The Hobbit Calendar Project

[Riv Res]

Our thoughts are with you EV. As Merry said, take your time. It is just a calendar.

[Lindariel]

EV, I am so very sorry to hear about this tragedy in your family. We are all thinking about you!

[marbretherese]

sorry to hear your news, Elentarivarda - thinking of you

[librislove]

My thoughts are with you, EV.

[Iolanthe]

And mine - don't worry about the calendar.

[Riv Res]

I am late with this one...

November 16: Lonely Mountain is besieged.

This day appears to be all about treasure and greed. No sooner has Smaug been slain by Bard at Laketown than the armies for both the good and the evil seek to besiege the Lonely Mountain in search of the vast treasures buried there. It is interesting that in receiving news of Bard's approach, and even being told that he is an honorable man, Thorin is having none of it, and makes all preparation to defend the Dwarf treasure.

Thorin sends word to Dáin for help, but that assistance is still far off. So the wolves and the Goblins gather, along with the armies of both Men and Elves...all to lay claim to their portion of the riches of the Lonely Mountain. This is the day they attack and Thorin is ready for them.

The sword is sharp, the spear is long,
The arrow swift, the Gate is strong;
The heart is bold that looks on gold;
The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.

Now call we over mountains cold,
'Come back unto the caverns old'!
Here at the Gates the king awaits,
His hands are rich with gems and gold.

The king is come unto his hall
Under the Mountain dark and tall.
The Worm of Dread is slain and dead,
And ever so our foes shall fall!

[Merry]

Again, more proof that Tolkien is not simplistic in his views of good and evil: arguments could be made that the elves, dwarves, and Men are all a pretty mixed lot, even in the 'children's book'! It takes an orc attack to bring them to their senses.

[Merry]

I know I've got a calendar due tomorrow; I'll be writing it tonight!

[Merry]

Here's my post, but I can't find a picture to go with it:



November 22: Bilbo gives the Arkenstone to the Elvenking and Bard.

Our Bilbo, when he started his adventures, was regarded as something of a fool. Today he earns the respected reputation that he seems to have kept for the rest of his life:

The Elvenking looked at Bilbo with a new wonder. “Bilbo Baggins!” he said. "You are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in it.”

High praise indeed!--I think.

Mixed compliments aside, the Elvenking’s praise for Mr. Baggins’ character is in response to new traits that Bilbo exhibits in the events of this night: ingenuity, wisdom, courage, and generosity. He devises a diplomatic plan, gives Bombur the slip, makes his way to the ‘enemy’ camp, gives up the Arkenstone (not without some longing), with some suggestions as how it could be best utilized—and then returns to the dwarves, knowing he’ll be facing the music when he has been found out.

Bilbo's language these days reflects his newfound dignity: he alternates between sounding like Gandalf and sounding like some little hobbit lawyer. At the end of today’s escapade, however, after he sneaks back to the Lonely Mountain, we find what really moves Bilbo’s heart, and it is not precious gems: after he drifts off to sleep, Our Author tells us that he dreams of bacon and eggs.

[Riv Res]

Merry! You can take the Hobbit out of the Shire, but you can't take the Shire out of the Hobbit.

I will scout out an appropriate Lee image when I post it tomorrow.

[Merry]

Thank ee kindly, Madame Illustrator!

ETA: Wow--great find, RR--how do you keep coming up with these?

I've not noticed before how much the dwarves' 'look' in the movies is due to Alan Lee.

[Riv Res]

ETA: Wow--great find, RR--how do you keep coming up with these?

I've not noticed before how much the dwarves' 'look' in the movies is due to Alan Lee.

Go over to Rolozo Tolkien and check out their Alan Lee gallery. There are some true gems in there.

[Lindariel]

Riv, in the process of working on my entry for the Battle of Five Armies, I realized that we would be leaving out a day in which some rather important things happen -- the second parley between Thorin and Bard in which Bilbo's theft of the Arkenstone is discovered. So I went ahead and prepared two entries.

November 23: Thorin discovers Bilbo’s betrayal.
On this day, the joint embassy representing Bard and the Elvenking returns for further parley with Dwarves, and Thorin is astounded to learn not only that they have the Arkenstone of Thrain in their possession, but that it was a member of his own party -- little Bilbo Baggins -- who gave it to them. At this point, Thorin shows us how completely in thrall he is to the “bewilderment” of the great dragon hoard by lifting Bilbo in his arms and threatening to throw the hobbit down onto the cruel rocks below. Thorin is actually ready to murder a friend over this treasure.

Fortunately, Gandalf forestalls such a tragedy by uttering one of my favorite lines in the entire book, “If you don’t like my Burglar, please don’t damage him. Put him down, and listen first to what he has to say!” The Wizard is a master of understatement, isn’t he? And Bilbo’s words are indeed most interesting, “Dear me! . . . I am sure this is all very uncomfortable. You may remember saying that I might choose my own fourteenth share? Perhaps I took it too literally – I have been told that dwarves are sometimes politer in word than in deed. The time was, all the same, when you seemed to think that I had been of some service . . . . Is this all the service of you and your family that I was promised, Thorin? Take it that I have disposed of my share as I wished, and let it go at that!” Our hobbit is indeed a very brave little fellow!

Thorin bitterly agrees to ransom the Arkenstone in exchange for Bilbo’s one fourteenth share of the hoard “in silver and gold, setting aside the gems,” and then parts with Bilbo in the very nastiest of terms, “May we never meet again . . . . Get down now to your friends . . . or I will throw you down . . . . Be off! . . . You have mail upon you, which was made by my folk, and is too good for you. It cannot be pierced by arrows; but if you do not hasten, I will sting your miserable feet. So be swift!” What a horrible experience for poor Bilbo!

It is very important to note that not all of the dwarves are in agreement with Thorin’s terrible behavior. The Professor is careful to tell us, “More than one of the dwarves in their hearts felt shame and pity at his [Bilbo’s] going.” And Gandalf tells Thorin, “You are not making a very splendid figure as King under the Mountain.” To top it all off, even as the embassy withdraws with the promise to return in the morning to exchange the Arkenstone for the promised one fourteenth share of the silver and gold, Thorin begins to formulate a plan to forcibly take back the Arkenstone with the help of Dáin, who is due to arrive the next morning, and speedily sends raven messengers to inform Dáin about his predicament and ask him to hurry.

This day shows us Bilbo at his finest, Thorin at his very worst, and forces gathering with the potential for a truly cataclysmic explosion. No wonder The Professor entitled this chapter “The Clouds Burst.”

November 24: Dáin arrives in early morning. The Battle of Five Armies. Thorin and Bolg slain.
This is truly a momentous day in the history of Middle-Earth. Dáin arrives early in the morning, and the weather turns appropriately dark and gloomy. The combined forces of Bard and the Elvenking move forward to block Dáin’s approach and prevent him from joining forces with Thorin before the promised ransom of the Arkenstone can occur. Although Bard proposes that they should attack Dáin’s forces before they can rest, the Elvenking displays his nobility of spirit by declaring, “Long will I tarry, ere I begin this war for gold. . . . Let us hope still for something that will bring reconciliation.” (If only our own leaders had such scruples!)

Dáin, however, decides to attack quickly while the men and elves are debating, but before the three armies can engage, a sudden darkness descends with wind, thunder, and lightning, and from the North a black whirling formation like a “vast cloud of birds” can be seen rushing forward. Gandalf leaps forward, his staff flashing like lightning, and cries out, “Dread has come upon you all! Alas! It has come more swiftly than I guessed. The Goblins are upon you! Bolg of the North is coming, O Dáin! whose father you slew in Moria. Behold! the bats are above his army like a sea of locusts. They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!”

In the face of this terrible new enemy, Dáin, Bard, and the Elvenking set aside their enmity, and so begins The Battle of Five Armies – the Goblins and Wolves against the Elves, Men, and Dwarves. In his description of this great battle, Tolkien creates images for us that he will draw upon yet again in The Lord of the Rings – Bard and the Elvenking defending separate spurs of the Mountain as they are slowly surrounded by foes will reappear during the Battle of the Morannon, when Aragorn, Gandalf and the Dunedain are surrounded upon one hill and Imrahil and Eomer on another; when all appears lost, a hobbit – Bilbo in this tale and Pippin in LOTR – looks up and cries out, “The Eagles are coming! The Eagles are coming!”

But it is the great charge of Thorin and his companions that provides us the most parallels between the two works. We hear echoes of Thorin’s rallying cry, “To me! To me! Elves and Men! To me! O my kinsfolk!” yet again in Theoden’s battle cry on the Pelennor Fields, “To me! To me! Up Eorlingas! Fear no darkness!” Thorin’s reckless, heedless attack upon the main force of Bolg’s bodyguard recalls both Theoden’s headlong charge against the leader of the Southrons, as well as Eomer’s mad, grief-stricken charge into the enemy crying, “Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!” after he believes he has lost both Theoden and Eowyn. But the strongest parallel I believe is between Thorin and Boromir in their efforts to regain their honor in battle after having lost their reason to the pressure of an exterior force – Thorin to the “bewilderment” of the dragon treasure and Boromir to the lure of the Ring.

In the end, when all appears lost, the Eagles arrive to help turn the tide of battle, and Beorn himself arrives in his great bear-shape just in time to rescue the mortally wounded Thorin and then return to the battle “grown almost to giant-size in his wrath” to kill Bolg and begin the rout of the remaining Goblin/Warg army.

Bilbo himself took no part in the fighting, putting on his magic ring very early on in the nasty business and then having the bad luck of getting knocked out by a falling stone just after spotting the arrival of the Eagles. Fortunately, he regains consciousness in time to be taken back to camp and bid farewell to a dying Thorin, who has the good grace to mend his relationship with the little hobbit, “Farewell, good thief . . . I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate . . . . There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!”

Here again Tolkien creates a moment that will be relived in LOTR, as echoes of Thorin’s situation and words of farewell can be heard in the final words of both Boromir, “I am sorry. I have paid,” and Theoden, “Farewell, Master Holbytla! . . . . I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed.”

For poor Bilbo, the day ends in tears, “You are a fool, Bilbo Baggins, and you made a great mess of that business with the stone; and there was a battle, in spite of all your efforts to buy peace and quiet, but I suppose you can hardly be blamed for that.”

[Merry]

Wonderful, Lindariel! The business with the parallels with LOTR is excellent. We've got to figure that Tolkien loved these themes.

[librislove]

Great insight and connections, Lindariel! You make us work hard.