There are some really funny moments in the chapter. The first would be the warning the dwarves leave in their note ("funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for") - yet I don't think our hero has much time to ponder over it, since a most dialogue occurs between him and Gandalf:
- That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run, said Gandalf.
- But - said Bilbo.
- No time for it, said the wizard.
- But - said Bilbo again.
- No time for that either! Off you go!
An interesting remark occurs: "They have seldom even heard of the king round here"; however, considering the prologue of Lotr:
"There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high king at Fornost, or Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. But there had been no king for nearly a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings' Norbury were covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk and wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king. For they attributed to the king of old all their essential laws; and usually they kept the laws of free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just."
we are bound to consider that the king is more of a figurative refference; Doug Anderson also notes that "the mention here of the king is probably not meant to refer to an actual personage but instead to invoke the idea of the king as the theoretical source of justice, law, and order".
The trolls are some most interesting newcomers; in Of the other races, Fotr, we learn that:
"Troll has been used to translate the Sindarin Torog. In their beginning far back in the twilight of the Elder Days, these were creatures of dull and lumpish nature and had no more language than beasts. But Sauron had made use of them, teaching them what little they could learn, and increasing their wits with wickedness. Trolls therefore took such language as they could master from the Orcs; and in the Westlands the Stone-trolls spoke a debased form of the Common Speech."
Tolkien expands more on the troll sujbect in his 1954 letter to Peter Hastings:
"I am not sure about Trolls. I think they are mere 'counterfeits', and hence (though here I am of course only using elements of old barbarous mythmaking that had no 'aware' metaphysic) they return to mere stone images when not in the dark. But there are other sorts of Trolls beside these rather ridiculous, if brutal, Stone-trolls, for which other origins are suggested. Of course (since inevitably my world is highly imperfect even on its own plane nor made wholly coherent - our Real World does not appear to be wholly coherent either; and I am actually not myself convinced that, though in every world on every plane all must ultimately be under the Will of God, even in ours there are not some 'tolerated' sub-creational counterfeits!) when you make Trolls speak you are giving them a power, which in our world (probably) connotes the possession of a 'soul'. But I do not agree (if you admit that fairy-story element) that my trolls show any sign of 'good', strictly and unsentimentally viewed. I do not say William felt pity - a word to me of moral and imaginative worth: it is the Pity of Bilbo and later Frodo that ultimately allows the Quest to be achieved - and I do not think he showed Pity. I might not (if The Hobbit had been more carefully written, and my world so much thought about 20 years ago) have used the expression 'poor little blighter', just as I should not have called the troll William. But I discerned no pity even then, and put in a plain caveat. Pity must restrain one from doing something immediately desirable and seemingly advantageous. There is no more 'pity' here than in a beast of prey yawning, or lazily patting a creature it could eat, but does not want to, since it is not hungry. Or indeed than there is in many of men's actions, whose real roots are in satiety, sloth, or a purely non-moral natural softness, though they may dignify them by 'pity's' name."
It is also noteworthy that in letter #25 he compares the vulgar trollery of calling Bilbo "nassty little rabbit" with the dwarven malice in calling him "descendant of rats" - in refference to his short hands and feet.
The way Gandalf deals with the trolls is in true observance of his mission directives as given in the Istari - to avoid open display of power. Concerning the opening of the treasure door, we see that it is also a hobbit (just as in FotR) that finds the key in. The sharing of the troll loot reminds me of an old proverb: "he may prepare for it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver".
Finnally, they cover up the treasure, using _magic_. I am lead to believe that dwarves themselves have magic abilities - in the first chapter, the song goes "the dwarves of yore made mighty spells, while hammers fell like ringing bells" - we also have the magic doors of Moria, to which even Celebrimbor testifies that they were made by the dwarves. If this is true, that it would set them apart from Men in this respect too [in letter #155, Tolkien notes that:
"Anyway, a difference in the use of 'magic' in this story is that it is not to be come by by 'lore' or spells; but is in an inherent power not possessed or attainable by Men as such. Aragorn's 'healing' might be regarded as 'magical', or at least a blend of magic with pharmacy and 'hypnotic' processes. But it is (in theory) reported by hobbits who have very little notions of philosophy and science; while Aragorn is not a pure 'Man', but at long remove one of the 'children of Luthien'."
Quote:
|
Thus he created a heavy problem because Bilbo and company reached the troll-fire in not more than a couple of hours while Aragorn with Frodo and friends needed five days to reach the same place.
|
In the Annotated hobbit, Anderson makes a refference to an aborted attempt to revise the Hobbit, in which this "geographical" issue is dealt with.