The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  All Tolkien’s substitutions are preceded by a page and line number indicating exactly where each correction should be inserted into the existing (first edition) text. I have retained these, since even for those without access to a copy of the first or second edition they give a proportional sense of where a passage may be found. In any case, it should be easy for anyone familiar with Tolkien’s book in any of its permutations to locate these passages. Since this material transforms what was already an impressive chapter into one of the most moving and memorable scenes Tolkien ever wrote, I have provided unusually full annotation for this section, giving variations between the fair copy and the typescript (and proof pages) in the Text Notes, aside from changes in punctuation or paragraph breaks.

  The fair copy page has no title, but in the left margin of the first page (Ad.Ms.H.34) Tolkien has hastily written in pencil:

  (i)

  Proposed correction of Hobbit to simplify Sequel (Gollum does not give ring).

  The typescript (Ad.Ms.H.77) has the following header instead:

  Corrections required in THE HOBBIT in order to bring the story into line with the sequel, THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

  Above this is written in ink:

  or rather if The Hobbit ran so the Sequel would be a little easier to as a narrative (in Ch II), though not necessarily ‘truer’.

  – that is, Chapter II in The Lord of the Rings, i.e. ‘The Shadow of the Past’ (or, as to give it its original title, ‘Ancient History’). I now give the fair copy manuscript, beginning on page Ad.Ms.H.34.

  p. 85 1. 9. Before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down into the dark under the mountains.TN2

  1. 25–26. We does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yesTN3

  p. 91 l. [14>]15ff.TN4 He knew, of course, that the riddle-game was sacred and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures were afraid to cheat when they played at it. But he felt [cancelled: that] he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise at a pinch. Any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient rules.TN5

  But at any rate Gollum did not at once attack him. He could see the sword in Bilbo’s hand. He sat still, shivering and whispering. At last Bilbo could wait no longer.

  ‘Well?’ he said. ‘What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way’.

  ‘Did we say so, precious? Show the nasty little [noser >] bagginsTN6 the way out, yes, yes. But what has it got in its pocketses, eh? Not string, precious, but not nothing. Oh no! gollum’.

  ‘Never you mind’, said Bilbo. ‘A promise is a promise’.

  ‘Cross it is, precious, impatient’,TN7 hissed Gollum. ‘But it must wait, yes it must. We can’t go up the tunnels so hasty. We must go and get some things first, yes, things to help us’.

  ‘Well, hurry up!’ said Bilbo, relieved to think of Gollum going away. He thought he was just making an excuse, and did not mean to come back. What was Gollum talking about? What useful thing could he keep out on the dark lake? But he was wrong. Gollum did meant to come back. He was angry now and hungry. And he was a miserable wicked creature, and already he had a plan.TN8

  Not far away was his island, of which Bilbo knew nothing, and there in his hiding-place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful. He had a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring.

  ‘My birthday-present!’ he whispered to himself, as he had often done in the endless dark day.TN9 ‘That’s what we wants now, yes; we wants it!’

  He wanted it because it was a ring of power, and if you slipped [it >] that ring on your finger, you were invisible; only in the full sunlight could you be seen, and then only by your shadow, and that would be faint and shaky.TN10

  [Who knows >] ‘My birthday-present’ he whispered;TN11 but who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world. Perhaps even the Necromancer [> Master]TN12 who made them could not have said. Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole in the rock on his island, and went back [> was always going back] to look at it. And still sometimes he put it on, when he could not bear to be parted from it any longer, or when he was very, very, hungry, and tired of fish. Then he would creep along dark passages, looking for stray goblins. He might even venture into places where the torches were lit and made his eyes blink and smart; for he would be safe, oh yes, quite safe. No one would see him, no one would notice him, till he had his fingers on their throat. Only yesterday [> a few hours before]TN13 he had worn it, and caught a small goblin-imp. How it squeaked! He still had a bone or two left to gnaw, but he wanted something softer.

  ‘Quite safe, yes’, he whispered [added: to himself]. ‘It won’t see us, will it my precious? No! It won’t see us, and its nassty little sword will be useless, yes quite’TN14

  That is what was in his wicked little mind, as he slipped suddenly from Bilbo’s side, and flapped back to his boat, and went off into the dark.

  Bilbo thought he had heard the last of him, and he Gollum did not meant to keep his promise.TN15 Still he waited [added: a while;] for he had no idea how to find his way out alone. Suddenly he heard a screech. It sent a shiver down his back. Gollum was cursing and wailing away in the gloom, not very far off by the sound of it. He was on his island, scrabbling here and there, searching and seeking in vain.

  ‘Where iss it? Where iss it?’TN16 Bilbo heard him crying. ‘Lost it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us, and crush us, my precious is lost!’

  ‘What’s the matter’, Bilbo called. ‘What have you lost?’

  ‘It mustn’t ask us’, [screech >] shrieked Gollum. ‘Not its business, no, gollum. It’s lost,TN17 gollum, gollum, gollum’.

  ‘Well, so am I’, said [> cried] Bilbo, ‘and I want to get unlost. And I won the game, and you promised. So come along! Come and let me out, and then go on with your looking!’ Utterly miserable as Gollum sounded, Bilbo could not find much pity in his heart, and he had a feeling that anything Gollum wanted so much [cancelled: and missed so badly] could hardly be something good [cancelled: – for Gollum at any rate].TN18 ‘Come along!’ he shouted.

  ‘No, not yet, precious!’ said Gollum [> Gollum answered]. ‘We must search for it, it’s lost, gollum’.

  ‘But you [promised >] never guessed my last question, and you promised’, said Bilbo.

  ‘Never guessed!’ said Gollum. Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss. ‘What has it got in its pocketses? Tell us that. It must tell us first’.TN19

  As far as Bilbo knew, there was no particular reason why he should not tell – Gollum’s mind had jumped to a guess quicker than his: naturally, for Gollum had brooded on one thing for ages, and he was always afraid of it being stolen.TN20 But Bilbo was annoyed at the delay; after all he had won the game, pretty fairly, and among awkward circumstances [> at a horrible risk]. ‘Answers were to be guessed not given’, he said.

  ‘But it wasn’t a fair question’, said Gollum. ‘Not a riddle, precious, no!’

  ‘Oh well, if it’s a matter of ordinary questions’ Bilbo replied, ‘then I asked one first. What have you lost? Tell me that!’

  ‘What has it got in its pocketses?’ The sound came hissing loud and sharp [> louder and sharper], and as he looked towards it, to his alarm Bilbo saw now [> now saw] two small points of light peering at him. As suspicion grew in Gollum’s mind, the light of his eyes burned with a pale flame.

  ‘What have you lost?’ Bilbo persisted.

  But now the light in Gollum’s eyes had become a green fire, and it was coming swiftly nearer. Gollum was in his boat again, paddling wildly back to the dark shore; and such a rage [in his heart that >] of fear and suspicion in his heartTN21 that no sword held any more terror for him.

  Bilbo could not gu
ess what had excited the wretched creature , but he saw that all was up, and that Gollum had forgotten all promises.TN22 Just in time he turned and ran blindly back up the [added: dark] passage down which he had come, keeping close to the wall and feeling it with his left hand.

  ‘What has it got in its pocketses?’ he heard the hiss loud behind him, and the splash as Gollum leaped from his boat.TN23

  ‘What have I, I wonder?’ he said to himself, as he panted and stumbled along. He put his [added: left] hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it [added: quietly] slipped on to his groping forefinger.TN24

  The hiss was close behind him. He turned and saw Gollum’s eyes like small green lamps coming up the slope. Terrified he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor and fell flat, with his little sword under him.

  At that moment Gollum came up. But before Bilbo could do anything shout, pick himself up, wave his sword, Gollum passed on, taking no notice of him, cursing and whispering in the dark.TN25

  What could it mean? Gollum could see in the dark. Bilbo could see the light of eyes palely shining even from behind. Painfully he got up,TN26 and very cautiously he followed. There seemed nothing else to do. It was no good crawling back down to Gollum’s water. Perhaps, if he followed him, Gollum might lead him to some way of escape without meaning to.

  ‘Curse it, curse it, curse it!’ hissed Gollum. ‘Curse it [> the Baggins]! It’s gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess[es], we guess, my precious.TN27 He’s found it, yes he must have, my birthday-present.

  Bilbo pricked up his ears. [This was so interesting >] He was [added: at last] beginning to guess himself. He hurried a little, getting as close as he dared behind Gollum, who was still going quickly, not looking back, but turning his head from side to side, as Bilbo could see from the faint glimmer on the walls.

  ‘My birthday-present! Curse it! How did we lose it, my precious? Yes, that’s it, when we came this way yesterdayTN28 catching that nassty little squeaker. That’s it. Curse it. It slipped from us, after all these ages and ages. It’s gone, gollum!

  Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to weep, a wheezing and gurgling sound [> a whistling and gurgling sound horrible to listen to]. Bilbo halted, and flattened himself against the tunnel-wall; and hid his sword, which was now glowing faintly again.TN29 [Then Gollum began to curse >] After a while Gollum stopped weeping and began to talk. He seemed to be having an argument with himself.

  ‘It’s no good going back there to search, no. We can’t [> doesn’t] remember all the places we’ve visited. And it’s no use. It’s [> The baggins has] got it in its pocketses; the nassty noser has, we says [> the nassty noser has found it].’

  ‘We guesses, precious, only guesses. We can’t know till we finds the nasty creature and squeezes it.’

  ‘But if it’s got in its <?pocketses>, we shan’t find it, we shan’t see it. It’ll escape us, gollum! It’ll go away, away with our present, gollum!’

  ‘Perhaps, precious. But it doesn’t know about the present.TN30 It doesn’t know what the present can do, does it! It’ll just leaveTN31 it in its pocketses. It doesn’t know; and it can’t go far – it’s losst itself, the nassty nosey thing. It doesn’t know the way out. It said so.’

  ‘It said so, yes; but it’s tricksy. It doesn’t say what it means. It won’t say what it’s got in its pocketses. It knows. It’s off now, we guess, to the back-door, yes to the back door.’TN32

  ‘The goblins[es] will catch it then. It can’t get out that way, precious.’

  ‘Sss, sss, gollum! [added in pencil: Goblinses!] Yes, but if it’s got the present, our precious present, then goblins[es] will get it, gollum! They’ll find it, they’ll find out what it does. We shan’t ever be safe again, never, gollum. One of the goblins[es] will put it on, and [then] no one will see him. He’ll be there but not seen. Not even our clever eyeses will notice him; and he’ll [creep >] come creepsy and tricksy and catch us: Gollum, gollum!’

  ‘Then let’s stop talking, precious, and make haste. If [> the baggins has] gone that way we must go quick and see. Go! Not far now. Make haste!’

  With a spring Gollum got up and started shambling off at a great pace. Bilbo hurried after him, still as cautiously as he could [> cautiously], though his chief fear now was of tripping on another snag and falling with a noise. His head was in a whirl of hope and wonder. It seemed that the ring he had was a magic ring: it made you invisible! He had heard of such things, of course, in old old tales; but he found it hard to believe [> it was hard to believe] that he really had found one, by accident. Still, there it was: Gollum with his bright eyes had passed him by, only a yard to one side.

  On they went, Gollum flip-flapping ahead, wailing [> hissing] and cursing; Bilbo behind going as softly as a hobbit can. Soon they came to places where, as Bilbo had noticed on the way down, [added: side-] passages opened, this way and that. Gollum began at once to count them.

  ‘One left, yes! One right, yes! Two left, yes, yes! Two right, yes, yes’;TN33 and so on and on. As the count grew, [he began before to get slow >] he slowed down, and he began to get shaky and weepy. For they were [> he was] leaving the water further and further behind, and he was getting afraid. Goblins were [> might be] about, and he had lost his ring.

  At last he stopped by a low opening, on their left as they went up. ‘Six [> Seven] right, yes; four [> six] left, yes!’TN34 he whispered. ‘[That’s it >] This is it. This is the way to the back door, yes. Here’s the passage. [added: He peered in and shrank back] But we dursn’t go in, precious; no we dursn’t. Goblins[es] down there, lots of goblins [> Goblinses]! We smells them – sss!’

  ‘What shall we do, curse them and crush them? We must wait here precious, wait a bit and see!’TN35

  So they came to a dead stop. Gollum had brought Bilbo to the way out after all, but he [> Bilbo] could not get in! There was Gollum sitting humped up right in the opening, and his eyes gleamed cold in his head, as he swayed it from side to side between his knees.

  Bilbo crept out from the wall more quietly than a mouse; but Gollum stiffened at once, and he sniffed; and his eyes went green. He hissed softly but menacingly. He could not see the hobbit, but other senses he had, sharpened too by the darkness: hearing and smell. Now he seemed to be crouched right down with his flat hands splayed on the floor [added: and his head thrust out, nose almost to the stone]. Though he was only a black shadow in the gleam of his own eyes, Bilbo could see or feel that he was tense as a bow string, gathered for a spring.TN36

  Bilbo stopped breathing and went stiff himself. He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness, while he had any strength left. Thoughts flashed through his mind. He must fight. He must stab Gollum, kill the foul orc-,TN37 put his eyes out, kill him. It meant to kill him. But no, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually tried to kill him yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart; a glimpse of endless unmarked days [of >] without light, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. He trembled. All this passed in his mind in a flash of a second. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a sudden strength and resolve, he leaped.TN38

  No great leap perhaps for a man, but a leap in the dark. Straight over Gollum’s head he sprang [> jumped], about seven feet forward and three in the air: indeed he only just missed cracking his skull, had he known it, on the low arch of the passage.TN39

  Gollum threw himself backwards and as the hobbit fledTN40 over, but too late: his hands snapped on thin air, and Bilbo falling fair on his sturdy feet sped off down the new passage [> tunnel]. He did not turn to see what Gollum was doing. There was a hissing and a cursing almost at his heels at first, then it stopped. Suddenly [> All at once] there was [> came] a bloodcurdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair. Gollum was beaten [> defeated]. He dared go no further. He
had lost: lost his prey, and lost too the only thing he had ever cared for: his precious. The cry brought Bilbo’s heart to his mouth, but still he held on. Now faint like [> as] an echo, but menacing the voice came behind:

  ‘Thief, thief, thief! [added: baggins!] We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever.’TN41

  Then there was a silence. But that too seemed menacing to Bilbo. ‘If Goblins are so near that he smelt them’ he thought, ‘then they’ll have heard his shrieking and cursing. Careful now, or this will [> this way will] lead you to worse things’. The passage was low and roughly made. It was not too difficult for the hobbit, except when in spite of all care he stubbed his poor toes [once again >] again, several times, on nasty jagged stones [cancelled: in the floor, but it must have been a bit too low for goblins.] ‘A bit low for goblins, at least for the big ones’, thought Bilbo, not knowing that even the big ones, the orcs of the mountains, are used to that sort of thing [> go along at great speed stooping low with their hands almost on the floor].TN42

  Soon the passage, that had been sloping down, began to go up again, and after a while it climbed steeply. That slowed Bilbo down. But at last the slope stopped, the passage turned a corner, and dipped down again, and there at the bottom of a short incline he saw, filtering round another corner – a glimmer of light. Not red light as of fire or lantern, but [a] pale ordinary out-of-doors sort of light. Then he began to run. Scuttling along as fast as his legs would carry him he turned the last corner and came suddenly right into an open place, where the light, after all that time in the dark, seemed dazzlingly bright. Really it was only a leak of sunshine in through a doorway, where a great door, a stone door, was left standing a little open.TN43

  Bilbo blinked, and then suddenly he saw the goblins: goblins in full armour with drawn swords sitting just inside the door, and watching it with wide eyes, and watching the passage that led to it. They were aroused, alert, ready for anything.