The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  15 This line, which was probably struck through at the same time that the line ‘Steals a marvellous gem’ was added to the next page, represents the first appearance of what would become the Jem or Gem of Girion (the Arkenstone); see commentary below.

  The entire paragraph, with its many hesitations and cancellations, was struck out with two parallel diagonal lines, but Tolkien also wrote ‘stet’ both above and to the left of the paragraph, indicating he restored the cancellation. It is not clear if this restoration applies to the cancelled first sentence or not.

  16 This paragraph is cancelled by a stroke through it, and another set of cancellation lines extend up to include the preceding paragraph as well. Tolkien has written the word ‘Stet’ (i.e., do not delete) in the left margin opposite the preceding paragraph about Bilbo and the dwarves watching the mayhem from the mountain side, but presumably that restoration does not apply to the paragraph describing their removal of the gold.

  17 This line was struck through and an arrow drawn from it to the middle of the penultimate paragraph, presumably to indicate that this topic was to be dealt with there. For more on the idea that Bilbo would either set out with very little treasure or would lose most of it on the way home, see Plot Notes F and also Text Note 11 to Chapter XIX.

  18 This sentence is bracketed by Tolkien, usually a sign that the material thus marked needs to be moved, reconsidered, or deleted.

  (i)

  The Story Foreseen from the Capture by Wood-elves

  As with Plot Notes A, this second set of Plot Notes begins with confidence and follows what would become the next chapter or so closely but increasingly diverges beyond that point. By contrast with Tolkien’s indecision in the final paragraphs of Plot Notes A where he struggled to find an acceptable way of extricating his characters from the Elvenking’s dungeons (see p. 296), here he starts by smoothly plotting out their escape from captivity; with Chapter VIII behind him the immediate road ahead had become clearer. It is no longer Bilbo who goes into the barrel but all his friends, while he must ‘[sit] outside one’ (a complete reversal of the situation projected in Plot Notes A, where Bilbo escaped alone inside a barrel). Bilbo no longer has to retrace his steps back through Mirkwood to beseech help from Medwed, the great eagles, and Bladorthin, nor does Bladorthin reappear just long enough to solve all their problems before disappearing yet again. Instead, Bilbo’s ‘desperate’ plan proves wholly successful and gets them all safely out of the forest and all the way to Long Lake, just as in the final book.

  (ii)

  Visiting the Mewlips

  The rather ominous line about rafts, men (i.e., raft-elves), and beasts disappearing in the Long Marshes suggests that Tolkien had some adventure in mind for what unpleasantness would have befallen the hobbit and his companions had they found their way into the marshes. The disappearances described here might simply be the work of Smaug’s foraging, but this seems unlikely – the dragon’s hunting seems to have been far from subtle, and from later descriptions it sounds as if he has kept close to the Lonely Mountain for many years past. We do, however, have a description of sinister cannibalistic monsters lurking in a swamp in another of Tolkien’s works: his poem ‘The Mewlips’ (ATB poem #9).1 Given the degree to which Tolkien borrowed freely from his earlier works when writing The Hobbit – what I have elsewhere called his knack for autoplagiarism – it would be entirely in keeping for him to have done the same here, but in the event the story took a different direction and Bilbo luckily avoided having to slog through the marshes entirely.

  (iii)

  Lake Town

  Tolkien originally conceived of the arrival at Lake Town (or, rather, at ‘a town of men’ on the shores of the Long Lake) somewhat more dramatically – rather than crawling from their barrels stiff and grumbling the dwarves boldly ‘leap out’, steal some wagons, and gallop off. At first Tolkien apparently thought to have them ride away from the lake towards the mountain, but on second thought he had them dash away from the elven rivermen (who might try to re-imprison them) and go to the human town instead, where they were no doubt able to claim sanctuary as in the published book. Interestingly enough, this settlement on the Long Lake is not yet named anywhere in the text but remains merely ‘a town of men’, although the label ‘Lake Town’ had appeared on the very first map drawn into the Pryftan Fragment in the initial stage of composition on the book: see the Frontispiece. After wrangling with the Mayor (who never does receive a name in any version of the story) and buying supplies, they set off toward the Mountain.

  (iv)

  The Original Time-Scheme

  Another variance from the final story is revealed by the line ‘A whole year had now gone by since they stayed with Elrond’: as in Plot Notes A, the original conception whereby Bilbo’s journey lasted more than a year, possibly two, was still in place. It was already late autumn when Bilbo climbed the tree in Mirkwood (cf. p. 304: ‘for autumn was now far on’ and Text Note 6 to Chapter VIII), while their captivity in the elf-mound lasted month after month, all through winter and into spring (again, see Plot Notes A, p. 296). Now more months pass as summer wears away while they slowly draw near the mountain, although whether fear or rough terrain is responsible for their slow progress is not made clear. When Durin’s Day (which is not so named here) does arrive, it occurs on the first new moon of autumn, as in the original conception (an echo of which remained in the text of The Hobbit until 1995; see DAA.101–2 and my commentary on p. 135), not the last moon of autumn as in the published tale. The reference to crows and ravens indicates that the motif of the friendly ravens, Roäc and Carc, had not yet arisen (see Plot Notes D, p. 569, and Plot Notes E: ‘Little Bird’, p. 628).

  (v)

  Into the Dragon’s Lair

  The scene with the finding and opening of the secret door is in outline much the same as in the fuller version that was to follow; this episode had clearly been foreseen from at least as far back as the drafting of what is now Chapter III; see p. 116. The initial exploration of Smaug’s lair is also similar, except for the all important fact that originally Tolkien thought that two of the party, Bilbo and Balin (who is beginning to emerge as the most sympathetic of the dwarves), would make the initial foray, before revising it to make Bilbo go alone. Bilbo steals the cup as in the final story (a detail inspired by The Beowulf; see p. 533) and the dragon emerges and goes on a rampage.

  At this point, the outline begins to diverge from the story as it eventually developed, with the amusing detail of the dwarves digging holes to hide in (memories of WWI foxholes?) as the angry dragon flies over: a rather comic idea that did not survive. This is followed by mere repetition, with Bilbo stealing another cup, the dragon going on another prowl, and the dwarves hiding in deeper caves they have prepared (trenches like those on the Western Front?). Bilbo’s third foray, where he steals a gem, ends in his being seriously injured (‘burned badly’) by the dragon; this injury survives into the final book – cf. DAA.283, where Bilbo is in ‘great pain’ – but is rather downplayed since Bilbo continues to act normally despite being scorched down to the skin.

  The dragon’s departure to attack the lake-men first occurs here, as does the first evidence that their settlement is actually on, not beside, the lake: we are explicitly told that once they have ‘cut down the bridge to their lake-dwelling’ the dragon cannot reach them because that would mean coming out over the water. The bifurcation of the story that later led to the resequencing and reversal of Chapters XIII and XIV (see pp. 547 & 577) has not yet occurred: here Bilbo and the dwarves know of Smaug’s attack on the town because they can see it from the slopes of the Mountain – proof, by the way, that Smaug did not succeed in finding and sealing the secret door from outside. Indeed the dwarves, far from cowering in doubt for several days, seize this opportune moment to begin plundering Smaug’s hoard; and it is seeing the first load (‘a store of gold’) on the mountain side that sparks Bilbo’s doubts about the magnitude of the enterprise he has undertaken.

 
(vi)

  Conversations with Smaug

  At least some of the repetition in the account here of Bilbo’s forays into Smaug’s lair is more apparent than real, since Tolkien cancelled several paragraphs (everything between ‘Dwarves have dug deep caves to hide in’ and ‘asks how they are going to get it all back’; see Text Notes 14, 15, & 16), after which the outline then goes back to sketch out a different way Bilbo’s third descent into Smaug’s lair might have gone, introducing the motif of ‘conversation with Smaug’. Smaug’s vulnerable patch appears here for the first time, a detail probably inspired by the Sigurd legend (where the dragon-slayer himself could only be slain if stabbed in one secret vulnerable spot; see pp. 500–501) and Tolkien’s own earlier account of the dragon Glorund’s death in ‘Turambar and the Foalókë’, stabbed suddenly by surprise in ‘a very vital and unfended spot’ (BLT II.107).2 Bilbo’s second thoughts and misgivings reappear but are now the result of his talk with the dragon.

  (vii)

  The Gem of Girion

  As with the previous Plot Notes, the final sections of this outline mark the widest divergence from the eventual path the story took. The Arkenstone first appears here in Plot Notes B (although not yet under that name), initially prefigured by a simple statement that ‘Bilbo steals a gem’, then developed (or perhaps merely elaborated) as ‘a marvellous gem’ and finally given a name and history as the Gem of Girion.3 Unlike the cup-theft motif borrowed from Beowulf (or, more accurately, from a scholarly reconstruction of a damaged page in the Beowulf manuscript), the pilfering of the jewel seems to be Tolkien’s own invention, although no doubt influenced by folk-tales and legends.4 But far from being a hidden treasure the ‘expert treasure-hunter’ smuggles out without the dwarves’ knowledge and keeps concealed as a guilty secret, in this initial conception the dwarves openly offer it to Bilbo as his promised reward, which they apparently insist he has not yet earned. The Gem already has its strange allure and power to cause those who see and handle it to act in uncharacteristic ways to gain it5 – a motif Tolkien transferred in the sequel to Bilbo’s ring, which of course lacked that characteristic in The Hobbit itself – but here it is Bilbo, not the chief dwarf (Gandalf/Thorin), who is most affected. In retrospect, the phrase ‘Bilbo keeps on looking at his gem’ has a somewhat sinister aspect.6 For more on the Gem of Girion, see Plot Notes C.

  (viii)

  Bilbo Kills Smaug

  Most extraordinary of all is Tolkien’s intention of casting Bilbo in the role of dragon-slayer. Admittedly, there is a certain amount of folk-tale logic to this: the eponymous hero of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ – one of the two most famous English fairy tales (the other being ‘Jack the Giant Killer’)7 and a perfect example of ‘There and Back Again’ – is an apparently ordinary person who one day goes off on an unexpected adventure that culminates in his killing an evil monster and coming home with a marvelous treasure. It would mark the apotheosis of little Bilbo, the Hobbit, who has passed in the course of the story from ‘fat little fellow bobbing on the mat’ to reluctant traveller very much out of his depth, to effective warrior (and slayer of dozens of giant spiders), highly competent burglar (who evades the wood-elves in their own halls for weeks if not months), resourceful lucky number (whose plan gets all his companions out of their dungeons and safely away back on their adventure), to here being the only one who dares to do a deed that no hero or warrior could accomplish. It would also have had the effect of making Bladorthin’s words from the first chapter deeply ironic:

  ‘. . . a mighty warrior even a hero. I tried to find one but I had to fall back (I beg your pardon, but I am sure you will understand – dragon slaying is not I believe your speciality) – to fall back on little Bilbo.’

  —‘The Pryftan Fragment’, p. 10.

  The motif of Bilbo as dragon-slayer was developed more thoroughly in the next stage of outlines (Plot Notes C), which Humphrey Carpenter quoted from in his biography (Tolkien: A Biography [1977], page 179); see my commentary on Plot Notes C, pp. 499–501, for more on this projected plot-thread. For now I will only observe that the projected scheme of Bilbo stabbing the dragon ‘as it sleeps, exhausted after battle’, while very much in keeping with Jack the Giant Killer’s ruthless practicality (see Note 7), has the drawback of creating sympathy in the reader’s mind for the villain of the story. The eventual solution Tolkien ultimately arrived at, while much more complex and unexpected, smites down this mass-murderer in the midst of his villainy, which is far more satisfactory from the point of view of the story’s moral code.8

  (ix)

  The Poem

  The Raft-elves’ song needs no explication here, other than to note that while this is evidently the very first rough drafting of the poem many lines emerge that remain exactly as in the final piece. It is worth noting, however, that the fact the plot-note material only takes up half this page and continues over onto the next page may indicate that the poem predates the plot notes. If so, this need not disrupt our projected sequence that Plot Notes B were written before Chapter IX, in which the finished poem appears: Tolkien had already decided by the end of Plot Notes A, written during the composition of Chapter VII, that at least one of the characters was going to escape the Elvenking’s Halls by hiding in a barrel and may already by that point have decided on the water-route and hence the need for such a song; see p. 296.

  (x)

  A Battle Gathering in the West

  One of the most remarkable departures between the story projected in this outline and that which Tolkien actually came to write was that the great battle near the end of the story did not take place at the Lonely Mountain, nor indeed did the dwarves play any part in it. Instead, Bilbo apparently parts from his companions after the dragon’s death, presumably leaving them in possession of their ancestral home and treasure (although this is not actually stated; contrast Plot Notes C, p. 497) and taking his reward (the Gem of Girion) with him. Wearing his ‘suit of silver mail’ (which appears here for the first time; see p. 581), he joins the wood-elves and wood-men in their battle against the goblins and wargs, aided by ‘a troop of bears’ led by Medwed/Beorn.9 Thus we see here the emergence of the climactic battle in which five armies take part – humans, elves, goblins, wargs, and bears – yet placed in a very different context, and apparently with somewhat different motivations (no doubt essentially to avenge the Great Goblin’s death, subjugate the wood-men, and establish goblin/warg dominance over the region; cf. DAA.147–8). At some point the wizard reappears – he is casually mentioned in the immediate aftermath of the battle – but there is no indication of whether or not the eagles would intervene at the last moment, though given Tolkien’s fondness for this motif I suspect it would have occurred in some form. Ultimately, rather than bringing Bilbo to the battle Tolkien decided in Phase Three to bring the battle to Bilbo, thus reducing the much more eventful return journey projected here to a long coda (‘and back again’).

  In order to distinguish the battle projected here from the Battle of Five Armies taking place at the Lonely Mountain, I will refer to it as ‘the Battle of Anduin Vale’, this being the name for the area on either side of the Great River between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains in the more developed geography of The Lord of the Rings.

  (xi)

  Just a Hobbit Again

  Finally, the idea that Bilbo would come safely back home again after all his adventures is affirmed, along with the twin contradictory assurances that he on the one hand ‘just becomes a hobbit again’ yet on the other that he is ‘very different’, a writer of poetry, and regarded as ‘a bit queer’ (i.e., odd). That is, thereafter he is outwardly a normal hobbit but ‘different’ inside, with his writing poetry (one sample of which, ‘Bilbo’s first poem’, is given as the last poem in the book – see commentary p. 693) as an outward manifestation of this. His journey has changed him, yet that change does not prevent him from putting his adventures behind him and picking up the thread of his daily life. Significantly for the later development o
f the story, a good deal of attention is given to his ultimate disposal of the Gem of Girion, yet his magic ring is only mentioned in the brief list of loose ends that need to be wrapped up, along with how the key to the Secret Door wound up in the trolls’ lair and what the wizard got out of all this – outside of, presumably, amusement (‘very amusing for me, very good for you’; see p. 31). And even at this very early stage Tolkien foresaw that in his extreme old age Bilbo would relinquish his greatest treasure (‘when he is very old he returns the Gem’), as indeed becomes the case in the opening chapter of The Lord of the Rings.

  Armed with this detailed five-page set of plot notes outlining the second half of the story, Tolkien was able to resume the Second Phase where he left off and smoothly carry the story forward; see p. 379.

  Chapter IX

  In the Halls of the Elvenking

  Plot Notes B having done their work, Tolkien was able to resume writing the story at the point he had dropped it, probably having stopped at the beginning of the preceding school term and resuming in the next vacation.

  As noted at the end of the preceding chapter, at this point in the manuscript there is a change in the kind of paper Tolkien used. By itself, this might not be enough to prove that a gap in composition had intervened between what are now Chapters VIII and IX of the book, but the presence of Plot Notes B, which cover precisely the material to which the next chapter was devoted, and Tolkien’s statement that there were two points where he stopped writing for nearly a year, make it clear that this marks the first of those two major breaks in the composition.