ach_sss_no

Livebloggy notes while reading The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 7. 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.

This chapter opens with Bilbo waking up and thinking at first that he’s at home, and then realizing he’s not at home, and realizing how many comforts of home are also not present. It’s quite sad actually.

Bilbo flies off on an eagle, and the eagle is slightly offended by his dislike of flying. Bilbo considers mildly sassing the eagle and then doesn’t. I appreciate a snarky character that still understands when snark is not prudent.

And though the lord of the eagles became in after days the King of All Birds and wore a golden crown, and his fifteen chieftains golden collars (made of the gold that the dwarves gave them), Bilbo never saw them again

Um…

Someone write that fill-in fic please

Oh no! Gandalf is leaving! I came into this book with full knowledge that Gandalf would drop in and out like rural satellite Internet, and I am still surprised that he’s leaving. I don’t know if the writing lulled me into forgetting he’d leave, or if I just have the memory of a goldfish.

The dwarves try to bribe Gandalf into staying by offering him gold. He says he won’t stay but wants some gold anyway. You can get away with a lot when you’re Gandalf.

Gandalf (after much urging) explains that the next stop is to see Beorn, and this some of what he says about Beorn. I don’t have much to say about it, I just like it:

I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears; 'The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!'

That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself

There’s an idyllic meadow of flowering clover. I like clover. Oh, and then the giant bees bigger than hornets show up and

I have never quite understood the desire to actually live in Middle Earth. Everything there wants to eat you or just kill you for the fun of it and sing a mocking song while it’s killing you. There are trees that kill you and your only hope of survival is for an oddly dressed demigod(???) to be close enough to hear your friends screaming. There is one 2x2 square foot patch of liveable land in the Shire where the weird stuff is carefully kept out, and that’s it, and the houses are too small for human beings to comfortably fit into and also this one time Saruman and his gang showed up and wrecked the place so you’re not safe there either. Everywhere else is orcs, random bizarre stuff, Elven settlements you’re strictly not allowed to live in that are going extinct anyway, abandoned mine with Balrog at the bottom, giant spiders, BIGGER giant spider, swamp with dead people in it, ghosts in a hill, ghosts in another hill somewhere else, Bill Ferny, etc, etc

Bombur is fattest and will do for two, he had better come alone and last.

I think this is a compliment in hobbit-culture. Unfortunately, Gandalf was the one to say it and not Bilbo.

"I am Gandalf," said the wizard.

"Never heard of him," growled the man

Ouch! That’s what you get for calling Bombur fat?

There’s a mention of Radagast. I seem to recall hearing that he is in the movies and I was at a loss as to why, but, okay, fair enough, I guess he is mentioned in the book and even lives somewhat nearby. I would admittedly find it fun to see him onscreen.

Gandalf starts telling a recap of the story up until now to Beorn and as he goes he gradually summons more and more dwarves. So now he’s done it at least twice, that we know of. Just turned up at someone’s house and summoned dwarves. Beorn doesn’t submit to it as politely as Bilbo does, though, in fact, he scoffs at each dwarf in turn, and it’s rather satisfying.

"And me!" gasped Bombur pulling up behind. He was fat, and also angry at being left till last. He refused to wait five minutes, and followed immediately after the other two

Bombur is moving up on my dwarf tier list.

Beorn has dog butlers! I had forgotten how fanciful and fairytaleish this segment was.

The next day everyone hangs out in Beorn’s house except for Beorn and also Gandalf. When Gandalf comes back he torments everyone by insisting on blowing smoke rings for like an hour instead of saying where he’s been. Finally he says he’s been tracking bears and

The hobbit felt quite crushed, and as there seemed nothing else to do he did go to bed

He picked up the hobbit and laughed: "Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see"; and he poked Mr. Baggins' waistcoat most disrespectfully. "Little bunny is getting nice and fat again on bread and honey," he chuckled.

This is just the ‘torment Bilbo’ chapter, isn’t it? Uh, anyway, Beorn’s been out killing a Warg and a goblin and he brought bits of them back as trophies.

This is a highly subjective thing with more room for disagreement than usual, but I have always appreciated how Tolkien is able to include dark things like medieval melee combat while keeping a pleasant and wholesome overall tone. I think it mostly comes down to a judicious use of show vs. tell. “A goblin’s head was stuck outside the gate” is all you hear about that- compare to the lingering description of bees and flowers earlier in the chapter. You see the clover and the bees; you just kinda guess at the dead dismembered goblin. Also there are those bloody battles that happen specifically when Bilbo is not looking in their directly. Actually, I guess Beorn just did one of those, didn’t he?

OFFSCREEN BATTLES: 2

Beorn gives them supplies and sends them off with dire warnings about Mirkwood. The party heads off and Beorn sneakily follows as a bear to guard them for some of the way. D’aww. He is also watching to make sure they return the ponies he let them borrow, which indeed the dwarves were disinclined to do.

And here’s where Gandalf leaves, at the edge of Mirkwood. “Don’t worry though,” he says, “I got you this hobbit.”

We end on Gandalf yelling “DON’T LEAVE THE PATH” all in caps. I don’t think I would need any prior knowledge of this book to guess what’s happening in the next chapter.

By the way I think I said I would be keeping an eye on Thorin? And then I haven’t mentioned him much. He hasn’t been doing much, except being sort of generally stern and gruff and telling Dori not to let Bilbo die in the last chapter, which was admittedly appreciated.

I expect Thorin will have more space to act in the story now that Gandalf has left, since Gandalf has been kind of taking over the leadership role. Gandalf has a certain scene-stealing charisma.