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grav_ityAs an aside, because it's an argument that crops up in fic writing, Bilbo is referred to as a "man" twice in the opening chapter, and Balin is referred to by his usual epithet "the look-out man" again in chapter two. Just, you know. Saying.
I always felts a bit cheated by "Roast Mutton" as a kid. It's kind of a false start to the action? Like, if this book was being published now, you'd cold open with Bilbo being awful at his job, and then there'd be a flashback to the Unexpected Party. But that's not really what this chapter is about. This chapter is entirely to let you see how quickly Bilbo learns. Because yes, he screws up in this chapter, but he never makes those mistakes again.
Also, it's only chapter 2, and they've already almost starved to death! I mean, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration because they didn't try hunting or foraging yet, and it's raining, so that makes things extra bleak, but still! They have walked further than they can carry food. I always liked the practicality of this. It comes up a lot in David Eddings' books (though his characters never actually go without food). The other fun part of this chapter is, of course, the part where Fili and Kili almost die (I mean by themselves, not of troll-related incidence), in half a sentence. Poor Fili and Kili! All of their character development takes place in half sentences.
ANYWAY, of the other dwarves we learn: Oin and Gloin start fires! And yell at each other! Bombur and Bifur are hard fighters when pressed (which I think carried into the movie in interesting way, if nothing else), and Thorin says thank you, but he says it with an exclamation point, so he might have been being sarcastic.
Now, sometimes people criticize the dwarves for screwing up by attacking one at a time here, but since they were waiting for Bilbo's signal, which never came, I think we can cut them some slack. At least Thorin used his brain. Obviously this would have been overlong for film, and we got to watch a group fight scene, so I really have no complaints about how this was changed for the movie. Even the substitution of Bilbo stalling for time instead of Gandalf doesn't really bug me, again because we needed to see character development. The only thing I really didn't like is that in the movie when Bilbo goes through the brush you can hear him.
(I get hung up on stupid details. I perhaps should have mentioned that earlier.)
RANDOM ASIDE: When I was four, I didn't realize that Bill was short for William, and so I thought there were FOUR trolls, and I couldn't FOR THE LIFE OF ME explain this to my father (we had a kind of a "who's on first?" routine about it, which is extra funny because THAT IS ALSO WHAT THE TROLLS DO), until we finally got it worked out, and then I learned that my Uncle Bill's name is actually Richard, because WHY THE HECK NOT?
ANYWAY, when that's all over they go get the swords. In the book, the key to the troll caved happened to fall out of William's pocket before he was turned to stone, which I love as one of Those Amazing Coincidences that Gandalf will shrug off entirely until THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE BOOK (but I am getting ahead of myself), and then they take a nap before heading to Rivendell.
I remember being really confused, reading LotR, that Frodo just...passed out and rode a horse into Rivendell. Because in THE HOBBIT it sounds like it's kind of hard to get to. Gandalf is afraid they'll miss the road and die of starvation, and eventually it goes like this:
Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep zig-zag path into Rivendell.
It's enough of a descent that there's a change in temperature (though I suppose you could attribute that to Elrond's ring, except that Tolkien didn't know he had it yet so...maybe not), and if it can be said that the Jackson movies completely nailed anything (for the record, I think they nail a lot of things), it's Rivendell. Well, except for the silly songs that the elves sing, of course. But whatever.
Anyway, we also get the first glimpse of the elf/dwarf stand-off (phrased, like, the NICEST WAY POSSIBLE: dwarves don't like elves because they make fun of their beards), but we don't get to stick around long enough to find out anything (like how they know who Bilbo is! or how they know what the quest is for!), because everyone is really hungry.
Tolkien changed about 100% of Elrond's backstory after this, so I'm not going to touch on it too much.
They stay for quite some time, hilariously not asking about the swords until very close to when they leave, but then Elrond tells everything, including that Glamdring once belonged to Turgon (though he doesn't name him as such). So at least Tolkien had thought about Gondolin a little bit. I've leave off talking more about it until I get to the Sil.
Anyway, then it's all Moon Runes and travel planning, and I think it's neat that ELROND doesn't know what Durin's Day is. Interestingly, Durin's Day is kind of like Easter in that it isn't a stable holiday (because it's dependent upon the moon, not the sun). So they don't even know when (or if!) there will be a Durin's Day in the coming fall. Of course they press on anyway, because: dwarves, but I still think it's an interesting point to consider.
There's quite a bit of fatalism in THE HOBBIT. I'm not keeping count of the times that Gandalf predicts that they will all die (he's done it at least twice, in any case, and we're only to the end of chapter 3!), but that's really only the tip of the iceberg. They have NO PLAN, and this doesn't really seem to BOTHER anyone, because they all kind of think they'll get killed before they even REACH the Mountain. It's very much a "cross that bridge when we get to it" kind of quest, which I kind of like (though just thinking about writing it makes me want to claw my own eyes out). It does pay off (eventually), but in the meantime it does make me snicker.
I always felts a bit cheated by "Roast Mutton" as a kid. It's kind of a false start to the action? Like, if this book was being published now, you'd cold open with Bilbo being awful at his job, and then there'd be a flashback to the Unexpected Party. But that's not really what this chapter is about. This chapter is entirely to let you see how quickly Bilbo learns. Because yes, he screws up in this chapter, but he never makes those mistakes again.
Also, it's only chapter 2, and they've already almost starved to death! I mean, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration because they didn't try hunting or foraging yet, and it's raining, so that makes things extra bleak, but still! They have walked further than they can carry food. I always liked the practicality of this. It comes up a lot in David Eddings' books (though his characters never actually go without food). The other fun part of this chapter is, of course, the part where Fili and Kili almost die (I mean by themselves, not of troll-related incidence), in half a sentence. Poor Fili and Kili! All of their character development takes place in half sentences.
ANYWAY, of the other dwarves we learn: Oin and Gloin start fires! And yell at each other! Bombur and Bifur are hard fighters when pressed (which I think carried into the movie in interesting way, if nothing else), and Thorin says thank you, but he says it with an exclamation point, so he might have been being sarcastic.
Now, sometimes people criticize the dwarves for screwing up by attacking one at a time here, but since they were waiting for Bilbo's signal, which never came, I think we can cut them some slack. At least Thorin used his brain. Obviously this would have been overlong for film, and we got to watch a group fight scene, so I really have no complaints about how this was changed for the movie. Even the substitution of Bilbo stalling for time instead of Gandalf doesn't really bug me, again because we needed to see character development. The only thing I really didn't like is that in the movie when Bilbo goes through the brush you can hear him.
(I get hung up on stupid details. I perhaps should have mentioned that earlier.)
RANDOM ASIDE: When I was four, I didn't realize that Bill was short for William, and so I thought there were FOUR trolls, and I couldn't FOR THE LIFE OF ME explain this to my father (we had a kind of a "who's on first?" routine about it, which is extra funny because THAT IS ALSO WHAT THE TROLLS DO), until we finally got it worked out, and then I learned that my Uncle Bill's name is actually Richard, because WHY THE HECK NOT?
ANYWAY, when that's all over they go get the swords. In the book, the key to the troll caved happened to fall out of William's pocket before he was turned to stone, which I love as one of Those Amazing Coincidences that Gandalf will shrug off entirely until THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE BOOK (but I am getting ahead of myself), and then they take a nap before heading to Rivendell.
I remember being really confused, reading LotR, that Frodo just...passed out and rode a horse into Rivendell. Because in THE HOBBIT it sounds like it's kind of hard to get to. Gandalf is afraid they'll miss the road and die of starvation, and eventually it goes like this:
Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep zig-zag path into Rivendell.
It's enough of a descent that there's a change in temperature (though I suppose you could attribute that to Elrond's ring, except that Tolkien didn't know he had it yet so...maybe not), and if it can be said that the Jackson movies completely nailed anything (for the record, I think they nail a lot of things), it's Rivendell. Well, except for the silly songs that the elves sing, of course. But whatever.
Anyway, we also get the first glimpse of the elf/dwarf stand-off (phrased, like, the NICEST WAY POSSIBLE: dwarves don't like elves because they make fun of their beards), but we don't get to stick around long enough to find out anything (like how they know who Bilbo is! or how they know what the quest is for!), because everyone is really hungry.
Tolkien changed about 100% of Elrond's backstory after this, so I'm not going to touch on it too much.
They stay for quite some time, hilariously not asking about the swords until very close to when they leave, but then Elrond tells everything, including that Glamdring once belonged to Turgon (though he doesn't name him as such). So at least Tolkien had thought about Gondolin a little bit. I've leave off talking more about it until I get to the Sil.
Anyway, then it's all Moon Runes and travel planning, and I think it's neat that ELROND doesn't know what Durin's Day is. Interestingly, Durin's Day is kind of like Easter in that it isn't a stable holiday (because it's dependent upon the moon, not the sun). So they don't even know when (or if!) there will be a Durin's Day in the coming fall. Of course they press on anyway, because: dwarves, but I still think it's an interesting point to consider.
There's quite a bit of fatalism in THE HOBBIT. I'm not keeping count of the times that Gandalf predicts that they will all die (he's done it at least twice, in any case, and we're only to the end of chapter 3!), but that's really only the tip of the iceberg. They have NO PLAN, and this doesn't really seem to BOTHER anyone, because they all kind of think they'll get killed before they even REACH the Mountain. It's very much a "cross that bridge when we get to it" kind of quest, which I kind of like (though just thinking about writing it makes me want to claw my own eyes out). It does pay off (eventually), but in the meantime it does make me snicker.
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Date: 2014-01-11 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-20 12:00 am (UTC)*For more interesting results, consider adding more than one hobbit.
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Date: 2014-01-20 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-20 12:42 am (UTC)(But at the start of The Hobbit it's also implied he got a few of them in trouble before Bilbo. I wish we'd heard a bit more about them.)