read in an armchair within a beloved reclusive study but outside amidst the

commons, where every second sentence could be recited for others' benefit and -your.

own broadcast, if he felt the urge! He would need to have de&th to interest the grand,learned $maug! And mystery a taste of the bidding, withheld! nd he would need to be

one with sufficient res&ect for and &ractice in withholding that even when &ressed by a

hy&notic charmer like $maug, he could kee& baiting an aroused curiosity so thatsomething might -innocently. be learned!

andalf isn't there for *ilbo when he faces $maug, something he might have known

could &rove the case, des&ite his &romise, for it not actually being his adventure! *ut


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before he goes off he shows *ilbo a fair simulacrum of what his encounter with him

might involve, as if to say, this is pretty much what you're going to have to pull off !

andalf enters the abode of the great *eorn, a &ersonage with a fierce tem&er but also ahealthy res&ect for good gamesmanshi& and well8told stories, and finesses him &erfectly!

nd 1r *aggins, in a way you never hear him in regards to the abundance of sword8

fighting or arrow8launching on his ourneys, remarks on the skill, as if a fellow ade&tadmiring another versed in the trade: -1r *aggins saw how clever andalf had been! The

interru&tions had really made *eorn more interested in the story, and the story had ke&t

him from sending the dwarves off at once like sus&icious beggars!.

With andalf gone *ilbo emerges as the com&any leader, and when he takes on $maug

all of andalf's ho&es for him are reali+ed! $maug, who'd only been &retend8slee&ing,

tries to draw him out, but *ilbo refuses graciously, with flattery! With this, with denialcagily sweetened into a gift, $maug reali+es he's hardly dealing with some ass &ossessed

of a battle8a/e, who could and should be dis&atched ust as soon as he could be tricked

into revealing himself, but someone smart enough to make it as if by doing so a host

would be shortchanged a good time with a genuinely intriguing guest! To let his thiefknow this, that for awhile he'll be accorded, also, the role as a not8entirely8unwelcome

guest, he signals he's situated himself within a guest8host framework, where the rule is noinitiation of termination until interest wains! $o he offers the like of -lovely titles, but

lucky numbers don't always come off,. and -4t5hat's better! *ut don't let your imagination

run away from you,. which overtly convey that he%s genuinely interested in turningsomething with &otential into something finely honeda game!

$maug wants him to continue not ust to enable some entertainment but to find out more

about his intrusion as a thiefwho%s behind him? what%s the full intent?of course! *utfor reasons of enoyment, his kee&ing it also at this level means he's kee&ing things where

the odds even u& between them 9 and *ilbo knows not ust how to &acify but by this

time well how to strike for the killing blow! *ilbo, with flare, had revealed all that enticedabout himhis being a mysterious barrel8rider, and so onand $maug, in re&ly and

having fun, reveals all that beda++les about his own grand self! His teeth, his claws 9 but

unfortunately also, his -im&enetrable. armor, which it turns out has got a &iece missing,uncared for because $maug doesn%t care a wit about mending! The movie shows this as

ust dumb luck on the &art of *ilbo, but the book has it that he was working his way to

ust such a reveal to get further confirmation of something he thought he noticed the first

time he found himself before him! nd &roving the loser in this domain, $maug isrendered so that a single skillfully shot arrow can now end him! *ilbo got access to

information that would have made the e/&edition feasible as a military enter&rise right

from the start!

$o as I've said, I like to slightly alter the andalf in the book to imagine him as thinking

u& a &lausible way to take down a formidable dragon who%d been lord of the mountainlong enough! I'm not sure I'm doing any alteration of him, though, to think that what he

had also ho&ed for was to accustom the world, maybe even significantly, to what a long8

term deni+en of a comfortable hole might offer itthat is, for a larger, even &erha&s

ultimately more realm8saving &ur&ose, as well! "art of what makes *ilbo s&ecial is that


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no matter how much &eo&le talk to him about roles, the sad fate of who he is and of

whom he really ought to become, des&ite his adventures he never really lets go of who he

ust intrinsically is from the start, which is someone fundamentally decent whose love ofhis own well8&rovisioned life means he can e/tend consideration u&on -yours. as well!

*ilbo isn't ust good to &eo&le because he sees something for himself in it but because he

can &ut himself in other &eo&le's &osition and em&hasi+e! This has him do things whichmight look small, irrelevant to the 7uest, &ointless, but in fact if they were well known

outside the $hire the wild would lose much of what is truly wicked about it and there'd be

less evil around to need 7uesting against! I'm thinking of his noticing ollum's being-alone, miserable, lost,. and deciding therefore it not only ina&&ro&riate to sim&ly

countenance him as -foul. but to think it ust to -stab. him! nd of how he decides to

return an elf8guard's keys so the guard wouldn't be blamed for their esca&e because he%d

a&&reciated his having been fair to them, and could identity with his situation! nd ofcourse, through his sundering them of the &recious rkenstone, of how he -betrays. his

friends by giving his -enemies. a hold on them, and thereby doing nothing less than

maybe &reventing a war! The arrival of the goblin army means they wouldn't have warred

against each other anyway, but the significance is in the larger realm outside the $hire being more accustomed to this kind of selfless and so&histicated way of reading a

situation and acting! It's in their noticing what he did here, not so much how clever (notthat it wasn%t a bit) but how strong and good he had been here, letting himself be seen as

a traitor to his friends to have a chance to s&are them their lives! 0ot a one of them would

have thought of that!

*efore he dies, Thorin acknowledges he learned something new from *ilbo, something

significant enough that it ought fairly be carved as large onto mountains as any visage of

the ancients: -There is more of good in you than you know, child of the kindly West!$ome 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!. 1aybe with messages

like this bla+oned everywhere, those worn from the wild might fight their way to *ilbo'scomfortable hole in the ground, much more res&ectfully this time! There is, after all, in a

sense a &int8si+ed $maug to be found there, only one who%s greatest &roficiency incurs

with a swill of tea rather than with a blast of fire! nd who, rather than always render, can build u& and mend!

the hobbit (tolkien)

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