Nor did he. To do Balin justice he was overjoyed, [when he >] to see Bilbo again. Fill[ed] with [great delight > delight greater than >] delight as great as his surprise, and as great as his fear when he said goodbye. He picked Bilbo up indeed and carried him out to the open air. It was midnight. Clouds had masked the stars, and Bilbo sat gasping, taking pleasure only in the fresh air again, and hardly noticing the excitement of the dwarves, or how they praised him and patted him on the back, and put themselves and all their families for generations to come at his service.
A vast rumbling woke suddenly in the mountain underneath, as if it had been an extinct volcano that was suddenly [> unexpectedly] making up its mind to start eruptions once again.TN16 The door was pulled nearly to, and blocked with a stone – they had not dared to risk closing it altogether – but up the long tunnel came the deep far echoes of a bellowing and a tramp that made the ground beneath them tremble.
Then the dwarves [stopped >] forgot their joy and their own confident boasts of a moment before, and cowered down in fright. Smaug was still to be reckoned with. It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your count if you live near him. Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they knew it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long possession: Smaug was no exception. He had passed from an uneasy dream in which a small warrior, altogether insignificant in size, but provided with a bitter sword, and great courage, figured most unpleasantly,TN17 to a doze, and from a doze to wide waking. There was a breath of strange air in his cave. Cd there be a draught from that little hole? He had never felt quite happy about that hole, yet it was so small, but now he [liked it >]TN18 did not like the look of it at all. He stirred and missed his cup. Thieves fire murder! Such a thing had not happened since he first came there. His rage passes description – the sort of rage that is only seen when folk that have more than they can enjoy, suddenly lose something they have had before but have never before used or wanted. His fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain’s roots. He thrust his head in vain at the little hole, and then coiling his length together, roaring like thunder underground he sped from his deep lair out through its great door, out and up towards the Front Gate.
To hunt the whole mountain till he [found >] caught the thief and burned and trampled him was his one thought. He issued from the gate, the water rose in fierce whistling steam, as up he soared into the air and settled on the mountain top in a spurt of flame. The dwarves heard the awful rumour of his flight. They ran and crouched against the rock walls of the grass terrace,
It was a terrible time. The worst they had ever been through. The horrible sound of the dragon’s anger [added: was] echoing in the stony hollows far above; at any moment he might come down this side or fly whirling round; and there they were near the cliffs edge hauling like mad on the ropes. Up came Bofur and still all was safe; up came Bombur [added in pencil: puffing & blowing while the ropes creaked], and still all was safe; up came their [> some] bundles of tools and stores that had been left below – and danger came upon them. A whirringTN21 roar was heard. A red light touched the points of standing rocks. The dragon was upon them.
They had barely time to get back in the tunnel. pulling and dragging in their bundles when Smaug came whirling from the North licking the mountain wall with flames,TN22 beating his great wings with a noise like roaring wind.
His hot breath shrivelled the grass [in the >] before the door, and drove in through the crack and scorched them as they lay hid. Red light leapt up and black rock shadows danced. Then darkness fell as he flew south [> passed]. The [horses >] ponies shrieked with terror and galloped off for they were free. The dragon swooped & turned and hunted them.
‘That’ll be the end of our poor beasts’ said Thorin. ‘Nothing can escape him once he sees it.’ They crept further down the tunnel, and there they lay and shivered till the dawn, hearing ever and anon the roar of the flying dragon grow and pass and fade as he hunted all the mountain sides. He guessed from the horses and from the tracks of the dwarves and their camps he had seen that menTN23 had come up from the lake by the river and scaled the mountain side [
The dwarves even so [did not yet >] were not yet in the mood give up their quest; nor could they fly yet [added in pencil: had they wished]. The ponies were lost or killed, and they dare not march standing in the open while the dragon’s wrath was still burning. They grumbled as is the nature of folk at Bilbo, of course, blaming him for what they had at first so praised him – for bringing away a cup and stirring up Smaug’s wrath.
‘What else do you suppose a burglar is to do?’ said Bilbo ‘I was not engaged to kill dragons, that’s warrior’s work, but steal treasure. [if you >] Did you expect me to trot back with the whole treasure of Thror on my back!’
The dwarves, of course, saw the sense of this; and begged his pardon. ‘What do you propose we shd. do now, Mr Baggins?’ said Thorin politely. ‘Stay where we are by day and creep in the tunnel by night’ said the hobbit ‘– in the meantime I will creep down and see what the dragon is doing [> Smaug is up to], if you like’.
This was too good an offer to be refused. [So when evening came with as yet >] So Bilbo got ready for another journey in the Mountain. He chose daytime this time, thinking Smaug would not rest for long, nor stay indoors for many a night – if he was to be caught napping (figuratively speaking: Bilbo had no thought of [added: really] catching him, of course!) about midday was the most likely time.
All the same it was as dark as night-time in the tunnel. The light from the door – almost closed behind him – soon failed as he went down. So silent was Bilbo’s creeping that smoke on a gentle wind could hardly have beaten it, and he was inclined to feel a bit proud of himself as he drew near the lower door. The glow was very faint this time
‘Old Smaug is weary and asleep’ he thought. ‘[He’ll neither hear nor >] He can’t see me, and he won’t hear me. Cheer up Bilbo’.
Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, almost deadTN24 and dark with scarcely a rumble or a snore, as Bilbo peeped from the entrance. He was just about to step out on the floor, when he caught a sudden thin piercing ray of red from under the lids of the dragon’s closed eyes [> the closed eyes of Smaug]. He was only pretending to sleep! He was watching the tunnel entrance.
Bilbo stepped back and [<?thanked> >] blessed the luck of his ring.TN25 Then Smaug spoke.
‘Well thief – I smell you, and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! help yourself again. There is plenty and to spare.’
‘No thank you O Smaug the tremendous!’ said Bilbo. ‘I did not come to take anything. I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them.’
‘Do you now?’ said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it.
‘Truly songs and tales fall short of the truth O Smaug chiefest and greatest of calamities’ said Bilbo.
‘You have nice manners for a [lying >] thief and a liar’ said the dragon. ‘You seem familiar with my name – but I don’t seem to remember smelling you before. Who are you, and where do you come from may I ask?’
‘[I am he
<
br /> ‘So I can well believe’ said Smaug, ‘but that is hardly your name.’TN26
[added in left margin: ‘I am the clue-finder the web-cutter the stinging fly, the’]
‘Lovely titles’ sneered Smaug.
‘[I am barrel-rider > I am friend >] I am he that buries his friends alive, that drowns them and [fishes them from water >] draws them alive from the water. I am come from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.’ [added in left margin: ‘[Those are not >] These don’t sound so creditable’ scoffed Smaug.] ‘I am [barrel-rider >] the friend of bears and eagles. I am ring winner & luck wearer, and I am Barrel-rider,’ went on Bilbo.
[added, crowded in at end of paragraph: ‘That’s better’ said Smaug. ‘But don’t let your imagination run away with you.’]
This of course is the way to talk to Dragons if you don’t wish to reveal your name (which is wise), and don’t want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also wise). No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk, and of wasting time trying to understand it. There was a lot here Smaug didn’t understand at all,TN27 but he thought he understood enough and chuckled in his wicked inside – ‘Lake-men, some nasty scheme of those nasty pier
[Nor >] ‘Very well O Barrel-rider’ he said. ‘Perhaps “barrel” is your pony’s name. You may walk unseen, but you did not walk all the way. Let me tell you I ate six ponies last night, and shall [
‘Dwarves!?’ said Bilbo in pretend surprise.
‘[Yes >] Don’t
‘I suppose you got a fair price for that cup last night – come now did you? Nothing at all! Well that’s just like them. And I suppose they are skulking outside, and your job is to do all the dangerous work, and get what you can when I’m not looking – for them? And you will get a fair share? Don’t you believe it. If you get off alive you will be lucky.’
Bilbo was beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug’s roving eye, seeking ever for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled; and an unaccountable desire to reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug would seize hold of him. He was coming under the dragon-spell;TN29 but plucking up courage he spoke again.
‘You don’t know everything O Smaug the mighty’ said he. ‘Not gold alone brought us hither’.
‘Ha ha! you admit the “us”’ said Smaug ‘– why not say us fourteen and be done with it. I am very pleased to hear that you had other business in these parts, besides my gold. Perhaps you will then not altogether waste your time. I don’t know if it has occurred to you, but if you could steal all the gold bit by bit – a matter of a hundred years or so – you couldn’t get it very far. Not much use on the mountain side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me – had you never thought of the catch! A fourteenth share I suppose or something like – that were the term eh. But what about delivery, what about cartage.’ And Smaug laughed. He had a wicked and [a] wily heart. He knew his guesses were not far out.
You will hardly believe it but poor Bilbo was really very taken aback. So far all their [> his] thoughts and energies had been concentrated on getting to the Mountain and finding the entrance. He had hardly even thought of how the treasure was to be removed, certainly never of how any part of it was to reach Bag-End Under Hill. Now a nasty suspicion began to cross his mind – had the dwarves forgotten this important point too, or were they, or were they laughing in their sleeves all the time? That is
‘I tell you’ he said in an
Then Smaug really did laugh – A devastating sound which shook Bilbo to the floor, while far up in the tunnel the dwarves huddled together and imagined the hobbit had come to a sudden end.
‘Revenge’ he snorted and the red light lit the hall from floor to ceiling like scarlet lightning. ‘The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare take revenge. Girion lord of Dale is dead and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where are his sons’ sonsTN32 who dare approach me. I kill where I wish and none dares resist. I laid low warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was young. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong – thief in the shadows’ – he gloated. ‘My armour is like tenfold shields, [my feet like >] my teeth are swords my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunder bolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!’TN33
‘I have always understood’ murmured Bilbo in an astonished squeak ‘that dragons were tender underneath, especially in the region of the – er chest; but doubtless one so fortified has thought of that.’
The dragon stopped short in his boasts ‘Your information is antiquated’ he snapped. ‘I am armoured above and below; with iron scales and hard gems. No blade can pierce me.’
‘I might have guessed it’ said Bilbo ‘– truly there can be no equal of Smaug the impenetrable. [Nor any waistcoat >] What wealth to possess a waistcoat of fine diamonds!’
‘Yes it is rare and wonderful indeed’ said Smaug absurdly pleased. He did not know that Bilbo had already had a glimpse of his peculiar adornment & was only itching for a closer view. He rolled over ‘look’ he said ‘– what do you say to that.’
‘[Absolutely Perfectly dazzling >] Dazzlingly marvellous. Perfect. Flawless. Staggering.’ said Bilbo, but what he thought was ‘Old fool, and there is great patch in
‘Well really I must not detain you any longer’ he said aloud, ‘or hinder your much needed rest. Ponies take some catching, I am told after a long start. And so do burglars’ he added as a parting shot. Rather an unfortunate one for the dragon spouted flames after him, and fast as he ran up the tunnel, he had not gone far enough before the ghastly head of Smaug was [pressed >] thrust into the opening – no more would go – and fire and vapour pursued him and nearly overcame him.
He had been feeling rather pleased with his conversation with Smaug, but this [> his] mistake at the end shook him into better sense. ‘Don’t laugh at live dragons Bilbo my boy’ he said, & a sound remark too. ‘You aren’t through this adventure yet.’ That was equally true.
Inserted into the text at this point is a rider (manuscript page ‘151b’), seven paragraphs written on the back of the same page; the original page thereby changed from being ‘151’ to being broken between ‘151a’ (the two paragraphs before this point) and ‘151c’ (the rest of the page following it) by Tolkien. This full page of additional text must have been added by Tolkien after he had finished the chapter, or else he would not have needed to resort to the unorthodox numeration or have drafted this on the back of a sheet; as noted earlier, all this section of the story, from manuscript page 119 (the capture by wood-elves) to 167 (the scene on Ravenhill), was written only on the front of each sheet, rather than on front and back as had been the case before (with the bulk of the Second Phase, manuscript pages 13–118) and after (the Third Phase manuscript pages with new numeration 1–45 concluding the book). Since it introduces the idea of the thrush learning of the immediate threat Smaug now poses to Lake Town, the information that some of the men of Dale could understand bird-spee
ch, and the essential detail of Smaug’s exposed weak spot, it must have been added after Smaug’s death scene on manuscript page 155 (1/1/15: 3), where none of these details initially appear, and at the same time as the paragraph added to the bottom of that page incorporating all those details (see page 549).
The afternoon was getting late when he came out again. The dwarves were all sitting on the ‘doorstep’ and were delighted to see him, and made him sit down and tell them all that had passed.
But Bilbo was worried and uncomfortable – he was regretting some of the things he had said and did not like confessing [> repeating] them. The old thrush was sitting on a rock near by with his head cocked on one side [added in margin: listening to all that was said] and Bilbo crossly threw a stone at him; but he only fluttered out of the way and came back.
‘Drat the bird!’ said Bilbo ‘I don’t like the look of him.’
‘Leave him alone’ said Thorin. ‘The thrushes are friendly – this is a very old bird, probably one of those that used to live here tame to the hands of my father and grandfather – they were a long lived and magical breed. The dwarves and the men of Dale used to have the trick of understanding their language and use them for messengers to fly to the Lake-town.’TN34
‘Well he will have news to take there if he likes’ now said Bilbo. ‘Why what has happened?’ cried the dwarves ‘Get on with your tale’ So B. told them – and he [told them > confessed a fear that
The History of the Hobbit Page 63
