What a bright morning it is! I woke up expecting a storm, and instead find clear skies and the pitiless sunlight that we are known for out here in the California desert. Appearances to the contrary, it is still bracingly cold outside, but not as much as it had been last week.
I woke up to news that the Libyan dictator Gaddhafi is mounting an offensive to capture rebel-held cities, and is being successful. It is dreary to hear this. The narrative of Middle-Eastern liberation seems to be stalled for now, although protests continue throughout the region. I suspect we will continue to see major changes, and it is my hope that the people of that region can establish governments that will represent their interests as well as maintaining respect for tolerance and dignity due to all peoples.
Now, from the Middle-East we turn to Middle-Earth. Here are reports from a few more chapters of "The Hobbit".
Chapter Nine: Barrels out of Bond
When we last left our adventurers, they were still deep within Mirkwood forest, having escaped the attacks of the giant spiders. Thorin has been captured by the Wood-elves, and the rest of the band is coalescing around Bilbo.
The Wood-elves return and they capture the rest of the band and take them to the king of the elves. The crucial element, however, is that they don't capture Bilbo, who eludes them by putting on his ring and disappearing before they detect his presence.
It is still amazing to me that the elves, for all their heightened sensory apparatus, were unable to detect Bilbo. I would imagine that, although he tried to creep along as quietly as possible, he would be bound to make a noise. Wouldn't they also be able to smell him? The elves were presented as these somber, haughty, crafty and graceful people in "The Lord of the Rings". It is still amazing to me to see that in this novel they are presented as having quite human appetites, capable of losing themselves to the delights of a feast and to intoxication.
Upon being presented to the king the dwarves refuse to give any details of their mission, and they are consequently put in solitary confinement. They are fed, but this seclusion proves to be very hard for them. Meanwhile Bilbo begins to live up truly to his role, and he becomes a burgler, stealing food and exploring his surroundings. He is the one who will hatch up a plan to liberate the dwarves.
He decided to free them and put them into empty caskets that will be floated down a river to the outskirts of Mirkwood, where they will be delivered to a town of men. These men are one of the few settlements out in the desolate east, and they engage in trade. Bilbo reveals himself to be a crafty individual, and he frees all the hobbits, taken advantage of a moment when the elvish guards are intoxicated with wine.
Once again, the presentation of drunken elves seems to diminish their stature in my eyes. I can appreciate that they would be presented as fey, but to read of them actively enjoying feasts and indulging their appetites detracts from the image I had of elves that was based on Elrond and Legolas. However, this is an early form of the myth that is being developed by Tolkein.
They manage to escape, however, due to fortuitous circumstances that reveal a lack of care on the part of the elves, who don't investigate caskets that seem to be very heavy (because they have been loaded with dwarves).
Chapter Ten: A Warm Welcome
After a very wearying journey in which Bilbo, who was unable to climb into a casket and thus had to cling to one and become drenched, they arrive at the town of men. There, he liberates his fellow companions, and Thorin takes the lead and presents the group to the authorities. There is a legend that the dwarves would one day return and lay claim to their ancient domain, and because of this legend they become celebrities and avoid being retaken by the representatives of the elves.
The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!
His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.
The woods shall wave on mountains
And grass beneath the sun;
His wealth shall flow in fountains
And the rivers golden run.
The streams shall run in gladness,
The lakes shall shine and burn,
All sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-king's return!
They become famous during their duration in that town, and are celebrated continually. It seems as if these men fall under the power of legends, and because of this power they are able to gather themselves and make further progress to the Lonely Mountain, that terrible place that Bilbo had seen during his journey on the river.
Chapter Eleven: On the Doorstep
It is almost winter now, and they make their journey to the mountain. It is desolate, and they can well imagine the presence of the dragon within, even if they haven't seen him. They find the door and, with fortuitous help from Bilbo who detects the keyhole, they manage to gain entry.
Bilbo has been crucial to the success of this enterprise. He has rescued the dwarves several times (twice, from the spiders and from the elves), and he has helped them locate the keyhole, something that had eluded the detection of the dwarves. It seems he has become indispensible, and has become quite the figure, although he is still a reluctant hero who wishes frequently that he had never left his home. This conforms to the contours of the reluctant hero who was analyzied by Joseph Campbell, and I would hasten to add that he preserves his reluctance even at this late stage. I'm not sure what is motivating him.
Chapter Twelve: Inside Information
They have managed to open the door, and now it is time to venture inside. However, it is a chilling prospect to think of stepping in, and instead they enjoin Bilbo to do so, couching it in terms of his chance to "earn" his share of the reward. As if he hadn't earned it several times over by now!
It seems as if the dwarves have a very grudging character. It is difficult to make deals with them because they are very watchful of always assuring their gain. As the narrator says:
"There is is: dwarves are notheroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much."
Are they then ungrateful? It would seem so, or maybe they are conservative types who believe that maximizing self-interest is the main justification for life. To tell the truth, they are begining to seem like the eternally grasping, comical species know as the Ferengi on Star Trek.
Now, to return to the chapter, Bilbo Baggins ventures into the mountain and after proceeding along a passageway for a long distance finally encounters the sleeping dragon, Smaug. Bilbo is quite an intrepid figure now, much transformed from his prior self.
He was trembling with fear, but his little face was set and grim. Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He has not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages.
The sleeping dragon, lying on top of an immense treasure trove, is an absolutely majestic creature, generating immense heat and curled lazily in that immense hall.
There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.
Bilbo steals a cup and returns to his companions, who congratulate him before they notice that the dragon has woken up. Smaug is angry because he has noted the theft, and he ventures out of the mountain, looking for the thief and raining fair and brimstone. Oh, to see such a spectacle! One would almost lament the loss of such majesty, and this wouldn't be the first time that someone such as myself would find sympathy for a monster.
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