The Hobbit Tolkien Ch 1-5

Bilbo saw it go right
through the Great Goblin as he stood dumbfounded in the middle of his
rage.

“We don’t want any adventures
here, thank you!

Yesterday he had been too
flustered to do anything of the kind.

RIDDLES IN THE DARK
When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just
as dark as with them shut.

Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down
the steep zig-zag path into the secret valley of Rivendell.

With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green
door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seen rude.

- 40 -
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days
that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to;
while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may
make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.

He thought of all the
things he kept in his own pockets: fishbones, goblins’ teeth, wet shells, a
bit of bat-wing, a sharp stone to sharpen his fangs on, and other nasty
things.

The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of
mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because
most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures
or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on
any question without the bother of asking him.

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The goblins
began to sing, or croak, keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the
stone, and shaking their prisoners as well.

Painfully he got up,
and sheathed his sword, which was now glowing faintly again, then very
cautiously he followed.

It was after tea-time; it
was pouring with rain, and had been all day; his hood was dripping into
his eyes, his cloak was full of water; the pony was tired and stumbled on
stones; the others were too grumpy to talk.

He had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat around
the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins,
and the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did
not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too
adventurous-when, ding-dong-a-ling-’ dang, his bell rang again, as if some
naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

It was the wizard’s voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling,
until the light came and made an end of them.

After a while and a drink he crept nervously
to the door of the parlour.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

The yells and yammering, croaking, jibbering and jabbering; howls,
growls and curses; shrieking and skriking, that followed were beyond
description.

Soon they were getting drenched and their ponies were
standing with their heads down and their tails between their legs, and
some of them were whinnying with fright.

That is how he got his
name, though he always called himself ‘my precious.’

He scowled so angrily at Gloin that the dwarf huddled back in his
chair; and when Bilbo tried to open his mouth to ask a question, he
turned and frowned at him and stuck oat his bushy eyebrows, till Bilbo
shut his mouth tight with a snap.

Bilbo was astonished.

At first they had passed through
hobbit-lands, a wild respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with
good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling
by on business.

They could hear the giants
guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.

It was
they who told me that three of them had come down from the mountains
and settled in the woods not far from the road; they had frightened everyone
away from the district, and they waylaid strangers.

They
were nearly suffocated, and very annoyed: they had not at all enjoyed
- 34 -
lying there listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and
squashing them and mincing them.

They were on ponies, and each pony was slung about with all
kinds of baggages, packages, parcels, and paraphernalia.

The ponies were already there huddled
in a corner; and there were all the baggages and packages lying broken
open, and being rummaged by goblins, and smelt by goblins, and fingered
by goblins, and quarreled over by goblins.

Nor dare to shirk,
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!

Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.

“Seems to know as much about the inside of my larders as I do
myself!” thought Mr. Baggins, who was feeling positively flummoxed, and
was beginning to wonder whether a most wretched adventure had not
come right into his house.

Suddenly in the wood beyond The
Water a flame leapt up—probably somebody lighting a wood-fire-and he
thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all
to flames.

No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms,
bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole
rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same
floor, and indeed on the same passage.

“First I should like to know a bit more about things,” said he, feeling
all confused and a bit shaky inside, but so far still lookishly determined to
- 21 -
go on with things.

“Bilbo Baggins, a bur— a hobbit,” said poor Bilbo, shaking all over,
and wondering how to make owl-noises before they throttled him.

It was often said (in other families) that
long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife.

The ponies were already there huddled
in a corner; and there were all the baggages and packages lying broken
open, and being rummaged by goblins, and smelt by goblins, and fingered
by goblins, and quarreled over by goblins.

They came scurrying round the corner in full cry, and found Goblin-cleaver
and Foe-hammer shining cold and bright right in their astonished eyes.

“And you’re a lout!”

He was witless and wandering, and
had forgotten almost everything except the map and the key.”

Suddenly up came Gollum and whispered and hissed:
“Bless us and splash us, my precioussss!

They take a pride
in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called “all this
dwarvish racket,” as they went along, though I don’t sup-pose you or I
would notice anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade
had passed two feet off.

“We might go from there up along the River Running,” went on
Thorin taking no notice, “and so to the ruins of Dale-the old town in the
valley there, under the shadow of the Mountain.

But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and
led nowhere or to bad ends; and most of the passes were infested by evil
things and dreadful dangers.

Now there came a glimmer of a red light before them.

There
was just room to get the ponies through with a squeeze, when they had
been unpacked and unsaddled.

“I beg your pardon, I haven’t asked for anything!”

Dump the crocks in a boiling bawl;
Pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when you’ve finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll !
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!

For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gloaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

To think that I should have lived
to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons
at the door!”

But they could not open it, not though they all pushed while Gandalf
tried various incantations.

One morning they forded a river at a wide shallow place
full of the noise of stones and foam.

He paddled it with
large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make.

They
were nearly suffocated, and very annoyed: they had not at all enjoyed
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lying there listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and
squashing them and mincing them.

It sailed a hundred yards through the air and
went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the battle was won and the
game of Golf invented at the same moment.

The faggots are reeking,
The bannocks are baking!

The best rooms were all on the
left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows,
deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond,
sloping down to the river.

Terms: cash on delivery,
up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling
expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us
or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise
arranged for.

“Ugh!” he said, “it is cold and clammy!”-and so he guessed.

Tales and adventures sprouted up all
over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.

Nor dare to shirk,
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!

Also I was anxious about replenishing our small stock of provisions.

You ^an say Expert
- 19 -
Treasure-hunter instead of Burglar if you like.

“You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if
all is perfectly safe and canny,” said Thorin to the hobbit.

Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he
found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and to
the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked
that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.

We are not together in the
house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this most excellent and audacious
hobbit-may the hair on his toes never fall out! all praise to his wine and
ale!-”

There they all sat
glum and wet and muttering, while Oin and Gloin went on trying to light
the fire, and quarrelling about it.

They very seldom did, for they had a feeling that something
unpleasant was lurking down there, down at the very roots of the mountain.

He began
to peer at Bilbo out of the darkness.

A box without hinges, key, or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

The winds broke up the grey clouds, and a waning moon appeared
above the hills between the flying rags.

Still he did not dare to wade out into the darkness.

Swords in these parts are mostly blunt, and
axes are used for trees, and shields as cradles or dish-covers; and dragons
are comfortably far-off (and therefore legendary).

Just at that moment all the lights in the cavern went out, and the
great fire went off poof! into a tower of blue glowing smoke, right up to
the roof, that scattered piercing white sparks all among the goblins.

‘Five feet high the door and three may walk
abreast’ say the runes, but Smaug could not creep into a hole that size,
not even when he was a young dragon, certainly not after devouring so
many of the dwarves and men of Dale.”

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

He had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat around
the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins,
and the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did
not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too
adventurous-when, ding-dong-a-ling-’ dang, his bell rang again, as if some
naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

‘Five feet high the door and three may walk
abreast’ say the runes, but Smaug could not creep into a hole that size,
not even when he was a young dragon, certainly not after devouring so
many of the dwarves and men of Dale.”

Then something Tookish
woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains,
and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and
wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

There were moths
fluttering about, and the light became very dim, for the moon had not
risen.

When he
peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the
stone-giants were out and were hurling rocks at one another for a. game,
and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they
smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a
bang.

“Don’t be a fool, Bilbo Baggins!” he said to himself, “thinking of
dragons and all that outlandish nonsense at your age!”

They are
inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly
green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery
soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is
- 8 -
curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh
deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day
when they can get it).

By the time he had got all the bottles and
dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons and things
piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and
annoyed.

Two caught
their eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jewelled
hilts.

“I suppose you will all stay to supper?” he said in his politest
unpressing tones.

- 40 -
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days
that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to;
while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may
make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

“Let us join the
throng!”

They take a pride
in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called “all this
dwarvish racket,” as they went along, though I don’t sup-pose you or I
would notice anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade
had passed two feet off.

Not the wandering wizard
that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves
and never came undone till ordered?

“May it soon cleave goblins once again!”

The chance never
arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or
so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I have
just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down
immovably.

“First I should like to know a bit more about things,” said he, feeling
all confused and a bit shaky inside, but so far still lookishly determined to
- 21 -
go on with things.

Then they stopped, and Thorin
muttered something about supper, “and where shall we get a dry patch to
sleep on?”

The Gandalf’s smoke-ring would go green and come
- 15 -
back to hover over the wizard’s head.

Trolls simply detest the
very sight of dwarves (uncooked).

The pines were roaring on the height,
The winds were moaning in the night.

The door opened on to a
tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke,
with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished
chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond
of visitors.

The lightning splinters on the
peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and
tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with
overwhelming noise and sudden light.

After a while he stepped up, and with the spike of his
staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit’s beautiful green front-door.

He had quite a cloud of them about
him already, and in the dim light it made him look strange and sorcerous.

Then they I brought up
their ponies, and carried away the pots of gold, and buried them very
secretly not far from the track by the river, putting a great many spells
over them, just in case they ever had the-chance to come back and recover
them.

And I know where Mirkwood is, and the Withered Heath where
the great dragons bred.”

The chance never
arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or
so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I have
just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down
immovably.

Now faint as an echo, but menacing, the voice came
behind:
- 65 -
“Thief, thief, thief!

At
may never return he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very
soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel.

“What do they say?” asked Gandalf and Thorin together, a bit vexed
perhaps that even Elrond should have found this out first, though really
there had not been a chance before, and there would not have been
another until goodness knows when.

Even Bilbo, in
spite of his sheltered life, could see that: from the great heavy faces of
them, and their size, and the shape of their legs, not to mention their
language, which was not drawing-room fashion at all, at all.

No ponies, and no food,
and no knowing quite where we are, and hordes of angry goblins just
behind!

Dark and
drear it looked, though there were patches of sunlight on its brown sides,
and behind its shoulders the tips of snow-peaks gleamed.

But Bilbo simply could not think of any question with that nasty wet
cold thing sitting next to him, and pawing and poking him.

Indeed he was really relieved after
all to think that they had all gone without him, and without bothering to
wake him up (“but with never a thank-you” he thought); and yet in a way
he could not help feeling just a trifle disappointed.

What goes on there now I don’t
know for certain, but I don’t suppose anyone lives nearer to the Mountain
than the far edge of the Long Lake now-a-days.

I am looking for someone to share in an adventure
that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said
nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many
times, that at last he grunted “pray don’t mention it,” and stopped frowning.

If you
stepped behind, you found a low arch in the side of the mountain.

I
really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits, and have a drink.”

Thorin pondered these words.

“Who are these miserable persons?” said the Great Goblin.

They fled their hall to dying -fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.

It was not too difficult for
the hobbit, except when, in spite of all care, he stubbed his poor toes
again, several times, on nasty jagged stones in the floor.

As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by
hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and
jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.

This is a story of how a
Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether
unexpected.

He missed the
stool and sat in the fender, knocking over the poker and shovel with a
crash.

Travellers seldom come this way now.

Soon Bilbo
caught glimpses of them as the darkness deepened.

He wanted it because it was a ring of power, and if you slipped that
ring on your finger, you were invisible; only in the full sunlight could you
be seen, and then only by your shadow, and that would be shaky and
faint.

We shall soon before the break of day start on our long journey,
a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend
and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return.

“It must make haste, haste!” said Gollum, beginning to climb out of
his boat on to the shore to get at Bilbo.

If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I
have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared
for any sort I of remarkable tale.

“Bilbo Baggins at yours!” said the hobbit, too surprised to ask any
questions for the moment.

The nights were comfortless and chill, and they
did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and
the silence seemed to dislike being broken-except by the noise of water
and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.

Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in
a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole
in the rock on his island, and was always going back to look at it.

He paddled it with
large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make.

Also the mischief seemed
to have got into the fire.

The goblins were very rough, and pinched
unmercifully, and chuckled and laughed in their horrible stony voices; and
Bilbo was more unhappy even than when the troll had picked him up by
his toes.

At first they had passed through
hobbit-lands, a wild respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with
good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling
by on business.

We shall soon before the break of day start on our long journey,
a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend
and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

Just at that moment all the lights in the cavern went out, and the
great fire went off poof! into a tower of blue glowing smoke, right up to
the roof, that scattered piercing white sparks all among the goblins.

Dwarves had not passed that way
for many years, but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had
grown and thriven in the Wild, since the dragons had driven men from the
lands, and the goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of
Moria.

The passages there were crossed
and tangled in all directions, but the goblins knew their way, as well as
you do to the nearest post-office; and the way went down and down, and
it was most horribly stuffy.

The far bank was steep and slippery.

The air grew
warmer as they got lower, and the smell of the pine-trees made him
drowsy, so that every now and again he nodded and nearly fell off, or
bumped his nose on the pony’s neck.

“We might go from there up along the River Running,” went on
Thorin taking no notice, “and so to the ruins of Dale-the old town in the
valley there, under the shadow of the Mountain.

“After
all we have got a burglar with us,” they said; and so they made off,
leading their ponies (with all due and proper caution) in the direction of
the light.

There were
bones on the floor and a nasty smell was in the air; but there was a good
deal of food jumbled carelessly on shelves and on the ground, among an
untidy litter of plunder, of all sorts from brass buttons to pots full of gold
coins standing in a corner.

But they don’t like the sun: it makes their
legs wobble and their heads giddy.

There
are many hours before dawn.”

I didn’t get your note until after 10.45 to be precise.”

“Bilbo Baggins at yours!” said the hobbit, too surprised to ask any
questions for the moment.

Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said
nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many
times, that at last he grunted “pray don’t mention it,” and stopped frowning.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods,
silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools
and a spade.

Really it was only a
leak of sunshine in through a doorway, where a great door, a stone door,
was left standing open.

Indeed he was really relieved after
all to think that they had all gone without him, and without bothering to
wake him up (“but with never a thank-you” he thought); and yet in a way
he could not help feeling just a trifle disappointed.

They moved to a clump of
trees, and though it was drier under them, the wind shook the rain off the
leaves, and the drip, drip, was most annoying.

“Quite a merry gathering!

There is little or no magic about them, except
the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and
quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along,
making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.

Bless me, life used to be quite inter - I mean, you used to
upset things badly in these parts once upon a time.

Either he should have gone back quietly and warned his friends that
there were three fair-sized trolls at hand in a nasty mood, quite likely to
try toasted dwarf, or even pony, for a change; or else he should have
done a bit of good quick burgling.

Bilbo persisted.

The nights were comfortless and chill, and they
did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and
the silence seemed to dislike being broken-except by the noise of water
and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.

He could not see the hobbit, but now he was on
the alert, and he had other senses that the darkness had sharpened:
hearing and smell.

I beg your pardon,
but I had no idea you were still in business.”

Boulders, too, at times
came galloping down the mountain-sides, let loose by midday sun upon
the snow, and passed among them (which was lucky), or over their heads
(which was alarming).

But they had a special grudge against
Thorin’s people, because of the war which you have heard mentioned,
- 48 -
but which does not come into this tale; and anyway goblins don’t care
who they catch, as long as it is done smart and secret, and the prisoners
are not able to defend themselves.

Soon
they were locked in one another’s arms, and rolling nearly into the fire
kicking and thumping, while Tom whacked at then both with a branch to
bring them to their senses-and that of course only made them madder
than ever.

“To think it will soon be June,” grumbled Bilbo as he splashed
along behind the others in a very muddy track.

His head was in
a whirl of hope and wonder.

There was a purse in it, as big as a bag to Bilbo.

They were aroused,
alert, ready for anything.

Here it is!” he said, and handed to
Thorin a key with a long barrel and intricate wards, made of silver.

He had vanished.

So Thorin
went on:
“We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and
devices.

They are
inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly
green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery
soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is
- 8 -
curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh
deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day
when they can get it).

They came on unexpected valleys, narrow with deep sides,
that opened suddenly at their feet, and they looked down surprised to see
trees below them and running water at the bottom.

“All the same, I should like it all plain and clear,” said he obstinately,
putting on his business manner (usually reserved for people who tried to
borrow money off him), and doing his best to appear wise and prudent
and professional and live up to Gandalf’s recommendation.

“I could not say,” said Elrond, “but one may guess that your trolls
had plundered other plunderers, or come on the remnants of old robberies
- 41 -
in some hold in the mountains of the North.

A pang of fear and loss, like an echo of Gollum’s misery, smote
Bilbo, and forgetting even to draw his sword he struck his hands into his
pockets.

Nearly every pot and pan he possessed seemed to
have been used.

He was very much alarmed, as well as disgusted; he wished
himself a hundred miles away, and yet-and yet somehow he could not go
straight back to Thorin and Company empty-handed.

He stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit
without saying anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a
little cross.

You ^an say Expert
- 19 -
Treasure-hunter instead of Burglar if you like.

He had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat around
the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins,
and the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did
not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too
adventurous-when, ding-dong-a-ling-’ dang, his bell rang again, as if some
naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

Out of the dark mass of the
trees they could now see a light shining, a reddish comfortable-looking
light, as it might be a fire or torches twinkling.

Gandalf called after
him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries.

By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the
world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were
still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his
door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached
nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by.

The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight
into the side of the hill - The Hill, as all the people for many miles round
called it - and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side
and then on another.

At
may never return he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very
soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel.

We are plain quiet folk and have
no use for adventures.

But Gandalf looked at him from under long
bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

In the meanwhile, however, Bullroarer’s gentler descendant was
reviving in the drawing-room.

They searched about, and soon found the marks of trolls’ stony
boots going away through the trees.

Burglar wants a good job, plenty of Excitement and
reasonable Reward, that’s how it is usually read.

They take a pride
in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called “all this
dwarvish racket,” as they went along, though I don’t sup-pose you or I
would notice anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade
had passed two feet off.

He was watching Bilbo now from the distance with his pale eyes like
telescopes.

“Hear, hear!” said Bilbo, and accidentally said it aloud, “Hear what?”
they all said turning suddenly towards him, and he was so flustered that
he answered “Hear what I have got to say!”

I can’t think what anybody sees in them,” said our Mr.
Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out another
even bigger smoke-ring.

The passages there were crossed
and tangled in all directions, but the goblins knew their way, as well as
you do to the nearest post-office; and the way went down and down, and
it was most horribly stuffy.

You seem to remember
my fireworks kindly, at any rate, land that is not without hope.

Not a nasty, dirty, wet
hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,
sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole,
and that means comfort.

Gandalf struck a blue
light on the end of his magic staff, and in its firework glare the poor little
hobbit could be seen kneeling on the hearth-rug, shaking like a jelly that
was melting.

There were dark ravines that one could neither jump nor climb into.

Suddenly the red light shone out very bright through the tree-trunks
not far ahead.

Far over the misty mountains grim
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!

And the others were thinking equally gloomy thoughts, although
when they had said good-bye to Elrond in the high hope of a midsummer
morning, they’ had spoken gaily of the passage of the mountains, and of
riding swift across the lands beyond.

Then Bilbo plucked up courage and put his little hand in William’s
enormous pocket.

And
even now, when I will allow we have a good bit laid by and are not so
badly off”-here Thorin stroked the gold chain round his neck-”we still
mean to get it back, and to bring our curses home to Smaug-if we can.

“To think it will soon be June,” grumbled Bilbo as he splashed
along behind the others in a very muddy track.

Their own provisions were very scanty.

Also I was anxious about replenishing our small stock of provisions.

That
was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely
hobbit-like about them, - and once in a while members of the Took-clan
would go and have adventures.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches biased with light,
The bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale;
The dragon’s ire more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail.

Though he was only a black shadow in the gleam of his own eyes,
Bilbo could see or feel that he was tense as a bowstring, gathered for a
spring.

Terms: cash on delivery,
up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling
expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us
or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise
arranged for.

This is what he said:
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

Swords in these parts are mostly blunt, and
axes are used for trees, and shields as cradles or dish-covers; and dragons
are comfortably far-off (and therefore legendary).

Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have
- 26 -
proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await
your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at II a.m. sharp.

I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting
one another in distant lands, and in this neighbourhood heroes are scarce,
or simply lot to be found.

Splendid!

He had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat around
the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins,
and the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did
not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too
adventurous-when, ding-dong-a-ling-’ dang, his bell rang again, as if some
naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.

He turned with mock-politeness to Bilbo.

Burglar wants a good job, plenty of Excitement and
reasonable Reward, that’s how it is usually read.

CHAPTER I. AN UNEXPECTED PARTY
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

“Better sit on the last fellow first,” said Bert, whose eye had been
damaged by Thorin.

Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted.

Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew
out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without
breaking and floated away over The Hill.

No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms,
bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole
rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same
floor, and indeed on the same passage.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this
was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took’s
great-granduncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could
ride a horse.

Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said
nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many
times, that at last he grunted “pray don’t mention it,” and stopped frowning.

“We need food, for one thing, and rest in reasonable
safety-also it is very necessary to tackle the Misty Mountains by the proper
path, or else you will get lost in them, and have to come back and start at
the beginning again (if you ever get back at all).”

There was Gollum sitting humped
up right in the opening, and his eyes gleamed cold in his head, as he
swayed it from side to side between his knees.

Then there was a gorgeous row.

“Bring out the instruments!”