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.

[Alphaelin]

I enjoy this chapter so much, but it's rather a guilty pleasure: Trolls with cockney (?) accents, named William, Bert and Tom...dwarves who come down with temporary insanity and unhesitatingly walk right up to a strange fire without looking, one right after another...very 'un-canonic' and out of character. I laugh every time. Mind, I've been told I have a warped sense of humor.

'Roast Mutton' has several of my favorite lines in it, too. First and foremost, the excellent exclamation, "Great Elephants!" And of course, the trolls whining about 'mutton yesterday, today and tomorrer' and "Burrahobbit". I like William's complaint to the ungrateful Tom & Bert, too:

"Yer can't expect folk to stop here for ever just to be et by you and Bert. You've et a village and a half between yer, since we come down from the mountains."

Ah, the irony of a troll berating his fellows for their greed.

On a more literary note, we have the first occasions of LOTR and The Silmarillion "peeking over the horizion" in this chapter:

Now they had gone on far into the Lone-lands, where there were no people left, no inns, and roads grew steadily worse. Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees. On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people.

If I understand their route correctly, they are traveling among the Weather Hills, perhaps even passing by Weathertop.

The morning after their encounter with the trolls, they find their hoard:

...--and among them were several swords of various makes, shapes, and sizes. Two caught their eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jeweled hilts.

Gandalf and Thorin each took one of these; and Bilbo took a knife in a leather sheath. It would have made only a tiny pocket knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit.

"These look like good blades," said the wizard, have drawing them and looking at them curiously. "They were not made by any troll, nor by any smith among men in these parts and days..."

"Far vistas". I love them so.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Tolkien's own artwork on this chapter may or may not be identical with your own images; what do you think of his drawing?

[Kath]

Ah I have that one. I love the smoke from the fire curling upwards like that, and the shadows of the trolls in the trees.

To be honest though I sit and stare at pictures like that and just jealousy wish I could draw half so well

[JennyHallu]

I like the picture, but I never really thought the picture showed the trolls as any sort of threat. They are large, grotesque...they would barely be able to fit in the spaces between the trees to chase Bilbo and the Dwarves, were their confrontation to come to that. It makes me wonder if the Dwarves, in order to get captured, had cheerfully walked into the bags themselves (singing a Disneyesque "Heigh Ho" while little birds and forest animals frolicked around them).

[davem]

Gandalf's Wand!

This is one of the few (the only?) pictures of Gandalf 'in action' by Tolkien.

Its not too easy to make out here, but he seems to have a wand, as opposed to a staff, going by the way he's holding the thing. He's clearly grasping it by the end, & its simply not long enough to be a staff. Yet its clearly stated in Ch1 of TH that Gandalf had a staff.

Does this illustration show the 'official' method of using a staff? Did Gandalf also have a wand concealed under his cloak, or did Tolkien just forget himself for a moment?

The other interesting question is what exactly Gandalf is using the wand/staff for at that point? Is he 'helping' the effect of the sun on the trolls, is he showing Arien exactly where the trolls are, so she can focus her powers on them, or what?

What we seem to have is the only illustration of Gandalf doing magic, at a time when he doesn't actually need to do anything at all....

(I particularly like the 'Doh!!!' look on the middle troll's face, btw)

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Could you please provide a link address/URL for that picture, davem? The site doesn't allow hotlinking, so we can't see it.

[deal_with_it]

Originally Posted by JennyHallu

I like the picture, but I never really thought the picture showed the trolls as any sort of threat. They are large, grotesque...they would barely be able to fit in the spaces between the trees to chase Bilbo and the Dwarves, were their confrontation to come to that. It makes me wonder if the Dwarves, in order to get captured, had cheerfully walked into the bags themselves (singing a Disneyesque "Heigh Ho" while little birds and forest animals frolicked around them).

I was slightly disappointed in the Dwarves in the Hobbit. The typical Dwarf we've all come to know and love goes down fighting with a curse on his breath. These dwarves were pretty wimpy and and inexperiencd thief with a magic ring had to keep saving them. Kinda sad. I mean 13 dwarves. Hand em some weapons and chain mail and that would be an awesome front line to have in any AD&D party. But these guys...wow. Good thing they had the chubby thief with no adventuring experience along. lol