The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  [page] 1

  Bilbo follows party into the cave. Description of the Elfking and his halls. The dwarves are put into different cells. Bilbo cannot find the way out through the magic gates. He goes from cell to cell and manages to speak to the dwarves; and he tells them he has found Gandalf in a very deep dungeon. Gandalf will not tell the king his errand, because he will not share his treasure with the wood-elves.

  The river flows under part of the caves & issues by a secret water gate. That way the wood-elves get many of their supplies, especially of wine. When the barrels were empty they dropped them into the river, and they floated out through the watergate until the current brought them to a place on the bank not far from the edge of the forest. There they were linked together and floated like a raft down past the marshes and the reedy places to the Long Lake.

  Bilbo lurking in the king’s passages, living on scraps of food. ‘Living like a burglar that can’t get out again’ he thought. But in the end he had a desperate idea.

  Steal jailers keys and lets out a dwarf at a time. Hides them in barrels. In this way they are all <?thrown> [in] water.

  Bilbo escape only by sitting outside one. Difficulty of getting through watergate. the barrels assembled. Grumbles of elves.TN3 Raft. Floating past the marshes. Raftsmen tell tales of the disappearance of the and the loss of men & beasts in these places.

  Reach Long Lake and a town of men. The dwarves leap out of their Barrels and gallop off with the waggons.TN4 [But only go off towards the Mountain far with >] To the town.

  Argument of Gandalf and the Mayor. They buy food, and waggons (but to get the stuff back quest!) and go off. The elves go back to the king who makes a plan.

  [page] 2

  All the land desert.TN5

  The dwarves camped in a hollow near the skirts of the mountain. From here some went Bilbo up the river from the Lake, the Running river. They look on the Ruins of Dale. Smoke comes out of the Front Door.

  Then Smaug is still alive? Doesn’t . Inside of M. is probably pretty hot!

  A whole year had now gone by since they stayed with Elrond. It was summer. But black bleak and lonely. They crept near the mountain by stages but only saw crows and ravens, and were afraid of them as spies. The summer waned. After endless search on the west side of the mountain guided by the map they found a wall of rock standing in a kind of bay. flat with grass up to its feet. It was the door. But it had no key and nowhere could any crack or chink be seen. Nothing they could do would make any of it stir.

  Bilbo was wandering disconsolately. The dwarves were silent and unfriendly, and he wd. hear them muttering that the burglar – esp with his ring – ought to go in by F.G.TN6 if necessary. He had up the hill and to the little flat terrace platform where the flat rock-face stood. Looking back he could see the line of the forest far to west, a yellow gleam of light on the marshes the trees in the distance going brown towards autumn. Suddenly he saw the orange sun setting and saw the new moon pale and sharp in the Western sky as well. At the very moment he heard a sharp crack. There on a grey stone was a huge and ancient thrush, coal black with white heart and black freckles. It was cracking snails upon the stone. Crack crack.

  Bilbo hill. dwarves. They watch excitedly as the sun sinks lower and lower. It goes behind a cloud to their despair. But suddenly just before it touches the rim of the forest a red ray shoots through a rent in the sky and falls on the rock-slab. There is a crack. There is a hole in the wall as if by the sun as a flake of rock falls off.

  The troll-key fits the door swings in. Darkness falls suddenly and the moon goes quickly after the sun.

  [page] 3

  —:Bilbo earns his reward:—TN7

  The dwarves say he must go in. He begs them to come too. They won’t, until he has explored: all save old Balin yellow-beard. Balin & the hobbit creep into the dark mountain.TN8

  Not as difficult as they expected – the tunnel ran absolutely straight and slight[ly] Down. Down down down for ever. Soon they see a light at the end, growing steadily redder and redder. A bubbling snoring TN9 noise. It gets very hot. Vapors float up to them.

  At last they peep into a hall, the greatest of all the halls under mountain. It is nearly dark. Lit by a red glow. Coming from the large red [gold] dragon lying there fast asleep upon a pile of jems.TN10 Crushed under him, as he lay half on his side. He steals a cup to show he has been there. He sees shields and spears.TN11

  The dwarves pleased & pat him on the back.

  Wrath of the dragon. He comes out – TN12 he cannot get up the secret tunnel – and sniffs all round the mountain.TN13 and settles flying on the mountain, fly fiercely round and round to find the thief. Terror of the dwarves as he flies over them in fire, while they crouch in holes and behind rocks. They dig holes to hide in.

  Bilbo steals another cup.

  Greater wrath of dragon – but this time, Dwarves have dug deep caves to hide in.TN14

  Bilbo steals a gem.TN15 Seen by dragon as he escapes up the tunnel. Dragon sends [fire >] fiery up after him, and poor B. is burned badly. Dragon thinks that it is men from Long Lake. Goes off in a dreadful rage to destroy their town. The people see him coming [and fly. but he dare not come down >] and cut down the bridge to their lake-dwelling. [Dragon doesn’t come out onto the water. >] Dragon flies over town trying to set the town on fire. They put fire out with water and shoot at him. He settles at end of lake and vast clouds of steam go up.

  [page] 4

  The dwarves and Bilbo can see this from the mountain side.

  The dwarves go in while dragon is away and bring out a store of gold. Bilbo gets them to tell of all the treasure there. And he asks how they are going to get it all backTN16

  Bilbo goes back a third time. [added: Steals a marvellous gem] Dragon wakes and speaks to him as he peers from mouth of tunnel into the hall.

  ‘Who are you’

  Says dwarves don’t worry about him – how is he going to get his share home.

  B. flatters dragon. D. says he is impregnable. Even on soft underside he is encrusted. B. makes him show. Sees there is a patch.

  He goes back to the dwarves filled with misgivings and asks them about their future plans. They tell him of the Jem of Girion king of Dale the gem for the arming of his son. Bilbo keeps on looking at his gem. He must earn it.

  He goes in and kills dragon as it sleeps [added: exhausted after battle] with a spear

  The text stops here in the middle of the fourth page, with the bottom half of this page, reversed, being a draft of the river-barrel song from Chapter IX. These very rough workings are clearly the initial stage of composition: I have transcribed them as they appear, with cancelled passages here indicated with italics to avoid cluttering the lines with brackets. For the final form of the poem, see p. 386 and DAA.235.

  O Down the swift dark stream you go

  Back to woods you once did know.

  Leave the northern forest deep

  Leave the halls and caverns deep

  Leave the northern mountains steep

  Where the forest wide and dim

  in shadow grey and grim.

  Float beyond the world of trees

  pass the out into the whispering breeze

  past the rushes past the reeds

  where past the marsh’s waving weeds

  through the mist that rises pale white

  the land of lake and mere

  up from meres and pools and night

  find the lake of many isles

  Gather at the town

  Find the town of the bridges and the piles

  Where the town is

  in lower left margin:

  Follow follow his leaping stars

  Spring from the mists

  from

  Up the
heavens high & steep

  Through the mist above the land

  Over rapid over sand

  South away and south away

  Seek the sunlight and the day

  Seek the and field

  in top margin:

 

  Seek the garden and the fields

  Back to pasture, back to mead

  back to where the kine & oxen feed

  Back to gardens on the hills

  where the berry swells and fills

  in upper left margin:

  Under sunlight and under day

  South away and south away.

  go

  Back to you once did know

  The following final page of Plot Notes B, originally numbered page 5, had its pagination cancelled in a lighter ink and was renumbered page 6; this occurred when Plot Notes D was incorporated into the composite Plot Notes B/C/D text (see Text Note 2). Significantly, even at that late date (when Tolkien was nearing the end of Chapter XIII) this projection of the ending of the book was still considered current, as indicated by the repagination. Not until the creation of Plot Notes E and F, at the very end of the Second Phase and beginning of the Third Phase, respectively (that is, written after the story broke off part way through Chapter XV) was the following page describing Bilbo’s return journey superceded. The page begins with a small decorative flourish that seems intended to separate it from the preceding and mark the beginning of a new section.

  [page] 5

  With an army – a battle is gathering in the west. B. puts on [the >] a suit of silver mail made for an elf-king’s son, and goes with the wood-elves to battle.

  The men of the woods and the wood elves [and >] gather a great army, and men come from the south, and the goblins of the Misty Mountains & wargs are defeated[.] Beorn Medwed is there with a troop of bears. After the battle the way is clear over the mountains. Bilbo with only a little treasure – a nice set of golden dinner service – and the Gem of Girion – goes home.TN17 The wizard won’t have . They uncover the trolls’ gold & leave it.

  Brief stay at Elrond’s. But in end B. he will go home to his own hole. Took is getting tired.

  Arrival at own home. ‘Presumed dead’[.] In middle of an auction. Puts Gem in a safe but looks at it every day. Otherwise a hobbit again – but very different. Takes to writing poetry and is regarded as a bit queer.

  Long after when he is very old he returns the Gem.TN18

  His ring he used when unwelcome callers came.

  Explanation of troll key

  The wizard’s reward.

  The back of this page (Marq. 1/1/10:8) is a rough pencil map, forerunner of the finished map that accompanied the ‘home manuscript’, showing the relative locations of Mirkwood, the Marshes, the Forest River, Laketown, the Lonely Mountain, and the Withered Heath. As with the final map, this one shows mountains or spurs reaching down in a great crescent from the north-east until they almost touch the outstretched arm of the Mountain; these apparently form the eastern barrier to the Withered Heath.

  TEXT NOTES

  1 Marquette 1/1/10:1–2 (original pages 1 & 2), 1/1/25:1–2 (original pages 3 & 4), and 1/1/10:7–8 (original page 5 plus the draft penciled map).

  2 That is, new page 4 from Plot Notes C was cancelled and replaced by a new sheet containing newer pages 4 and 5 (= Plot Notes D), at which point the final page of text from Plot Notes B (original page 5) was renumbered by Tolkien ‘[page] 6’. The full sequence of the composite manuscript can be shown thusly in tabular form:

  original layer (Plot Notes B)

  original page 1 (1/1/10:1) [B]

  original page 2 (1/1/10:2) [B]

  original page 3 (1/1/25:1) [B]

  original page 4 (1/1/25:2) [B]

  original page 5 (1/1/10:7) [B]

  map (1/1/10:8) [B]

  replacement layer (Plot Notes B/C)

  original page 1 (1/1/10:1) [B]

  original page 2 (1/1/10:2) [B]

  new page 3 (1/1/10:3) [C]

  new page 4 (1/1/10:4) [C]

  original page 5 (1/1/10:7) [B]

  map (1/1/10:8) [B]

  final layer (Plot Notes B/C/D)

  original page 1 (1/1/10:1) [B]

  original page 2 (1/1/10:2) [B]

  new page 3 (1/1/10:3) [C]

  newer page 4 (1/1/10:5) [D]

  newer page 5 (1/1/10:6) [D]

  original page 5, now [B]

  renumbered 6 (1/1/10:7)

  map (1/1/10:8) [B]

  3 The last two words (‘of elves’) were cancelled.

  4 Tolkien originally followed this sentence with the word ‘Present’ here at the end of a line and then immediately struck it out; perhaps it would have been the beginning of a line about the dwarves presenting themselves to the Mayor of Lake Town or simply some phrase beginning with the word ‘Presently’.

  5 This line, added at the top of the second page, uses ‘desert’ in the old sense of deserted and desolate (‘a desert island’), not dotted with sand and cacti.

  6 F.G.: that is, the Front Gate.

  7 ‘Bilbo earns his reward’ is written almost as a title, alone at the top of the page, preceded by an inverted triangle of three dots and followed by a small decoration that looks like a colon and a dash. The same words are repeated, like a catch-phrase, in the first line of Plot Notes C: see p. 495.

  Although this sheet (1/1/25:1–2) is now brown with age, it is of the same paper and type as the somewhat more well-preserved sheet (1/1/10:1–2) that once preceded it.

  8 This and the following two paragraphs were altered so that Bilbo would be forced to explore the tunnel alone, as in the published book, although the alteration was not consistently carried out (note the two accidental retentions of they which should have been changed in each case to he). The revised text reads:

  The dwarves say he must go in. He begs them to come too. They won’t, until he has explored: not even old Balin yellow-beard. the hobbit creeps into the dark mountain.

  Not as difficult as they expected – the tunnel ran absolutely straight and slight[ly] down. Down down down for ever. Soon they see a light at the end, growing steadily redder and redder. A bubbling snoring noise. It gets very hot. Vapors float up to him.

  At last he peeps into a large hall, the greatest of all the halls under mountain.

  9 burbling: This word is nearly illegible, but certainly begins with a b, which seems to be followed by an -ur-, and ends in -ly or -ling. If my reading is correct, then it’s a very old (Middle and Early Modern English) word meaning a bubbling, gurgling sound. Tolkien’s use, however, probably derives not from the fourteenth- through sixteenth-century usages cited by the OED but from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’, from Through the Looking-Glass [1871]:

  And as in uffish thought he stood

  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

  Came whiffling through the tulgey wood

  And burbled as it came!

  —lines 13–16.

  For Tolkien’s fondness for Carroll, and his propensity for quoting from Carroll’s nonsense poetry (of which ‘Jabberwocky’ is perhaps the most famous), see p. 65, Nt 30.

  10 Originally Smaug is described as red; the addition makes him a ‘red gold dragon’.

  It’s possible that Tolkien’s use of jem instead of gem in these plot notes was a deliberate archaism; the OED cites examples of that alternate spelling from c. 1400 to as late as 1799. If so he quickly rejected the idea and settled on the standardized spelling. Curiously enough, by the early eighteenth century ‘jem’ had become a slang term among the London underworld for a ring, particularly a valuable (gold or diamond) ring.

  11 This last sentence may have been added later; it’s written in a slightly smaller hand than the rest of the preceding paragraph. If so, its purpose was probably to help set up the dragon-killing episode on this outline’s next page.

&
nbsp; 12 The word(s) immediately following the dash appear to be ‘of course’, but it could also be ‘after’, either of which makes sense in the context.

  13 ‘sniffs all round the mountain’ was struck out; originally the phrase was preceded by two words which appear to be ‘flying’ and ‘camp’, although this last is doubtful. The general sense, however, is clear even as Tolkien struggled with variant phrasing to best capture the scene of Smaug flying around, searching, attempting to sniff them out. Cf. Smaug’s comment in the published book that he ‘know[s] the smell (and taste) of dwarf – no one better’ (DAA.280), and note also the reappearance of the motif of being hunted by scent in Frodo’s first encounter with the Black Riders in Chapter III of The Lord of the Rings (LotR.88).

  14 All the sentence following the dash is struck through, but Tolkien has underlined it with a dotted line and written ‘stet’ in the left margin, indicating that he withdrew the cancellation.