In a Hole in the Ground...

[the_gneech]

Since coming back from Comic-Con, I've been rereading The Hobbit, which I certainly remembered fondly but had not actually read since something like 1992 or so. Coming at it fresh, now that I'd read and assimilated Lord of the Rings (and seen the Peter Jackson films), read a lot more stuff both in and out of the fantasy genre, and written a few (unpublished) novels of my own, was almost like a completely new experience. :)

The first thing I noticed was that there is some truth to Moorcock's snarky referral to The Hobbit as basically being House on Pooh Corner with elves. Not always, but every once in a while, Tolkien does get into this kind of "Oh dear isn't Bilbo in a tight spot now, little children?" mode. He also does a lot of summarizing. For instance, Bilbo's first stay in Rivendell -- which I remembered as being this beautiful chapter describing the perfect sort of cozy country house -- is more or less brushed over by saying "Weariness passed quickly in the house of Elrond, and then they were off again."

The story still has depth, and the writing still has depth, but a lot of it is sort of glossed over and left for the reader to work out on their own. The implications of some of the Master of Lake-Town's shenanigans (and Lake-Town politics in general), for instance, or Gandalf's "errand to the south," or even the Sackville-Bagginses' attempt to snatch Bag End, are mentioned but only in passing, in a kind of "that's the kind of things grown-ups have to think about, I'll tell you more when you're older" way.

There's a reason for that, of course; The Hobbit was meant to be a children's book. But there are times when it rather forgets that for a moment, and becomes just a really good fantasy book. One passage that caught my attention this time in a way it hadn't done before, came when they had managed to open the "back door" to Lonely Mountain and the dwarves all stood back and basically said to Bilbo, "Okay, burglar, off you go."

For a long time the dwarves stood in the dark before the door and debated, until at last Thorin spoke.

"Now is the time for our esteemed Mr. Baggins, who has proved himself a good companion on our long road, and a hobbit full of courage and resource far exceeding his size, and if I may say so possessed of good luck far exceeding the usual allowance -- now is the time for him to perform the service for which he was included in our Company, now is the time for him to earn his reward."

You are familiar with Thorin's style on important occasions, so I will not give you any more of it, though he went on a good deal longer than this. It certainly was an important occasion, but Bilbo felt impatient. By now he was quite familiar with Thorin too, and he knew what he was driving at.

"If you mean you think it is my job to go into the secret passage first, O Thorin Thrain's son Oakenshield, may your beard grow ever longer," he said crossly, "say so at once and have done! I might refuse. I have got you out of two messes already, which were hardly in the original bargain, so that I am, I think, already owed some reward. But ... somehow I don't think I shall refuse ... I think I will go and have a peep at once and get it over. Now who is coming with me?"

He did not expect a chorus of volunteers, so he was not disappointed. Fili and Kili looked uncomfortable and stood on one leg, but the others made no pretence of offering -- except old Balin, the look-out man, who was rather fond of the hobbit. He said he would come inside at least and perhaps a bit of the way too, ready to call for help if necessary.

The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls ... There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much.

This frank (and none too flattering) appraisal of the dwarves from Bilbo's point of view is a terrific bit of characterization, both of Thorin's pompousness, and Bilbo's no-nonsense view of life.

It also brings up Balin, whom I'd never really noticed in my earlier readings, but who gains added importance after you learn his eventual fate in Lord of the Rings. Of all the dwarves in the company, Balin is the most likeable and the most "down to earth" -- which seems weird to say about a company of dwarves. He's a grizzled old vet and a worthy fellow to have along -- so one can infer that his expedition to take back Moria from the orcs was not any kind of half-arsed venture like Thorin Oakenshield's trip to Lonely Mountain. The fact that it met with such a bad end is all the more poignant when you think back to Bilbo, Balin, and Gandalf sitting around the den and reminiscing at the end of The Hobbit.

Finally the thing that struck me about The Hobbit is how "Hobbit: The Next Generationey" Lord of the Rings seems when you think about it. We've got:

Frodo: Bilbo's nephew and ward
Gimli: Son of Gloin
Legolas: Son of Thranduil the Elvenking
Aragorn: Not a descendant of Bard, but there are interesting parallels
Merry and Pippin: Fili and Kili transposed to hobbits, perhaps?
Gandalf: duh
Gollum: duh
Elrond: duh
Bilbo's ring: duh
The Necromancer: duh, it's Sauron in disguise
Mirkwood spiders: lesser versions of Shelob

You could probably make a reasonable case to map Boromir and Faramir to Thorin and Dain, respectively, but it's a bit more of a stretch. (Perhaps Denethor to Thorin?) There don't seem to be any real clear connections or parallels to Sam, Theoden, Eowyn, Galadriel, or Arwen, but then again LotR is like five times longer than The Hobbit, I should hope it had some new material!

Still, it's worth a read, and even better, worth a re-read. But it was good to remind myself of what the book actually was, because for quite some time, I only had in my mind the book as I remembered it being. The two things are not always the same!

-The Gneech

PS: Oh, and yes, I want to see Ian Holm, Ian McKellan, and Andy Serkis in the film version. 'twould still rock, although it might require some extrapolation.

Comments

[invisiblewolf.livejournal.com]

I would probably say that, although the genders are different, you could probably draw a comparison between Galadriel and Beorn.

And of course, Gwaihir would be another 'duh'. ;-)

-Spiritwolf.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Actually, now that I think about it, I think a better choice might be Treebeard and Beorn.

And yes, Gwaihir: duh. For completeness. ;)

-The Gneech

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

Hi, popped in on this from your post in epic fantasy, and I have to say that I loved the essay, and in response to this specifi opint, I alsways saw a big similarity between Beorn and Tom Bombadill.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

-TG

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Aye. I picked up "The Hobbit" in college and said, "jeeze, this is a kid's book!" But at the same time, it did nothing to lessen my enjoyment of it. After all, I was introduced to it as a child!

Have teh best

-=TK

[bailiff.livejournal.com]

I remember being distinctly impressed by passages where Tolkien's RL experience in WWI showed clearly... Various points of battle, or living rough in the wilderness en route to the Misty Mountains, could *not* have been faked by an inexperienced writer!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I think of LOTR as 'The Hobbit fanfic': five times as long as the original, with complicated explanations for lots of throwaway lines and events, and nowhere near as enjoyable to read.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Heehee!

-TG

[samanfur.livejournal.com]

Nice description. :)

*puts English Literature graduate/librarian hat on*

I think that a lot of people try to tar The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with the same brush, which isn't really fair.

When Tolkien was writing The Hobbit, he was writing for a demographic from the ages of about six or seven to twelve, and wrote accordingly. He doesn't ask too much in terms of profundity or great intellectual leaps, and Bilbo very rarely does things that a young reader coulodn't physically do in his place.

When Tolkien was asked to write a sequel to The Hobbit, he started it without knowing what it'd be or where it was going. If you read through The History of Middle-Earth, you find that he was drafting and redrafting constantly (Strider was originally a Hobbit, for instance), and the reason why the Council of Elrond meanders on for quite so long is because Tolkien's frantically trying to think of a plot hook that he can use to actually give the story a narrative.

The Lord of the Rings was Tolkien's effort to cram in the mythology he'd literally been working on for several decades as The Silmarillion. The Hobbit was a children's book.

Both're nice examples of what they are, but trying to tie them completely together doesn't work very well. They weren't written that way.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

We got exposed to it, because our english teacher was a rabid fan, and insisted everyone read it.. LOL! ( I still like it better than Potter, as reading goes).. :>

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

*shivers* Mirkwood. Icky icky! The whole Shelob thing in LotR was the one part I was like "eww eww eww giant spider get the bug spray". *shiver* I hate spidies.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

So I'm guessing you weren't keen on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, then...

-The Gneech

[exatron.livejournal.com]

Either that or he really identified with Ron.

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

ACK! I forgot about that part! *breaks out the gas mask and the bug bombs* We have to nuke the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

And this is why as a good ferret jedi, I'll never go to the spice mines of Kessel, because dealing with giant spice creating spiders from their webs is not my idea of a good thing. And you can just rule out phase spiders in D&D. And Driders. Drow. Their queen. Their society. Their architecture. You know what... just say no to spiders.

[rowyn]

I always loved The Hobbit all the more for being a kid's book. It's also, in many ways, more sophisticated in its characterization than LotR was. In LotR, it's as if Tolkein's afraid to have his protagonists do anything that's shallow or self-centered or cowardly. There are heroes and villains in LotR, and there are some "good guys" who waver and fall into evil. But you don't have the little touches like Gandalf and Thorin being privately annoyed that Elrond spotted the moon-writing they'd missed. Outside of the initial hostility between Legolas and Gimli, there's little in the way of petty squabbling or ordinary, run-of-the-mill errors. When people make mistakes in LotR, they are great dramatic failures of judgement, not stupid "whoops" moments. (Well, Pippin has a couple of those, granted.)