The Hobbit: Chapter Eleven

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On the Doorstep

It is only after reading the entire Red Book, both Bilbo’s and Frodo’s tale, that you realize how similar they are. This chapter is another example. “They knew that they were drawing near to the end of their journey, and that it might be a very horrible end.” This is what Bilbo and the dwarves feel as they approach the Lonely Mountain. Frodo does not expect to survive his journey even before he leaves Bag End. Both traveled through “perilous waste without hope of further help.” Bilbo and company come to the Desolation of the Dragon; Frodo and Sam travel through the desolation that is Mordor and the surrounding lands. They all continue on and pushed through terror and despair and refused to let it strangle them. The hobbits are shining examples for us to follow when the trials of life seem too much. Frodo is such an inspiration, and besides the grace he was given, maybe the example of his cousin/uncle inspired him.
This chapter’s moment of grace comes when Bilbo “had a queer feeling that he was waiting for something.” With that comes the excitement at the end of the chapter as a ray of sunlight comes through clouds and shines on the key to the door into the Mountain that they had been searching for all day without success. It provides the way in and also the great ending to this chapter, which reminds me of the description of the door to the Paths of the Dead that decades later Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Grey Company will pass through. The words are almost identical: “Darkness flowed from it like a grey vapour” as  BBC Radio adaptation describes the latter door. There is no time in Bilbo’s, Frodo’s, or Aragorn’s quests that they were not being watched over. The same is true for us. Our hopes may rise and fall and at times we may not see any light, but God is always there, working with us and for us and beside us. Never doubt that! The darkest parts of our lives could be the thresholds of great light about to enter.

What inspires you about this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Ten

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A Warm Welcome

Poor Bilbo with that terrible cold! It’s a wonder that they all didn’t get one and a miracle that they all survived with nothing but a few bruises.

Another moment of grace occurs in the arrival of Bilbo and the dwarves by river to Lake-town and so closer to the Lonely Mountain. The professor makes clear that this is the only way they could have come and so what seemed a terrible disaster in their capture by the Wood-elves was actually a good. So we must trust in our own lives that what seems to be horrible misfortune is actually the preparation for great good or the saving of us from greater harm. God does not allow evil to exist except to bring good out of it as He continually proves later on during the Quest to destroy the Ring. He may bring us into great darkness, as He brought Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and Aragorn, but He will always be there for us and guide us through. Our enemy may also bring us into the blackness, but God will be there also. He will never abandon us and ever seek us. We can find our way back if we can just find His Hand and hold fast to it. Frodo certainly learned that, even if he wasn’t aware of exactly Who was leading him forward. God is certainly taking care of Bilbo and the dwarves too, even if the way is very rough. We have never been promised a smooth ride, just that we won’t be alone.

Bilbo and the dwarves arrive at Lake-town. Everyone celebrates the return of King Under the Mountain with great festivity.

What is your favorite part in this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Nine

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Barrels Out of Bound

Isn’t this story full of things you are just happy to be reading and not actually experiencing? No wonder the public was clamoring for more hobbit stories because who can be braver and have more exciting adventures than Bilbo? Of course, we know of a few more that are right up there, but they haven’t even been born yet! The latest ‘glad I am safe at home reading this and instead of really being there’ is the barrel trip down to Lake-town, courtesy of the imaginative escape artist Mr. Baggins.

We are left with the cliff-hanger at the end as to whether the dwarves have survived, though with Bilbo’s careful packaging we have to hope they did. We do know that Bilbo survived, just as soaked as if he had fallen into the Dead Marshes but alive and certainly as well as can be expected. Bless the dear one’s sneezes!

There are two more moments of grace here: they all arrived at the tie-up point at night and are not inspected, which the elves said would have happened if they had arrived during the day. And before that, for all Bilbo’s efforts he was not able to get atop his barrel at the beginning, and he and we learn why. Even if we think we could be in a better, safer spot, God knows exactly where we should be and keeps us there until He knows it’s safe for us to be elsewhere. We have to trust in that, even if the spot is miserable, and we think things would be better somewhere else. He’s the One Who sees all ends, not us.

This whole tale shows, as the one to follow will also, that we simply must keep going through all our tribulations and terror because turning back is not an alternative. There is a Chinese proverb that says you can only go half way into a dark forest; after that you are on your way out. We all need to remember this as we travel our own dark paths, or we feel we are being bruised and banged up as much as Bilbo and the dwarves were. They did not give up, Frodo and Sam did not give up, and we should not give up ourselves. Someone at the office has a cartoon that shows the same virtue of persistence and the folly of turning back. It shows men marching up some steep hills. They’ve already gone up and down several and they are marching up another and their leader says, “Let’s turn back, men. These hills are endless.” What they don’t know is that they are climbing the last hill and once they crested that, they would see their castle in the distance. But you have the sinking feeling they did turn back at just the point they could see the end of their journey. By going back, they’d actually be climbing much more than they would if they kept going forward.

Bilbo realizes he must keep going when he is traveling lost under the mountain and when he and his companions are in Mirkwood. We must keep going to. Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” Walk through that mountain and forest as Bilbo did, that Land of Shadow as Frodo and Sam will, tread upon the Paths of the Dead as Aragorn and the Grey Company will. There is light at the end; there is hope. That is what gave all these heroes the strength to go on. Frodo had no hope (small h), but he had capital H, Hope Unquenchable (as Gandalf called Sam), beside him. That is what can give us the strength to go on ourselves. With such inspirations, how can we go wrong?

What is your favorite part of this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Eight

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Flies and Spiders

We are more than half way done already!

As Bilbo and the dwarves trudge through Mirkwood, I thought of Frodo and Sam in the journey through Mordor, where they too are “sick for a sight of the sun.”  How admirable they all are to keep going with just as empty stomachs and longing for food and water. Starvation haunted them, but still they continued on. All three hobbits are marvelous examples and inspirations to follow as they use their hidden strengths well. Interesting about the Elven parties disappearing the moment they become aware of strangers and then reappearing elsewhere and disappearing again. My heart ached for Thorin’s explanation of why the dwarves came to them: “We were starving” said over and over again.

After the third unsuccessful attempt to reach the Elves, another danger ensnares the wandering company as myriad webs spun by giant spiders bind them. Shelob, mother of these monstrous creatures, will do the same to Frodo in her lair on the border of Mordor. Bilbo cuts himself free from the spider webs with his Elvish knife, which he christens Sting after he kills one of the spiders. In his efforts to rescue his companions, he uses the grace that abundantly blesses him and also takes advantage of the lust of evil to devour its prey. In its hurry, it defeats itself. The hobbit puts on the Ring, and the multitude of spiders spin web after web in an effort to trap their invisible and mocking foe. They nearly succeed, but “luckily” Sting destroys one web that was woven too hastily. Bilbo leads the spiders on a merry chase before quietly hurrying back to the dwarves. He reaches them because “luckily” one of the spiders left a thick rope, which the hobbit uses as a ladder. He kills the guard and frees Fili. Bilbo, and later Frodo and Sam in their own battle, show that love and courage can accomplish great things. Three cheers for hobbits!

What is your favorite part of this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Seven

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Queer Lodgings

Beorn is the next to give aid to Thorin’s company. The shape-changer tells them not to leave the path once they go into Mirkwood. He also tells them to enter the forest through a way that the goblins will not go near. Bilbo and the dwarves would not have chosen this on their own, and indeed, it is nearer to the enemy. Nevertheless, Beorn deems it safer for being unexpected, as the goblins are likely to search farther afield for them rather than looking closer. Frodo and Sam will use such tactics to great advantage as they inch their way toward Mount Doom.
Several days after parting with Beorn, Gandalf distresses Bilbo and the dwarves by announcing that he must leave to deal with some other urgent business. The wizard tells them to think of what the successful end of the Quest will mean rather than the perils they must pass through first. He encourages the travelers at least not to think of such dangers during the night. Galadriel gives similar advice much later after Frodo and his companions arrive in Lothlórien while grieving their own loss of Gandalf. At the edge of Mirkwood, the hidden Maia repeats Beorn’s counsel not to depart from the path and then leaves the company.

What struck you the most in this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Six

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Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

I admire Bilbo’s inherent decency in the beginning of this chapter in that he really, really does not want to go back into the tunnels, even with a magic ring that made him invisible. But then he decides he will and receives his reward just for deciding to do it, instead of having to actually do it, as the dwarves and Gandalf reappear.

So it is with us. We do not always want to do the difficult things that we know we should or must. We would rather keep going away from danger instead of back into it. It takes a special grace and will to fulfill what we know is the right thing to do. Sometimes like Bilbo, that is all we need to do at that moment: just decide to do it and not take the easy way out and say “Let someone else can do it.” It prepares and strengthens our hearts for the other periods of testing we will undergo as we run the entire marathon, as Bilbo does and as Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, and Sam are asked to do later. Bilbo will be tested more than once and discover more and more of his strength, as Frodo will.

Frodo will not receive his vocation all at once or know what the terrible cost will be to fulfill it. Bilbo’s vocation is unfolding also. He is not only to be Ring-finder and bearer until Frodo is old enough to be bearer himself, but to give the beloved son of his heart a place (and not just a physical dwelling) to call home, just as Sam will fulfill his vocation by providing the same. It is best that neither they nor we know where the Road will lead us, as it can and does lead into some terrifying places that we may not have the strength to move through if we knew of them ahead of time. Better that we walk as Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam did through it all, even when frightened, hungry, and wishing they were back home!

Another of these terrifying times makes me glad that I am only reading this and not actually participating! Poor Bilbo, Gandalf and all the dwarves caught up in trees with wolves hungry for their blood yapping below, then the trees catching fire because of the terrible goblins, and last being carried through the air by Eagles. I think Bilbo and I have a lot in common for I would react just like him: faint with fright and hunger. Thank God the Eagles do come, because Gandalf is right, it would be a lot worse to be dinner than to have to go without. Bilbo was almost dinner once already. No wonder Frodo will say decades later that he had a month of exile and adventure and that was all he wanted! Bilbo thought the same thing many times. I would be praying frantically the whole time if I had enough wits left to beg, “Please don’t let me fall! Please don’t let me fall!” Rather frightening events for a children’s tale, but then safety comes. I would feel too, as Bilbo put it, like “a piece of bacon…when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork and put back on the shelf!”

What are your favorite parts in this chapter? What would you have done when faced with the choice that Bilbo was after escaping from the tunnels?

The Hobbit: Chapter Five

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Riddles in the Dark

We all know the events in this most important chapter very well, but still you can feel suspense, almost as though encountering them for the first time. That is the mark of a master storyteller! How terrible for Bilbo to be trapped underground like this and with bats, too! That would freak me out. Then “the strangest event in the whole history of the Ring so far” as Gandalf tells Frodo decades later happens.

Bilbo’s fingers come across a golden object in the dark, puts it in his pocket without a great deal of thought and a turning point comes for him, indeed for all of Middle-earth. He meets Gollum, a very frightening creature, openly described as a cannibal which is rather strong for a children’s tale, and addicted to his precious ‘birthday present,’ which he loathes and longs for. No wonder Bilbo felt his wits scatter during the riddle game after he found Gollum near him. There is no trace of Sméagol here, except in the memories of long ago, of another life, no reason to pity such a terrible, evil thing. Yet Bilbo does pity him and resists the temptation to slay him. He has no idea how momentous this choice is and how it will affect the fate of a cousin/nephew yet unborn and all of Middle-earth.

Also of note are the two times that the Ring slipped on Bilbo’s finger. He did not put it on, but it slipped on, which shows the Ring thought it was in charge here. It was trying to find a way back to its master, but as Gandalf makes clear to Frodo later, it was not the Ring that willed Bilbo to find it, but another Power at work, the same One Who has protected Bilbo thus far and will continue to do so.

A powerful chapter this!

What do you think of Bilbo’s choice to show pity? Do you think you would have done the same? Why or why not?

The Hobbit: Chapter Four

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Over Hill and Under Hill

Here we are in the midst of the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms and actually witnessing the stone-giants who are causing part of the ruckus. Part of me wants to be there with them in the cave and experience such an explosion of nature with all my senses. Part of me is glad I am just reading about it!

What caused Bilbo to wake and see that his frightful dreams were becoming reality and just in time to raise the alarm? Another hint that other Powers were watching over them.

Love that the dwarves took turns carrying Bilbo after they escaped from the goblin. We end with a nice juicy cliffhanger, and the most important chapter is next! Not even the Professor knew at first how important this would be. That’s what I like about writing. The journey is not known in full except by the Writer of the Story Himself. We just have to walk down the Road and follow where it goes through all its twists and turns. This applies to ‘real life’ as much as walking down the path with the beloved ones we meet in tales. It is better not to know but just to keep walking along the right path or returning to it if we go astray. I have learned so much about how to do that from walking with Frodo and everyone else.

What is your favorite part of this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Three

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A Short Rest

Bilbo visits the Last Homely House for the first time and already “longs to stay there for ever and ever” where everything “was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.” What a splendid place that would have been to stay at! I have gone to a nice imitation of that run by mortals. No wonder health and hope grew strong in Thorin’s company, just as it would later in the Company of the Ring.

The added touch of the most cryptic of moon letters being only able to be read in the same phase of the moon and the particular time of year that they were originally written stirred once more in me the longing of sub-creating a world of my own and the joy that comes from that. What fun could be had there! This is part of the joy of reading this tale because it was written by someone who loves his craft and who was blessed with such a grand imagination. He is obviously enjoying himself and that makes this so much fun to read.

The Professor is right when he says there’s not much to talk about when all is bright and merry. As Sam points out much later, though in different words, great tales derive their power from the suffering that those within the story endure and how they continue on despite their torments. We are here at the beginning of the published works spelling this out, and it will only get better and better. That we are in the presence of a master storyteller will only get clearer the deeper we go into Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.

What is your favorite part of this chapter?

The Hobbit: Chapter Two

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Roast Mutton

Poor Bilbo – running down the lane, fearing to be dreadfully late, and leaving home without even a handkerchief! Blessings to Gandalf for coming up behind with a load of them, so at least Bilbo had those and his pipe. Love the very matter-of-fact, businessman- like terms of the contract that Thorin had left behind. The Professor continues to have fun telling his tale and so increases our fun. This is how adventures are I suppose: excitement at the beginning and then the foul weather comes and makes you wonder why you even set out and how nice it would be just to be home, warm, and dry. But of course Bilbo had been called out for this adventure and not just by Gandalf. He will experience so many things that no hobbit had, and his life will never be the same. Our lives would be much duller too, if he hadn’t stepped out, so thank God he did!

Bilbo’s finding of that Elven blade is certainly a moment of grace, though no one but the Writer of the Story knows this yet.

Gandalf’s “feeling” that he should return to the company is another moment. The very first ones would have been the “chance meeting” he had with Thorin before the tale even began and then coming to enlist Bilbo. This adventure is going to become much more important to the future of Middle-earth than anyone but the One Who sent His angelic servant to that unassuming, unadventurous hobbit, could guess. Stay tuned!

What are your favorite sections in this chapter?