The Hobbit - Chapter 02 - Roast Mutton

[Lhunardawen]

Call me weird - or worse - if you like, but I hardly found this chapter dark and dreary; rather I thought it was much more amusing than the previous one! For some reason I never took the threat to Bilbo's and the Dwarves' lives seriously. For the life of me, I can't comprehend how someone could be fearful of those trolls! Perhaps their language and the stupidity it conveyed were factors, as well as their names...or to be more frank I could just say that I've never been in the position they were in, anyway. But I'm getting ahead.

I guess that in this chapter we have already been spoiled that in the end, Bilbo will stay alive:

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out...(emphasis mine)

Another curious thing is that Bilbo didn't even try to resist Gandalf's goading. If he really wanted to stay home he could have told the wizard off. Perhaps Gandalf really had that much influence on him, or he was afraid of Gandalf, or deep inside he really wanted to go with the Dwarves...

(Just an aside, later on Gandalf was mentioned catching up with the company on a white horse. I'm not very familiar with pre-War of the Ring Third Age history, so will someone tell me if this horse could possibly be Shadowfax?)

If the third one's the case, apparently he had a change of mind as they went on their way and he had discovered how unpleasant adventures could be.

"Bother burgling and everything to do with it! I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!" It was not the last time that he wished that!

Unfortunately, it's too late for that. And aren't we thankful he couldn't go back even if he wanted to!

Originally Posted by Esty

For the first time, Bilbo’s presence gives the dwarves a reason for going into a situation in a rather foolhardy manner, thinking him a skilled burglar. Does it seem odd to you that experienced and battle-hardened dwarves such as these should be so foolish as to get caught, and so cowardly as to push Bilbo ahead of themselves?

My feeling is that they were still somehow doubtful of Bilbo, and here was the chance for him to prove himself. If not, well, it is still a rather appropriate job that they assigned to Burglar Bilbo. Apparently, as we'll find out afterwards, Bilbo felt that he should be doing something burglarious, as if he had accepted the fact that in this company he is a burglar.

Enough has been said about the trolls and Gandalf's cleverness, so I'll just have two more things to point out, one for each.

...for trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again.

With this I sense as close to an account of the origin of trolls as we can get. Am I the only one in regret that more wasn't said of them?

And finally, I believe there's more profundity in this exchange than meets the eye:

"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" said Thorin to Gandalf as they rode along.
"To look ahead," said he.
"And what brought you back in the nick of time?"
"Looking behind," said he.