The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  For the spelling ‘Jem’, carried over from Plot Notes B, see page 364.

  ‘gold & silver mail made like steel’: This passage further develops the mithril coat which later plays such an important part in The Lord of the Rings, although that term would not arise for almost another decade (see HME VI.465 & also 458). This remarkable piece of armor is not associated with Bilbo here, although it had been in page 5 of Plot Notes B (see page 366), nor is it a unique item since one was made for each of King Girion’s sons. The presence of these suits of mail within Smaug’s horde is incidentally proof of the mingling of ‘much of the wealth of [Girion’s] halls and towns’ with the dwarves’ goods mentioned by Bard in the parley before the Gate (see page 648).

  7 Presumably Tolkien meant to write here either ‘is [in an] awful rage’ or possibly ‘[h]is awful rage’ but in the haste of getting thoughts down on paper left the sentence compressed.

  8 The illegible word is probably ‘market’, though it might also be ‘smashed’.

  Into the Lonely Mountain

  Since the story sketched out in Plot Notes C represents Tolkien’s projection of what would happen in Chapters XII and the chapters to follow, it was obviously written before Chapter XII (from which it notably diverges) was begun, probably while Chapter XI was still in progress – cf. the use of ‘Bladorthin’ near the beginning of Chapter XI on manuscript page 137 (page 472 in this book) and in these Plot Notes, whereas by manuscript page 141 near the end of Chapter XI (page 476 in this book) ‘Gandalf’ had finally replaced it as the wizard’s name. Interestingly enough, rather than start a new outline Tolkien retained the same pagination and made the new material a replacement for the now-superseded middle section of Plot Notes B (which had been written at the end of Chapter VIII, probably the preceding year).

  The new material at first follows the pages it replaced closely, particularly in the first six paragraphs, where many of the same words and phrases recur, although thereafter Plot Notes C develops and reshapes the material. Bilbo is still the dragon-slayer, but the sequence of events inside the Mountain is now somewhat different. Instead of stealing a cup on his first visit, another cup on his second, talking with the dragon on his third visit, and deliberately entering the tunnel a fourth time for the express purpose of killing Smaug in order to earn the Jem of Girion as his reward, as in Plot Notes B, Bilbo now steals a cup on his first visit, has an extended conversation with the dragon on his second visit, steals ‘a bright gem’ on his third visit when the dragon is (briefly) away, then hides within his lair on his fourth visit and stabs the weary dragon after Smaug returns from his attack on Lake Town – a sequence much closer to that of the published book, where the first three of these visits occur more or less as in this outline.

  Instead of a spear found within the hoard (page 364), Bilbo now kills the dragon with his little knife (Sting, although that name has not yet arisen), apparently losing it in the process, driving it in so deeply that it ‘disappears’ within the dragon. His motivation now seems to be less pure greed, as in the preceding version of the Plot Notes, and more a desperate pragmatism: the dwarves are too busy carting gold up the secret passage to face the urgent question of what to do when Smaug returns, forcing Bilbo to take it upon himself. By contrast, Plot Notes B had stressed how ‘Bilbo keeps on looking at his gem’ (i.e., the Jem of Girion), which the dwarves tell him he must earn; the very next line describes his going to kill the sleeping dragon (page 364), strongly suggesting cause and effect: he wants the gem so badly he’d take on a dragon to get it. Plot Notes C thus somewhat downplay the theme of possessiveness in Bilbo himself, although we are told that the bright gem (presumably the Jem of Girion, which the dwarves had told him about shortly before) ‘fascinates’ him; this motif would later return strongly in Plot Notes D (see page 568).

  It is interesting to note that the Lake-men fare rather better in their battle with Smaug here and in Plot Notes B than in any other version of the story, making them indeed the only community attacked by a dragon who succeed in driving it off in all of Tolkien’s work: the Rodothlim of the early Túrin story and their later analogues the elves of Nargothrond, the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and the men of Dale at the time of Smaug’s advent, the Lake Men of the published tale, even the villagers of Bimble Bay in the poem ‘The Dragon’s Visit’ [1937] all see their peoples decimated and their city or town destroyed.1 By contrast, the people of Lake Town’s spirited defense leaves the dragon temporarily stymied: once the bridges are destroyed he cannot reach his enemies, and any buildings he sets alight they ‘quench with water’. Far from cowering or fleeing, they resolutely ‘shoot darts2 at him’ whenever he flies over, although these cannot hurt him because of his gemstone armoring. Given that they have an endless supply of fresh water and are presumably skilled as fishermen (which, given their boatcraft and the placement of their town over the water, seems a reasonable assumption), Smaug’s attempt to ‘starve them out’ seems unlikely to succeed. Small wonder that the dragon eventually abandons his siege and returns exhausted to the mountain, no doubt to plot his next move.

  Smaug’s death-throes, which destroy Lake Town in the published version, here take place within the Mountain and are vividly depicted in terms partially derived from the old saga and partly from the death of Glorund in the Túrin story.3 In particular, the enormous flood of blood that gushes out, enough to float Bilbo in a golden cup,4 comes directly from Volsunga Saga, where Regin advises Sigurd to dig a pit in Fafnir’s path to his favorite watering hole but treacherously plans for his protégé to drown in the dragon’s blood, leaving Regin in sole possession of the treasure – a plan Odin foils by advising Sigurd to dig many pits, which drain off the excess blood.5 In one particular the final book is closer to Tolkien’s sources than are these Plot Notes: Morris has his dragon’s last words be a lament that he dies ‘far off from the Gold’ (Sigurd the Volsung page 126), and in the published Hobbit of course Smaug dies at Lake Town (‘he would never again return to his golden bed’ – DAA.313) and his bones thereafter lie among its ruins.6 Here, by contrast, Smaug dies atop his vast sleeping-bed of gold, and the tumult of his death-agonies collapses the secret tunnel7 in which the dwarves had stored all the gold they had carted away from Smaug’s lair during his absence.

  One idea about Smaug’s death from these Plot Notes did survive into the final book, albeit in a very different form. Here we are told that ‘the gold is mostly crushed, and they cannot use it because of the dragon’s body’, whereas in the published tale the many gems attached to Smaug’s underbelly are similarly lost to the dwarves when the dragon plummets into the lake; it is known where the gems lie deep in the water amid the ruins of Lake Town but none dare dive down through ‘the shivering water’ surrounding the dragon’s bones to retrieve them (DAA.313).8

  The idea that Bilbo becomes ‘hard and brave’ because he waded in dragonblood comes from yet another version of the Sigurd legend, not the Eddic poems nor the saga but the Nibelungenlied [circa 1200], which derives from German rather than Norse tradition:

  When he slew the dragon at the foot of the mountain the gallant knight bathed in its blood, as a result of which no weapon has pierced him in battle ever since . . . When the hot blood flowed from the dragon’s wound and the good knight was bathing in it, a broad leaf fell from the linden between his shoulder-blades. It is there that he can be wounded . . .

  —The Nibelungenlied, tr. A. T. Hatto [rev. ed., 1969], page 121.9

  Similarly, Thidreks Saga, a rambling thirteenth-century romance about Theodoric the Great, includes at one point a somewhat confused version of the Sigurd story (in which Regin is the dragon, rather than the dragon’s brother), stating that after killing the dragon Sigurd ‘smears his body with dragon’s blood, except where he cannot reach between the shoulders, and his skin becomes horny’ (ibid., page 375; cf. also The Saga of Thidrek of Bern, tr. Edward R. Haymes [1988], pages 107–8 & 210). Since Tolkien did not develop the theme, there’s no way to know how Bilbo�
��s becoming a great warrior, one of the few dragon-slayers in Tolkien’s legendarium, would have influenced the end of the book, but it seems likely that having become ‘hard and brave’, ‘a warrior in the end’, he would play a significant role in the battle gathering in the east described on the last page of the composite Plot Notes B/C (‘the Battle of Anduin Vale’; see pp. 366 & 375). The deft drawing-together of so many themes and characters who had appeared earlier in the book – Medwed/Beorn, the goblins, the woodmen, the wargs, and possibly the eagles – on the return journey would therefore in this projection still occur only after Bilbo had parted company with Thorin and the dwarves, forming the great adventure still to come on his homeward journey.

  One point Plot Notes C does make clear that had been hazy in the original Plot Notes B material is exactly when Bladorthin re-enters the story. As in the final lines of Plot Notes A (page 296), here the wizard’s reappearance is still enough to set things to rights and avoid bloodshed or further unpleasantness: Bladorthin rebukes the besiegers and makes the dwarves pay Bilbo the dragon-slayer his fair share, a portion of which Bilbo then parcels out to the Lake-men and wood-elves though, as Tolkien tartly observes, the latter ‘may not deserve it’ (a true enough statement based on what he had written about them so far in this book). Even with the major recastings and expansions to come, the linkage between Bilbo’s share and the dragon-slayer’s share (a large part of which gets turned over to the Men of the Lake and the wood-elves) remains, though after these had become two separate characters the scene of Bilbo giving the Gem of Girion (or Arkenstone, as it came to be called) to the character who had replaced him as dragon-slayer had to be invented.

  Finally, the brief passage telling how the dwarves tunnel back through the partially collapsed secret passage ‘and take possession of their old homes’ seems to be our first glimpse of the re-establishment of the Kingdom under the Mountain. As corroboration of this, we are told that Bladorthin and Bilbo set out on the return journey, yet no mention is made of any of the dwarves accompanying them, suggesting that Thorin & Company remain behind at the Lonely Mountain (contrast Plot Notes B, page 366, where this could be inferred but was not actually stated). The deaths of Thorin, Fili, and Kili that darken the penultimate chapter of the published book had not yet arisen; there it is Thorin’s cousin Dain who becomes the new King under the Mountain, but here there is no reason to think that it is anyone other than Thorin himself, finally restored to his full inheritance.

  Chapter XII

  Conversations with Smaug

  The text continues on the same page as before (manuscript page 142, Marq. 1/1/13:1), with only a paragraph break to mark what would later become a new chapter. However, there seems to have been a pause in composition, probably quite brief, after the first sentence; with the words ‘At last Thorin spoke’ a new, darker ink and more deliberate and legible lettering begin.

  The dwarves stood before the door and held long council.

  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 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 by now with Thorin’s style on important occasions. This cert. was one. But Bilbo felt impatient. [He >] By now he was familiar enough with Thorin and knew what he was driving at.

  ‘If you mean you think it is my job to go into the [open tunnel >] secret passage first O Thorin Thrain’s son,TN1 may your beard grow ever longer’ he said crossly. ‘Say so at once and have done! I might refuse. I have got you ought of two messes already which were hardly in our original bargain,TN2 and am I think already owed some reward. But somehow, I hardly think I shall refuse. Perhaps I have begun to trust my luck more than I used to in the old days (– he meant the spring before last, before he left his house, but it cert. seemed centuries ago –). But third time pays for all as my father used to say.TN3 I think I will go and have a peep at once and get it over. Now who’s coming in with me?’

  He did not expect a chorus of volunteers, so he wasn’t disappointed. Fili and Kili looked uncomfortable and stood on one leg. But the others frankly made no pretence about [> 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 come a bit of the way, ready to call for help if needed. [One >] I can at least say this for the dwarves: they intended to pay Bilbo for his services, they had brought him to do a job, and didn’t mind letting the poor little fellow do it; but they would have all done their best at any risk to get him out of trouble if they could [> if he got into it], as they did in the case of the trolls the year before.TN4

  There it is: dwarves aren’t heroes, but commercial-minded; some are [thoroughly bad >] tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Co. if not [filled with >] over high-minded.

  The stars were coming out behind him in a pale sky barred with black, when the hobbit crept through the enchanted doors,TN5 and stole into the M[ountain]. It was far easier going than he expected. This was no goblin-entrance, nor rough wood-elf cave. It was a passage made by dwarves at the height of their wealth and skill: straight as a ruler, smooth-floored and smooth-sided, going [direct >] with a gently never-varying slope direct – to some distant goal in the blackness below. After a while Balin bade Bilbo “good luck”, and stopped, where he could still see the faint outline of the door, and by a trick of the echoes of the tunnel hear the rustle of the whispering voices of the others just outside.

  Then the hobbit slipped on his ring, and warned by the echoes to [be >] take more than hobbit’s care to make no noise [> sound], crept noiselessly down down down into the dark. He was trembling with fear, but his little face was set and grim. Already he was a very different hobbit to the one that had run out without a pockethandkerchief from Bag-end long ago. He hadn’t had pocket hank. for a year. He loosed his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on.

  ‘Now you are in for it at last, Bilbo B.’ he said to himself. ‘You went and put your foot right in it that night of the party, and now you’ve got to pay for it.TN6 Dear me what a fool I was and am’ said the least Tookish part ‘I have absolutely no use for dragon-guarded treasures, and the whole lot could stay here for ever, if only I could wake up and find this beastly tunnel was my own hall at home!’

  He did not wake up, of course, but went on still, and on, till all sign of the door behind had faded away. He was altogether alone. Soon he thought it was beginning to feel warm.

  ‘Is that a kind of glow I see on my right ahead down there?’ he thought. It was. As he went forward it grew and grew, and [> till] there was no doubting it. It was a red light, steadily getting redder and redder. Now it was undoubtedly hot. Wisps of vapour floated up and past him, and he began to sweat. A sound began to throb in his ears, a sort of bubbling – like a large cat [added: purring]TN7 or like a big pot galloping on a fire. It grew to a most unmistakable gurgling snore of some great animal asleep somewhere in the red glow ahead.

  It was this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from that point was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. [Once he had made himself go on to the tunnel’s end nothing else se[emed] >] He fought his real battle in the tunnel alone, before [the d. >] he even really saw this TN8 danger that lay in wait.

  At last you can picture the tunnel ending in a square opening [> a opening of much the same size as the door above].TN9 Through it peeps the hobbit’s little head. Before him lies the great bottommost [dungeon >] cellar or dungeon-hall of the ancient dwarves right at the Mountain’s root. It was nearly dark so that its great size could only be dimly guessed, but rising from the floor there was a great glow. It was the glow of Smaug.

  There he la
y, a vast red-golden dragon fast asleep. A thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him under all his limbs and huge-coiled tail and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels,TN10 and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.

  Smaug lay with wings folded like an immeasurable bat; he lay partly on one side and Bilbo could see his underparts, and his long belly were crusted with gems and fragments of gold stuck into his slime with his long lying on his costly bed. Behind him where the walls were nearest, could dimly be seen coats of mail and axes swords and spears hung, and great jars filled with wealth only to be guessed at.TN11

  To say that Bilbo’s breath was taken away is to say too little. There are no words to express his staggerment.TN12 He had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before,TN13 but the splendour the lust the glory of such treasure had never before come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with the desire of dwarves – and he gazed, almost forgetting the frightful guardian, at the gold, gazed and gazed for what seemed ages, before drawn almost against his will he stole from the shadow of the door, across the floor, to the nearest edge of the mound of treasure. Above him the sleeping dragon lay, a fearful [> dire] menace even in his sleep. He grasped a great two handed cupTN14 as heavy as he could carry; and cast one fearful eye upwards. The dragon stirred a wing, opened a claw, the rumble of his snoring changed its note. Then B. fled. But the dr. did not wake – yet – but shuffled into other dreams of greed and violence, lying there in his stolen hall, while the little hobbit toiled back up the path. His heart was beating faster, and his hands shaking & a more fevered shaking was in his legs than when he was going down; but still he clutched the cup, and his chief thought was ‘Yes I’ve done it! This will show them. More like a grocer than a burglar indeedTN15 – well we’ll hear no more of that.’