This chapter is purposely light. Neither dwarves nor the hobbit are in deadly peril and the dwarves would probably be able to free themselves just by clearly explaining why they were in Mirkwood.
The elves treat the uncooperative dwarves reasonably well. The elves might easily have refused food to the dwarves or even refused them food and water until the dwarves gave an account of themselves. The elves might have resorted to more direct torture. The elves did not. But the treatment of simple imprisonment worked sufficiently that Thorin, ignorant of the whereabouts of the other dwarves and Bilbo, was at last ready to tell all, until Bilbo got to Thorin.
So really the dwarves’ predicament was mostly their own fault and almost all Bilbo accomplished was to gain the dwarves’ freedom in a more complicated and dangerous fashion than was necessary.
Still, in the end, Bilbo’s plan worked and left the elves very puzzled.
In the chapter “Flies and Spiders″ Tolkien tells of the dwarves hearing the sounds of an elvish hunt including “the sound as of dogs baying far off.″ But dogs are not mentioned again. Presumably the dogs are housed in huts outside the elvish fortress and the hunters first ride to the huts. At least no mention is made of Bilbo facing any peril from suspicious hounds scenting him in the elvish fortress.
The mention of “air-holes″ in the barrels raises the problem that any holes would seem to create the danger of water rushing into the holes and drowning the occupants. The air-holes must have been all on one side of each barrel and one of the tasks of the occupant of a barrel must have been to keep his body on the side of the barrel away from the air-holes so that the barrel floated with the air-holes on top.
How were the air-holes created? Were there augers lying about where the barrels were stored?
The song beginning “Down to the swift dark stream you go …″ is a nice surprise. It is very elvish and very memorable.
John D. Rateliff in his
The History of The Hobbit mentions,
The idea of hiding in barrels or crates is of course an ancient one (cf. the story of Ali Baba) that needs no specific source.
One of many possible sources is
Le Charroi de Nīmes (‘The Wagon-Train of Nīmes’) in which Count William conquers the city of Nīmes by disguising himself as a merchant and entering the city in peace with his men hidden in a thousand barrels which supposedly contain his merchandise. Each man has a mallet which he may use to break open the barrel when he hears the sound of William’s bugle. So Nīmes is conquered in this tale which is not based on history. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charroi_de_N%C3%AEmes .
Tolkien’s tales is far less violent and avoids the treachery in this possible source. I am unaware of any source in which the protagonists do something so dangerous as floating down a river in barrels.
Tolkien’s illustration “Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves” is excellent for its own sake but differs markedly from the text in which the barrels comes to the huts before morning. Indeed, apparently this occurs hours before morning as Bilbo then has time to wander invisibly into the huts and steal a loaf, a leather bottle of wine, and a pie with which he spends “the rest of the night″.
As a child, when reading this, I was bothered by the discrepancy and decided that the sun seen in the picture must really be supposed to be a full moon rising or setting. Of course, I now see that this interpretation does not stand up. Bilbo is looking east and so the supposed moon must be a rising moon, and if full then it must be facing a setting sun, setting the scene just after sunset which would be impossibly early. Besides, the sky is too bright to be a night sky.