The Hobbit Calendar Project

[librislove]

I too love it, Lindariel. And these same trolls will be back for an encore (though unwilling and unwitting) in LOTR, even as the Company heads toward Rivendell and Elrond--on the edges of this story and so central to the next. And Tolkien somehow managed to link this all up backward and forward. . . .

[Iolanthe]

June 4: TA 2941
They ford the Bruinen and reach Rivendell at dusk.




Although he wouldn’t have believed it in the morning, 4 June was to be a very important day for Bilbo. He has his first sight of mountains and realises how long a journey he’s agreed to go on when he discovers that he’s not looking at the Lonely Mountain, but only the start of the Misty Mountains that bar their way. He feels at a low ebb and longs for home. But Rivendell awaits – surely one of Tolkien’s most magical places – and, did he but know it, one day he would be just as heartsick at home, longing for the mountains and Rivendell.

Rivendell is hidden from them, not by magic but miraculously by the very landscape itself. Even Gandalf has trouble finding it, searching out the white stones that mark the path. And so Thorin’s party descend to The Last Homely House – at once comforting (‘Homely’) and unsettling (‘Last’): there is nothing homely to be expected after it.

As the party reach the Bruinen they hear elves singing in the trees. But these aren’t the noble, merry and sometimes fearsome elves we now associate with Tolkien. They are certainly merry but they are also teasing, mischievous and sing jolly rhymes. They are even rude. They are, in fact, the kind of elves that young children expect to meet, the kind of elves Tolkien’s own children liked to hear about. But for today’s Tolkien readers who have known Galadriel and the elves of Lothlorien, hearing them call ‘Just look! Bilbo the Hobbit on a pony, my dear! Isn’t it delicious!’ is a strange experience. Young first-time readers in the 1930’s probably would never have wanted or expected anything different from their elves.

The Elves direct them to the bridge which leads to Rivendell. In this tale, Tolkien tells us very little about this wonderful place. He says ‘…days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to.’ But in truth Rivendell captures the imagination so much that in The Lord of the Rings he clearly thought better of it and tells us enough good things to make us want to stay there as long as the aged Bilbo.

The bridge into Rivendell, where poor Thorin and Bilbo endure merciless teasing, is also a bridge that links The Hobbit to Tolkien’s earlier elven mythologies, The Lost Tales, and his later masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings as Elrond, who the reading public met here for the first time in 1937, is in all three. Elrond, strong, wise, venerable and ‘as kind as summer’, brings with him tales of peoples and wars of long ago that we long to hear. Everything he says suggests the detailed background that authors hint at to make stories seem more ‘real’, but with Tolkien it was no trick. The stories were real. He had already written many of them and when Elrond identifies the swords found in the Trolls lair and refers to the destruction of Gondolin, there is an actual story to be told. And somehow, with Tolkien, you know it to be so. We long to sit in Rivendell at Elrond’s (or is it Tolkien’s?) feet and hear tales of ‘evil goblins and the elves and the first men in the North’.

But they get more than rest and tales from Elrond. He examines Thorin’s map and, holding it up to the moonlight, discovers the invisible moon-letters and a clue to finding the lost treasure in the mountain. All they have to do is be at a certain place at a certain time on Durin’s Day and not even Thorin knows how to calculate when that might fall. It seems that along with a burgler the dwarves need a bit of luck and magic to succeed with their quest.

© Artwork '...a narrow bridge of stone...to the Last Homely House' by Alan Lee

[librislove]

Marvelous, Iolanthe! And I can't help but wonder--did Bilbo meet an enchanting, probably somewhat serious,child of Men there--one Estel, foster son to Elrond? He'd have been about 10. . . .

[Philipa]

Interesting point librislove. Makes me wonder about the possibilities.

[Riv Res]

FABULOUS entry Lindariel. Will post it in the calendar this Thursday.

Here's my entry for May 29 -- I'd appreciate any comments! Riv, obviously I'd love for you to append the illustration of the three trolls to this entry, when it is finalized.

“Bother burgling and everything to do with it! I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!” We should become accustomed to this sentiment because, as The Professor so dryly informs us, this is not the last time Bilbo will have such thoughts!

Indeed, it doesn’t take very long for Bilbo’s adventure with Gandalf and the Dwarves to hit a rather rough patch. Far into the Lone-lands, the weather turns cold and stormy, and just after they have managed to cross the swollen river, they realize that Gandalf has gone missing. They attempt to make camp, but can’t get a fire started. One of the ponies bolts into the river, losing a good deal of their food and nearly drowning Fili and Kili.

In the midst of their general misery, Balin, the look-out, spies a light in the distance. After some bickering back and forth, they decide to investigate because, “After all, we have got a burglar with us.” Bilbo needs to get accustomed to this sentiment, as this will be just the first of MANY occasions upon which the Dwarves will put him in the position of doing the investigating. Thorin’s advice? “Come back quick, if all is well. If not, come back if you can! If you can’t, hoot twice like a barn-owl and once like a screech-owl, and we will do what we can.” My . . . that’s comforting . . .

Thus it is that little Bilbo comes upon three very big trolls – Bert, William (Bill), and Tom – who are getting testy with each other over their monotonous diet of mutton over the last several days. Common sense tells Bilbo to leave quietly and warn the Dwarves about this imminent danger, but the Tookish side of him feels the need to enhance his status as the company’s resident burglar by attempting to pick Bill’s pocket.

This proves disastrous, and in short order, Bilbo finds himself grabbed up first by the neck, then by the feet, and lastly by the hair. Ouch! Fortunately for Bilbo, these trolls are contentious creatures, and it doesn’t take much for a disagreement to turn into an out and out row over what’s to be done with the “burrahobbit” they’ve captured.

Bilbo has just enough sense to crawl away from the fight and hide, but of course, the noise causes the Dwarves to begin arriving one by one to find out what has happened to their burglar. In short order, all of the Dwarves are captured and popped into sacks, and Bert, Bill, and Tom begin bickering over the fine art of cooking Dwarves – Should they be roasted, minced up and boiled, or squashed into jelly?

Luckily, at this point Gandalf quietly returns, and by mimicking the trolls’ voices, he succeeds in turning their bickering into an extended series of arguments and fights (My daughters always get the giggles over, “You’re a booby . . . . Booby yourself!” These trolls argue just like school kids on the playground!) until at last the sun comes up, and the trolls turn to stone.

After freeing the Dwarves, Gandalf suggests that they search for the trolls’ hideout. Here, Bilbo performs his first useful act for the company by producing a key that he found on the ground during the trolls’ fight. Inside the lair, they find food to replace some of the supplies they’ve lost, but more importantly, they also find two beautiful elven swords and Bilbo chooses an elven knife, all of which will play important roles in this adventure and the larger tale that unfolds in The Lord of the Rings.

After a good breakfast and some sleep, they bury the pots of gold from the trolls’ hoard to be retrieved later, hopefully. Gandalf explains that he had left their party the evening before to scout the road ahead, whereupon he ran into two elves from Rivendell (Am I the only one who thinks these elves were probably Elladan and Elrohir?) who warned him about the three trolls. This is why he was able to return in the nick of time to forestall the roasting, mincing, boiling, and squashing. With the Wizard’s part of the tale fully explained, the company continues down the road towards The Last Homely House.

[Lindariel]

Thanks Riv! I was concerned it might be a TAD too long, but it is a pretty action-packed segment of the trip. There are two small cuts that can easily be made (remove Thorin's advice and the bit about my girls), if you'd like to reduce the length a bit.

Love your entry Iolanthe! I'm especially glad you pointed out the difference between the depictions of the elves of Rivendell in The Hobbit and LOTR. They're almost foppish sounding in this chapter, aren't they?

[Merry]

I agree, Iolanthe--good post. There's a lot to think about there. Now that I do think about it, it seems unlikely that Gandalf would have a hard time finding his way into Rivendell. Now that we're reading Hobbit a little more closely, I guess there will be a lot of these discrepancies.

[Iolanthe]

I was worried mine was too long as well - but Rivendell is so significant to Bilbo and everyone that loves Tolkien that it was hard to lose anything when I went through it. Plus all those tantalising comments about Gondolin and the early days!

I find it impossible to believe that Gandalf had trouble finding Rivendell without those stones too. But - maybe he was having a senior moment . It all adds to the mystery of the place but perhaps Tolkien should have edited that bit after LotR.

[librislove]

Here is my entry for June 22--please use the picture titled "Rivendell"



JUNE 22, MIDYEAR'S DAY--THE COMPANY LEAVES RIVENDELL


Thorin and Company have been in Rivendell for a little over two weeks, gathering strength and information to carry them further on their journey to the Lonely Mountain. They have met Elrond Half-Elven and the often motley collection of folks from all races who come in peace to his valley, where "his house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley." It was just the interlude the travelers needed, and now rested and armed with their new knowledge of the maps and runes, they set out "on a midsummer's morning as fair and fresh as could be desired, blue sky and never a cloud, and the sun dancing on the water." They will need the memory of this pleasant place, for the lighthearted story of hobbit and dwarves will hereafter be much darker and more perilous. Ahead of Bilbo lie endless goblins, Mirkwood, the perils and losses of the Lonely Mountain, and one Gollum and his magic ring, among other things.

I have always wondered about this interlude at Rivendell, so short in the telling, yet lasting so long in the memory that Bilbo was drawn back to this place to spend the last years of his life. Was Tolkien writing about a place where he wanted to be? Was Rivendell where he went to refresh and renew himself in his mind?

One other thought: I cannot help but wonder, did Bilbo encounter an enchanting and comely, though probably solemn, child of Men - Estel, age ten, foster son of Elrond? If so, this was likely his first time meeting one of the "Big People." Was it here, in this place and time, that the long association between the family of Baggins and the House of Telcontar began? I like to think so. . . .

[Riv Res]

Another great writeup librislove, my friend.

I will get it posted on the 22nd

[librislove]

Thanks, Riv Res! Without our guru, no one would ever see anything posted by me in a calendar.

[Riv Res]

That's what gurus are for.

[Iolanthe]

I love your last thoughts, librislove. Great questions to ponder and discuss when your entry's posted .

[librislove]

Thanks, Iolanthe. This is something I have always wondered about--I like to think Aragorn's affinity for hobbits began early in life, and I just knew that Bilbo's more than casual friendship with the "Dunadain" had to begin somewhere.

[Iolanthe]

Come and share those thoughts on the open Hobbit thread, librislove . I've opened a discussion there about it as I think it's interesting to speculate about that friendship.