Hobbit2 - Chapter 13 - Not at Home

[Estelyn Telcontar]

There's very little action in this chapter, and yet there is a journey, though it is brief in the amount of distance involved. Bilbo and the dwarves move from their hiding place into the cave itself, and from darkness into light. The latter especially is potentially symbolic - how do you feel when you read about the change?

Again Bilbo is braver than the dwarves, but they finally muster up enough courage to move out of their comfort zone. Does their initial despair feel appropriate to their dwarvish nature, or do you think it is just given them to contrast with Bilbo's hope?

Aside from the matter of Smaug's whereabouts, the other major question in this chapter concerns the Arkenstone. What prompted Bilbo to take it? Was it the greed that accompanies a dragon hoard? Was it the desire of the dwarves that he felt again, like when hearing their singing back in his hobbit hole? Or was it a premonition that he would need it later?

According to Anderson in The Annotated Hobbit,

The name Arkenstone comes from the Anglo-Saxon eorclanstan, "precious stone."

There have been discussions on its nature and a possible connection to the Silmarils. Despite the similarities, there is no indication that it is intended to be one of them. Its fate differs distinctly from theirs.

The third object (after ring and sword) which will be significant in the sequel LotR shows up here - the mithril mail coat given to Bilbo by Thorin. According to Anderson,

Mithril is a Sindarin Elvish word, which translates as "grey glitter."

Thorin's accurate memory of the ways and layout of the Mountain remind me of Gandalf's words about being glad to have a dwarf with him in Moria, as he would be able to keep a straight head underground.

At the end of the previous chapter we had a brief passage from Smaug's point of view. As readers we have an idea of his destination and the reason for his absence. Not knowing his train of thought, Bilbo and the dwarves can't really be blamed for being in the dark - by the end of the chapter, only metaphorically so.

Do you find this transitional chapter boring? What does it add to the story?


Here's the link to the brief previous discussion.

[jallanite]

This chapter was originally written to follow the killing of Smaug and Tolkien switched the order so that it preceded it, apparently thinking that the reader, like Bilbo and the dwarves, not knowing about Smaug’s whereabouts, would add suspense to the goings-on.

This is good in theory. But I don’t think it works. Somehow the original concept still exists in the pacing. When I first read this I remember just being puzzled about where Smaug was but not feeling the possible danger. Possibly a complete rewriting would have fixed the problem, since originally Tolkien had already told the reader of the death of Smaug. The story still feels as though it had been written without the tension that this ought to have produced, because it hadn’t. Only near the end the reader is told that Dori “was always looking up towards the Mountain’s peak, as if he expected to see Smaug perched there like a bird on a steeple.”

So there is no real peril in this chapter. Only false peril which is not emphasized.

Tolkien might have heightened the interest with lots of glorious description about the hoard. What he does give us is wonderful. But he gives us only a little. Rateliff mentions:

To find a verbal portrait of such a hoard, a true Scrooge McDuck moment, we must go all the way back to The Book of Lost Tales and its description of the hoard of the Rodothlim.

Scrooge McDuck, mentioned casually here by Rateliff, was the creation of comic book writer and artist Carl Barks who wrote and drew Donald Duck stories, mainly from 1943 to 1966, and who invented in 1947 Donald’s multi-billionare uncle Scrooge McDuck. The Scrooge McDuck tales often told of Scrooge, with Donald and Donald’s nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, searching for ancient treasures and usually finding them.

Carl Barks is now recognized as one of the best and most influential comic story creators. His stories were masterfully written and drawn and have often been reprinted, sometimes in hard cover. Check your local library. One of the best was “The Seven Cities of Cibola″, first released in 1954, at the price of 10¢. This introduces the treasure hoard beyond all treasure hoards and its loss. I thought this the best story I had every read when I first came across it as a child, and still rate it among the best.

See http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/429/ for a comparison with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark which was greatly influenced by it.

Rateliff indicates that Tolkien’s illustration “Conversation with Smaug″, first introduced in some editions in 1938, partly makes up for this lack. See http://www.theonering.com/galleries/...-j-r-r-tolkien .

Bilbo’s finding of the Arkenstone of Thrain is the highlight of this chapter. At that point the tale becomes fully alive. It is just possible that Tolkien originally intended this to have been a Silmaril, at the period when the story The Hobbit was a sort of uncanonical spin-off of the unpublished Silmarillion. In Tolkien’s extended work as published it is certainly not.

The exploration to find a way out of the lonely mountain is without character compared to Tolkien’s evocative descriptions of the trek through Moria in the later Lord of the Rings.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Aside from the matter of Smaug's whereabouts, the other major question in this chapter concerns the Arkenstone. What prompted Bilbo to take it? Was it the greed that accompanies a dragon hoard? Was it the desire of the dwarves that he felt again, like when hearing their singing back in his hobbit hole? Or was it a premonition that he would need it later?

If it was anything, it is foresight. It's good to have a strong weapon at your side if you sense trouble coming. Or perhaps it was Bilbo's neverending luck - doesn't he always just happen to move a finger and lo! - he saves the day. He sometimes doesn't know why, but he feels he must do just so, and only later we realise that if he didn't do it the whole company would be dead.