For a long time, this is the only chapter in
The Hobbit that I've read.
The riddles never fail to amuse me, and there's always something with reading about Gollum. Unfortunately, I got to know him first in LotR and not here, so there's no "
The Hobbit first impression" that I can formulate about him. All I can say is that this Gollum, although in a more child-friendly setting, is definitely the same Gollum who bit off Frodo's finger (to say the least). Tolkien probably had to tone down the violence for the children who are reading, but we who have read LotR know that Gollum
is tricksy and dangerous. And what's even scarier is that prior to Bilbo's arrival, he had been pretty much left alone. Surely the sudden appearance of a non-goblin was surprising to him, and we never know what a surprised Gollum can do, because in LotR he was always the one doing the surprising.
Reading this chapter with the entire events of the future in mind is
overwhelming. (I wanted to read this again just concentrating on the present events alone, but I couldn't help but look forward into Frodo's time and the Quest, so help me.) It's really amazing how every single thing tied into place. For one, it was stupid for Bilbo to reveal his name, of course, but he didn't know that, or he probably didn't care at that moment. But if he didn't tell Gollum his name, Gollum couldn't have told his tormentors about it, and...well, I'll stop there. A lot more can be said, but this isn't LotR CbC.
Another thing that's interesting here is the element of luck in the guessing game, which had sided with Bilbo for the most part. Eru's intervention? I dare not stretch it. But you'd all probably have to agree with me that Bilbo
should have been a goner by the end of this chapter. Of course it doesn't help that one of the previous chapters had already provided foresight that the book will have a happy ending, but we never know what will happen in non-fairy tale children's stories.
More thoughts to come later, I hope.