The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  ‘I am just going to have tea; pray come and have some with me’ – a little stiff perhaps but he meant it kindly; and what would you do . . . ? (p. 32; italics mine)

  ‘Thank you!’ said Bilbo with a gasp. It was the wrong thing to say, but ‘some of the others’ had put him in a fright . . . He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he (as the host – he knew his duty as the host and stuck to it however painful) would have to go without. (p. 32; italics mine)

  ‘I suppose you will all stay to supper?’ he said in his politest unpressing tones. (p. 35; italics mine)

  The recurrent emphasis on good manners makes the exceptions stand out all the more strongly: Medwed, the trolls, Thorin’s words at the gate (‘Descendent of rats indeed’), or Bilbo’s own occasional lapse, as at the eagles’ eyrie or when provoked by Dwalin’s description of him as a ‘little fellow bobbing on the mat’, to which he retorts ‘as soon as I saw your funny faces on the door-step I had my doubts’ (p. 40). And the effort of being polite to someone who is both rude and dangerous (Carroll’s Queen of Hearts, The Hobbit’s Smaug the Magnificent, Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities) only adds to the fun. This motif may owe something to the importance placed on politeness in traditional fairy tales, or simply to the fascination small children have in the manners, good and bad, of others.

  Finally, there is a strong sense of oral narrative at work in this chapter (and indeed throughout the book): this is a book meant to be read aloud to an attentive audience, just as Tolkien read it aloud to John, Michael, and Christopher during the ‘Winter Reads’ while he was writing it. Scenes are deliberately described in such a way as to help a listener visualize them, and sound effects are provided to liven up the narrative. Sometimes the reliance on colour is deliberately overdone for comic effect, as with the dwarves’ beards, belts, and hoods, where we get such a wealth of detail that the mind begins to boggle trying to keep track of it all; the joke seems to lie in the fact that there is no underlying pattern (significantly, we are never told the colours of the later arrivals’ beards and belts). Here Tolkien may be echoing a famous medieval work, ‘The Dream of Rhonabwy’, in which precise visual detail is provided in such reckless profusion that the tale ends with the boast that

  no one, neither bard nor storyteller, knows the Dream without a book – by reason of the number of colours that were on the horses, and all the variety of rare colours both on the arms and their trappings, and on the precious mantles, and the magic stones.

  —The Mabinogion, tr. Jones & Jones [1949], page 152.

  The sound effects vary from onomatopoeia (from the doorbell going ding-dong-a-ling-lang to the ‘horrible swallowing noise’, gollum, which gives that character his name) to simile (‘he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon after it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel’) to song: all the ‘poems’ are in fact lyrics to songs, as the narrator is at pains to point out (‘this is like a fragment of their song, if it can be like their song without their music’). Setting his own lyrics to traditional tunes was a favorite hobby of Tolkien’s: Songs for the Philologists32 includes both funny jingles like ‘Éadig Béo þu’ (a ditty in Old English set to the tune of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’) and serious pieces like ‘Bagme Bloma’ (perhaps the finest of all his tree-poems, in Gothic) and ‘Ides Ælfscýne’ (Tolkien’s own eerie and extremely effective take on the La Belle Dame Sans Merci legend). Thus ‘The Stone Troll’ (a piece appearing in different versions in both Songs for the Philologists and The Lord of the Rings, the latter reprinted in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil as ATB poem #7) borrows its tune from an old folk song called ‘The Fox Went Out’. If the evidence of Tolkien’s recordings of excerpts from The Hobbit, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and The Lord of the Rings (later released by Caedmon Records) may be trusted, more often Tolkien did not actually sing the pieces but used a sort of recitative.33 All in all, his narrator employs a wide variety of devices, all with the common goal of making this a story to listen to, not just to read; the paragraphs preceding and following the dwarves’ song about their lost home (pp. 36 & 37–8) show just how skilled Tolkien was in using word-music to evoke a mood.

  The Second Phase

  Chapter I(c)

  The Adventure Continues

  The next stage of the manuscript begins in mid-sentence, resuming the story where the ‘Bladorthin Typescript’ ends, in the middle of Chapter 1. This first page of manuscript in the Second Phase is numbered 13 (in the upper right-hand corner) because it followed directly on the final, or twelfth, page of the Bladorthin Typescript; see p. 41.TN1 This marks the beginning of the Second Phase of composition, which carried the story from manuscript page 13 (Marq. 1/1/1:3) all the way to manuscript page 167 (Marq. 1/1/15:7) – that is, from the middle of the Unexpected Party in Chapter I to the scene on Ravenhill in what is now Chapter XV. Tolkien did not achieve this much of the story without several breaks or halts in composition, and occasionally stopped to sketch out several Plot Notes or outlines of what would follow in the as-yet unwritten chapters, each of which will be discussed in its appropriate location in the pages that follow.

  While the text for the first page or so of this manuscript derives directly from the Pryftan Fragment, this would be difficult to deduce from the text itself – that is, had the Fragment not survived, there is nothing in this manuscript to indicate the point at which it ceases to be ‘fair copy’ and new drafting begins. This is because while clearly directly based on the earlier draft, incorporating revisions and the like written onto the old manuscript, the material has been rearranged and expanded in the course of creating this new draft. The suggestion found in the final paragraph of the Fragment to sit on the back door and think of a plan (‘if one does not sprout up on the way’) is deferred for several pages, while Bilbo’s question to know ‘a bit more about things’ and his demand to have things made ‘plain and clear’ sets off a long interpolation by Gandalf the dwarf giving the history of the Mountain and describing the dragon’s attack. This in turn leads to a second interpolation as Bladorthin the wizard answers Gandalf’s questions about how he got the map. Only then, after almost four Ms. pages, does the story return to the suggestion (now transferred from the wizard to Bilbo) about sitting on the back doorstep. From this, we might conclude that the Fragment might not be so incomplete as it appears; it probably represents the entire latter half of the opening chapter as originally conceived, rather than roughly the middle third as we might otherwise assume.

  As before, I give the text in its original form, silently supplying punctuation where necessary and noting interesting revisions and additions to the text in brackets. The present chapter divisions did not yet exist and were not inserted by Tolkien until much later, probably at the point when he was creating the First Typescript (that is, after he reached the end of the Second Phase). For ease of reference for readers familiar with the published text, I have, after considerable debate, decided it is best to break the Second and Third Phase manuscripts at the points where the eventual chapter divisions occur. While publishing several blocks of chapters together and only pausing when Tolkien broke off composition for one of the periodic interruptions that occurred over the two and a half years he spent writing the book (e.g., at pages 316 [Ms. p. 118] and 620 [Ms. p. 167]) would give a better idea of the smooth flow of the original story from incident to incident and site to site, the familiar chapter breaks help organize the material into short, convenient segments and enable notes and commentary to be much closer to the relevant passage than would otherwise be the case. But it must be emphasized that these chapter divisions are, so far as the manuscript of The Hobbit goes, purely artificial breaks which were not yet present when the text was written. Textual notes follow the transcription; these do not record every slip of the pen but instead remark upon variant readings that seem to me significant. Commentary follows the textual notes. Those who want to read the story as Tolkien wrote it without interrupting the fl
ow of the narrative for notes and commentary can simply skip over these sections on an initial reading since I have distinguished typographically between the commentary (all of which is printed in this smaller font) and the original text.

  his mouth shut. He loved maps, and in his hall there was a large one of the Country RoundTN2 with all his favourite walks marked on it in red ink. ‘How could such an eenormous door (he was a hobbit, remember) be kept secret?’, he asked.

  ‘Lots of ways’ said Bladorthin, ‘but which one of them we don’t know without looking. From what it says on the map I should say that there is a closed door which has been made to look exactly like the side of the mountain. That is the ordinary dwarves’ method – I think I am right?’

  ‘Quite’ said Gandalf. ‘This rather alters things – for the better. We had thought of going [up along the River Running >] East as quiet and careful as we could, until we came to the Long Lake. After that the trouble would begin. We might go up along the River Running, and so to the ruins of Dale – the old town in the valley there under the shadow of the Mountain – if we ever got so far! But we none of us liked the idea of the Front Door. The river runs right out of that great gate at the south of the mountain, and out of it comes the Dragon too – far too often.’

  ‘That would have been no good’ said the wizard, ‘not without a mighty warrior, even a Hero. I tried to find one. But warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neighbourhood heroes are scarce – or simply not to be found. Swords in these parts are mostly blunt, and axes are used for trees, and shields for cradles or dish-covers, and dragons are comfortably far off (and therefore legendary).TN3 Therefore burglary seemed indicated – especially when I remembered the existence of a side-door.’

  ‘Yes, yes’ said all the dwarves; ‘Let’s find a burglar!’

  ‘Here he is’ said Bladorthin; ‘here is our little Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins the burglar!’

  ‘The burglar[?]!’ said Dwalin.

  ‘Precisely’, said Bladorthin not allowing poor Bilbo a chance to speak. ‘Did not I tell you all last Thursday that it would have to be a burglary not a battle? And a burglar I promised to find – I hope no one is going to say I put the sign on the wrong door again!’ He frowned so frightfully that Bilbo dared not say anything, though he was bursting with exclamations and questions.

  ‘Well well’ said all the dwarves, ‘now we can make some plans. What do you suggest, Mr Baggins?’ they asked, more respectfully than they had spoken to him yet.

  ‘First I should like to know a bit more about things’ said Bilbo feeling all confused and a bit shaky inside – though it was partly from excitement. ‘About the gold and the dragon, and all that, and how it got there, and who it belongs to, and so on and further’.

  ‘Bless me’ said Gandalf, ‘haven’t you got a map, and didn’t you hear our song, and haven’t we been talking all about it for hours’.

  ‘All the same I would like it all plain and clear’ said Bilbo, putting on his business manner and doing his best to be wise and prudent, and live up to his new job.

  ‘Very well’ said Gandalf: ‘long ago in my grandfather’s day [the dwarves >] some dwarves were driven out of the far north and came with all their wealth and their tools to this Mountain on the map. There they mined and tunnelled and made huge halls and great workshops – and I believe in addition found a good deal of gold and of jewels too. Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was king under the mountain, and the mortal men who lived to the south, and even up the Running river as far as the valley beneath the mountain, where a merry town of Dale was in those days, treated them with great reverence.

  Kings would send for our smiths, and reward even the least skilful richly. Fathers would beg of us to take on their sons as apprentices, and pay us well in excellent food – which we never bothered to grow or make. Altogether those were good days for us, and we had money to lend and to spend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fun of it, so that my grandfather’s halls were full of marvellous jewels, and cups, and carvings.

  Undoubtedly that was what brought the Dragon. They steal gold and jewels you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find it. And they guard it as long as they live (which is practically forever if they are not killed) and never enjoy a brass-ring of it. They hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they have a good notion of the price, and they can’t make anything for themselves, not even mend a loose scale of their armour.

  There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold was probably running short there with the dwarves flying south or getting killed, and all the general waste and destruction that dragons make going from bad to worse. There was a most especially strong, greedy and wicked worm called Smaug.TN4 One day he flew up into the air, and came South. The first we heard of it was a noise like a hurricane coming from the North, and the pine trees on the mountain-sides creaking and cracking in the wind. Some of the dwarves outside (I was one, a fine lad in those days I was, always wandering about, and that saved me that day) – well from a good way off we saw in the middle of the wind the dragon settle on the mountain in a spout of flame. He came down the slopes, and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire. By that time the bells were all ringing in Dale, and warriors were arming. The dwarves rushed out of their great gate, but there was the dragon waiting for them. None escaped that way. The River rushed up in steam, and a fog fell on Dale, and in the fog the dragon came and [destroyed it >] destroyed most of the warriors. Then he went back and crept in through the Front Gate, and routed out all the halls, and lanes, and tunnels, alleys, cellars, mansions and passages. There were no dwarves left, and all their wealth he took for himself. Probably, for that is the dragons’ way, he has piled it all up in [a] great heap in some hall far inside, and sleeps on it for a bed.TN5

  Out of the gate he used to creep and come by night to Dale, and carry off people, especially maidens, to eat, until Dale was ruined, and all the people gone. What goes on now, I don’t know, but I don’t suppose anyone lives nearer the mountain than the Long Lake nowadays.

  The few of us that were well outside sat and wept in hiding and cursed Smaug; and there we were very unexpectedly joined by my father and grandfather with singed beards. They looked very grim, but they said very little. When I asked how they had got away, they told me to hold my tongue, and one day, in the proper time, I would know.

  After that we went away, and we have had to earn our living as best we could up and down the lands – and often enough we have had to sink as low as black smithing and coal mining. But we have never forgotten our stolen treasure. And even now, when I will allow we have all a good deal laid by and are not so badly off,’ (and Gandalf stroked the gold chain round his neck) ‘we still mean to get it back, and bring our curses home to Smaug – if we can.

  ‘I have often wondered about my father’s and grandfather’s escape – & now I see they made a map, and I should like to know how Bladorthin found it’.

  ‘I didn’t’, said the wizard; ‘I was given it. Your grandfather Gandalf you will remember was killed in the mines of Moria by a goblin’.TN6

  ‘Curse [him >] the goblin, yes’ said Gandalf.

  ‘And your father went away on the third of March a hundred years ago last Tuesday, and has never been seen (by you) since.’

  ‘True, true’ said Gandalf.

  ‘Your father gave me this’ said Bladorthin, ‘[and >] to give to you, and if I have chosen my own time and way to give it to you, you can hardly blame me considering the trouble I had to find you.

  ‘Here it is’, said he and handed the map to Gandalf. ‘Your father couldn’t remember your name when he gave it me and never told me his own, so on the whole I think I am to be thanked.’

  ‘I don’t understand’ said Gandalf. Neither did Bilbo, who felt that the explanation, which [was >] had begun by being given to him, was getting difficult once more.

  ‘Your grandfather�
�� said Bladorthin ‘gave the map to his son for safety before he went to the mines of Moria. Your father went away to try his own luck with it after his father was killed; and lots of adventures he had, but he never got near the Mountain. How he ended up there I don’t know; but I found him a prisoner in the dungeons of the Necromancer.’

  ‘What were you doing there’ said Gandalf with a shudder, and all the other dwarves [went >] shivered.

  ‘Never you mind’ said Bladorthin: ‘I was finding things out, and a nasty dangerous business it was. Even I only just escaped. However I tried to save your father, but it was too late. He was witless and wandering, and had forgotten almost everything except the map’.

  ‘The goblins of Moria have been repaid’ said Gandalf; ‘we must give a thought to the Necromancer’.

  ‘Don’t be absurd’ said the wizard. ‘That is a job quite beyond the powers of all the dwarves, if they could be all gathered together again from the four corners of the world. And anyway [others >] his castle stands no more and [his >] he is flown [added: to another darker place] – Beren and Tinúviel broke his power, but that is quite another story. Remember the one thing your father wished was for his son to read the map, and act on its message. The Mountain & the Dragon are quite big enough tasks for you’.

  ‘Hear hear!’ said Bilbo, and said it accidently aloud.

  ‘Hear what?’ they all said turning suddenly towards him, and he was so surprised that he answered:

  ‘Hear what I have got to say!’

  ‘What’s that?’ they asked.

  ‘Well’ said Bilbo ‘I should say we [> you] ought to go East and have a look round, at least. After all there is the back door, and dragons must sleep sometimes.TN7 If we [>