The Hobbit: Riddles in the Dark

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HERE WE ARE AT LAST (I kid, I kid. This is CHAPTER FIVE. But also: I am excited!).

So the thing about Riddles in the Dark is that it was my DEFINING MOMENT for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Into Dwarf Feelings. I didn't have really strong opinions about anything else (though I got a few very pleasant surprises, like PLATES and Elrond), but this was the one scene that I wanted, more than anything, to look like what I've been imagining all these years. AND THEN IT WAS PERFECT! Everything was perfect. Andy Serkis's swan song was beautiful and Bilbo even lost his goddamn buttons, and I have ZERO COMPLAINTS.

That's totally not what I am about to talk about.

Four-year-old Kate was a bit confused by this chapter (four-year-old Kate was confused a lot, btw. Because she was FOUR), because I never thought Bilbo did anything wrong. Or even a little dishonest. I mean, yeah, he probably stretched the rules of the Riddle Game about as far as he could, but GOLLUM WAS GOING TO KILL HIM. I thought he was okay.

I should also note that approximately half of my copies of THE HOBBIT are designated as the "revised edition", where three changes were made: on pages 19 and 53 the text was made to match Thror's map, the explanation of the mix-up/not real mix-up wtr which of Thror or Thrain was Thorin's father is explained, and, last of all, Riddles in the Dark has been corrected.

None of those things are real mistakes.

The first two are just Tolkien playing around withe fake academia, which is always fun, but the bit about Riddles in the Dark makes me heart sing, because there's a whole thing about how Gandalf had to make Bilbo (the phrase used is actually "under pressure") tell him the truth, so it could be corrected from Bilbo's diary (a "true" version also appears in the Red Book, under the same coercion).

Now, I assume most people fly right past that note (it's before the map in my most of my copies, and not included with the "notes on translation" that some of my copies have either), when it's actually something of SUPREME IMPORTANCE. We talked about fishhooks yesterday, and of every hook Tolkien ever planted, the Ring is the most obvious (in hindsight), but what is the most stunning, to me, is that subtle little note in this version of the book.

Bilbo lied. He lied to the dwarves and to Gandalf, and then he lied to HIMSELF about how he had come by the Ring. And he hadn't stolen it. But the Ring made him obsessed with the idea that he had, so he went to extreme measures to make it look like he hadn't, which is what raised Gandalf's suspicion in the first place. The Ring made Smeagol commit murder almost immediately, and it also began to work on Bilbo right away, and we see it work on people who aren't even TOUCHING it, but once I figured out what was happening, I really liked Bilbo's "portent".

It's something I use in THE STORY OF OWEN. Well, not so much in OWEN as in the sequel. Siobhan tells a lie in that story that not even emmaorgana knows about! Using a book to write another book is hard (says the girl who's never done it), but I love reading it, and I love the fake academia even more.

(There's a whole thing with Eru and Melkor here, that we'll talk about later, but basically we can see the forces of good (Bilbo finding the Ring) working, even as the forces of evil are messing things up. When Melkor started singing, and intentionally made everything sound bad, Eru was all "Oh, you petty thing. I will TAKE your dischordant notes, and I will make them work for me!", and then continued to do this every time Melkor did anything. So even Evil victories (The Ring screwing up Bilbo basically forever) aren't as permanent as the good that Good manages to make out of them. Which I really like. And I am getting ahead of myself again.)

Oh, and also Bilbo loses his buttons but manages to KEEP HIS PIPE through the whole thing, which I just love (there's a scene where Merry whips out his pipe, having just been carried by an Ent and kidnapped by uruks, and the people I was with at the theatre were all "REALLY?" and I was all "HOBBITS, MAN. FREAKING HOBBITS."

Comments

[shirebound]

LOL, I love all that stuff about the pipes, too. I wonder if the Professor and his friends tried to hang onto small, treasured possessions (like pipes) during their war experiences.

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And he's so upset when he can't smoke!

[lferion]

My defining moment was the Misty Mountains song, because that bit in the book, that song, is one of those THINGS for me, and has been since I was 4-almost-5 and my mother read the book to me. So I totally get how Riddles in the Dark could be.

Loving your commentary here!

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The weird thing is that it's totally not my favourite part of the BOOK. It's just REALLY IMPORTANT, both to me, to the plot, and to other plots. ;)