The History of the Hobbit

by John D. Rateliff

  ‘Good morning!’ he said at last. ‘We don’t want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over the Hill or across the Water. Good morning!’

  ‘Now I understand what you mean by Good morning’, said Gandalf. ‘You mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good till I move off’.

  ‘Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don’t think I know your name?’

  ‘Yes, yes, my dear sir! But I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you knew my name once, when you were younger and brighter. It is Gandalf, in this part of the world.TN9 Gandalf! Do you hear? To think that I should live to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!’

  ‘Gandalf, Gandalf! Not the old wizard who used to visit the Tooks? Good gracious me! He used to make marvellous fireworks for the Old Took’s parties on Midsummer’s Eve. I remember them! Splendid! They used to go up like great roses and lilies and snapdragons of fire, and hang in the sky like flowers of golden-rain in the twilight!’ Mr. Baggins was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe, and any way he delighted in flowers. ‘Bless me!’ he went on. ‘Not the Gandalf who used to tell such wonderful tales about dragons, and goblins, and giants, and mountains in far countries – and the Sea. They used to send many quiet lads, and lasses, off on adventures, it is said: any mad thing from climbing tall trees to visiting Elves, and even trying to sail in ships’.TN10 Bilbo’s voice fell almost to a whisper. ‘To sail, sail away to the Other Shore. Dear me!’ he sighed. ‘Life used to be quite interest– I mean, you used to upset things badly in the Shire, once upon a time. I beg your pardon, but I had no idea you were still in business’.

  ‘Where else should I be?’ said the wizard. ‘But you have my pardon. Indeed I am pleased, and it is a good morning.TN11 You do remember something about me; and what you say is very promising. For your old grandfather Took’s sake, and for poor Belladonna’s, I will do something for you’.

  ‘You are very kind; but I have not asked for anything, thank you all the same!’

  ‘That doesn’t matter. I have made up my mind. Yes, I think you will do. Yes, I will send you on this adventure. You may be useful; and anyway it will do you good, if you come through’.

  ‘No, no! I am sorry. I don’t want any adventures. Not today, thank you! Good morning!’ Bilbo backed towards his doorstep. ‘But please come to tea, any time you like’, he stammered.TN12 ‘Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good bye!’ With that he scuttled inside his round green door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seem too rude. Wizards are after all wizards.

  Bilbo had only just had breakfast, but he felt that a cake or two and a drink would do him good after his fright. ‘What on earth did I ask him to tea for!’ he said to himself in the pantry. ‘But perhaps he won’t come. I am sure wizards don’t like hobbit-tea’.

  Gandalf in the meantime was still standing deep in thought outside the door. At last he laughed softly, and stepping up with the spike on his staff he scratched a curious sign on the hobbit’s beautiful green door. Then he strode away, just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake and was beginning to think he had escaped adventures very well.

  The next day he had almost forgotten about Gandalf. His letters had brought him much news of his many relations, and some of them were troublesome. And anyway yesterday he had been too upset to mark his invitation on his Engagement Tablet: today, Wednesday, was blank.

  Just before his tea-time there came a tremendous ring of the front-door bell; and then he remembered! He rushed and put on the kettle, and put out another cup and saucer, and an extra cake or two, and ran to the door.

  ‘I am so sorry to keep you waiting!’ he was going to say, when he saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf, with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt and very bright eyes under his dark green hood. As soon as the door was opened, he pushed inside, just as if he had been expected. He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg, and ‘Dwalin at your service!’ he said with a low bow.

  ‘Bilbo Baggins at yours!’ said the hobbit, too surprised to ask any questions for the moment. When the silence that followed had become uncomfortable, he added: ‘I am just about to take tea; pray come and join me’. He was a little stiff, perhaps; but he was not used to having uninvited dwarves come and hang up their things in his hall. Without a word of explanation. That would follow, he hoped.

  They had not been long at the table, in fact they had hardly reached the third cake, when there came another even louder ring at the bell.

  ‘Excuse me!’ said the hobbit, and off he went to the door.

  ‘So you have got here at last!’ he meant to say to Gandalf this time. But it was not Gandalf. Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step, with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been invited.

  ‘I see they have begun to arrive already’, he said when he caught sight of Dwalin’s green hood. He hung his red one next to it, and ‘Balin at your service!’ he said with his hand on his breast.

  ‘Thank you!’ said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to invite them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he – as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it, however painful – he might have to go without.

  ‘Come along in, and have some tea!’ he managed to say after taking a deep breath.

  ‘A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir’, said Balin with the white beard. ‘But I don’t mind some cake – seed-cake, if you have any’.

  ‘Lots!’ Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a beer-mug, and to the small pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes that he had meant to have last thing, before he went to bed.

  When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers). Bilbo plumped down the beer and the cakes in front of them, when loud came a ring at the bell again, and then another ring.

  ‘Gandalf for certain this time’, he thought as he puffed along the passage. But it was not. It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods, silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools and a spade. In they hopped, as soon as the door began to open. Bilbo was hardly surprised at all.

  ‘What can I do for you, my dwarves?’ he said.

  ‘Kili at your service!’ said the one. ‘And Fili!’ added the other; and they both swept off their blue hoods and bowed.

  ‘At yours and your family’s’ replied Bilbo with a bow, remembering his manners this time.

  ‘Dwalin and Balin here already, I see’, said Kili. ‘Let us join the throng!’

  ‘Throng!’ thought Mr. Baggins. ‘I don’t like the sound of that. I really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits. It’s my turn for a drink!’ He had only just had a sip – by the fire, while the dwarves sat round the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins, and the depredations of dragons, and many other things which he did not understand, and did not wish to, for they sounded much too adventurous – when ding-dong-a-ling-dang, his bell rang again, as if some naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

  ‘Someone at the door!’ he said, blinking.

  ‘Some four, I should say by the sound’, said Fili. ‘Besides, we saw them in the distance, coming along behind us’.

  The poor little hobbit sat down in the hall and put his head in his hands, and wondered what had happened, and what was going to happen, and whether they would all stay to supper. Then the bell rang again louder than ever, and he had to run to the door. It was not four after all, it was FIVE. Another dwarf had come up while he was wondering in the hall. He had hardly turned the knob before they were
all inside, bowing and saying ‘at your service’ one after another. Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin and Gloin were their names; and very soon two purple hoods, a grey hood, a brown hood, and a white hood were hanging on the pegs, and off they marched, with their broad hands stuck in their gold and silver belts, to join the others. Already it had almost become a throng.

  Two called for cider, and two called for beer; and Gloin called for old ale. ‘Bring some honey and spices!’ he said. ‘I like mine mulled by the fire’. And all the nine called for more cakes, and for butter as well;TN13 so the poor hobbit was kept very busy for a while.

  Great jugs of beer and cider had been set on the table, Gloin’s ale was in a pan on the fire, the seed-cakes had gone, and the dwarves were busy toasting buttered cake,TN14 when there came – a loud knock. Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on Bilbo’s beautiful green door. Somebody was banging with a stick!

  Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bothered and bewildered – this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other. More dwarves, four more! And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing. He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door, but he had also, by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.

  ‘Carefully! Carefully!’ he said. ‘It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat and then open the door like a trap! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, and especially Thorin!’

  ‘At your service!’ said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, a little coolly, standing in a row. [added: They brought in a large bag, and what looked like sticks wrapped in cloths, which they put in the hall-stand.]TN15 Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue hood with a long liripipeTN16 ending in a silver tassel. This belonged to Thorin, a dwarf of immense dignity, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, renowned in history. He was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo’s mat with his attendants, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, on top of him. For one thing Bombur was enormously fat and heavy. Thorin indeed was very haughty, and he said nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins bowed so low and said he was sorry so many times that at last he grunted ‘pray do not mention it’, and stopped frowning.

  ‘Now we are all here!’ said Gandalf, looking at the row of thirteen hoods, and his own hat and cloak, hanging on the pegs. ‘Quite a merry gathering! I hope there is something left for the late-comers to eat and drink! What’s that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think, for me’.

  ‘And for me’, said Thorin.

  ‘And raspberry jam and pastry’, said Bifur.

  ‘And mince-pie and cheese’, said Bofur.

  ‘And pork-pie and onions’, said Bombur.

  ‘And more cakes, and ale, and cider, if you don’t mind’, called the other dwarves from the parlour.TN17

  ‘Put on a few eggs, there’s a good fellow!’ Gandalf called after him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries. ‘And just bring out the cold chicken and pickles!’TN18

  ‘He seems to know as much about the inside of my lardersTN19 as I do myself!’ thought Mr. Baggins, who was altogether flummoxed, and was beginning to feel alarmed: he wondered whether a most wretched adventure had not come right into his house. By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons, not to mention the food, piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed.

  ‘Confound and bother these dwarves!’ he said aloud. ‘Why don’t they come and lend a hand?’ Lo and behold! there stood Balin and Dwalin at the door of the kitchen, and Fili and Kili behind them; and before he could say knife they had whisked the trays and a couple of small tables into the parlour and set out everything afresh.

  Gandalf sat at the head of the party, with Thorin at his right, and the other twelve dwarves round the joined tables; but Bilbo sat on a stool at the fireside, nibbling at a biscuit (his appetite was quite taken away), and trying to look unconcerned, as if this was all just an everyday affair and not in the least like an adventure. The dwarves ate and ate, and talked and talked, and time got on. At last they pushed their chairs back, and Bilbo made a move to collect the plates and glasses.

  ‘I suppose you will all stay to supper?’ he said in his politest unpressing tones.

  ‘Of course!’ said Thorin. ‘And after. We shall not get through our business till late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!’

  . . . . . .

  At this point, the continuous narrative stops and the text becomes a series of replacement passages, very much like the Phase Four typescript (the 1947 Hobbit material). In each case, Tolkien has provided a page number (using the second edition pagination) and line number as well; a minus sign in front of the line number means lines counted up from the bottom.

  p. 22/bottom line to 23/top.TN20 safe and quick, while the hobbit was turning round like a top in the middle of the kitchen, shouting out directions and trying to see that things were put in the right places.

  p. 23/4 He was blowing enormous smoke-rings

  p. 23/ 22 from inside their jackets; Bombur produced a drum from his bag in the hall; Bifur and BofurTN21 went out too, and came back with the clarinets that they had left . . .

  p. 26/ –2 [2 up] he was so overwhelmed

  p. 27/3 us (even our friend...

  /10–13. important dwarf, and he thought it an important occasion.TN22

  /16 it burst out like the whee of a rocket going up in the sky

  /19 delete magic

  /–7 ‘Excitable little fellowTN23

  /–5 one of the best – as brave as Bandobras at a pinch’. No doubt an exaggeration; but Gandalf was doing his best in a difficult situation. For Bandobras had been the Old Took’s great-granduncle, and usually called Bullroarer. He was so huge (for a hobbit) that he rode a small horse. At the Battle of the Green Fields, when the hobbits were driven back, he charged the ranks of the Goblins of Mount Gram, and smote their king Golfimbul [> Gulfimbul]TN24 to the earth with his great wooden club. So the battle was won, and there had been none since in the Shire. Even the dwarves had heard of Bullroarer Took.

  In the meantime, however, Bullroarer’s gentler relative

  p. 28/13 being brave

  /14 a stone dragon out of an enchanted sleep.TN25

  /20 He looks more of a fool than a burglar

  /23 to be thought brave. As for little fellow puffing on the mat it made his blood hot

  /26 you were a fool

  p. 29/1 strange faces.TN26

  /9 And I assure you there is a mark on this door – the sign we were told to look for: Tracker and Treasure-hunter it means to those who know the Dwarf-runes. Burglar we say in these days; it is shorter. The fees are the same. Gandalf said there was a hobbit of the sort, living quietly in these parts, waiting for a job – needing one soon. Only yesterday he told us he had arranged a meeting here for today. ‘Four o’clock’ he said, ‘but don’t all arrive at once!’

  ‘Of course there was a mark’, said Gandalf. ‘I put it there myself. You asked me to find a treasure-hunter for your expedition, and I chose Mr. Baggins

  /–7 I have chosen Mr. Baggins, and that must be enough for all of you. If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. If I say he needs a job soon, I know what I am talking about. There is a lot more in him than you see, and a deal more than he guesses himself.

  p. 30/3 This was made by Thror, your grandfather, he said to Thorin. Bilbo and the other dwarves gathered round. ‘It is a plan of the Mountain’.

  ‘I don’t see that this will help me much’ said Thorin, after a glance.

  /18 Delete (Look...red). Substitute* and a footnote *See the copy of the plan at the beginning of this book.TN27

  /–6 devouring so many dwarves and most of the Men of Dale’

  p. 30/–4 to 31/ top. ‘It seems a great big hole to me’ said Bilb
o, deeply interested. He loved maps, and in his hall there hung a large one of The Hobbiton Country which he had drawn himself, marking all his favourite walks in red. ‘How could such a large door be kept secret from everybody outside, apart from the dragon?’ he asked. He had of course no experience of dragons, and very little of dwarves.

  ‘In many ways’, said Gandalf.........method, I believe’.TN28

  ‘It is’, said Thorin.

  /–14 ...what to do. We must go east, of course, by as straight roads as we can find, quietly, attracting as little notice as possible – until we come to the Long Lake. After that the trouble will begin’.

  ‘A long while before that’, interrupted Gandalf. ‘Things have not changed for the better since you came to the West. Few roads are straight, and none are safe, and the East is full of danger.’

  ‘From the Long Lake we might go up the Running River’, Thorin went on, taking no notice, ‘and so to the ruins of Dale...

  p. 31/–2 to 32/ top ‘That would be no good’, said the wizard, ‘not even for warriors of the Elder Days, who cannot now be matched.TN29 But we have discussed all that; and anyway we are not looking for a warrior in the Shire: their little swords are blunt; their axes are used for trees, and their bows for small deer.TN30 We decided that you must use stealth; and I chose your helper. Here he is, Bilbo Baggins: the “burglar”, specially selected. So now let us get on’.

  ‘Very well then’, said Thorin, turning to Bilbo with mock-politeness. ‘Let the selected expert give us some ideas and suggestions!’......