ach_sss_no

Livebloggy notes while reading The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 5. These are notes I'm making in the process of assembling a proper chapter-by-chapter review of the book. There was some indication of interest in seeing a liveblog-style thing when I asked on Tumblr, so I'm posting my notes.

Bilbo wakes up alone in the dark and starts crawling around…

…till[sic] suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel.

ALERT! DANGER! DO NOT TOUCH!

Gosh, with the hindsight of knowing what happens in LOTR it is such a weird feeling to see Bilbo hang out with the Ring in his pocket and use it almost-constantly for the rest of the book with no apparent ill effect.

It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.

It’s a turning point in a lot of people’s careers

Bilbo sits there and pouts for a while, which is adorable. Then he pulls out his little tiny sword and finds out that it shines. Back in Ch 3 Elrond pointed out how important and special Thorin and Gandalf’s swords are (IIRC Gandalf keeps his until… well, at least until the Balrog, he might drop it into the abyss at that point), but didn’t even look at Bilbo’s knifesword. Bilbo here infers that his is actually special too, because it has the same magic that makes it shine. It’s a minor detail, but it strikes me as a nifty little illustration of a recurring theme in this series- a theme of small humble things being overlooked and then discovered to have great value by the people who care to seek them out. Like Bilbo himself actually!

"Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.

I think this chapter is the turning point for Bilbo Baggins. Not just the Ring, which will be instrumentally useful, but there’s a shift here in his character. He’s been abandoned by his party, and is about to face the first deadly obstacle he overcomes all by himself (with a bit of luck), and after this point he starts trending away from ‘polite passive bilbo’ and more towards ‘sassy cynic Bilbo who eventually disappears from the Shire with gusto and bequeaths his elderly aunt a wastebasket as a screw-you present.’

Bilbo wanders around in the dark, while the narrator reminds us that hobbits are pretty sturdy and are more comfortable in the dark than we are. Then Bilbo stumbles into a lake, which turns out to be this level’s end boss arena.

Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he

Oh no wait I am so sorry, that’s not from The Hobbit, that’s from The Two Towers. This is from the hobbit

Even in the tunnels and caves the goblins have made for themselves there are other things living unbeknown to them that have sneaked in from outside to lie up in the dark. Some of these caves, too, go back in their beginnings to ages before the goblins, who only widened them and joined them up with passages, and the original owners are still there in odd comers, slinking and nosing about.

Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum
[...]
I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was

A few pages later: ‘he used to like riddles, and he lived out in the sunshine before he got kicked out, and he robbed birds’ nests, and hung out with his grandma’

Oh, and here’s a little bit of trivia, Gollum is called a ‘small, slimy creature’ here: Pre-revision there was no mention of his size and people were doing book illustrations where he was a giant dinosaur thing. Post-revision, sadly, Jirt did not mention that Gollum is supposed to have clothing (no really) (source: trust me bro) and now we have another, more entrenched issue, but oh well. (He's dressed all in black, which is why there is the description "as

dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face". Gollum is a little edgelord.)

A lot of the revisions to The Hobbit between the first edition and this one had to do with this chapter. The writing suddenly feels richer and more polished, as if someone came back and re-wrote this part after gaining more mastery in the craft and developing a more complex style, which is actually exactly what happened as far as I can tell.

Gollum has been killing whatever orcs stumble in here, so nowadays they only stumble in if the Great Goblin decides he wants a fish and just sends someone off to die in the process of getting one. I have to wonder if anyone ever comes back with a fish.

Bilbo could not see him, but he was wondering a lot about Bilbo, for he could see that he was no goblin at all.

It doesn’t come up in this story at all but, in later works, we will of course discover Gollum is/was a hobbit himself, or at least a very closely related creature such that any differences are probably solely academic. Now imagine this scenario

1) you, a human being, are in a cave and you’ve been there… a while

2) another human wanders in wearing funny-looking futuristic clothes

3) but you don’t remember what humans are and can’t tell what you’re looking at

4) in the following 60+ years, you hang out with humans a while and never seem to cotton on that YOU are also human

It’s funny and all, but it’s also kinda horrifying.

Now, Bilbo does the sane thing and pulls out the sword right away, but he is also far more polite to Gollum than is wise, introducing himself by name and all. Gandalf will later disapprove.

And then this happens:

"Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!"

Firstly, this is a major part of the revision. In the original version, Gollum wagered the Ring.

From https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Hobbit_1st_edition
In the first edition, Gollum willingly bets his magic ring on the outcome of the riddle game. During the writing of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien saw the need to revise this passage, in order to reflect the concept of the One Ring and its powerful hold on Gollum.

According to what I read elsewhere, Bilbo happens to already have it, so when he wins the riddle-game and Gollum finds the Ring missing, he just gets really embarrassed.

Tolkien passes this off as Bilbo rewriting history- I think partly due to the compulsion to make oneself the rightful owner of the Ring and partly because what really happened was traumatic. It makes character sense and it’s also funny. I will never not be amused by the official canon being ‘Bilbo wrote libel about Gollum :( ‘
By the way I am pretty sure it was still 'I'll give you the ring or I'll eat you', not 'I'll give you the ring or show you the way out'

“All right,” said Bilbo

“All right,” said Bilbo

I think this is the point of the story where Bilbo realizes he shouldn’t say yes to people so easily. He just freely consented to be eaten if he loses this game. Gollum did not pressure him. Bilbo is the one with a sword!

Oh, oh, here’s another thing I find so very interesting about this chapter. We know that in LOTR Bilbo becomes a very accomplished poet, and the riddle-game is the first time we see him making up rhymes. I like to think the riddle-game planted a seed, LOL

I do not always feel a lot of engagement with in-universe poetry or songs, but I like all of the ones in this chapter because each of them provides some really neat characterization for the contestants.

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

Gollum is a little edgelord.

But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck-

"Eggses!" he hissed. "Eggses it is!"

This one is weird because like, I know full well ‘teach your grandmother to suck eggs’ is a joke. But it also sounds like this was a very genuine and personal memory for Gollum.

Bilbo asks a riddle. Gollum has to wrack his brains and dredge up his childhood memories of his orphan childhood being raised by his grandmother who would later exile him from the village.

Gollum asks a riddle. Bilbo has no idea what the answer is. Gollum puts his foot in the water and the answer to the riddle literally, physically jumps out at the lake and presents itself to Bilbo Baggins practically on a platter.

Gollum was disappointed once more; and now he was getting angry, and also tired of the game.

I wonder why

As much fun as it is to play devil’s advocate for Gollum I feel I need to also point out that he’s been talking about how Bilbo will taste and psyching him out, and now he flops out of the water and starts physically pawing at Bilbo while continuing to taunt him. That’s not exactly fair play. Bilbo did also make fun of him for sounding like a kettle, though.

“What have I got in my pocket?”

That’s not a riddle. That is not a riddle. I have been convinced of this fact since I was ten.

He thought of all the things he kept in his own pockets: fishbones, goblins' teeth, wet shells, a bit of bat-wing, a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on, and other nasty things. He tried to think what other people kept in their pockets.

"Knife!" he said at last.

edgelord

"String, or nothing!" shrieked Gollum, which was not quite fair-working in two guesses at once.

Oh, Gollum is being unfair? Gollum is being unfair? Gollum is the one being unfair? 'What have I got in my pocket?' Gollum is being unfair?!

Now Gollum is annoyed, so he decides to do a murder. Now he is actually violating the terms of the wager. I find it interesting that he's complied up to this point. If I were a morally bankrupt thing in a hole, I think at some point I would say to myself 'i can tell this guy he got the answer wrong whether he did or not, and just eat him. Who's gonna know the difference?'
Gollum does seem to have some kind of inner standard of behavior and it is a confusing one. I find it difficult to believe someone like him seriously wouldn't realize he can cheat?

But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said.

Translation: ‘Wait until you see Sauron’s face when he finds out this slimy stinky thing has been keeping his ring in its underwear all this time’

Gollum find the ring gone, and starts freaking out. Bilbo starts berating Gollum, telling him to stop messing around and do what he promised, and I think this is the point when Bilbo starts to really show some serious grit- not that he was completely without it at any point, but it’s one thing to sass Thorin after letting him into your house and giving him beer, and it’s another thing to yell ‘shut up and do what you promised’ at this obviously hostile mystery creature in the dark that wants to eat you and is throwing an active temper tantrum.

He had won the game, pretty fairly

Your Honor, ‘pretty fairly’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and I don’t recall the defendant making an agreement that if he won the game he could walk off with my client’s property-

Gollum tries to charge at Bilbo, goes past him because he's invisible, and runs off down the tunnel. I mentioned before that this feels like the chapter where Bilbo comes into his own as a brave adventurer… he makes another impressive choice by deciding that his only hope of escape seems to be following the creature who now very definitely wants to kill him, and he does it.

Now, Gollum hasn’t been much of a pal up until now, but here he does Bilbo the nice favor of expositing out loud at length what the Ring is and what it does. Then he tells himself to shut up and stop sitting there

Then let's stop talking, precious, and make haste. If the Baggins has gone that way, we must go quick and see. Go! Not far now. Make haste!

Bilbo follows him to the exit, and reaches an impasse. Gollum is blocking the way out and also has scented Bilbo nearby. Bilbo still has the sword and considers using it.

A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.

Bilbo is faced with a very tense and difficult decision, and chooses mercy, at a point when no one is there to see it, and no one could possibly blame him for doing otherwise. It really feels like this is the ‘Bilbo Baggins grows up’ chapter.

And, on the other side of the coin: Gollum’s character trajectory is such that this is him at a relatively young and innocent stage compared to later on. The next time we see him he’ll also have crippling PTSD from being tortured!

There was a hissing and cursing almost at his heels at first, then it stopped. All at once there came a bloodcurdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair. Gollum was defeated. He dared go no further. He had lost: lost his prey, and lost, too, the only thing he had ever cared for, his precious. The cry brought Bilbo's heart to his mouth, but still he held on.

The description of Gollum’s defeated broken-heart cry has always been so eerie to me. I so look forward to seeing how the movies execute this I bet it’ll be great and not turn this moment into an unwelcome attempt at comedy that belittles the moment and the character or something like that

Bilbo has found the exit, but the Ring is a jerk, and pops off his finger, so the goblin guards almost kill him.

A pang of fear and loss, like an echo of Gollum's misery, smote Bilbo

Every Ringbearer seems to have a visceral, almost telepathic sense of how awful Gollum’s life is when they put the Ring on. It feels almost like Sméagol imprinted himself onto the Ring somehow, which- honestly would make sense because it’s magic and it consumes your soul and he had it for a w h i l e

Bilbo uses the Ring and finally manages to escape. Phew! He passed a few significant tests of character, escaped from the cannibal and the goblins, and now he is toting around the most accursed magical artifact ever created. The name of the next chapter is “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” so I am sure things will continue to go well for him.

This chapter is always an enjoyable read for me because the pacing and tension are marvelous. It goes from horror to comedy to horror to tragedy to comedy and there’s a steady escalation of Golluming from ‘lmao hi we eats you’ up to cold bloody murder and that final haunting scream.
And after this scene, he goes on to spend 60 years wandering to seemingly every place in Middle-Earth except for the place where the thing he wants to find is, getting tortured, going to elf jail, killing innocents, worshiping a demon spider for reasons known only to himself, and absolutely hustling like mad to turn from a oneoff cave weirdo into a driving plot force in LOTR. He will also pick up two additional modes of speech, starve, get ambiguously shot with a crossbow, fail to eat a single hobbit, be massively misunderstood by many readers and at least one team of scriptwriters, and earn the undying ire of several people on Steam before somersaulting into lava.
But he will still remain, in the end, deep down, the same thing he always was:

`We are lost, lost,' said Gollum. 'No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry; yes, we are hungry. A few little fishes, nasty bony little fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are; so just, so very just.'

...an edgelord.

But alas! For now we must bid farewell to precious. I'm sure Bilbo is very sad to leave him behind.