
The Hobbit
J.R.R Tolkien
r About the "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy by j. R. R. Tolkien-.
PART I The Fellowvhip of the ]Zing rs . . . an extraordinary, a dis--Filled with marvels and strange terro ed piece of work."
-Dan Wickenden, New York Herald Tribune Book Week
anyone who likes the Renre to which it belan@ the Heroic Quest, "For more wonderful Christmas Pr-ent.... No fiction I cannot imagine a than The FellowI have read in the last five years has given me more JOY
ship of the Riw." \_W. IL Auden, The New York Times Book Review
PART 11 The@ Two Towels at the second part of TolldelWs trilogy, reinforces the conviction th great litrau achievements of our we have
now in the On'- If the bears strwng, te@ resem time.... Fr the world Of the Ring cality, the moral
bl.,, to the world we know, and for all its fanwl principles which gve,, it are @info@bly f@-- To sum it here is a wonderful story, set in a wcrld which paralyzes the UP, author imagination, and told in n@cent PrOse- '"at more cm am ,
give?" -Fdward Wagenknecht, Chicago Tribune
.on, f the best wonder @ ever written if You know a great book when You see On-, You will want all of these,." Herald Travele.?
Julian Forest, Boston
PART III TheReturn IDY the King pation
@e great tail, of 'Wonder, BU the great noveL is not a preoCCU
-tw of children ... the adult mind has, if @hm& greater need of f than the of the child... In The Lord of the Rings a -whole Secondary World is created and successfully sustained through three largp-volumes.
These are sure to remain Tolkien's life work, and are cert@ des@ed to out our time."
-Loren Eiseley, New York Rerald Tribune Book Week ,,I have read Prof-or Toaie-n's The Lord of the Rings not once but twice. In the highest and most complimentary sense, @ is escapist fiction at its lines Yet at @ Sam @ it has profound relevance to our
troubled age." -Arthur C. Clarke
@er,D are ,ry few wrks of genius in recent literature. WB is one."
-Michael Straight, The New Republic RI) OF THE RINGS in the stacks at the Carnegie Library in LOrt's been fifteen years at this writing since I first came across THE Pittsburgh. I'd been looking for the book for four years, ever since reading W. H. Auden's review in the New York Times, I think of that time now@d the Years after, when the trilogy continued to be hard to, find and hard to explain to most friends.-With an undeniable nostalgia. It was a barren era for fantasy, among other things, but a good time for cherishing slighted treasures and mysterious passwords. Long before Frodo Livesl began to appear in the New York subways, 1. R. R. Tolkien was the magus of my secret knowledge.
I've never thought it an accident that Tolkien's works waited more than ten years to explode into pop@ty almost overnight.
The Sixties were no fouler a decade than the Fifties-they merely reaped the Fifties' foul harvest-but they were the years when millions of people grew aware that the industrial society had become paradoxically unlivable, incalculably immoral and ultimately deadly.
In terms of passwords, the Sixties were the time when the word progress lost its ancient holiness, and escape stopped being co@.
cally obscene. The impulse is being called reactionary now, but lovers of Middle-earth want to go there. I would myself, like a shot.
For in the end it is Middle-earth and its dwellers that we love, not Tolkien's considerable @ in showing it to us. I said once that the world he charts was there long before him, and I still believe it.
He is a great enough magician to tap our most connnon nightmares, daydreams and twilight fancies, but he never invented them either: he found them a place to live, a green alternative to each day's madness here in a poisoned world. We are raised to honor all the wrong @x plorers and discoverers-thieves planting flags, murderers carryIng cro@. Lzt us at last praise the rolonizers,of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle Watsonville, California 14 July 1973
THE AUTHORIZED EDTTTONS of the works of 1. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit THE HOBBIT
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or
Part I THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING There and Back Again Part H THE
Two TowERs
THE RETURN OF THE KING (Revised Edition)
THE TOLKIEN READER
SMITH OF WOOTTON MAJOR AND FARMER GILES OF HAm by J. IL R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was at Pembroke College, Oxford, as Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945
and then, until his retirement in 1959, Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. His chief interest was in the literary and linguistic tradition of the English West Midlands, especially in Beouwlf, the Ancrene Wisse, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; but he is better known to the reading public as the author of Farmer Giles of Ham, The Hobbit, The Adventures of
Copyright 1937, 1938 and 1966 by J. R. R-Tolkien
Cover art by Darrell K. Sweet from the 1982 J. R. R. Tolkien Calendar. Copyright Q 1981 by Random House, Inc.
Introduction Copyright @ 1973 by Peter Beagle
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
ISBN 0-345-29604-4
This edition published by arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company Manufactured in the United States of America
First Ballantine Books Edition. August 1965
Revised Edition: First Printing@ February 1966
Seventy-ninth Printing: August 1981
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE 1 An Unexpected Party 15
2 Roast Mutton 40
3 A Short Rest 55
4 Over Hill and Under Hill 64
5 Riddles in the Dark 76
6 Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire 96
7 Queer Lodgings 115
8 Flies and Spiders 140 9 Barrels Out of Bond 167
10 A Warm Welcome 183
11 On the Doorstep 194
12 Inside Information 203
13 Not at Home 223
14 Fire and Water 234
15 The Gathering of the Clouds 243
16 A Thief in the Night 253
17 The Clouds Burst 260 18 The Return Journey 271
19 The Last Stage 279
In this reprint several minor inaccuracies, most of them noted by readers, have been corrected. For example, the text on pages 32 and 62
now corresponds exactly with the runes on Thror's Map. More important is the matter of Chapter Five. There the true story of the ending of the Riddle Game, as it was eventually revealed (under pressure) by Bilbo to Gandalf, is now given according to the Red Book, in place of the version Bilbo firn gave to his friends, and actually set down in his diary. @ depaftm from trath on the part of a most honest bob was a portent of great significance. It does not, however, concern the present story, and those who in this edition make their first acquaintance with hobbit-lore need not trouble about it. Its explanation lies in the history of the Ring, as it was set out in the chronicles of the Red Book of Westmarch, and is now told in The Lord of the Rings.
A final note may be added, on a point raised by several students of the lore of the period. On Throes Map is Here of old was Thrain King under the Mountain; yet Tbrain was the son of Thror, the last King under the Mountain before the coming of the dragon. The Map, however, is not in error.- Names are often repeated ia dynasties, and the genealogies show that a distant ancestor of Tbror was referred to, Tbrain 1, a fugitive broin Moria, who &A discovered the Lonely Mountain, Erebor, and ruled there for a while, before his people moved on to the remoter mountains of the North.
An Unexpected P=y In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
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 hobbithole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle.
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 tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hillThe Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it d many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and -then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand 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.
This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit,, and his name was Baggins. 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 un ected: could tell what a Ba ' him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours'
respect, but he gained-well, you will see whether he gained anything m the end.
The mother of our particular hobbit-what is a bobbit?
I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they Call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about the@ 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. They are inclined to be f 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 warra brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is 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) - Now you know enough to go on with. As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit-of Bilbo Baggins, that is-was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said ('m other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Ba ' thoughthe wereundoubted richer.
partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained to the end of their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father, got something a bit queer in his makeup from the Took side, something that only waited for a chance to come Out. The chance never arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about @ years old or so, and living in the beautiful hobbithole built by @ father, which I have just described for you, until he had in fact apparatly settled down immovably.
By some curious Chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green , and the bobbits were still numerous and prosperous,, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoldng an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)-Gandalf came by.
Gandaffl 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 of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. He had not been down that way under The, Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the bobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. He had been away over The Hill and across The Water on businem of his own since they were all small hobbitboys and hobbit-girls.
All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a taU pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.
"Good mo@g!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was v . But G morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of minel There's no hurry, we have all the day before us!"
Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his sog and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed u@ into the air without brealdng and floated away over The Hill.
"Very pretty!" said Gandalf. -But I have no time to blow smokerings @ morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."
"I should think so-in these partsl We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable thingst Make you late for dinnerl I calft think what anybody sees in them,"
said our Mr. Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out another even bigger smokering. Then he took out his morning letters, and begin to read, pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. But the old man did not move. He stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit without saying anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little cross.
"Good mo@gl" he said at last. "We doht want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!"
said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it woift be good till I move off."
"Not at all not at all dear sir! Let me see, I don't
AN UNEXPECTED PARTY ig
you don't remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means mel 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!"
"Gandalf, Gandalf! Good gracious me! Not the wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows'
sons? Not the man that used to make such particularly !,ell,nt fireworks! I remember thoset Old Took used to nave them on Midsummer's Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great fires and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!" You will notice already that Mr. Baggins was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe, also that he was very fond of flowers. "Dear mel" he went on.
"Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures. Anything from climbing trees to visiting Elves @r sailing in ships, sailing to other shores!
Bless me, life used to be quite inter-I mean, you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time. I beg your pardon, but I had no idea you were stiff in business."
"Where else should I be?" said the wizard. "All the same Y am pleased to find you remember something about me.
You seem to remember my fireworks kindly, at any rate, and that is not without hope. Indeed for your old grandfather Took's sake, and for the sake of poor Belladonna, I will give you what you asked for."
"I beg your pardon, I haven!t asked for anything!"
"Yes, you havel Twice now. My pardon. I give it you.
In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure.
Very amusing for me, very good for you-and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it."
With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seem rude. Wizards after all are wizards.
"What on earth did I ask him to tea for!" he said to himself, as he went to the pantry. He had only just had breakfast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright.
Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and laughing long but quietly. 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. Then he strode away, just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had escape adventures very well.
The next day he had almost forgotten about Gandalf.
He did not remember things very well, unless he put them down on his Engagement Tablet: like this: Gandalf Tea Wednesday. Yesterday he had been too flustered to do.
anything of the kind.
Just before tea-time there came a tremendous ring on the front-door bell, and then he rememberedl He rushed and put on the kettle, and put out another cup and saucer, and an extra cake or two, and ran to the door.
"I am so sorry to keep you waitingl" he was going to say, when he saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt, and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. As soon as the door was opened, he pushed inside, just as if he had been expected.
He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg, and "Dwalin at your service!" he said with a low how.
"Bilbo Baggins at yoursl" said the hobbit, too surprised to ask any questions for the moment. When the silence that followed had become uncomfortable, he added: "I am just about to take tea; pray come and have some with
91
They had not been at table long, in fact they had hardly reached the third cake, when there came another even louder ring at the bell.
"Excuse mel" said the hobbit, and off he went to the door.
'4 So you have got here at last!" was what he was going to say to Gandalf this time. But it was not Gandalf.
Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step WI a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been invited.
"I see they have begun to arrive already," he said when he caught sight of Dwalin's green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it, and "Balm at your service!"
he said with his hand on his breast.
"Thank youl" said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he-as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful-he might have to go without.
"Come along in, and have some teal" he managed to say after taking a deep breath.
"A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir," said Balm with the white beard.
"But I don't mind some cake-seed-cake, if you have any."
"Lotsl" 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@es which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.
When he got back Balm and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers). Bilbo I d down the beer and the cak ' "Gandalf for certain this time," he thought as he puffed along the passage. But it was not. 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. In they hopped, as soon as the door began to open-Bilbo was hardly surprised at all.
"What can I do for you, my dwarves?" he said.
"Kiii at your servicel" said the one. "And Fill!" added the other; and they both swept off their blue hoods and bowed.
"At yours and your familyls!" replied Bilbo, remembering his manners this time.
"Dwahn and-Balm here already, I see," said Kiii. "Let us join the throng!"
,@ong!,, thought Mr. Baggins. "I don't like the sound of that.
I really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits, and have a drink." He had only just had a si@ 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-lingdang, his bell rang again, as if some naughty little hobbitboy was trying to pull the handle off.
44 Someone at the door!" he said, b@g.
"Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fill. "Besides, we saw them coming along behind us in the distance."
The poor little hobbit sat down in the hall and put his head in his hands, and wondered what had happened, and what was going to happen, and whether they would all stay to supper. Then the bell rang again louder than ever, and he had to run to the door. It was not four after all, it was ]FIVE. Another dwarf had come along while he was wondering in the hall. He had hardly turned the knob, before they were all inside, bowing and saying "at your service" one after another.
Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloin pegs, and off they marched with their broad hands stuck in their gold and silver belts to join the others.
Already it had almost become a throng. Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes; so the hobbit was kept very busy for a while.
A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came-a loud knock.
Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit's beautiful green door. Somebody was banging with a sticki Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered-this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other. More dwarves, four more! And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing. He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door; he had also, by the way, knocked Out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.
"Carefully! Carefullyl" he said. "It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun!
Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur,, and especially Thorin!"
"At your service!" said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur standing in a row. Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel. This last belonged to Thorin, an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo's mat with ]Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of @- For one thing Bombur was immensely fat and heavy. 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.
"Now we are all herel" said Gandalf, looking at the row
1 hope there is something left for the late-corners to eat and drink! What's that? Teal No thank youl A little red wine, I think, for me."
"And for me," said Thorin.
"And raspberry jam and apple-tart," said Bifur.
'And mince-pies and cheese," said Bofur.
"And pork-pie and salad," said Bombur.
"And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don't mind," called the other dwarves through the door.
"Put on a few eggs, there's a good rebowl" Gandalf called after him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries.
"And just bring out the cold chicken and picklesl" "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. 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.
"Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!" he said aloud. "Why don't they come and lend a hand?" Lo and beholdl there stood Balm and Dwalin at the door of the kitchen, and Fill and Kill behind them, and before he could day knife they had whisked the trays and a couple of small tables into the parlour and set out everything afresh.
Gandalf sat at the head of the party with the thirteen dwarves all round: and Bilbo sat on a stool at the fireside, nibbling at a biscuit (his appetite was quite taken away), and trying to look as if this was all perfectly ordinwy and not in the least an adventure. The dwarves ate and ate, and talked and talked, and time got on. At last they pushed their chairs back, and Bilbo made a move to co.Uect the plates and glasses.
"I suppose you will all stay to supper?" he said in his through the business tiR late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!"
Thereupon the twelve dwarves-not Thorin, he was too important, and stayed talking to Gandalf-jumped to their feet, and made taR piles of all the things. Off they went, not waiting for trays, balancing columns of plates, each with a bottle on the top, with one hand, while the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fright: "please be careful!" and "please, don't trouble! I can manage." But the dwarves only started to sing: Chip the glasses and crack the platesl Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hatesSmash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fatf Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom matl Splash the wine on every doorl Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl, Pound them up with a thumping pole; .4nd when you've finished, if any are whole, Send them down the hall to rolu That's what Bilbo Baggins hateyl So, carefullyl carefully with the platest And of course they did none of these dreadful things, and everything was cleaned and put away safe as quick as lightning, while the hobbit was turning round and round in the middle of the kitchen trying to see what they were doing. Then they went back, and found Thorin with his feet on the fender smoldng a pipe. He was blowing the most telpiece, or under the table, or round and round the ceiling; but wherever it went it was not quick enough to escape Gandaff. Pop! he sent a smaller smokering from his short clay-pipe straight through each one of Thorin's. Then Gandalf's smokering would go green and come back to hover over the wizard's head. He had quite a cloud of them about him already, and in the dim light it made him look strange and sorcerous. Bilbo stood still and watched-he loved smokerings-and then he blushed to think how proud he had been yesterday morning of the smoke-n'ngs he had sent up the wind over The Hill.
"Now for some musici" said Thorin. "Bring out the instnunents!"
Kill and Fill rushed for their bags and brought back little fiddles; Dori, Nori, and Ori brought out flutes from somewhere inside their coats; Bombur produced a drum from the hall; Bifur and Bofur went out too, and came back with clarinets that they had left among the walking-sticks.
Dwalin and Balm said: "Excuse me, I left mine in the porch!"
"Just bring mine in with you," said Thorin. They came back with viols as big as themselves, and with Thorin's harp wrapped in a green cloth.
It was a beautiful golden harp, and when Thorin struck it the music began all at once, so sudden and sweet that Bilbo forgot everything else, and was swept away into dark lands under strange moons, far over The Water and very far from his hobbithole under The Hill.
The dark came into the room from the little window that opened in the side of The Hill; the firelight ffickeredit was April-and still they played on, while the shadow of Gandalf's beard wagged against the wall.
The dark filled all the room, and the fire died down, and the shadows were lost, and still they played on. And suddenly first one and then another began to sing as they played, deep-throated singing of the dwarves in the deep 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 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.
For ancient king and elvish lord There many a gleaming golden hoard They shaped and wrought, and light they caught To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
On silver necklaces they strung The flowering stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, in twisted wire They meshed the light of moon and sun.
Far over the misty mountains cold To dungeons deep and caverns old We must away, ere break of day, To claim our long-forgotten gold.
Goblets they carved there for themselves And harps of gold; where no man delves There lay they long, and many a song Way sung unheard by men or elves.
The pines were roaring on the height, The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread; The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale And men looked up with faces leThe mountain smoked beneath the moon; The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled their hall to dying fall Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.
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 himl As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierre and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. 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. He looked out of the window. The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt u@probably somebody lighting a wood-fire-and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr.
Baggins of BagEnd, UnderHill, again.
He got up trembling. He had less than half a mind to fetch the lamp, and more than half a mind to pretend to, and go and hide behind the beer barrels in the cellar, and not come out again until all the dwarves had gone awaySuddenly he found that the music and the singing had stopped, and they were all looking at him with eyes shining in the dark.
"Where are you going?" said Thorin, in a tone that seemed to show that he guessed both halves of the hobbit's mind.
"What about a little liaht?" said Bilbo logetically.
IF
AN LTNEXPECTED PARTY 29
"Of course!" said Bilbo, and sat down in a hurry. He missed the stool and sat in the fender, knocking over the poker and shovel with a crash.
"Hushl" said Gandalf. "Let Thorin speakt" And this is how Thorin began.
"Gandaff, dwarves and Mr. Bagginsl 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 outt all praise to his wine and aiel-" He paused for breath and for a polite remark from the hobbit, but the compliments were quite lost on poor Bilbo Baggins, who was wagging his mouth in protest at being called audacious and worst of all fellow conspirator, though no noise came out, he was so flummoxed. So Thorin went on: "We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices. 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 is a solemn moment. Our object is, I take it, well known to us all.
To the estimable Mr. Baggins, and perhaps to one or two of the younger dwarves (I think I should be right in naming Kill and Fill, for instance), the exact situation at the moment may require a little brief explanation This was Thorin's style. He was an important dwarf.
If he had been allowed, he would probably have gone on like this until he was out of breath, without telling any one there anything that was not known already. But he was rudely interrupted. Poor Bilbo couldn't bear it any longer.
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. All the dwarves sprang up knocking ov&r the table. 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 hearthru shahn like they could get out of him for a long time. So they took him and laid him out of the way on the drawing-room sofa with a drink at his elbow, and they went back to their dark business.
"Excitable little fellow," said Gandalf, as they sat down again.
"Gets funny queer fits, but he is one of the best, one of the best-as fierce as a dragon in a pinch."
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.
He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbithole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.
In the meanwhile, however, Bullroarees gentler descendant was reviving in the drawing-room. After a while and a drink he crept nervously to the door of the parlour. This is what he heard, Gloin speaking: "Humph!" (or some snort more or less like that). "Will he do, do you @? It is all very well for Gandalf to talk about this hobbit being fierce, but one shriek like that in a moment of excitement would be enough to wake the dragon and all his relatives, and kill the lot of us. I think it sounded more like fright than excitement! In fact, if it had not been for the sign on the door, I should have been sure we had come to the wrong house. As soon as I clapped eyes on the little fellow bobbing and puffing on the mat, I had my doubts. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar!"
Then Mr. Baggins turned the handle and went in. The Took side had won. He suddenly felt he would go without bed and breakfast to be thought fierce. As for little fellow bobbing on the mat it almost made him really fierce. Many a time afterwards the Baggins part regretted what he did "Pardon me," he said, "if I have overheard words that you were saying. I don't pretend to understand what you are talking about, or your reference to burglars, but I think I am right in believing"
(this is what he called being on his dignity) "that you think I am no good. I will show you.
I have no signs on my door-it was painted a week ago-, and I am quite sure you have come to the wrong house.
As soon as I saw your funny faces on the doorstep, I had my doubts. But treat it as the right one. Tell me what you want done, and I will try it, if I have to walk from here to the East of East and fight the wild Were-worms in the Last Desert. I had a great-great-great-granduncle once, Bullroarer Took, and-" "Yes, yes, but that was long ago," said Gloin. "I was talking about you. And I assure you there is a mark on this door-the usual one in the trade, or used to be. Burglar wants a good job, Plenty of Excitement and reasonable Reward, that's how it is usually read. You can say Expert Treasure-hunter instead of Burglar if you like. -Some of them do.
It's all the same to us. Gandalf told us that there was a man of the sort in these parts looking for a Job at once, and that he had arranged for a meeting here this Wednesday tea-time."
"Of course there is a mark," said Gandalf. "I put it there myself. For very good reasons. You asked me to find the fourteenth man for your expedition, and I chose Mr.
Baggins. Just let any one say I chose the wrong man or the wrong house, and you can stop at thirteen and have all the bad luck you like, or go back to digging coal.,, 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 out his bushy eyebrows, till Bilbo shut his mouth tight with a snap. "That's right,"
said Gandalf. "Let's have no more argument. I have chosen Mr.
Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you. If I sa he is a Bur idea of himself. You may (possibly) all live to thank me yet. Now Bilbo, my boy, fetch the lamp, and let's have a little light on this!"
On the table in the light of a big lamp with a red shade he spread a piece of parchment rather like a map.
"This was made by Thror, your grandfather, Thorin," he said in answer to the dwarves' excited questions- "It is a plan of the Mountain."
"I don't see that this will help us much," said Thorin disappointedly after a glance. "I remember the Mountain well enough and the lands about it. And I know where Mirkwood is, and the, Withered Heath where the great dragons bred." tain, Pp "There is a dragon marked in red on the MOun said Balm, "but it will be easy enough to find him without that, if ever we arrive there."
"There is one point that you haven't noticed," said the wizard, "and that is the secret entrance. You see that rune on the West side, and the hand pointing to it from the other runes?\* That marks a hidden passage to the Lower Halls."
"It may have been secret once," said Thorin, "but how do we know that it is secret any longer? Old Smaug has lived there long enough now to find out anything there is to know about those caves."
"He may-but he can't have used it for years and years."
4i Why?"
"Because it is too small. '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."
"it seems a great big hole to me," squeaked Bilbo (who had no experience of dragons and only of hobbitholes).
He was getting excited and interested again, so that @e forgot to keep his mouth shut. He loved maps, and.in ha his favourite walks marked on it in red ink. "How could such a large door be kept secret from everybody outside, apart from the dragon?" he asked, He was only a little hobbit you must remember.
"In lots of ways," said Gandalf. "But in what way this one has been hidden we don't know without going to see.
From what it says on the map I should guess there is a closed door which has been made to look exactly like the side of the Mountain.
That is the usual dwarves' methodI think that is right, isn't it?"
"Quite right," said Thorin.
"Also," went on Gandalf, "I forgot to mention that with the map went a key, a small and curious key. Here it is!"
he said, and handed to Thorin a key with a long barrel and intricate wards, made of silver. "Keep it safel" "Indeed I will," said Thorin, and he fastened it upon a fine chain that hung about his neck and under his jacket.
"Now things begin to look more hopeful. This news alters them much for the better. So far we have had no clear idea what to do. We thought of going Past, as quiet and careful as we could, as far as the Long Lake. After that the trouble would begin-."
"A long time before that, if I know anything about the roads East," interrupted Gandalf.
"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 we none of us liked the idea of the Front Gate. The river runs right out of it through the great cliff at the South of the Mountain, and out of it comes the dragon too--far too often, unless he has changed."
"That would be no good," said the wizard, "not without a mighty Warrior, even a Hero. I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neiizh-bourhood heroes are scarce or sim legendary). That is why I settled on burglary-especially when I remembered the existence of a Side-door.
And here is our little Bilbo Baggins, the burglar, the chosen and selected burglar. So now let's get on and make some plans.,, "Very well then," said Thorin, "supposing the burglar.
expert gives us some ideas or suggestions." He turned with mock-politeness to Bilbo.
"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 Tooldshly determined to go on with things. ,I mean about the gold and the dragon, and all that, and how it got there, and who it belongs to, and so on and ftuther.' "Bless me!" said Thorin, "haven't you got a map?
and didn't you hear our song? and haven't we been talking about all this for hours?"
"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. "Also I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses, hi time required and remuneration, and so forth'!-by w ch he meant: "What am I going to get out of it? and am I going to come back alive?"
"O very well," said Thorin. "Long ago in my grant father Thror's time our family was driven out of the fall North, and came back with all their wealth and their tools@ to this Mountain on the map. It had been discovered by my far ancestor, Thrain the Old, but now they mined and they tunnelled and they made huger halls and greater workshops -and in addition I believe they found a good deal of Lyold@ and a great many jewels too. Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the' Mountain again and treated with great reverence by the!
mortal men, who lived to the South, and were gradually' and reward even the least skilful most richly. Fathers would beg us to take their sons as apprentices, and pay us handsomely, especially in food-supplies, which we never bothered to grow or find for ourselves.
Altogether those were good days for us, and the poorest of us had money to spend and to lend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fan of it, not to speak of the most marvellous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days. So my grandfathers halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the to@ market of Dale was the wonder of the North.
"Undoubtedly that was what brought the dragon. Dragons steal gold and jewels, you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically forever, unless they are killed), and never enjoy a brass ring of it. Indeed they hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they usually have a good notion of the current market value; and they can't make a thing for themselves, not even mend a little loose scale of their armour. There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold ttin was probably ge g scarce up there, with the dwarves flying south or getting killed, and all the general waste and destruction that dragons make going from bad to worse.
There was a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug. One day he flew up into the air and came south. The first we heard of it was a noise like a hurricane coming from the North, and the pine-trees on the Mountain creaking and cracking in the wind. Some of the dwarves who happened to be outside (I was one luckily -a fine adventurous lad in those days, always wandering about, and it saved my life that day)-well, from a good way off we saw the dragon settle on our mountain in a spout of flame. Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire. By that time all the bells were rin
T
way. The river rushed up in steam and a fog fell on Dale, and in the fog the dragon came on them and destroyed most of the warriors-the usual unhappy story, it was only too common in those days. Then he went back and crept in through the Front Gate and routed out all the halls ' and lanes, and tunnels, alleys, cellars, mansions and passages.
After that there were no dwarves left alive inside, and he took all their wealth for himself. Probably, for that is the dragons' way, he has piled it all up in a great heap far inside, and sleeps on it for a bed. Later he used to crawl out of the great gate and come by night to Dale, and carry away people, especially maidens, to eat, until Dale was ruined, and all the people dead or gone. 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.
"The few of us that were well outside sat and wept in hiding, and cursed Smaug; and there we were unexpectedly joined by my father and my grandfather with singed beards.
.they iookea very grim but they said very little. When I asked how they had got away, they told me to hold my tongue, and said that one day in the proper time I should know. After that we went away, and we have had to earn our livings as best we could up and down the lands, often enough sinldng as low as blacksmith-work or even coalmining. But we have never forgotten our stolen treasure.
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.
"I have often wondered about my father's and my grandfather's escape. I see now they must have had a private Side-door which only they knew about. But apparently they made a map, and I should like to know how Gandalf got hold of i4 and why it did not come down to me, the "Your grandfather Thror was killed, you remember, in the mines of Moria by Azog the Goblin-" 44 Curse his name, yes," said Thorin.
"And Thrain your father went away on the twentyfirst of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday, and has never been seen by you sinc@"
"True, true," said Thorin.
"Well, your father gave me this to give to you; and if I have chosen my own time and way of handing it over, you can hardly blame, me, considering the trouble I had to find you. Your father could not remember his own name when he gave me the paper, and he never told me yours; so on the whole I think I ought to be praised and thanked.
Here it is," said he handing the map to Thorin.
"I don't understand," said Thorin, and Bilbo felt he would have liked to say the same. The explanation did not seem to explain.
"Your grandfather," said the wizard slowly and @y, ,Rave the map to his son for safety before he went to the 1: mines of Moria. Your father went away to try his luck with the map after your grandfather was killed; and lots of adventures of a most unpleasant sort he had, but he never got near the Mountain. How he got there I don't know, but I found him a prisoner in the dungeons of the Necromancer."
"Whatever were you doing there?" asked Thorin with a shudder, and all the dwarves shivered.
"Never you mind. I was finding things out, as usual; and a nasty dangerous business it was. Even 1, Gandalf, only just escaped. I tried to save your father, but it was too late. He was witless and wandering, and had forgotten almost everything except the map and the key."
"We have long ago paid the goblins of Moria," said Thorin; "we must give a thought to the Necromancer."
"Don't be absurd! He is an enem uite b the thing your father wished was for his son to read the map and use the key. The dragon and the Mountain are more 1
than big enough tasks for youl" "Hear, hearl" 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 sayl"
"What's that?" they asked.
"Well, I should say that you ought to go East and have a look round. After all there is the Side-door, and dragons must sleep sometimes, I suppose. If you sit on the doorstep long enough, I daresay you will think of something.
And well, don't you know, I think we have talked long enough for one night, if you see,what I mean. What about bed, and an early start, and all that? I will give you a good breakfast before you go."
"Before we go, I suppose you mean," said Thorin.
"Aren't you the burglar? And isn't sitting on the doorstep your job, not to speak of getting inside the door? But I agree about bed and breakfast. I like eggs with my h@ when starting on a journey: ftied not poached, and mind you don't break 'em."
After all the others had ordered their breakfasts without so much as a please (which annoyed Bilbo very much), they all got up. The hobbit had to find room for them all, and filled all his spare-rooms and made beds on chairs and sofas, before he got them all stowed and went to his own little bed very tired and not altogether happy. One thing he did make his mind up about was not to bother to get up very-early and cook everybody else's wretched breakfast. The Tookishness was wearing off, and he was not now quite so sure that he was going on any journey in the morning. As he lay in bed he could hear Thorin still humming to himself in the best bedroom next to him: We must away, ere break of day, To find our long-forgotten gold.
Bilbo went to sleep with that in his ears, and it gave him very uncomfortable dreams. It was long after the break of day, when he woke up.
Chaptet-2
Roast Mutton Up jumped Bilbo, and putting on his dressing-gown went into the dining-room. There he saw nobody, but all the signs of a large and hurried breakfast. There was a fearful mess in the room, and piles of unwashed crocks in the kitchen. Nearly every pot and pan he possessed seemed to have been used. The washing-up was so dismally real that Bilbo was forced to believe the party of the night before had not been part of his bad dreams, as he had rather hoped. 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. The feeling surprised him.
"Don't be a fool, Bilbo Bagginsl" he said to himself, g of dragons and all that outlandish nonsense at your agel" So he put on an apron, ]it fires, boiled water, and washed up. Then he had a nice little breakfast in the kitchen before turning out the dining-room. By that time the sun was shining; and the front door was open, letting m a warm spring breeze. Bilbo began to whistle loudly and to forget about the night before. In fact he was just sitting down to a nice little second breakfast in the dining-room by the open window, when in walked Gandalf.
"My dear fellow," said he, "whenever are you going to come? What about an early start?-and here you are having breakfast, or whatever you call it, at half past tenl They left you the message, because they could not wait."
"What message?" said poor Mr. Baggins all in a fluster.
"Great Elephants!" said Gandalf, "you are not at all yourself this morning-you have never dusted the mantelpiecel" "What's that got to do with it? I have had enough to do with washing up for fourteen!"
"If you had dusted the mantelpiece, you would have found this just under the clock," said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note (written, of course on -his own note-paper).
This is what he read: "Thorin and Company to -Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality our sincerest th@, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. 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.
"Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Green Dragon Irm, Bywater, at I I a.m.
sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual.
"We have the honour to remain "Yours deeply "Thorin & Co."
"That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run said Gandalf.
"But@' said Bilbo.
"No time for it," said the wizard.
"But-" said Bilbo again.
"No time for that either! Off you go!"
To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, wa@g-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-@shed and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf's hands, and Very puffed he was, when he got to Bywater just on the stroke of eleven, and found he had come without a pockethandkerchief!
"Bravo!" said Balm who was standing at the inn door looking out for him.
Just then all the others came round the corner of the road from the village. They were on ponies, and each pony was slung about with all kinds of baggages, packages, parcels, and paraphernalia. There was a very small pony, apparently for Bilbo.
"Up you two get, and off we go!" said Thorin.
"I'm awfully sorry," said Bilbo, "but I have come without my hat, and I have left my pockethandkerchief behind, and I haven't got any money. I didn't get your note until after 10.45 to be precise."
"Don't be precise," said DwaHn, "and don't worry! You will have to manage without pockethandkerchiefs, and a good many other things, before you get to the journey's end. As for a hat, I have got a spare hood and cloak in my luggage."
That's how they all came to start, jogging off from the inn one fine morning just before May, on laden ponies; and Bilbo was wearing a dark-green hood (a little weatherstained) and a dark-green cloak borrowed from Dwalin.
They were too large for him, and he looked rather comic.
What his father Bungo would have thought of @, 7
daren't think. His only comfort was he couldn't be @staken for a dwarf, as he had no beard.
They had not been riding very long when up came Gandalf very splendid on a white horse. He had brought a lot of pockethandkerchiefs, and Bilbo's pipe and tobacco. So after that the party went along very merrily, and they told stories or sang songs as they rode forward all day, except of course when they stopped for meals. These didn't come quite as often as Bilbo would have liked them, but still he roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business. Then they came to lands where people spoke strangely, and sang songs Bilbo had never heard before. Now they had gone on far into the Lone-lands, where there were no people left, no inns, and the roads grew steadily worse. Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees. On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people. Everything seemed gloomy, for the weather that day had taken a nasty tam. Mostly it had been as good as May can be, even in merry tales, but now it was cold and wet. In the Lone-lands they had to camp when they could, but at least it had been dry.
"To think it will soon be June," grumbled Bilbo as he splashed along behind the others in a very muddy track.
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. ''And I'm sure the rain has got into the dry clothes and into the foodbags," thought Bilbo. "Bother burgling and everything to do with itl I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!" It was not the last time that he wished thati Still the dwarves jogged on, never turning round or taking any notice of the hobbit. Somewhere behind the grey clouds the sun must have gone down, for it began to get dark. Wind got up, and the willows along the river-bank bent and sighed. I don't ]know what river it was, a rushing red one, swollen with the rains of the last few days, that came down from the hills and mountains in front of them.
Soon it was nearly dark. The winds broke up the grey clouds, and a w@g moon appeared above the hills between the flying rags. Then they stopped, and Thorin muttered something about supper, "and where shall we get a 19
he was in the adventure or merely keeping them company for a while. He had eaten most, talked most, and laughed most. But now he simply was not there at all!
"Just when a wizard would have been most useful, too,' groaned Dori and Nori (who shared the hobbit's views about regular meals, plenty and often).
They decided in the end that they would have to camp where they were. So far they had not camped before on this journey, and though they knew that they soon would have to camp regularly, when they were among the Misty Mountains and far from the lands of respectable people, it seemed a bad wet evening to begin on. 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. Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they could not do it that night, not even Oin and Gloin, who were specially good at it.
Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted.
He got into the river before they could catch him; and before they could get him out again, Fill and Kiii were nearly drowned, and all the baggage that he carried was washed away off him. Of course it was mostly food, and there was mighty little left for supper, and less for breakfast.
There they all sat glum and wet and muttering, while Oin and Gloin went on trying to light the fire, and quarrelling about it. Bilbo was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine, when Balm, who was always their lookout man, said: "There's a light over there!" There was a hill some way off with trees on it, pretty thick in parts. Out of the dark mass of the trees they could now see a light shining, a reddish comfortablelooking light, as it might be a fire or torches twinkling.
When they had looked at it for some while, they fell to Others said: "These parts are none too well known, and are too near the mountains. Travellers seldom come this way now. The old maps are no use: things have changed for the worse and the road is unguarded. They have seldom even heard of the king round here, and the less inquisitive you are as you go along, the less trouble you are likely to find."
Some said: "After all there are fourteen of us."
Others said: "Where has Gandalf got to?" This remark was repeated by everybody. Then the rain began to pour down worse than ever, and Oi-n and Gloin began to fight.
That settled it. "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.
They came to the hill and were soon in the wood. Up the hill they went; but there was no proper path to be seen, such as might lead to a house or a farm; and do what they could they made a deal of rustling and crackling and creaking (and a good deal of grumbling and dratting), as they went through the trees in the pitch dark.
Suddenly the red light shone out very bright through the tree-trunks not far ahead.
"Now it is the burglar's turn," they said, me Bilbo.
amg ,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. "Now scuttle off, and come,back quick, if all is well. If not, conae back if you can! It you @t, hoot twice like a barn-owl and once like a screech-owl, and we will do what we can.,, Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he could not hoot even once like any kind of owl any more than fly like a bat. But at any rate hobbits can move quietly in woods, absolutely quietly. 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. d So, naturally, he got right up to the fire-for fire it waswithout disturbing anyone. And this is what he saw.
Three very large persons sitting round a very large fire of beech4ogs. They were toasting mutton on long spits of wood, and licking the gravy off their fingers. There was a fine toothsome smell.
Also there was a barrel of good drink at hand, and they were drinking out of jugs. But they were trolls. Obviously trolls. 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.
"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer," said one of the trolls.
"Never a b@g bit of manflesh have we had for long enough," said a second. "What the jell William was athinkin' of to bring us into these parts at all, beats me-and the drink runnin' short, what's more," he said jogging the elbow of William, who was taking a pull at his jug.
William choked. "Shut yer mouth!" he said as soon as he could.
"Yer can't expect folk to stop here for ever just to be et by you and Bert. You've et a village and a half between yer, since we come down from the mountains. HOW much more dyer want? And time's been up our way, when yer'd have said 'thank yer Bill' for a nice bit O' fat valley mutton like what this is." He took a big bite off a sheep's leg he was toasting, and wiped his lips on his sleeve.
Yes, I am afraid trolls do behave Eke that, even those with only one head each. After hearing all this Bilbo ought to have done something at once. 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. A really t-class and leda bu ar would at this oint have noticing him. Others more practical but with less professional pride would perhaps have stuck a dagger into each of them before they observed it. Then the night could have been spent cheerily.
Bilbo knew it. He had read of a good many things he had never seen or done. 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 emptyhanded. So he stood and hesitated in the shadows. Of the various burglarious proceedings he had heard of picking the trolls' pockets seemed the least difficult, so at last he crept behind a tree just behind William.
Bert and Tom went off to the barrel. William was having another drink. Then Bilbo plucked up courage and put his little hand in William's enormous pocket. There was a purse in it, as big as a bag to Bilbo. "Ha!" thought he warming to his new work as he lifted it carefully out, "this is a beginnings It wast Trolls' purses are the mischief, and this was no exception. " 'Ere, 'oo are you?" it squeaked, as it left the pocket; and William turned round at once and grabbed Bilbo by the neck, before he could duck behind the tree.
"Blimey, Bert, look what I've copped!" said William.
"What is it?" said the others coming up.
"Lilmme, if I knowsl What are yet?"
"Bilbo Baggins, a bur-a hobbit," said poor Bilbo, shaking all over, and wondering how to make owl-noises before they throttled him.
"A burrahobbit?" said they a bit startled. Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.
"What's a burrahobbit got to do with my pocket, anyways?" said William.
who had already had a fine supper, "not when he was skinned and boned."
"P'raps there are more like him round about, and we might make a pie," said BerL "Here you, are there any more of your sort a-sneakin'
in these here woods, yer nassty little rabbit," said he looking at the hobbit's furry feet; and he picked him up by the toes and shook him.
"Yes, lots," said Bilbo, before he remembered not to give his friends away. "No, none at all, not one," he said immediately afterwards.
"What dyer mean?" said Bert, holding him right away up, by the hair this time.
"What I say," said Bilbo gasping. "And please don,t cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean. I'll cook beautifully for you, a perfectly beautiful breakfast for you, if only you won't have me for supper."
"Poor little brighter," said Wilflam. He had already had as much supper as he could hold; also he had had lots of beer. "Poor little brighter! Let him gol" "Not till he says what he means by lots and none at all," said Bert. "I don't want to have me throat cut in me sleepl Hold his toes in the fire, till he talks!"
"I won't have it," said William. "I caught him anyway."
"You're a fat fool, William," said Bert, "as I've said afore this evening.,' "And you're a lout!"
"And I won't take that from you, Bill Huggins," says Bert, and puts his fist in WiUiam's eye.
Then there was a gorgeous row. Bilbo had just enough wits left '
when Bert dropped him on the ground, to scramble out of the way of their feet, before they were fighting like dogs, and calling one another all sorts of perfectly true and applicable names in very loud voices. Soon they were locked in one another's arms, and rolling nearly into the That would have been the time for Bilbo to have left.
But his poor little feet had been very squashed in Bert's big paw 9 and he had no breath in his body, and his head was going round; so there he lay for a while panting, just outside the circle of firelight.
Right in the middle of the fight up came BaHn. The dwarves had heard noises from a distance, and after waiting for some time for Bilbo to come back, or to hoot like an owl, they started off one by one to creep towards the light as quietly as they could. No sooner did Tom see Balm come into the light than he gave an awful howl. Trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked). Bert and Bill stopped fighting immediately, and "a sack, Tom, quick!" they said, before Balm, who was wondering where in all this commotion Bilbo was, knew what was happening, a sack was over his head, and he was down.
"There's more to come yet," said Tom, "or rm mighty mistook. Lots and none at alL it is," said he. "No buffahobbits, but lots of these here dwarves. Thafs about the shape of it!"
"I reckon you're right," said Bert, "and we'd best get out of the light."
And so they did. With sacks in their hands, that they used for carrying off mutton and other plunder, they waited in the shadows. As each dwarf came up and looked at the fire, and the spilled jugs, and the gnawed mutton, in surprise, popf went a nasty smelly sack over his head, and he was down. Soon Dwahn lay by Balm, and Fill and Kill together, and Dori and Nori and Ori all in a heap, and Oin and Gloin and Bifur and Bofur and Bombur piled uncomfortably near the fire.
"That'U teach 'em," said Tom; for Bifur and Bombur had given a lot of trouble, and fought like mad, as dwarves will when cornered.
Thorin came last-and he was not caught unawares. He d to see his friends'
50 THIE HOB131T
and said: "What's all this trouble? Who has been knockia my people about?"
"It's trollsf" said Bilbo from behind a tree. They hal forgotten all about him. "They're hiding in the bushes wid sacks," said he.
"Ol are they?" said Thorin, and he jumped forward the firp-, before they could leap on him. He caug big branch all On fire at one end; and Bert got tha@ his eye before he could step aside. That put him of battle for, a bit. Bilbo did his best. He caught hold o 11-9-as well as he could, it was thick as a young tre -but he was sent spinning up into the top of some bushes when Tom kicked the sparks up in Thorin's face.
Tom got the branch in his teeth for that, and lost one the front ones. It made him howl, I can tell you. But ju,, at that moment William came up behind and popped sack right over Thorin's head and down to his toes. And the fight ended. A nice pickle they were all in now: a neatly tied up in sacks, with three angry trolls (and tw with burns and bashes to remember) sitting by then arguing whether they should roast them slowly, or minc them fine and boil them, or just sit on them one by one an, squash them into jelly: and Bilbo up in a bush, with hh clothes and his skin torn, not daring to move for fear the should hear him.
It was just then that Gandalf came back. But no one saw him. The trolls had just decided to roast the dwarvei now and eat them later-that was Bert's idea, and after a lot of argument they bad all agreed to it.
"No good roasting 'em now, it'd take all night,'9 sad a voice.
Bert thought it was Willia&s.
"Don't start the argument all over again, Bill," he said, "or it will take all night.,' all over again. In the end they decided to mince them fine and boil them. So they got a black pot, and they took out their @yes.
"No good boiling 'em! We ain't got no water, and it's a long way to the well and all," said a voice. Bert and William thought it was Tom's.
"Shut up!" said they, "or we'll never have done. And yer can fetch the water yerself, if yer say any more."
"Shut up yerselft" said Tom, who thought it was Williatn's voice.
"Who's arguing but you, I'd like to know."
"You're a booby," said William.
"Booby yerself 1 " said Tom.
And so the argument began all over again, and went on hotter than ever, until at last they decided to sit on the sacks one by one and squash them, and boil them next time.
"Who shall we sit on first?" said the voice.
"Better sit on the last fellow first," said Bert, whose eye had been damaged by Thorin. He thought Tom was talking.
"Don't talk to yerself!" said Tom. "But if you wants to sit on the last one, sit on him. Which is he?"
"The one with the yellow stockings," said Bert.
"Nonsense, the one with the grey stockings," said a voice like WiUiam's.
"I made sure it was yellow," said Bert.
"Yellow it was," said William.
"Then what did yer say it was grey for?" said Bert.
"I never did. Tom said it."
"That I never did!" said Tom. "It was you."
"Two to one, so shut yer mouth!" said Bert.
"Who are you a-talkin' to?" said William.
"Now stop it!" said Tom and Bert together. "The night',; gettin'on, And dawn comes early. Ut's get on with itt" "Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!" said a voice that sounded like WilHam's.
But it wasn't. For just at that 52 THE HOB131T ROAST MUTTON 53
to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for the stone door swung back with one big push, and they all trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before went inside. There were bones on the floor and a nasty dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are smell was in the air; but there was a good deal of food made of, and never move again. That is what had happened to Bert and Tom and William.
"Excellent!" said Gandalf, as he stepped from behind a tree, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of a thorn.
bush. Then Bilbo understood. It was the wizard's voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling, until the light came and made an end of them.
The next thing was to untie the sacks and let out the dwarves.
They were nearly suffocated, and very anno ed: y they had not at all enjoyed lying there listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and squashing them and @cing them. They had to hear Bilbo's account of what had happened to him twice over, before they were satisfied.
"Silly time to go practising pinching and pocket-picking," said Bombur, "when what we wanted was fire and food!"
"And that's just what you wouldn't have got of those fellows without a struggle, in any case," said Gandalf, "Anyhow you are wasting time now. Don't you realize that the trolls must have a cave or a hole dug somewhere near to hide from the sun in? We must look into itl"
They searched about, and soon found the marks of trolls' stony boots going away through the trees. They followed the tracks up the hill, until hidden by bushes they camel on a big door of stone leading to a cave. But they could not open it, not though they all pushed while Gandalf tried various incantations.
"Would this be any good?" asked Bilbo, when they were getting tired and angry. "I found it on the ground where the trolls had their fight." He held out a largish key, though no doubt WiMam had thought it very small and secret. 11
must have fallen out of his pocket, v lucldl before he 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. There were lots of clothes, too, hanging on the walls-too small for trolls, I am afraid they belonged to victims-and among them were several swords of various makes, shapes, and sizes.
Two caught their eyes particularly, because of their beautiful scabbards and jewelled hilts.
Gandalf and Thorin each took one of these; and Bilbo took a knife in a leather sheath. It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit.
"These look like good blades," said the wizard, half drawing them and looking at them curiously. "They were not made by any troll, nor by any smith among men in these parts and days; but when we can read the runes on them, we shall know more about them."
"Let's get out of this horrible smell!" said FiE. So they carried out the pots of coins, and such food as was untouched and looked fit to eat, also one barrel of ale which was still full. By that time they felt like breakfast, and being very hungry they did not turn their noses up at what they had got from the trolls' larder.
Their own provisions were very scanty. Now they had bread and cheese, and plenty of ale, and bacon to toast in the embers of the fire.
After that they slept, for their night had been disturbed; and they did nothing more till the afternoon. Then they 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.
When that was done, they all mounted once more, and "To look ahead," said he.
"And what brought you back in the nick of time?"
"Looking behind," said he.
"Exactly!" said Thorin; "but could you be more plain?"
"I went on to spy out our road. It will soon become dangerous and difficult. Also I was anxious about replenishing our small stock of provisions. I had not gone very far, however, when I met a couple of friends of mine from RivendeU."
"Where's that?" asked Bilbo.
"Don't interruptl" said Gandaff. "You will get there iD a few days now, if we're lucky, and find out all about it As I was saying I met two of Elrond's people. They were hurrying along for fear of the trolls. 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.
"I immediately had a feeling that I was wanted back.
Looking behind I saw a fire in the distance and made for iL So now you know. Please be more careful, next time, or we shall never get anywhere!"
"Thank you!" said Thorin.
A Short Rest They did not sing or tell stories that day, even though the weather improved; nor the next day, nor the day after.
They had begun to feel that danger was not far away on either side. They camped under the stars, and their horses had more to eat than they had; for there was plenty of grass, but there was not much in their bags, even with what they had got from the trolls. One morning they forded a river at a wide shallow place full of the noise of stones and foam.
The far bank was steep and slippery. When they got to the top of it, leading their ponies, they saw that the great mountains had marched down very near to them. Already they seemed only a day's easy journey from the feet of the nearest. 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.
"Is that The Mountain?" asked Bilbo in a solemn voice, looking at it with round eyes. He had never seen a thing that looked so big before.
"Of course not!" said Balm. "That is only the beginning of the Misty Mountains, and we have to get through, or over, or under those somehow, before we can come into Wilderland beyond. And it is a deal of a way even from the other side of them to the Lonely Mountain in the East where Smaug lies on our treasure."
"Ol" said Bilbo, and just at that moment he felt more tired than he ever remembered feeling before. He was thinking once again of his comfortable chair before the fire in his favourite sitting-room in his hobbithole, and of the kettle singing. Not for the last time!
or we shall be done for," he said. "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 ano start at the beginning again (if you ever get back at all)."
They asked him where he was making for, and he answered : "You are come to the very edge of the Wild, as some of you may know. Hidden somewhere ahead of us is the fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House. I sent a message by my friends, and we are expected."
That sounded nice and comforting, but they had not got there yet, and it was not so easy as it sounds to find the Last Homely House west of the Mountains. There seemed to be no trees and no valleys and no hills to break the ground in front of them, only one vast slope going slowly up and Up to meet the feet of the nearest mountain, a wide land the colour of heather and crumbling rock, with patches and Slashes of grass-green and moss-green showing where water might be.
Morning passed, afternoon came; but in all the silent waste there was no sign of any dwelling. They were growing anxious, for they now saw that the house might be hidden almost anywhere between them and the mountains. 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.
There were gullies that they could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them. There were dark ravines that one could neither jump nor climb into. There were bogs, some of them green pleasant places to look a@ with flowers growing bright and tall; but a pony that walked there with a pack on its back would never have come out again.
e d a much wid land from the ford to the with moss or heather.
Altogether it was a very slow business following the track, even guided by Gandalf, who seemed to ]mow his way about pretty well.
Es head and beard wagged this way and that as he looked for the stones, and they followed his head, but they seemed no nearer to the end of the search when the day began to fail. Tea-time had long gone by, and it seemed suppertime would soon do the same. There were moths flutte@g about , and the light became very dim, for the moon had not risen. Bilbo's pony began to stumble over Toots and stones. They came to the edge of a steep fall in the ground so suddenly that Gandalf's horse nearly slipped down the slope.
"Here it is at last!" he called, and the others gathered round him and looked over the edge. They saw a valley far below. They could hear the voice of hurrying water in a rocky bed at the bottom; the scent of trees was in the air; and there was a light on the valley-side across the water.
Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep zigzag path into the secret valley of Rivendefl. 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. Their spirits rose as they went down and down. The trees changed to beech and oak, and there was a comfortable feeling in the twilight. The last green had almost faded out of the grass, when they came at length to an open glade not far above the banks of the stream.
"Hmmm! it smells like elves!" thought Bilbo, and he looked up at the stars. They were burning bright and blue.
Just then there came a burst of song like laughter in the trs:
ee
I .i 4
The river is flowing!
Of tra-la-la-lally here down in the valley!
Of What are you seeking, ,And where are you making?
The faggots are reeking, The bannocks are baking!
01 tril-iii-iii-lolly the valley is jolly, hal hal Of Where are you going With beards all a-wagging?
No knowing, no knowing What brings Mister Baggins, And Balm and Dwalin down into the valley in June ha! hal Of Will you be staying, Or will you be flying?
Your ponies are strayingl The daylight is dying!
To fly would be folly, To stay would be jolly And listen and hark Till the end of the dark to our tune hal hal So they laughed and sang in the trees; and pretty la@l nonsense I daresay you think it. Not that they would care; he seldom met them; but he was a little frightened of them too. Dwarves don't get on well with them. Even decent enough dwarves like Thorin and his friends think them foolish (which is a very foolish thing to think), or get annoyed with them.
For some elves tease them and laugh at them, and most of all at their beards.
"Well, well!" said a voice. "Just look! Bilbo the hobbit on a pony, my dear! Isn't it delicious!"
"Most astonishing wonderful! " Then off they went into another song as ridiculous as the one I have written down in full. At last one,,a tall young fellow, came out from the trees and bowed to Gandalf and to Thorin.
"Welcome to the valley!" he said.
"Thank you!" said Thorin a bit gruffly; but Gandalf was already off his horse and among the elves, talking merrily with them.
"You are a little out of your way," said the elf: "that is, if you are making for the only path across the water and to the house beyond.
We will set you right, but you had best get on foot, until you are over the bridge. Are you going to stay a bit and sing with us, or will you go straight on?
Supper is preparing over there," he said. "I can smell the wood-fires for the cooking."
Tired as he was, Bilbo would have liked to stay awhile.
Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars, not if you care for such things. Also he would have liked to have a few private words with these people that seemed to know his name and all about him, although he had never seen them before. He thought their opinion of his adventure might be interesting. Elves know a lot and are wondrous folk for news, and know what is going on among the peoples of the land, as quick as water flows, or quicker.
But the dwarves were all for supper as soon as possible just then, and would not stay. On they all went, leading
-M
6o THE liOBBIT sun has been all day on the snow far up above.
There was only a narrow bridge of stone without a parapet, as narrow as a pony could well walk on; and over that they had to go, slow and careful, one by one, each leading his pony by the bridle. The elves had brought bright lanterns to the shore, and they sang a merry song as the party went across.
"Don't, dip your beard in the foam, father!" they cried to Thorin, who was bent almost on to his hands and knees, "It is long enough without watering it."
"Mind Bilbo doesn't eat all the cakes!" they called. "He is too fat to get through keyholes yet!"
"Hush, hush! Good People! and good night!" said Gandalf, who came last. "Valleys have ears, and some elves have over merry tongues.
Good night!"
And so at last they all came to the Last Homely Hous; and found its doors flung wide.
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told abou@ 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.
They stayed long in that good house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave. Bilbo would gladly have stopped there for ever and ever-even supposing a wish would have taken him right back to his hobbithole without trouble. Yet there is little to tell about their stay.
The master of the house was an elf-friend@ne of those people whose fathers came into the strange stories before the beginning of History, the wars of the evil goblins and the elves and the first men in the North. In those days of our tale there were still some people who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors, and Elrond the master of the house was their chief.
He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf-lord, as
A SHORT REST 6i
ture is only a small one, though important, as you will see, if we ever get to the end of it. 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.
I wish I had time to tell you even a few of the tales or one or two of the songs that they heard in that house.
All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong m a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were ., improved with the best advice. So the time came to midsummer eve, and they were to go on again with the early sun on midsummer morning.
Etrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls' lair, and he said: "These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars.
They must have come from a dragon's hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblincleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondohn once wore. Keep them well!"
"Whence did the trolls get them, I wonder?" said Thorin looking at his sword with new interest.
"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 in some hold in the mountains of the North. I have heard that there are still forgotten treasures of old to be found in the deserted caverns of the mines of Moria, since the dwarf and war.
"A wish that is likely to be granted soon enough in the mountains!" said Elrond. "But show me now your map!"
He took it and gazed long at it, and he shook his head; for if he did not altogether approve of dwarves and their love of gold, he hated dragons and their cruel wickedness, and he grieved to remember the ruin of the town of Dale and its merry bells, and the burned banks of the bright River Running. The moon was shining in a broad silver crescent.
He held up the map and the white light shone through it. "What is this?" he said. "There are moon-letters here, beside the plain runes which say 'five feet high the door and three may walk abreast.' "What are moon-letters?" asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked runes and letters and cunning handwriting, though when he wrote himself it was a bit thin and spidery.
"Moon-letters are rune4etters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond, "not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago."
"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.
"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole."
"Durin, Durin!" said Thorin. "He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and "is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But this will not help us much, I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."
"That remains to be seen," said Gandalf. "Is there any more fmg'
wri r "None to be seen by this moon," said Elrond, and he gave the map back to Thorin; and then they went down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.
The next morning was a midsummer's morning as fair and fresh as could be dreamed: blue sky and never a cloud, and the sun dancing on the water. Now they rode away amid songs of farewell and good speed, with their hearts ready for more adventure, and with a knowledge of the road they must follow over the Misty Mountains to the land beyond.
Over FEII and Under FM There were many paths that led up into those mountains, and many passes over them. 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. The dwarves and the hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.
Long days after they had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up.
It was a hard path and a dangerous path, a crooked way and a lonely and a long. Now they could look back over the lands they had left, laid out behind them far below. Far, far away in the West, where things were blue and faint, Bilbo knew there lay his own country of safe and comfortable things, and his little hobbithole.
He shivered. It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind came shrill among the rocks. Boulders, too, at times came galloping down the mountainsides, let loose by midday sun upon the snow, and passed among them (which was lucky), or over their heads (which was alarming). 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@xcept by the noise of water and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.
"The summer is getting on down below," thought Bilbo, "and haymaking is going on and picnics. They will be harvesting and blackberrying, before we even begin to go down the other side at this rate." And the others were thinking equally gloomy thoughts, although when they had said ing, they had spoken gaily of the passage of the mountains, and of riding swift across the lands beyond. They had thought of coming to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain, perhaps that very next first moon of Autumn-"and perhaps it will be Durin's Day" they had said. Only Gandalf had shaken his head and said nothing.
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. Even the good plans of wise wizards Re Gandalf and of good friends like Elrond go astray sometimes when you are off on dangerous adventures over the Edge of the Wild; and Gandalf was a wise enough r kn
wiza d to Ow it.
He knew that something unexpected might happen, and he hardly dared to hope that they would pass without fearful adventure over those great tall mountains with lonely peaks and valleys where no king ruled.
They did not. An was well, until one day they met a thunderstorm-more than a thunderstorm, a thunder-baftle. You know how terrific a really big thunderstorm can be down in the land and in a river-valley; especially at times when two great thunderstorms meet and clash. More terrible still are thunder and lightning in the mountains at night, when storms come up from East and West and make war. The lightning sphnters 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.
Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind.
They were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim valley at one side of them. There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and shook from head to toe. When he 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 wid a bang. Then came a wind and a rain, and the wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock was no protection at all.
soon they were getting drenched and their ponies were standing with the,@ heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.
"This won't do at all!" said Thorin. 6'll we don't 9'M blown off or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a foot.
ball."
"Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!"
said Gandalf, who was feeling very grumpy, and was far from happy about the giants himself.
The end of their argument was that they sent FiH and ICiii to look for a better shelter. They had very sharp eye4
and being the youngest of the dwarves by some fifty years they usually got these sort of jobs (when everybody could see that it was absolutely no use sending Bilbo). There @ nothing like looking, if you want to find something (or so Thorin said to the young dwarves). You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. So it proved on this occasion.
Soon Fill and Kill came crawling back, holding on to the rocks in the wind. "We have found a dry cave," they sai@ "not far round the next corner; and ponies and all could get inside.;) "Have you thoroughly explored it?" said the wizard, who knew that caves up in the mountains were seldom un.
occupied.
44 Yes, yes!" they said, though everybody knew they could
not have been long about it; they had come back too quick, you don't know how far they go back, sometimes, or where a passage behind may lead to, or what is waiting for you inside, But now Fill and Kill's news seemed good enough.
So they all got up and prepared to move. The wind was howling and the thunder still growling, and they had a business getting themselves and their ponies along. Still it was not very far to go, and before long they came to a big rock standing out into the path. If you stepped behind@ you found a low arch in the side of the mountain.
There was just room to get the ponies through with a squeeze, when they had been unpacked and unsaddled. As they passed under the arch, it was good to hear the wind and the rain outside instead of all about them, and to feel safe from the giants and their rocks. But the wizard was taking no risks. He lit up his wand-as he did that day in Bilbo's dining-room that seemed so long ago, if you remember-, and by its light they explored the cave from end to end.
It seemed quite a flair size, but not too large and mystedous. It had a dry floor and some comfortable nooks. At one end there was room for the ponies; and there they stood (mighty glad of the change) steaming, and champing in their nosebags. Oin and Gloin wanted to light a fire at the door to dry their clothes, but Gandalf would not hear of it.
So they spread out their wet things on the floor, and got dry ones out of their bundles; then they made their blankets comfortable, got out their pipes, and blew smoke ringsg which Gandalf turned into different colours and set dancing up by the roof to amuse them. They talked and talked, and forgot about the storm, and discussed what each would do with his share of the treasure (when they got it, which at the moment did not seem so impossible); and so they dropped off to sleep one by one. And that was the last time that they used the ponies, packages, baggages, tools and paraphernalia that they had brought with them.
It turned out a good thing that night that they had the wall at the back of the cave got bigger and bigger, and opened wider and wider, and he was very afraid but could not call out or do anything but He and look. Then he dreamed that the floor of the cave was giving way, and he was slipping-beginning to fall down, down, goodness knows where to.
At that he woke up with a horrible start, and found that part of his dream was true. A crack had opened at the back of the cave, and was already a wide passage. He was just in time to see the last of the ponies' tails ' disappearing into it. Of course he gave a very loud yell, as loud a yen as a hobbit can give, which is surprising for their size.
Out jumped the goblins, big goblins, great ugly-looking goblins, lots of goblins, before you could say rocks and blocks. There were six to each dwarf, at least, and two even for Bilbo; and they were all grabbed and carried through & crack,. before you could say tinder and flint. But not Gan.
dall. Bilbo's yell had done that much good. It had wakened him up wide in a splintered second, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrible flash like lightning in the cave, a smell like gunpowder, and several of them fell dead.
The crack closed with a snap, and Bilbo and the dwarves were on the wrong side of itl Where was Gandalf? O.' that neither they nor the goblins had any idea, and the gob@ did not wait to find out. It was deep, deep, dark, such as
only goblins that have taken to living in the heart of the mountains can see through. 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 horribl@ stuffy. The goblins were very rough, and pinched unmer '
fully, and chuckled and laughed in their horrible ston) voices; and Bilbo was more unhappy even than when the troll had picked him up by his toes. He wished again an'[ again for his nice bright hobbithole.
Not for the last time. I flap of their flat feet on the stone, and shaking their prisoners as well.
Clap! Snap! the black crackl Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down down to Goblin-town You go, my ladl Clash, crashl Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongsl Pound, pound, far underground!
Ho, hol my ladt Swish, smackl Whip crackl Batter and beatl Yammer and bleatl Work, work! Nor dare to shirk, While Goblins qua#, and Goblins laugh, Round and round far underground Below, my ladl It sounded truly terrifying. The walls echoed to the @laP, snapl and the crush, smash! and to the ugly laughter Of their ho, hol my lad! The general meaning of the song was only too plain; for now the goblins took out whips and whipped them with a swish, smack!, and set them running as fast as they could in front of them; and more than one of the dwarves were already yammering and bleating like anything, when they stumbled into a big cavern.
It was lit by a great red fire in the middle, and by torches along the walls, and it was full of goblins. They all laughed and stamped and clapped their hands, when the dwarves (with poor little Bilbo at the back and nearest to the whips) came running in, while the goblin-drivers whooped and cracked their whips behind. The ponies were already there huddled in a corner; and there were all the baggages and
packages lying broken open, and being rummaged by gob 70 THE HOBBff
1 am afraid that was the last they ever saw of those excellent little ponies, including a jolly sturdy little white fellow that Elrond had lent to Gandalf, since his horse was not suitable for the mountain-paths. For goblins eat horses and ponies and donkeys (and other much more dreadful things), and they are always hungry. Just now however the prisoners were thinking only of themselves. The goblins chained their hands behind their backs and linked them all together in a line and dragged them to the far end of the cavern with little Bilbo tugging at the end of the row.
There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and the bent swords that they use. Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad.
hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, ax@ swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for -want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they troubled invented some of the machines that have since the world, especially the 'ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it @ called) so far. They did not hate dwarves especially, no more than they hated everybody and everything, and particularly the orderly and prosperous; in some parts wicker dwarves had even made alliances with them. But they had a special grudge against Thorin7s people, because of the war which you have heard mentioned, but which does not to this tale-and anyway goblins don't care who
"Who are these miserable persons?" said the Great Gob "Dwarves, and this!" said one of the drivers, pulling at Bilbo's chain so that he fell forward onto his knees.
"We found them sheltering in our Front Porch."
"What do you mean by it?" said the Great Goblin turning to Thorin. "Up to no good, I'll warranti Spying on-the private business of my people, I guess! Thieves, I shouldn't be surprised to learn!
Murderers and friends'of Elves, not unlikely! Cornel What have you got to say?"
"Thorin the dwarf at your service!" he replied-it was merely a polite nothing. "Of the things which you suspect and imagine we had no idea at an. We sheltered from a storm in what seemed a convenient cave and unused; nothing was further from our thoughts than inconveniencing goblins in any way whatever." That was true enought "Uml" said the Great Goblin. "So you sayl Might I ask what you were doing up in the mountains at all, and where you were coming from, and where you were going to? In fact I should like to know all about you. Not that it will do you much good, Thorin Oakenshield, I know too much about your folk already; but let's have the truth, or I will prepare something particularly uncomfortable for you!"
"We were on a journey to visit our relatives, our nephews and nieces, and first, second, and third cousins, and the other descendants of our grandfathers, who live on the East side of these truly hospitable mountains," said Thorin, not quite knowing what to say all at once in a moment, when obviously the exact truth would not do at all.
"He is a liar, 0 truly tremendous one!" said one of the drivers.
"Several of our people were struck by lightning in the cave, when we invited these creatures to come below; and they are as dead as stones.
Also he has not explained this!" He held out the sword which Thorin had worn, the sword which came from the Trolls' lair.
The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when
72 THE ROBBrr
at once. It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did battle before their waM. They had called it Orcrist, Gob]incleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter. They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.
"Murderers and err-friendsl" the Great Goblin shouted.
"Slash theml Beat theml Bite themi Gnash theml Take them away to dark holes full of snakes, and never let them see the light againlll He was in such a rage that he jumped off his seat and himself rushed at Thorin with his mouth open.
Just at that moment all the lights in the cavern went OU4
and the great fire went off pwfl into a tower of blue glowing smoke, right up to the roof, that scattered piercing white sparks all among the goblins.
The yells and yammering, croaking, jabbering and jab.
bering; howls, growls and curses; shrieking and s@g, that followed were beyond description. Several hundred wild cats and wolves being roasted slowly alive together would not have compared with it. The sparks were burning holes in the goblins, and the smoke that now fell from the roof made the air too thick for even their eyes to see through. Soon they were falling over one another and rolling in heaps on the floor, biting and kicking and fighting as if they had all gone mad.
Suddenly a sword flashed in its own light. Bilbo saw it go right through the Great Goblin as he stood dumbfounded in the middle of his rage. He fell dead, and the goblin soldiers fled before the sword shrieldng into the darkness.
The sword went back into its sheath. "Follow me quickl" said a voice fierce and quiet; and before Bilbo understood what had happened he was trotting along again, as fast as he could trot, at the end of the line, down more dark passages with the yells of the goblin-hall growing fainter behind him. A pale light was leading them on.
46 @l . . "The torches will
to Bilbo, and a decent fellow. He made the hobbit scramble on his shoulders as best he could with his tied hands, and then off they all went at a run, with a clink-c@ of chains, and many a stumble, since they had no hands to steady themselves with. Not for a long while did they stop, and by that time they must have been right down in the very mountain's heart.
Then Gandalf lit up his wand. Of course it was Gandalf; but just then they were too busy to ask how he got there.
He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if gob@ were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave. It made no trouble whatever of cutting through the goblin-chains and setting all the prisoners free as quickly as possible.
This swor&s name was Glamdring the Foe-hammer, if you remember.
The goblins just called it Beater, and hated it worse than Biter if possible. Orcrist, too, had been saved; for Gandalf had brought it along as well, snatching it from one of the terrified guards. Gandalf thought of most things; and though he could not do everything, he could do a great deal for friends in a tight corner.
"Are we all here?" said he, handing his sword back to Thorin with a how. "Let me see: on@that's Thorin; two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven; where are Fill and Kill? Here they are, twelve, thirteen-md heres Mr. Baggins: fourteen! Well, well! it might be worse, and then again it might be a good deal better. No ponies, and no food, and no knowing quite where we are, and hordes of angry goblins just behind! On we go"' On they went. Gandalf was quite right: they began to hear goblin noises and horrible cries far behind in the passages they had come through. That sent them on faster than ever, and as poor Bilbo could not possibly go half as fast-for dwarves can roll along at a tremendous pace, I can tell you) when they have to-they took it-i-n turn 74 THE HOBBIT OVER HILL AND UNDER HILL 75
knew the way better (they had made the paths them-i they were seen by the goblins that ran silently up behind, selves), and were madly angry; so that do what they could the dwarves heard the cries and howls getting,closer and closer. Soon they could hear even the flap of the goblk feet, many many feet which seemed only just round the last corner. The blink of red torches could be seen behind them in the tunnel they were following; and they were getting deadly tired.
"Why, 0 why did I ever leave my hobbithole!" said poor Mr.
Baggins bumping up and down on Bombur's back.
"Why, 0 why did I ever bring a wretched little hobbit on a treasure hunt!" said poor Bombur, who was fat, and staggered along with the sweat dripping down his nose in his heat and terror.
At this point Gandalf fell behind, and Thorin with him They turned a sharp corner. "About turn!" he shoutei "Draw your sword, Thorinl"
There was nothing else to be done; and the goblins did not like it.
They came scurrying round the corner in ruE cry, and found Goblincleaver and Foe-hammer shining cold and bright right in their astonished eyes. The ones in front dropped their torches and gave one yell before they were killed. The ones behind yelled still more, and leaped back knocking over those that were running after them. "Biter and Beater!" they shrieked; and soon they were all in confusion, and most of them were hustling back the way they had come.
It was quite a long while before any of fliem dared to turn that corner. By that time the dwarves had gone on again, a long, long, way on into the dark tunnels of the goblins' realm. When the goblins discovered that, they pit out their torches and they slipped on soft shoes, and they chose out their very quickest amers with the sharpest ears and eyes. These ran forward, as swift as weasels in the ard more noise than bats.
for Gandalf was letting his wand give out a faint light to help the dwarves as they went along.
Ouite suddenly Dori, now at the back again carrying Bilbo, was grabbed from behind in the dark. He shouted and fell; and the hobbit rolled off his shoulders into the blackness, bumped his head on hard rock, and remembered nothing more.
r
Riddles 'm the Dark
When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! He could hear nothing, see nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor.
Very slowly he got up and groped about on all fours, till he touched the wall of the tunnel; but neither up nor down it could he find anything: nothing at all, no sign of goblins, no sign of dwarves.
His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment. He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete miserableness, for a long while. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home -for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler.
He could not think what to do; nor could he think what had happened; or why he had been left behind; or why, if he had been left behind, the goblins had not caught him; or even why his head was so sore. The truth was he had been lying quiet, out of sight and out of mind, in a very dark corner for a long while.
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. Just as well for him, as he agreed when he came to his senses. Goodness knows what the strildng of matches and the smell of tobacco would have brought on him out of dark holes in that horrible place. Still at the moment he felt very crushed.
But in slapping all his pockets and feeling all round himself for matches his hand came on the hilt of his little sword-the little dagger that he got from the trolls, and that he had quite forgotten; nor do the goblins seem to have noticed it, as he wore it inside his breeches.
Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes. "So it is all elvish blade, too," he thought; "and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough."
But somehow he was comforted, It was rather splendid to be wearing a blade made in Gondolin for the goblin-wars of which so many songs had sung; and also he had noticed that such weapons made a great impression on goblins that came upon them suddenly.
"Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways?
hnpossiblel Go forward? Only thing to do! On we gol" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.
Now certainly Bilbo was in what is called a tight place.
But you must remember it was not quite so tight for him as it would have been for me or for you. Hobbits are not quite like ordinary people; and after all if their holes are nice cheery places and properly aired, quite different from the tunnels of the gob@ still they are more used-to tunnelling than we are, and they do not easily lose their sense of direction underground-not when their heads have @
covered from being bumped. Also they can move very sayings that men have mostly never heard or have forgotten long ago.
I should not have liked to have been in Mr. Baggins' place, all the same. The tunnel seemed to have no end.
All he knew was that it was still going down pretty steadily and keeping in the same direction in spite of a twist and EL turn or two.
There were passages leading off to the side every now and then, as he knew by the glimmer of his sword, or could feel with his hand on the wall. Of these he took no notice, except to hurry past for fear of goblins or half-imagined dark things coming out of them. On and on he went, and down and down; and still he heard no sound of anything except the occasional whiff of a bat by his ears, which startled him at first, tiH it became too frequent to bother about. I do not know how long he kept on like this, hating to go on, not daring to stop, on, on, untfl he was tireder than tired. It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.
Suddenly without any warning he trotted splash into water! Ugh!
it was icy cold. That pulled him up sharp and short. He did not know whether it was just a pool in the path, or the edge of an underground stream that crossed the passage, or the brink of a deep dark subterranean lake.
The sword was hardly shining at all. He stopped, and he could hear, when he listened hard, drops drip-drip-dripping from an unseen roof into the water below; but there seemed no other sort of sound.
"So it is a pool or a lake, and not an underground river," he thought. Still he did not dare to wade out into the darkness. He could not swim; and he thought, too, of nasty slimy things, with big bulging blind eyes, wriggling in the water. There are strange things living in the pools and lakes in the hearts of mountains: fish whose fathers swam ii4
goodness only knows how many years ago, and never swam out again, while their eyes grew bigger and bigger and bigger from trying to see in the blackness; also there r o er t more slim than fish. Even in the tunnels IUDDLES IN THE DARK 79
other things living unbeknown to them that have sneaked in from outside to lie up in the dark. Some of these caves, too, go back in their beginnings to ages before the goblins, who only widened them and joined them up with passages, and the original owners are still there in odd corners, sing and nosing about.
Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum-as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamplike eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it; but he took care they never found him out. He just throttled them from behind, if they ever came down alone anywhere near the edge of the water, while he was prowling about. They very seldom did, for they had a feeling that something unpleasant was lurking down there, down at the very roots of the mountain.
They had come on the lake, when they were tunnelling down long ago, and they found they could go no further; so there their road ended in that direction, and there was no reason to go that way-unless the Great Goblin sent them. Sometimes he took a fancy for fish from the lake, and sometimes neither goblin nor fish came back.
Actually Gollum lived on a slimy island of rock in the middle of the lake. He was watching Bilbo now from the distance with his pale eyes like telescopes. Bilbo could not see him, but he was wondering a lot about Bilbo, for he could see that he was no goblin at all.
Goflum got into his boat and shot off from the island, while Bilbo was sitting on the brink altogether flummoxed and at the end of his way and his wits. Suddenly up came 8o THE HOBBIT a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it'd make us, gollum!"
And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself 'my precious.' The hobbit jumped nearly out of his skin when the hiss came in his ears, and he suddenly saw the pale eyes sticking out at him.
"Who are you?" he said, thrusting his dagger in front of him.
"What iss he, my preciouss?" whispered Gollum (who always spoke to himself through never having anyone else to speak to). This is what he had come to find out, for he was not really very hungry at the moment, only curious; otherwise he would have grabbed first and whispered afterwards.
"I am Mr. Bilbo Baggins. I have lost the dwarves and I have lost the wizard, and I don't know where I am; and I don't want to know, if only I can get away."
"What's he got in his handses?" said Gollum, looking at the sword, which he did not quite like.
"A sword, a blade which came out of GondoRM" Sssss," said Gollum, and became quite polite. "Praps ye c4sits here and chats with it a bitsy, my preciousss. It like riddles, praps it does, does it?" He was anxious to appear friendly, at any rate for the moment, and until he found out more about the sword and the hobbit, whether he was quite alone really, whether he was good toea@ and whether GoUum was really hungry. Riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing theia had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains, "Very well," said Bilbo, who was anxious to -gree, until he found out more about the creature, whether be
RIDDLES IN THE DARK 8i
"You ask first," he said, because he had not had time to think of a riddle.
So Gollum hissed: What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows?
"Easy!" said Bilbo. "Mountain, I suppose."
"Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yesl" "All right!" said Bilbo, not daring to disagree, and nearly bursting his brain to think of riddles that could save him from being eaten.
Thirty white horses on a red hill, First they champ, Then they stamp, Then they stand still.
That was all he could think of to ask-the idea of eating was rather on his mind. It was rather an old one, too, and Gollum knew the answer as well as you do.
"Chestnuts, chestnuts," he hissed. "Teeth! teeth! my preciousss; but we has only sixl" Then he asked his second: Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.
"Half a moment!" cried Bilbo, who was still thinking
82 THE HOBBFR back he thought of the answer. "Wind, wind of course," he said, and he was so pleased that he made up one on the spot. "This'll puzzle the nasty little underground creature," he thought: An eye in a blue face Saw an eye in a green face.
"That eye is like to this eye" Said the first eye, "But in low place, Not in high place."
"Ss, ss, ss," said Gollum. He had been underground a long long time, and was forgetting this sort of thing. But just as Bilbo was beginning to hope that the wretch would not be able to answer, Gollum brought up memories of ages and ages and ages before, when he'lived with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river, "Sss, sss, my preciouss," he said. "Sun on the daisies it means, it does."
But these ordinary aboveground everyday sort of riddles were tiring for him. Also they reminded him of days when he had been less lonely and sneaky and nasty, and that put him out of temper. What is more they made him hungry; so this time he tried something a bit more difficult and more unpleasant: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills, And e?npty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.
Unfortunately for Gollum Bilbo had heard that sort of thing before; and the answer was all round him anyway.
A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid, he asked to gain time, until he could think of a really hard one.
This he thought a dreadfully easy chestnut, though he had not asked it in the usual words. But it proved a nasty poser for Gollum. He hissed to himself, and still he did not answer; he whispered and spluttered.
After some while Bilbo became impatient. "Well, what is it?" he said. "The answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you are making."
"Give us a chance; let it give us a chance, my precioussss-ss."
"Well," said Bilbo, after giving him a long chance, "what about your guess?"
But suddenly Gollum remembered thieve g from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck-"Eggses," he hissed. "Eggses it isl" Then he asked.
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.
He also in his turn thought this was a dreadfully easy one, because he was always thinking of the answer. But he could not remember anything better at the moment, he was so flustered by the egg-question. All the same it was a poser for poor Bilbo, who never had anything to do with the water if he could help it. I imagine you know the answer, of course, or can guess it as easy as winking, since you are sitting comfortably at home and have not the danger of being eaten to disturb your thinking. Bilbo sat and cleared his throat once or twice, but no answer came.
84 THE HOBBff tiously crunchablet' He began to peer at Bilbo out of the darkness.
"Half a moment," said the hobbit shivering. "I gave you a good long chance just now."
"It must make haste, haste!" said Gollum, beginning to climb out of Ws boat on to the shore to get at Bilbo. But when he put his long webby foot in the water, a fish jumped out in a fright and fell on Bflbo's toes.
"Ugh!" he said, "it is cold and clammyt" d so he guessed. "Fish!
Fish!" he cried. "It is fishl" Gollum was dreadfully disappointed; but Bilbo asked another riddle as quick as ever he coulld@ so that Gollum had to get back into his boat and think.
No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near On three-legs, four-legs got some.
It was not really the right time for this riddle, but Bilbo was in a hurry. Gollum might have had some trouble guessing it, if he had asked it at another time. As it was, talking of fish, "no-legs" was not so very difficult, and after that the rest was easy. "Fish on a little table, man at table sitting on a stool, the cat has the bones'!-that of course is the answer, and Gollum soon gave it. Then he thought the time had come to ask something hard and horrible. This is what he said: This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel,, Grinds hard stones to meal,' Stays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.
Poor Bilbo sat in the dark thinking of all the borrille names of all the giants and ogres he had ever heard tc,"@ of in tales, but not one of them had done all these (I @@in -,,,s.
He had a feeling that the answer was quite different arr@ Gollum began to get out of his boat. He flapped into the water and paddled to the bank; Bilbo could see his eyes coming towards him. His tongue seemed to stick in his mouth; he wanted to shout out: "Give me more time! Give me timel" But all that came out with a sudden squeal was:
"Timet Timel"
Bilbo was saved by pure luck. For that of course was the answer.
Gollum was disappointed once more; and now he was getting angry, and also tired of the game. It had made him very hungry indeed. This time he did not go back to the boat. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo.
That made the hobbit most dreadfully uncomfortable and scattered his wits.
"It's got to ask uss a quesstion, my preciouss, yes, yess, yesss.
Jusst one more quesstion to guess, yes, yess," said Gollum.
But Bilbo simply could not think of any question with that nasty wet cold thing sitting next to him, and pawing and poking him. He scratched himself, he pinched himself; still he could not think of anything.
"Ask us! ask us!" said Gollum.
Bilbo pinched himself and slapped himself; he gripped on his little sword; he even felt in his pocket with his other hand. There he found the ring he had picked up in the passage and forgotten about.
"What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Goflum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.
"Not fairl not fair! " he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"
Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask stuck to his question. "What have I got in my pocket?" he said louder.
"Very well! Guess away!" said Bilbo.
"Handses!" said Gollum.
"Wrong," said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. "Guess againl" "S-s-s-s-s," said Gollum more upset than ever.
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. He tried to @ what other people kept in their pockets.
"Knffe!" he said at last.
"Wrong!" said Bilbo, who had lost his some time ago.
"Last guessl" Now Gollum was in a much worse state than when Bilbo had asked him the egg-question. He hissed and spluttered and rocked himself backwards and forwards, and slapped his feet on the floor, and wriggled and squirmed; but still he did not dare to waste his last guess.
"Come on!" said Bilbo. ,I am waiting!" He tried to sound bold and cheerk but he did not feel at all sure how the game was going to end, whether Gollum gues@ right or not.
"Time's upl" he said.
,,string, or nothing!" shrieked Gollum, which was not quite fair-working, in two guesses at once.
"Both wrong," cried Bilbo very much relieved; and he jumped at once to his feet, put his back to the nearest Wall, and held out his little sword. He knew, of course, that the riddle-game was sacred and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures were afraid to cheat when they this slimy thing played at it. But he felt he could not trust to keep any promise at a pinch. Any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient laws.
lium did not at once attack him. He But at any rate Go could see the sword in Bilbo s hand. He sat still, shivering last Bilbo could wait no longer.
is At IUDDLES IN THE DARK 87
"Did we say so, precious? Show the nassty little Baggins the way out, yes, yes. But what has it got in its pocketses, ch? Not string, precious, but not nothing. Oh no! gollum!"
"Never you mind," said Bilbo. "A promise is a pro@se."
"Cross it is, impatient, precious," hissed Gollum. "But it must wait, yes it must. We cn't go up the tunnels so hasty. We must go and get some things first, yes, things to help US."
"Well, hurry upl" said Bilbo, relieved to think of Golltim going away. He thought he was just making an excuse and did not mean to come back. What was Gollum talking about? What useful thing could he keep out on the dark lake? But he was wrong. Gollum did mean to come back.
He was angry now and hungry. And he was a miserable wicked creature, and already he had a plan.
Not far away was his island, of which Bilbo knew nothing, and there in his hiding-place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful. He had a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring.
"My birthday-present!" he whispered to himself, as he had often done in the endless dark days. "That's what we wants now, yes; we wants itl" 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.
"My birthday-present! It came to me on my birthday, my precious,"
So he had always said to himself. But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world?
Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said.
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. And still sometimes
-M
fish. Then he would creep along dark passages looking for stray goblins. He might even venture into places where the torches were lit and made his eyes blink and smart; for he would be safe. Oh yes, quite safe. No one would see till he had his fingers on him, no one would notice him their throat. Only a few hours ago he had worn it, and caught a small goblin-imp. How it squeaked! He still had a bone or two left to gnaw, but he wanted something softer.
"OWte safe, yes," he whispered to himself. "It won't will it, my precious? No. It won't see us, and its see us, nassty little sword will be useless, yes quite."
That is what was in his wicked little mind, as he slipped suddenly from Bilbo's side, and flapped back to his boat, the dark. Bilbo thought he had heard the and went off into last of him. Still he waited a while; for he had no idea how to find his way out alone.
Suddenly he heard a screech. It'sent a shiver down his g and wailing away in the gloom, back. Gollum was cursm t very far off by the sound of it. He was on his island, no scrabbling here and there, searchiiniz and seeking in vain.
"Where is it? Where iss it?" Bilbo heard him crying.
44iosst it is, my precious, lost, lostl Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!" lost?"
"What's the matter?" Bilbo called. "What have you "It mustn't ask us," shrieked GoRum. "Not its business, 51
no, 9011urn! it's losst, 9011urn, 9011urn, gollum.
"Well, so am I," cried Bilbo, and I want to get unlost.
And I won the game, and you promised. So come alongi Come and let we out, and then go on with your looking!"
Utterly miserable as GoUum sounded, Bilbo could not find much pity in his heart, and he had a feeling that anything ething good.
Gollum wanted so much could hardly besom "Come along!" he shouted.
No, not yet, precious!" Gollum answered. "We must "rch for it it's lost, vg
RIDDLES IN THE 89
"Never guessed!" said Gollum. Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss. "What has it got in its pocketses?
Tell us that. It must tell first."
As far as Bilbo knew, there was no particular reason why he should not tell. Gollum's mind had jumped to a guess quicker than his; naturally, for Gollum had brooded for ages on this one thing, and he was always afraid of its being stolen. But Bilbo was annoyed at the delay. After all, he had won the game, pretty fairly, at a horrible risk. "Answers were to be guessed not given," he said.
"But it wasn't a fair question," said Gollum. "Not a riddle, precious, no."
"Oh well, if it's a matter of ordinary questions," Bilbo replied, "then I asked one first. What have you lost? Tell me that!"
"What has it got in its pocketses?" The sound came hissing louder and sharper, and as he looked towards it, to his alarm Bilbo now saw two small points of light peering at him. As suspicion grew in Gollunf s mind, the light of his eyes burned with a pale flame.
"What have you lost?" Bilbo persisted.
But now the light in Gollum's eyes had become a green fire, and it was coming swiftly nearer. Gollum was in his boat again, paddling wildly back to the dark shore; and such a rage of loss and suspicion was in his heart that no sword had any more terror for him.
Bilbo could not guess what had maddened the wretched creature, but he saw that all was up, and that Gollum meant to murder him at Any rate. Just in time he turned and ran blindly back up the dark passage down which he had come, keeping close to the wall and feeling it with his left hand.
"What has it got in its pocketses?" he heard the hiss loud behind him, and the splash as Gollum leapt from his boat.
"What have 1, I wonder?" he said to himself, as he panted and stumbled along. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping go THE HOBBIT
Golli-im's eyes like small green lamps coming up the slope.
Terrified he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him.
In a moment Gollum was on him. ]gut before Bilbo could do anything, recover his breath, pick himself up, or wave his sword, Gollum passed by, taking no notice of him, cursing and whispering as he ran.
What could it mean? Gollum could see in the dark.
Bilbo could see the light of his eyes palely shining even from behind, Painfully he got up, and sheathed his sword, which was now glowing faintly again, then very cautiously he followed. There seemed nothing else to do. It was no good crawling back down to Gollum's water. Perhaps if he followed him, Gollum might lead him to some way of escape without meaning to.
"Curse it! curse it! curse it!" hissed Gollum. "Curse the Baggins! It's gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess, we guess, my precious. He's found it, yes he must have. My birthday-present."
Bilbo pricked up his ears. He was at last beginning to guess himself. He hurried a little, getting as close as he dared behind Gollum, who was still going quickly, not looking back, but turning his head from side to side, as Bilbo could see from the faint glimmer on the walls.
"My birthday-present! Curse it! How did we lose it, my precious?
Yes, that's it. When we came this way last, when we twisted that nassty young squeaker. That's it. Curse itl It slipped from us, after all these ages and agesl It's gone, gollum."
Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to weep, a whistling and gurgling sound horrible to listen to. Bilbo halted and flattened himself against the tunnel-wall. After bile Gollum stopped weeping and began to talk. He a w seemed to be having an argument with himself.
RIDDLES IN THE DARK gi Baggins has got it in its pocketses; the nassty noser has found it, we says."
"We guesses, precious, only guesses. We can't know tin we find the nassty creature and squeezes it. But it doesn't know what the present can do, does it? It'll just keep it in its pocketses. It doesn't know, and it can't go far. It's lost itself, the nassty nosey thing. It doesn't know the way out.
It said so."
"It said so, yes; but it's tricksy. It doesn't say what it means.
It won't say what it's got in its pocketses. It knows.
It knows a way in, it must know a way out, yes. It's off to the back-door. To the back-door, that's it."
"The goblinses will catch it then. It can't get out that way, precious."
"Ssss, sss, gollum! Goblinses! Yes, but if it's got the, present, our precious present, then goblinses will get it, gollum!
They'll find it, they'll find out what it does. We shan't ever be safe again, never, golluml One of the goblinses will put it on, and then no one will see him. He'll be there but not seen. Not even our clever eyeses will notice him; and he'll come creepsy and tricksy and catch us, gonum, golluml" "Then let's stop talking, precious, and make haste.
If the Baggins has gone that way, we must go quick and see.
Go! Not far now. Make hastel" With a spring Gollum got up and started shambling off at a great pace. Bilbo hurried after him, still cautiously, though his chief fear now was of tripping on another snag and falling with a noise. His head was in a whirl of hope and wonder.
It seemed that the ring he had was a magic ring: it made you invisible!
He had heard of such things, of course, in old old tales; but it was hard to believe that he really had found one, by accident. Still there it-was: GoUum with his bright eyes had passed him by, only a yard tD
one side.
On th went, Gollum flip-flapping ahead, hissing and down, side-passages opened, this way and that. Gollum began at once to count them.
"One left, yes. One right, yes. Two right, yes, yes. Two left, yes, yes." And so on and on.
As the count grew he slowed down, and he began to get shaky and weepy; for he was leaving the water further and further behind, and he was getting afraid. Goblins might be about, and he had lost his ring.
At last he stopped by a low opening, on their left as they went up.
"Seven right, yes. Six left, yes!" he whispered. "This is it.
This is the way to the back-door, yes. Here's the passage!"
He peered in, and shrank back. "But we durstn't go in, precious, no we durstn't. Goblinsts down there. Lots of goblinses. We smells them. Ssss!"
"What shall we do? Curse them and crush them! We must wait here, precious, wait a bit and see."
So they came to a dead stop. Gollum had brought Bilbo to the way out after all, but Bilbo could not get in! There was Gollum sitting humped up right in the opening, and his eyes glewned cold in his head, as he swayed it from side to side between his knees.
Bilbo crept away from the wall more quietly than a mouse; but Gollum stiffened at once, and sniffed, and his eyes went green. He hissed softly but menacingly. 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. He seemed to be crouched right down with his flat hands splayed on the floor, and his head thrust on% nose almost to the stone. 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.
Bilbo almost stopped breathing, and went stiff himself.
He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness, while he had any strength left. He must fighl He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It m threatened to IdU him, or tried to yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.
No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark. Straight over Gollum's head he jumped, seven feet forward and three in the air; indeed, had he known it, he only just missed cracking his skull on the low arch of the passage.
Gollum threw himself backwards, and grabbed as the hobbit flew over him, but too late: his hands snapped on thin air, and Bilbo, falling fair on his sturdy feet, sped off down the new tunnel. He did not turn to see what Gollum -was doing. There was a hissing and cursing almost at his heels at first, then it stopped. All at once there came a bloodcurdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair.
Gollum was defeated. He dared go no further. He had lost: lost his prey, and lost, too, the only thing he had ever cared for, his precious. The cry brought Bilbo's heart to his mouth, but still he held on. Now faint as an echo, but menacing, the voice came behind: "Thief, thief, thieff Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for -ever!"
Then there was a silence. But that too seemed menacing to Bilbo.
"If goblins are so near that he smelt them," he thought, "then they'll have heard his shrieking and cursing.
Careful now, or this way will lead you to worse things."
The passage was low and roughly made. 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. "A bit low for goblins, at least for the big ones," thought Bilbo, not knowing that even the big ones, the orcs of the mountains, go along at a great speed go up again, and after a while it climbed steeply. That slowed Bilbo down. But at last the slope stopped, the passage turned a corner, and dipped down again, and there, at the bottom of a short inc@e, he saw, filtering round another corner-a glimpse of light. Not red light, as of fire or lantern, but a pale out-of-doors sort of light. Then Bilbo began to run.
Scuttling as fast as his legs would carry him he turned the last corner and came suddenly right into an open space, where the light, after all that time in the dark, seemed dazzlingly bright. Really it was only a leak of sunshine in through a doorway, where a great door, a stone door, was left standing open.
Bilbo blinked, and then suddenly he saw the goblins: goblins in full armour with drawn swords sitting just inside the door, and watching it with wide eyes, and watching the passage that led to it.
They were aroused, alert, ready for anything.
They saw him sooner than he saw them. Yes, they saw him. Whether it was an accident, or a last trick of the ring before it took a new master, it was not on his finger. With yells of delight the goblins rushed upon him.
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. And there was the ring still, in his left pocket, and it slipped on his finger. The goblins stopped short. They could not see a sign of him.
He had vanished. They yelled twice as loud as before, but not so delightedly.
"Where is it?" they cried.
"Go ha I ck up the passage!" some shouted.
"This way!" some yelled. "That way!" others yelled.
",Look out for the door," bellowed the captain.
Whistles blew, armour clashed, swords rattled, goblins cursed and swore and ran hither and thither, falling over one another and getting very angry. There was a terrible understand what had happened and to sneak behind a big barrel which held drink for the goblin-guards, and so get out of the way and avoid being bumped into, trampled to death, or caught by feel.
"I must get to the door, I must get to the doort" he kept on saying to himself, but it was a long time before he ventured to try.
Then it was like a horrible game of blindman's buff. The place was full of goblins running about, and the poor little hobbit dodged this way and that, was knocked over by a goblin who could not make out what he had bumped into, scrambled away on all fours, slipped between the legs of the captain just in time, got up, and ran for the door.
It was still ajar, but a goblin had pushed it nearly to.
Bilbo struggled but he could not move it. He tried to squeeze through the crack. He squeezed and squeezed, and he stuck! It was awful. His buttons had got wedged on the edge of the door and the door-post. He could see outside into the open air: there were a few steps running down into a narrow valley between tall mountains; the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone bright on the outside of the door-but he could not get through.
Suddenly one of the goblins inside shouted: "There is a shadow by the door. Something is outsider" Bilbo's heart jumped into his mouth.
He gave a terrific squirm. Buttons burst off in all directions. He was through, with a torn coat and waistcoat, leaping down the steps like a goat, while bewildered goblins were still picking up his nice brass buttons on the doorstep.
. Of course they soon came down after him, hooting and hauooing, and hunting among the trees. But they don't like the sun: it makes their legs wobble and their heads giddy. They could not find Bilbo with the ring on, slipping in and out of the shadow of the trees, running quick and quiet, and keeping out of the sun; so soon they went back Chapter 6
Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire Bilbo had escaped the goblins, but he did not know where he was. He had lost hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons and his friends. He wandered on and on, till the sun began to sink westwards-behind the mountains. Their shadows fell across Bilbo's path, and he looked back. Then he looked forward and could see before him only ridges and slopes falling towards lowlands and plains glimpsed occasionally between the trees.
"Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "I seem to have got right to the other side of the misty Mountains, right to the edge of the Land Beyond! Where and 0 where can Gandalf and the dwarves have got to? I only hope to goodness they are not still back there in the power of the gob@s!"
He still wandered on, out of the little high valley, over its edge, and down the slopes beyond; but all the while a very uncomfortable thought was growing inside him. He wondered whether he ought not,, now he had the magic ring, to go back into the horrible, horrible, tunnels and look for his friends. He had just made up his mind that it was his duty, that he must turn back-and very @erable he felt about it-when he heard voices.
He stopped and listened. It did not sound like goblins; so he crept forward carefully. He was on a stony path winding downwards with a rocky wall on the left hand; on the other side the ground sloped away and there were dells below the level of the path overhung with bushes and low trees. in one of these deals under the bushes people were talking.
He cre still nearer, and suddenly he saw peering beBalin doing lookout. He could have clapped and shouted for joy, but he did not.
He had still got the ring on, for fear of meeting something unexpected and unpleasant, and he saw that Balm was looking straight at him without noticing him.
"I will give them all a surprise," he thought, as he crawled into the bushes at the edge of the dell. Gandalf was arguing with the dwarves. They were discussing all that had happened to them in the tunnels, and wondering and debating what they were to do now. The dwarves were grumbling, and Gandalf was saying that they could not possibly go on with their journey leaving Mr. Baggins in the hands of the goblins, without trying to find out if he was alive or dead, and without trying to rescue him.
"After all he is my friend," said the wizard, "and not a bad little chap. I feel responsible for him. I wish to goodness you had not lost him."
The dwarves wanted to know why he bad ever been brought at all, why he could not stick to his friends and come along with them, and why the wizard had not chosen someone with more sense. "He has been more trouble than use so far," said one. "If we have got to go back now into those abominable tunnels to look for him, then drat him, I say."
Gandalf answered angrily: "I brought him, and I don't bring things that are of no use. Either you help me to look for him, or I go and leave you here to get out of the mess as best you can yourselves. If we can only find him again, you will thank me before all is over.
Whatever did you want to go and drop him for, Dori?"
"You would have dropped him," said Dori, "if a goblin had suddenly grabbed your leg from behind in the dark, tripped up your feet, and kicked you in the back!"
"Then why didn't you pick him up again?"
"Good heavenst Can you askf Goblins fighting and biting in the dark, everybody falling over bodies and hitting one gs THE HOBBIT
Orcrist. All of a sudden you gave one of your blinding flashes, and we saw the goblins running back yelping. You shouted 'follow me everybody?' and everybody ought to have followed. We thought everybody had. There was no time to count, as you know quite well, till we had dashed through the gate-guards, out of the lower door, and helter-skelter down here. And here we are-without the burglar, codmticate him!"
"And here's the burglar!" said Bilbo stepping down into the middle of them, and slipping off the ring.
Bless me, how they jumpedl Then they shouted with surprise and delight. Gandalf was as astonished as any of them, but probably more pleased than all the others.
He called to Balm and told him what he thought of a lookout man who let people walk right into them Eke that without warning. It is a fact that Bilbo's reputation went up a very great deal with the dwarves after this. If they had still doubted that he was really a first-class burglar, in spite of Gandalf's words, they doubted no longer. Balm was the most puzzled of all; but everyone said it was a very clever bit of work.
Indeed Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he just chuckled inside and said nothing whatever about the, ring; and when they asked him how he did it, he said: "O, just crept along, you know-very carefully and quietly."Well, it is the first time that even a mouse has crept along carefully and quietly under my very nose and not been spotted," said Bahn, "and I take off my hood to you."
Which he did.
"Batin at your service," said he.
"Your servant, Mr. Baggins," said Bilbo.
Then they wanted to know all about his adventures after they had lost him, and he sat down and told them everything-except about the finding of the ring ("not just now"
he thought). They were
particularly interested in the rid L i
him sitting beside me," ended Bilbo; "so I said 'what's in my pocket?' And he couldn't guess in three goes. So I said: 'what about your promise? Show me the way out!' But he came at me to kill me, and I ran, and fell over, and he n-tissed me in the dark. Then I followed him, because I heard him talking to himself. He thought I really knew the way out, and so he was making for it. And then he sat down in the entrance, and I could not get by. So I jumped over him and escaped, and ran down to the gate."
"What about guards?" they asked. "Weren't there any?"
"O yesl lots of them; but I dodged 'em. I got stuck in the door, which was only open a crack, and I lost lots of buttons," he said sadly looking at his torn clothes. "But 1 squeezed through all right-and here I am."
The dwarves looked at him with quite a new respect, when he talked about dodging guards, jumping over Gollum, and squeezing through, as if it was not very difficult or very alarming.
"What did I tell you?" said Gandalf laughing. "Mr.
Baggins has more about him than you guess." He gave Bilbo a queer look from under his bushy eyebrows, as he said this, and the hobbit wondered if he guessed at the part of his tale that he had left out.
Then he had questions of his own to ask, for if Gandalf had explained it all by now to the dwarves, Bilbo had not heard it. He wanted to know how the wizard had turned up again, and where they had all got to now.
The wizard, to tell the truth, never minded explaining his cleverness more than once, so now he had told Bilbo that both he and Eirond had been well aware of the presence of evil goblins in that part of the mountains. But their main gate used to come out on a different pass, one more easy to travel by, so that they often caught people benighted near their gates. Evidently people had given up going that way, and the goblins must have opened their new entrance at the to of the ass the dwarves had taken, block it up again," said Gandalf, "or soon there will be no getting over the mountains at all."
As soon as Gandalf had heard Bilbo's yell he realized what had happened. In the flash which killed the goblins that were grabbing him he had nipped inside the crack, just as it snapped to. He followed after the drivers and prisoners right to the edge of the great hall, and there he sat down and worked up the best magic he could in the shadows.
"A very ticklish business, it was," he said. "Touch and !91
90 But, of course, Gandalf had made a special study of bewitchments with ftre and lights (even the hobbit had never forgotten the magic fireworks at Old Took's midsummereve parties, as you remember). The rest we all knowexcept that Gandalf knew all about the back-door, as the goblins called the lower gate, where Bilbo lost his buttons.
As a matter of fact it was well known to anybody who was acquainted with this part of the mountains; but it took a wizard to keep his head in the tunnels and guide them in the right direction.
"They made that gate ages ago," he said, "partly for a way of escape, if they needed one; partly as a way out into the lands beyond, where they still come in the dark and do great damage. They guard it always and no one has ever managed to block it up. They will guard it doubly after this," he laughed.
All the others laughed too. After all they had lost a good deal, but they had killed the Great Goblin and a great many others besides, and they had all escaped, so they might be said to have had the best of it so far.
But the wizard called them to their senses. "We must be getting on at once, now we are a little rested," he said.
"They will be out after us in hundreds when night comes on; and already shadows are lengthening. They can smell ,our footsteps for hours and hours after we have passed.
"O yes!" he said in answer to more questions from the hobbit.
"You lose track of time inside goblin-tunnels.
Today's Thursday, and it was Monday night or Tuesday morning that we were captured. We have gone miles and miles, and come right down through the heart of the mountains, and are now on the other side-quite a short cut.
But we are not at the point to which our pass would have brought us; we are too far to the North, and have some awkward country ahead.
And we are still pretty high up.
Let's get onl" "I am so dreadfully hungry," groaned Bilbo, who was suddenly aware that he had not had a meal since the night before the night before last. Just think of that for a bobbit!
His stomach felt all empty and loose and his legs all wobbly, now that the excitement was over.
"Can't help it," said Gandalf, "unless you like to go back and ask the goblins nicely to let you have your pony back and your luggage."
"No thank you!" said Bilbo.
"Very well then, we must just tighten our belts and trudge on@r we shall be made into supper, and that will be much worse than having none ourselves."
As they went on Bilbo looked from side to side for something to eat; but the blackberries were still only in flower, and of course there were no nuts, nor even hawthorn-berries. He nibbled a bit of sorrel, and he drank from a small mountain-stream that crossed the path, and he ate three wild strawberries that he found on its bank, but it was not much good.
They still went on and on. The rough path disappeared.
The bushes, and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope mg down and started other pieces below them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rocks were disturbed and bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise.
Before long the whole slope above them and below them seemed on the move, and they were sliding away, huddled all together, in a fearful confusion of slipping, rattling, cracking slabs and stones.
It was the treer, at the bottom that saved them. They slid into the edge of a climbing wood of pines that here stood right up the mountain slope from the deeper darker forests of the valleys below.
Some caught hold of the trunks and swung themselves into lower branches, some (like the little hobbit) got behind a tree to shelter from the onslaught of the rocks. Soon the danger was over, the slide had stopped, and the last faint crashes could be heard as the largest of the disturbed stones went bounding and spinning among the bracken and the pine-roots far below.
"Well! that has got us on a bit," said Gandalf; "and even goblins tracking us will have a job to come down here quietly.
"I daresay," grumbled Bombur; "but they won't find it difficult to send stones bouncing down on our heads." The dwarves (and Bilbo) were feeling far from happy, and were rubbing their bruised and damaged legs and feet.
"Nonsensel We are going to turn aside here out of the path of the slide' We must be quickl Look, at the light!"
The sun had long gone behind the mountains. Already the shadows were deepening about them, though far away through the trees and over the black-tops of those growing lower down they could still see the evening lights on the plains beyond. They limped along now as fast as they were able down the gentle slopes of a pine forest in a slanting path leading steadily southwards. At times they were pushing through a sea of bracken with tall fronds rising right
. I
OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTOITHE FIRE 103
There was no wind that evening to bring even a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees.
"Must we go any further?" asked Bilbo, when it was so dark that he could only just see Thorin's beard wagging beside him, and so quiet that he could hear the dwarves' breathing Eke a loud noise. "My toes are all bruised and bent, and my legs ache, and my stomach is wagging like an empty sack."
"A bit further," said Gandalf.
After what seemed ages further they came suddenly to an opening where no trees grew. The moon was up and was shining into the clearing. Somehow it struck all of them as not at all a nice place, although there was nothing wrong to see.
All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them; then by another not far away to the left. It was wolves howling at the moon, wolves gathering together!
There were no wolves living near Mr. Baggins' hole at home, but he knew that noise. He had had it described to him often enough in tales. One of his elder cousins (on the Took side), who had been a great traveller, used to imitate it to frighten him. To hear it out in the forest under the moon was too much for Bilbo. Even magic rings are not much use against wolves-especially against the evil packs that lived under the shadow of the goblin-infested mountains, over the Edge of the Wild on the borders of the unknown. Wolves of that sort smell keener than goblins, and do not need to see you to catch you!
"What shall we do, what shall we dol" he cried. "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!" he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say 'out of the frying-pan into the fire' in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.
44 129
10 THE HOBBrlr . 4
up. They found them as quick as ever they could, you can guess; and up they went as high as ever they could trust the branches. You would have laughed (from a safe distance), if you had seen the dwarves sitting up in the trees with their beards dangling down, like old gentlemen gone cracked and playing at being boys. Fill and Kill were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree. Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloin were more comfortable in a huge pine with regular branches sticking out at intervals like the spokes of a wheel.
Bifur, Bofiir, Bombur, and Thorin were in another. Dwalin and Balm had swarmed up a tall slender fir with few branches and were trying to find a place to sit in the greenery of the topmost boughs.
Gandalf, who was a good deal taller than the others, had found a tree into which they could not climb, a large Pine standing at the very edge of the glade. He was quite hidden in its boughs, but you could see his eyes gleaming in the moon as he peeped out.
And Bilbo? He could not get into any tree, and was scutlike a rabbit that has lost tling about from trunk to trunk its hole and has a dog after it.
"You've left the burglar behind againl" said Nori to Dori looking down.
"I can't be always carrying burglars on my back,' said Dori, "down tunnels and up treesl What do you think I am? A porter?"
"He'll be eaten if we don't do something," said Tho@ were howls all around them now, getting nearer for there and nearer. "Dori!" he called, for Dori was lowest down in the easiest tree, "be quick, and give Mr. Baggins a hand up !19
Dori was really a decent fellow in spite of his grumblingPoor Bilbo could not reach his hand even when he climbed down to the bottom branch and hung his arm down as far as ever he could. So Dori actually climbed out of the treeing at them. Still Dori did not let Bilbo down. He waited till he had clambered off his shoulders into the branches, and then he jumped for the branches himself. Only just in timel A wolf snapped at his cloak as he swung up, and nearly got him.
In a minute there was a whole pack of them yelping all round the tree and leaping up at the trunk, with eyes blazing and tongues hanging out.
But even the wild Wargs (for so the evil wolves over the Edge of the Wild were named) cannot climb trees. For a time they were safe.
Luckily it was warm and not windy.
Trees are not very comfortable to sit in for long at any time; but in the cold and the wind, with wolves all round below waiting for you, they can be perfectly miserable places.
This glade in the ring of trees was evidently a meetingplace of the wolves. More and more kept coming in. They left guards at the foot of the tree in which Dori and Bilbo were, and then went sniffling about till they had smelt out every tree that had anyone in it. These they guarded too, while all the rest (hundreds and hundreds it seemed) went and sat in a great circle in the glade; and in the middle of the circle was a great grey wolf. He spoke to them in the dreadful language of the Wargs. Gandalf understood it.
Bilbo did not, but it sounded terrible to him, and as if all their talk was about cruel and wicked things, as it was.
Every now and then all the Wargs in the circle would answer their grey chief all together, and their dreadful clamour almost made the hobbit fall out of his pine-tree.
I will tell you what Gandalf heard, though Bilbo did not understand it. The Wargs and the goblins often helped one another in wicked deeds. Goblins do not usually venture very far from their mountains, unless they are driven out and are looking for new homes, or are marching to war (which I am glad to say has not happened for a long while). But in those days they sometimes used to go on raids, especially to get food or slaves to work for thenl io6 THE HOBBIT had been planned for that very night. The Wargs had come to meet the goblins arid the goblins were late. The reason, no doubt, was the death of the Great Goblin, and all the excitement caused by the dwarves and Bilbo and the wizard, for whom they were probably still hunting.
In spite of the dangers of this far land bold men had of late been making their way back into it from the South, cutting down trees, and building themselves places to live in among the more pleasant woods in the valleys and along the river-shores. There were many of them, and they were brave and well-armed, and even the Wargs dared not attack them if there were many together, or in the bright day.
But now they had planned with the goblins' help to come by night upon some of the villages nearest the-mountains, been carried out, there would have been If their plan had none left there next day; all would have been killed except the few the goblins kept from the wolves and carried back as prisoners to their caves.
This was dreadful talk to listen to, not only because of the brave woodmen and their wives and children, but also because of the danger which now threatened Gandalf and his friends. The Wargs were angry and puzzled at finding them here in their very meetingplace. They thought they were friends of the wOOdmeni and were come to spy on own into the them, and would take news of their plans d valleys, and then the goblins and the wolves would have to fight a terrible battle instead of capturing prisoners and devoudng people waked suddenly from their sleep. So the Wargs had no intention of going away and letting the people up the trees escape, at any rate not until morning. And long before that, they said, goblin soldiers would be corning down from the mountains; and goblins can climb trees, or cut them down.
Now you can understand why Gandalf, listening to their growling and yelping, began to be dreadfully afraid, wizard were m a ve bad could not do very much stuck up in a tall tree with wolves all round on the ground below. He gathered the huge pinecones from the branches of his tree. Then he set one alight with bright blue fire, and threw it whizzing down among the circle Of the wolves. It struck one on the back, and immediately his Shaggy coat caught fire, and he was leaping to and fro Yelping horribly. Then another came and another, one in blue flames, one in recb another in green. They burst on the ground in the middle of the circle and went off in Coloured sparks and smoke. A specially large one hit the chief wolf on the nose, and he leaped in the air ten feet, and then rushed round and round the circle biting and snapping even at the other wolves in his anger and fright.
The dwarves and Bilbo shouted and cheered. The rage of the wolves was terrible to see, and the commotion they made filled all the forest.
Wolves are afraid of fire at all times, but this was a most horrible and uncanny fire. If a spark got in their coats it stuck and burned into them, and unless they rolled over quick they were soon all in flames.
Very soon all about the glade wolves were rolling over and over to put out the sparks on their backs, while those that were burning were running about howling and setting others alight, till their own friends chased them away and they fled off down the slopes crying and yammering and looking for water.
"What's all this uproar in the forest tonight?" said the Lord of the Eagles. He was sitting, black in the moonlight, on the top of a lonely pinnacle of rock at the eastern edge of the mountains. "I hear wolves' voicesl Are the goblins at mischief in the woods?"
He swept up into the air, and immediately two of his guards from the rocks at either hand leaped up to follow him They circled up in the sky and looked down upon the ring of the Wargs, a tiny spot far far below. But eagles have keen e s and can see small at a at distance.
io8 THE HOBBIT bit moving on the ground a mile below even in the moonlight. So though he could not see the people in the trees, he could make out the commotion among the wolves and see the tiny flashes of fire, and hear the howling and yelping come up faint from far beneath him. Also he could see the glint of the moon on goblin spears and helmets, as long lines of the wicked folk crept down the hillsides from their gate and wound into the wood.
Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all birds; they were proud and strong and noble-hearted. They did not love goblins, or fear them.
When they took any notice of them at all (which was seldom, for they did not eat such creatures), they swooped on them and drove them shrieking back to their caves, and stopped whatever wickedness they were doing. ne goblins hated the eagles and feared them, but could not reach their lofty seats, or drive them from the mountains.
Tonight the Lord of the Eagles was filled with curiosity to know what was afoot; so he summoned many other eagles to him, and they flew away from the mountains, and slowly circling ever round and round they came down, down, down towards the ring of the wolves and the meetingplace of the goblins.
A very good thing too! Dreadful things had been going on down there. The wolves that had caught fire and fled into the forest had set it alight in several places. It was high summer, and on this eastern side of the mountains there had been little rain for some time.
Yellowing bracken, fallen branches, deep-piled pine-needles, and here and there dead trees, were soon in flames. All round the clearing of the Wargs fire was leaping. But the wolf-guards did not leave the trees. Maddened and angry they were leaping and howling round the trunks, and cursing the dwarves in their horrible language, with their tongues hanging out, and their eyes shining as red and fierce as the flames.
OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE log
soon learned what had really happened. Some of them actually sat down and laughed. Others waved their spears and clashed the shafts against their shields. Goblins are not afraid of fire, and they soon had a plan which seemed to them most amusing.
Some got all the wolves together in a pack. Some stacked fern and brushwood round the tree-trunks. Others rushed round and stamped and beat, and beat and stamped, until nearly all the flames were put out-but they did not put out the fire nearest to the trees where the dwarves were.
That fire they fed with leaves and dead branches and bracken.
Soon they had a ring of smoke and flame all round the dwarves, a ring which they kept from spreading outwards; but it closed slowly in, till the running fire was licking the fuel piled under the trees. Smoke was in Bilbo's eyes, he could feel the heat of the flames; and through the reek he could see the goblins dancing round and round in a circle like people round a midsummer bonfire. Outside the ring of dancing warriors with spears and axes sto d the wolves at a respectful distance, watching and waitingo He could hear the goblins beginning a horrible song: Fifteen birds in five firtrees, their feathers were fanned in a fiery breezel But, funny little birds, they had no wines 0
what shall we do with the funny little things?
Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot, fry them, boil them and eat them hot?
Then they stopped and shouted out: "Fly away little birdsl Fly away if you can! Come down little birds, or you will get roasted in your nestsl Sing, sing little birds! Why don't you sing?"
"Go awayl little boys!" shouted Gandalf in answer. "It isn't bird-nest' time. Also naugh 110 THE HORBIT of course he was, wizard though he was. But they took no notice, and they went on singing.
Burn, burn tree and ternt Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch To light the night for our delight.
Ya heyl Bake and toast 'em, try and roast 'entl till beards blaze, and eyes glaze; till hair smells and skins crack, fat melts, and bones black in cinders lie beneath the sky!
So dwarves shall die, and light the night for our delight, Ya heyl Ya-harri-heyl Ya hoyl And with that Ya hoy! the flames were under Gandalfs tree. In a moment it spread to the others. The bark caught fire, the lower branches cracked.
Then Gandalf climbed to the top of his tree'. The sudden splendour flashed from his wand like lightning, as he got ready to spring down from on high right among the spears of the goblins. That would have been the end of him, though he would probably have killed many of them as he came hurtling down like a thunderbolt. But he never leaped.
Just at that moment the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above, seized him in his talons, and was gone.
There was a howl of anger and surprise from the goblins.
Loud cried the Lord of the Eagles, to whom Gandalf had now spoken.
Back swept the great birds that were with him, OUT OF THE FRYIN@PAN
INTO THE FIRE III in vain. Over them swooped the eagles; the dark rush of their beating wings smote them to the floor or drove them far away; their talons tore at goblin faces. Other birds flew to the tree-tops and seized the dwarves, who were scrambling up now as far as ever they dared to go.
Poor little Bilbo was very nearly left behind again! He just managed to catch hold of Doris legs, as Dori was home off last of all; and they went together above the tumult and the burning, Bilbo swinging in the air with his arms nearly breaking.
Now far below the goblins and the wolves were scattering far and wide in the woods. A few eagles were still circling and sweeping above the battle-ground. The flames about the trees sprang suddenly up above the highest branches. They went up in crackling fire. There was a sudden flurry of sparks and smoke. Bilbo had escaped only just in time!
Soon the light of the burning was faint below, a red twinkle on the black floor; and they were high up in the sky, rising all the time in strong sweeping circles. Bilbo never forgot that flight, clinging onto Doris ankles. He moaned "my @, my armsl"; but Dori groaned "my poor legs, my poor legs!"
At the best of times heights made Bilbo giddy. He used to turn queer if he looked over the edge of quite a little cliff; and he had never liked ladders, let alone trees (never having had to escape from wolves before). So you can imagine how his head swam now, when he looked down between his dangling toes and saw the dark lands opening wide underneath him, touched here and there with the light of the moon on a hillside rock or a stream in the plain& The pale peaks of the mountains were coming nearer, moonlit spikes of rock sticking out of black shadows. Summer or not, it seemed very cold. He shut his eyes and wondered if he could hold on any longer. Then he imagII2 THE
HOBBIT it, fell onto the rough platform of an eagle's eyrie. There he i lay without speaking, and his thoughts were a mixture the fire, and fear lest he of surprise at being saved from fell off that narrow place into the deep shadows on either side. He was feeling very queer indeed in his head by this time after the dreadful adventures of the last three days with next to nothing to eat, and he found himself saying aloud: "Now I know what a piece of bacon feels like when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork and put back on the shelf!"
"No you don't!" he heard Dori answering, "because the bacon knows that it will get back in the pan sooner or later; and it is to be hoped we shan't. Also eagles aren't forks!
"O nol Not a bit like storks-forks, I mean," said Bilbo sitting up and looking anxiously at the eagle who was perched close by. He wondered what other nonsense he had been saying, and if the eagle would think it rude. You ought not to be rude to an eagle, when you are only the size of a hobbit, and are up in his eyrie at night!
The eagle only sharpened his beak on a stone and trimmed his feathers and took no notice.
Soon another eagle flew up. "The Lord of the Eagles bids you to bring your prisoners to the Great Shelf," he cried and was off again.
The other seized Dori in his claws and flew away with him into the night leaving Bilbo all alone.
He had just strength to wonder what the messenger had meant by 'prisoners,' and to begin to think of being torn up for supper like a rabbit, when his own turn came.
The eagle came back, seized him in his talons by the back of his coat, and swooped off. This time he flew only a short way. Very soon Bilbo was laid down, trembling with fear, on a wide shelf of rock on the mountainside.
There was no path down on to it save by flying; and no n off it exce b jumping over a precipice. There It seemed that Bilbo was not going to be eaten after all.
The wizard and the eagle-lord appeared to know one another sli htly, and even to be on friendly terms. As a matter 9
of fact Gandalf, who had often been in the mountains, had once rendered a service to the eagles and healed their lord from an arrow-wound. So you see 'prisoners' had meant 'prisoners rescued from the goblins' only, and not captives of the eagles. As Bilbo listened to the talk of Gandalf he realized that at last they were going to escape really and truly from the dreadful mountains. He was discussing plans with the Great Eagle for carrying the dwarves and himself and Bilbo far away and setting them down well on their journey across the plains below.
The Lord of the Eagles would not take them anywhere near where men lived. "They would shoot at us with their great bows of yew," he said, "for they would think we were after their sheep. And at other times they would be right. No! we are glad to cheat the goblins of their sport, and glad to repay our thanks to you, but we will not risk ourselves for dwarves in the southward plains.
"Very well," said Gandalf. "Take us where and as far as you will!
We are already deeply obliged to you. But in the meantime we are famished with hunger."
'I am nearly dead of it," said Bilbo in a weak little voice that nobody heard.
"That can perhaps be mended," said the Lord of the Eagles.
Later on you might have seen a bright fire on the shelf of rock and the figures of the dwarves round it cooking and making a fine roasting smell. The eagles had brought up dry boughs for fuel, and they had brought rabbits, hares, and a small sheep. The dwarves managed all the preparations. Bilbo was too weak to help, and anyway he was not much good at skinning rabbits or cutting up meat, being used to having it delivered by the butcher all ready to cookSo ended the adventures of the Misty Mountains. Soon Bilbo's stomach was feeling full and comfortable again, and he felt he could sleep contentedly, though really he would have liked a loaf and butter better than bits of meat toasted on sticks. He slept curled up on the hard rock more soundly than ever he had done on, his feather-bed in his own little hole at home. But all night he dreamed of his own house and wandered in his sleep into all his different roo@s looking for something that he could not find nor remember what it looked like.
Queer Lodgings The next morning Bilbo woke up with the early sun in his eyes. He jumped up to look at the time and to go and put his kettle on-and found he was not home at all. So he sat down and wished in vain for a wash and a brush.
He did not get either, nor tea nor toast nor bacon for his breakfast, only cold mutton and rabbit. And after that he had to get ready for a fresh start.
This time he was allowed to climb on to an eagle's back and cling between his wings. The air rushed over him and he shut his eyes. The dwarves were crying farewells and Promising to repay the lord, of the eagles if ever they could, as off rose fifteen great birds from the mountain's side.
The sun was still close to the eastern edge of things. The morning was cool, and @sts were in the valleys and hollows and twined here and there about the peaks and pinnacles of the hills. Bilbo opened an eye to peep and saw that the birds were already high up and the world was far away, and the mountains were falling back behind them into the distance. I-le shut Ws eyes again and held on tighter.
"Don't pinch!" said his eagle. "You need not be frightened like a rabbit, even if you look rather like one. It is a fair morning with little wind. What is finer than flying?"
Bilbo would have liked to say: "A warm bath and late breakfast on the lawn afterwards;" but he thought it better to say nothing at all, and to let go his clutch just a tiny bit.
After a good while the eagles must have seen the point they were making for, even from their great height, for they began to go down circling round in great spirals. Th did ii6 THE HOBBIT again. The earth was much nearer, and below them were trees that looked like oaks and elms, and wide grass lands, and a river running through it all.
But cropping out of the ground, right in the path of the stream which looped itself about it, was a great rock, almost a hill of stone, like a last outpost of the distant mountains, or a huge piece cast miles into the plain by some giant among giants.
Quickly now to the top of this rock the eagles swooped one by one and set down their passengers.
"Farewell!" they cried, "wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end!" That is the polite thing to say among eagles.
"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks," answered Gandalf, who knew the correct reply.
And so they parted. And though the lord of the eagles became in after days the King of All Birds and wore a golden crown, and his fifteen chieftains golden collars (made of the gold that the dwarves gave them), Bilbo never saw them again@xr-ept high and far off in the battle of Five Armies. But as that comes in at the end of this tale we will say no more about it just now.
There was a flat space on the top of the hill of stone and a well worn path with many steps leading down it to the nver, across which a ford of huge flat stones led to the grass-land beyond the stream.
There was a little cave (a wholesome one with a pebbly floor) at the foot of the steps and near the end of the stony ford. Here the party gathered and discussed what was to be done.
"I always meant to see you all safe (if possible) over the mountains," said the wizard, "and now by good management and good luck I have done it. Indeed we are now a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you, for after all this is not my adventure. I may look in on it again before it is all over, but in the meanwhile I have some other pressing business to attend to."
QUEER LODGINGS I 17
to come all the way and would always be there to help them out of difficulties. "I am not going to disappear this very instant," said he. "I can give you a day or two more. Probably I can help You out of your present plight, and I need a little help myself. We have no food, and no baggage, and no ponies to ride; and you don't know where you are. Now I can tell you that. You are still some miles north of the path which we should have been following, if we had not left the mountain pass in a hurry. Very few people five in these parts, unless they have come here since I was last down this , way, which is some years ago. But there is somebody that I know of, who lives not far away. That Somebody made the steps on the great rock-the Carrock I believe he calls it.
He does not come here often, certainly not in the daytime, and it is no good waiting for him. In fact it would be very dangerous. We must go and find him; and if all goes well at our meeting, I think I shall be off and wish you like the eagles 'farewell wherever you farel ' " They begged him not to leave them. They offered him dragon-gold and silver and jewels, but he would not change his mind. "We shall see, we shall see!" he said, "and I think I have earned already some of your dragon-goldwhen you have got it.'$ After that they stopped pleading. Then they took off their clothes and bathed in the river, which was shallow and clear and stony at the ford. When they had dried in the sun, which was now strong and warm, they were refreshed, if still sore and a little hungry. Soon they crossed the ford (carrying the hobbit), and then began to march through the long green grass and down the fines of the wide-armed oaks and the tall elms.
"And why is it called the Carrock?" asked Bilbo as he went along at the wizard's side.
"He called it the Carrock, because carrock is his word for it. He calls things like that carrocksy and this one is the ii8 THE HOBBIT
"Who calls it? Who knows it?"
"The Somebody I spoke of-a very great person. You must all be very polite when I introduce you. I shall introduce you slowly, two by two, I think; and you must be careful not to annoy-him, or heaven knows what will happen.
He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind enough if humoured. Still I warn you he gets angry easily."
The dwarves all gathered round when they heard the wizard talking like this to Bilbo.,"Is that the person you are taking us to now?"
they asked. "Couldn't you find someone more eas@tempered? Hadn't you better explain it all a bit clearer?"-and so on.
"Yes it certainly is! No I could not! And I was explaining very carefully' " answered the wizard crossly. "If you must know more, his name is Beom. He is very strong, and he is a sidn-changer."
"What! a furrier, a man that calls rabbits comes, when he doesn't turn their skins into squirrels?" asked Bilbo.
"Good gracious heavens, no, no, No, NO!" said Gandalf.
an in the "Don't be a fool Mr. Baggins if you can help it; d name of all wonder don't mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house, nor rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word! He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin; sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough.
Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say) though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of. . his own.
QUEER LODGINGS ilg
as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and fives most on cream and honey. As a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mount@ and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears; 'The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!' That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself."
Bilbo and the dwarves had now plenty to think about, and they asked no more questions. They still had a long way to walk before them. Up slope and down dale they plodded. It grew very hot.
Sometimes they rested under the trees, and then Bilbo felt so hungry that he would have eaten acorns, if any had been ripe enough yet to have fallen to the ground.
It was the middle of the afternoon before they noticed that great patches of flowers had begun to spring u p, all the same kinds growing together as if they had been planted.
Especially there was clover, waving patches of cockscomb clover, and purple clover, and wide stretches of short white sweet honey-smelling clover. There was a buzzing and a whirring and a droning in the air. Bees were busy everywhere. And such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them.
"If one was to sting me," he thought, "I should swell up as big again as I am!"
They were bigger than hornets. The drones were bigger than your thumb, a good deal, and the bands of yellow on their deep black bodies shone like fiery gold.
"We are getting near," said Gandalf. "We are on the edge of his bee-pastures."
Arte a while the came to a belt of tall and ve ancient
"You had better wait here," said the wizard to the dwarves; "and when I call or whistle begin to come after me-you will see the way I go-but only in pairs, mind, about five minutes between each pair of you. Bombur is fattest and will do for two, he had better come alone and last. Come on Mr. Bagginsl There is a gate somewhere round this way." And with that he went off along the hedge taking the frightened hobbit with him.
They soon came to a wooden gate, high and broad, beyond which they could see gardens and a cluster of low wooden buildings, some thatched and made of unshaped logs; barns, stables, sheds, and a long low wooden house.
inside on the southward side of the great hedge were rows and rows of hives with bell-shaped tops made of straw. The noise of the giant bees flying to and fro and crawling in and out filled all the air.
The wizard and the hobbit pushed open the heavy creaking gate and went down a wide track towards the house. Some horses, very sleek and well-groomed, trotted across the grass and looked at them intently with very UP intelligent faces; then off they galloped to the buildings.
"They have gone to tell him of the arrival of strangers," said Gandalf.
Soon they reached a courtyard, three walls of which were formed by the wooden house and its two long wings.
In the middle there was lying a great oak-trunk with many lopped branches beside it. Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe.
The horses were standing by him with their noses at his shoulder.
"Ughl here they arel" he said to the horses. "They don't look dangerous. You can be off!" He laughed a great rolling laugh, put down his axe and came forward.
"Who are you and what do you want?" he asked gruffly, without ducking his head to miss the fringe of the man's brown tunic.
"I am Gandalf," said the wizard.
"Never heard Of him," growled the man, "And what's this little fellow?" he said, stooping down to frown at the bobbit with his bushy eyebrows.
"That is Mr. Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation," said Gandalf. Bilbo bowed. He had no hat to take off, and was painfully conscious of his many missing buttons. "I am a wizard," continued Gandalf. "I have heard of you, if you have not heard of me; but perhaps you have heard Of my good cousin Radagast who lives near the Southera borders of Mirkwwd?9$ "Yes; not a bad fellow as wizards go, I believe. I used to see him now and again,t' said Beom.
"Well, now I know who you are, Or who You say You are. What do you want?,, "To tell you the truth, we have lost Our luggage and nearly lost our way, and are rather in need of help, or at least advice. I may say we have had rather a bad time with goblins in the mountains.,,
"Goblins?" said the hi
9 man less gruffly. "O ho, so You've been having trouble with them have you? What did You go near them for?,, "We did not mean to.
They surprised us at night in a pass which we had to Cross, we were coming out Dr the Lands over West into these countries-it is a long tale."
"Then you had better come inside and tell me some of it if it won't take all day," said the man leading the way through a dark door that opened out of the courtyard into the house.
Following him they found themselves in a wide hall with a fireplace in the middle. Though it was summer there was a WOOd-fire burning and the smoke was rising to the blackened rafters in search of the way out through an OPe@g in the roof. Th assed
122 THE ROBBIT
wooden posts made of single tree-trunks. it faced south and filled with the light of the westering and was still warm fell golden on the garden sun which slanted into it, and full of flowers that came right up to the steps.
Here they sat on wooden benches while Gandalf began his tale, and Bilbo swung his dangling legs and looked at the flowers in the garden, wondering what their names could be, as he had never seen half of them before.
"I was coming over the mountains with a friend or two..." said the wizard.
ne at that," "Or two? I can only see one, and a little o said Beom.
"Well to tell you the truth, I did not like to bother you with a lot of us, until I found out if you were busy. I will give a call, if I may."
"Go on, call away!"
So Gandalf gave a long shrill whistle, and presently Thorin and Dori came round the house by the garden path and stood bowing low before them.
"One or three you meant, I seel" said Beom. "But these aren't hobbits, they are dwarvest" "Thorin Oakenshield, at your servicel Dori at your service!" said the two dwarves bowing again.
"I don't need your service, thank you," said Beom, "but I expect you need mine. I am not over fond of dwarves, but if it is true you are Thorin (son of Thrain, son of Thror, I believe), and that your companion is respectable, and that you are enemies of goblins and are not up to any mischief in my lands-what are you up to, by the way7"
"They are on their way to visit the land of their fathers, away east beyond Mirkwood," put in Gandalf, "and it is entirely an accident that we are in your lands at all. We were crossing by the High Pass that should have brought us to the road that lies to the south of your country, when we were attacked by the evil goblins-as I was about to tell you.'s "There was a terrible storm; the stone-giants were out hurling rocks, and at the head of the pass we took refuge in a cave, the hobbit and I and several of our companions.
"Do you call two several?"
"Well, no. As a matter of fact there were more than two.ss "Where are they? Killed, eaten, gone home?"
"Well, no. They don't seem all to have come when I whistled.
Shy, I expect. You see, we are very much afraid that we are rather a lot for you to entertain.,,
"Go on, whistle again? I am in for a party, it seems, and
One Or two more won't make much difference,,, growled Deom.
Gandalf whistled again; but Nori and Or! were there almost before he had stopped, for, if you remember, Gandalf had told them to come in Pairs every five minutes.
"Hu'10!" said BeOm. "You came Pretty quick-where 'Were you hidine . Come on my jack-in-the-boxest" "Nozi at your service, Ori at.
they began; but Beorn
interrupted them.
"Thank you! When I want your help I will ask for it.
Sit down, and let's get on with this tale, or it will be suppertime before it is ended."
"As soon as we were asleep,,, went on Gandalf, "a crack at the back of the cave opened; goblins came out and grabbed the hobbit and the dwarves and our troop of ponies@,
"Troop of ponies? What were You-a travelling circus?
Or were you carrying lots of goods? Or do you always call six a troop?"O nol As a matter of fact there were more than six Ponies, (Or there were more than six of us-and well, here are two morel" Just at that moment Balm and Dwalin appeared and bowed so low that their beards swept the stone floor-The big man was frowning at first, but they did their knees (in proper dwarf-fashion), till he stopped frowning and burst into a chuckling laugh; they looked so comical.
"Troop, was right," he said. "A fine comic one. Come in my merry men, and what are your names? I don't want your service just now, only your names; and then sit down and stop wagging!"
"Balm and Dwalin," they said not daring to be offended, and sat flop on the floor looking rather surprised.
"Now go on again!" said Beorn to the wizard.
"Where was I? 0 yes-I was not grabbed. I killed a goblin or two with a flash-2' "Good!" growled Beom, "It is some good being a wizard, then."
,,-and slipped inside the crack before it closed. I followed down into the main hall, which was crowded with goblins. The Great Goblin was there with thirty or forty armed guards. I thought to myself 'even if they were not all chained together, what can a dozen do against so many?' it irst time I've heard eight called "A dozen! That's the f re jacks that a dozen. Or have you still got some mo haven't yet come out of their boxes?"
"Well, yes, there seem to be a couple more here nowFiji and Kill, I believe," said Gandalf, as these two now appeared and 3tOod Bmiling and ho-wliig.
"That's enoughl" said Boom. "Sit down and be quieti Now go on, Gandalf I" So Gandalf went on with the tale, until he came to the fight in the dark, the discovery of the lower gate, and their horror when they found that Mr. Baggins had been mislaid"We counted ourselves and found that there was no hobbit.
There were only fourteen of us left!" ' "Fourteen! That's the first time I've heard one from ten leave fourteen. You mean nine, or else you haven't told me yet all the names of your party."
"O let 'em all come! Hurry upl Come along, you two, and sit down!
But look here, Gandalf, even now we have only got yourself and ten dwarves and the hobbit that was lost. That only makes eleven (plus one mislaid) and not fourteen, unless wizards count differently to other people.
But now please get on with the tale." Beom did not show it more than he could help, but really he had begun to get very interested.
You see, in the old days he had known the very part of the mountains that Gandalf was describing.
He nodded and he growled, when he heard of the hobbit's reappearance and of their scramble down the stone-slide and of the wolf-ring in the woods.
When Gandalf came to their climbing into trees with the wolves all underneath, he got up and strode about and muttered: "I wish I had been therel I would have given them more than fireworksl" "Well," said Gandalf very glad to see that his tale was making a good impression, "I did the best I could. There we were with the wolves going mad underneath us and the forest beginning to blaze in places, when the goblins came down from the hills and discovered us. They yelled with delight and sang songs making fun of us. Fifteen birds in five firtrees. . . ."
"Good heavensl" growled Deom. "Don't pretend that gob@ @t count.
They can. Twelve isn't fifteen and they know it."
"And so do 1. There were Bifur and Bofur as well. I haveiwt ventured to introduce them before, but here they are.,) In came )3ifur and Bofur. "And me!" gasped Bombur purling up behind. He was fat, and also angry at being left till last. He refused to wait five minutes, and followed immediately after the other two.
"Well, now there are fifteen of you; and since goblins can count, I suppose that is all that there were up the trees.
Now erha we can @-1,
126 THE HODDIT
interested in the story, and the story had kept him from sending the dwarves off at once like suspicious beggars.
He never invited people into his house, if he could help iL He had very few friends and they lived a good way away; and he never invited more than a couple of these to his house at a time. Now he had got fifteen strangers sit@g in his porch!
By the time the wizard had finished his tale and had told of the eagles' rescue and of how they had all been brought to the Carrock, the sun had fallen behind the peaks of the Misty Mountains and the shadows were long in Beorn's garden.
"A very good talel" said he. "The best I have heard for a long while. If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder. You may be making it all up, of course, but you deserve a supper for the story all the same.
Let's have something to eat!"
"Yes, pleasel" they all said together. "Thank you very muchl"
Inside the hall it was now quite dark. Beom clapped his hands, and in trotted four beautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs. Beom said something to them in a queer language like animal noises turned into talk.
They went out again and soon came back carrying torches in their mouths, which they lit at the fire and stuck in low brackets on the pillars of the hall about the central hearth.
The dogs could stand on their hind-legs when they wished, and carry things with their fore-feet. Quickly they got out boards and trestles from the side waus and set them up near the fire.
Then baa-baa-baa! was heard, and in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platQUEER LODGINGS I27
low enough even for Bilbo to sit at comfortably. Beside them a pony pushed two low-seated benches with wide rush-bottoms and little short thick legs for Gandalf and Thorin, while at the far end he put Beom's big black chair of the same sort (in which he sat with his great legs stuck far out under the table). These were all the chairs he had in his hall, and he probably had them low like the tables for the convenience of the wonderful animals that waited on him. What did the rest sit on? They were not forgotten.
The other ponies came in rolling round drum-shaped seeof logs, smoothed and polished, and low enough even for Bilbo; so soon they were all seated at Beom's table, and the hall had not seen such a gathering for many a year.
There they had a supper, or a dinner, such as they had not had since they left the Last Horn ly House in the West e and Said good-bye to Elrond. The light of the torches and the fire flickered about them, and on the table were two tall red beeswax candles. all the time they ate, Beom in his deep rolling voice told tales of the wild lands on this side of the mountains, and especially of the dark and dangerous wood, that lay outstretched far to North and South a day's ride before them, barring their way to the East, the terrible forest of Mirkwood.
The dwarves listened and shook their beards, for they knew that they must soon venture into that forest and that after the mountains it was the worst of the perils they had to pass before they came to the dragou's stronghold. When dinner was over they began to tell tales of their own, but Deom seemed to be growing drowsy and paid ll ttle heed to them. They spoke most of gold and silver and jewels and the making of things by Smith-craft, and Beom did not appear to care for such things: there were no things of gold or silver in his hall, and few save the @yes were made of metal at all.
They sat long at the table with their wooden drinkinglogs and the torches were put out, and still they sat in the light of the dancing flames with the pillars of the house standing tall behind them, and dark at the top like trees of the forest. Vvlhether it was magic or not, it seemed to Bilbo that he heard a sound like wind in the branches stirring in the rafters, and the hoot of owls. Soon he began to nod with sleep and the voices seemed to grow far away, until he woke with a start.
The great door had creaked and slammed. Beom was gone. The dwarves were sitting cross4egged on the floor round the fire, and presently they began to sing. Some of the Verses were like this, but there were naany more, and their singing went on for a long while: The wind was on the withered heath, but in the forest stirred no leaf : there shadows lay by night and day, and dark things silent crept beneath.
The wind came down from mountains cold, and like a tide it roared and rolled ; the branches groaned, the forest moaned, and leaves were laid upon the mould.
The wind went on from West to East; all movement in the forest ceased, but shrill and harsh across the marsh its whistling voices were released.
The grasses hissed, their tassels bent, the reeds were rattling-on it went o'er shaken pool under heavens cool where racing clouds were torn and rent.
It left the World and took its flight over the wide seas of the night.
The moon set sail upon the gale, and Stars we'
re fanned to leaping light.
Bilbo began to nod again. Suddenly up stood Gandalf.
"It is time for us to sleep," he said, "-for us, but riot I think for Beom. III this hall we can rest sound and safe, but I warn you all not to forget what Beom said before he left us: you must not stray outside until the sun is up, On Your peril."
Bilbo found that beds had already been laid at the side of the hall, on a sort of raised platform between the pillars and the outer wall. For him there was a little mattress of straw and woollen blankets. He snuggled into them very gladly, summertime though it was.
The fire burned low and he fell asleep. Yet in the night he woke: the fre had ]mow sunk to a few embers; the dwarves and Gandalf were all asleep, to judge by their breathing; a splash of white on the floor came from the high moon, which was peering down through the smoke-hole in the roof.
There was a growling sound outside, and a noise as of some great animal scuffling at the door. Bilbo wondered what it was, and whether it could be Beorn in enchanted shape, and if he would come in as a bear and kill them.
He dived under the blankets and hid his head, and fell asleep again at last in spite of his fears.
It was full morning when he awoke. One of the dwarves had fallen over him in the shadows where he lay, and had rolled down with a bump from the platform on to the floor.
It was Bofur, and he was grumbling about it, when Bilbo opened his eyes.
"Get up lazybones," he said, fast left for you." "or there will be no breaku veranda. We have been about looking for Beorn ever since the sun got up; but there is no sign of him anywhere, though we found breakfast laid as soon as we went out" "Where is Gandalf?" asked Bilbo, moving off to find something to eat as quick as he could.
"O! out and about somewhere," they told him. But he saw no sign of the wizard all that day until the evening.
Just before sunset he walked into the hall, where the hobbit and the dwarves were having supper, waited on by Beom's wonderful animals, as they had been all day. Of Beom they had seen and heard nothing since the night before, and they were getting puzzled.
"Where is our host, and where have you been all day yourself?"
they all cried.
"One question at a time-and none till after supperl I haven't had a bite since breakfast."
At last Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug-he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of meadand he took out his pipe. "I will answer the second question first," he said, '@but bless mel this is a splendid place for smoke rings!" Indeed for a long time they could get nothing more out of him, he was so busy sending smokerings dodging round the pillars of the hall, changing them into all sorts of different shapes and colours, and setting them at last chasing one another out of the hole in the roof.
They must have looked very queer from outside, popping out into the air one after another, green, blue, red, silvergrey, yellow, white; big ones, little ones; little ones dodging through big ones and joining into figure-eights, and going off like a flock of birds into the distance.
"I have been picking out bear-tracks," he said at last.
There must have been a regular bears' meeting outside here last night. I soon saw that Beom could not have made them all: there were far too many of them, and they were ere were little bears almost every direction, except from the west over the river, from the Mountains. In that direction only one set of footprints led-none coming, only ones going away from here.
I followed these as far as the Carrock. There they disappeared into the river, but the water was too deep and strong beyond the rock for me to cross. It is easy enough, as you remember, to get from this bank to the Carrock by the ford, but on the other side is a cliff standing up from a swirling channel. I had to walk miles before I found a place where the river was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back again to pick up the tracks again'
By that time it was too late for me to follow them far.
They went straight off in the direction of the pinewoods on the east side of the Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the Wargs the night before last.
And now I think I have answered your first question, too," ended Gandalf, and he sat a long while silent.
Bilbo thought he knew what the wizard meant. "What shall we do,"
he cried, "if he leads all the Wargs and the goblins down here? We shall all be caught and killed! I thought you said he was not a friend of theirs."
"So I did. And don't be silly! You had better go to bed, your wits are sleepy."
The hobbit felt quite crushed, and as there seemed nothing else to do he did go to bed; and while the dwarves were still singing songs he dropped asleep, still puzzling his little head about Beorn, till he dreamed a dream of hundreds of black bears dancing slow heavy dances round and round in the moonlight in the courtyard. Then he woke up when everyone else was asleep, and he heard the same scraping, scuffling, snuffling, and growling as before.
Next morning they were all wakened by Beom himself.
"So here you all are still!" he said. He picked up the hobbit and laughed: "Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see"; and he poked Mr. Baggins' waistcoat most So they all went to breakfast with him. Beom was most jolly for a change; indeed he seemed to be in a splendidly good humour and set them all laughing with his funny stories; nor did they have to wonder long where he had been or why he was so nice to them, for he told them himself. He had been over the river and right back up into the mountains-from which you can guess that he could travel quickly, in bear's shape at any rate. From the burnt wolfglade he had soon found out that part of their story was true; but he had found more than that: he had caught a Warg and a goblin wandering in the woods. From these he had got news: the goblin patrols were still hunting with Wargs for the dwarves, and they were fiercely angry because of the death of the Great Goblin, and also because of the burning of the chief wolf's nose and the death from the wizard's fire of many of his chief servants. So much they told him when he forced them, but he guessed there was more wickedness than this afoot, and that a great raid of the whole goblin army with their wolf-allies into the lands shadowed by the mountains might soon be made to find the dwarves, or to take vengeance on the men and creatures that lived there, and who they thought must be sheltering them.
"It was a good story, that of yours," said Beom, "but I like it still better now I am sure it is true. You must forgive my not taking your word. If you lived near the edge of Mirkwood, you would take the word of no one that you did not know as well as your brother or better.
As it is, I can only say that I have hurried home as fast as I could to see that you were safe, and to offer you any help that I can.
I shall think more kindly of dwarves after this. Killed the Great Goblin, killed the Great Goblin!" he chuckled fiercely to himself.
"What did you do with the goblin and the Warg?" asked Bilbo suddenly.
fierce enemy. But now he was their friend, and Gandalf thought it wise to tell him their whole story and the reason of their journey, so that they could get the most help he could offer.
This is what he promised to do for them. He would provide ponies for each of them, and a horse for Gandalf, for their journey to the forest, and he would lade them with food to last them for weeks with care, and packed so as to be as easy as possible to carry-nuts, flour, sealed jars of dried fruits, and red earthenware pots of honey, and twicebaked cakes that would keep good a long time, and on a little of which they could march far. The making of these was one of his secrets; but honey was in them, as in most of his foods, and they were good to eat, though they made one thirsty. Water, he said, they would not need to carry this side of the forest, for there were streams and springs along the road. "But your way through @kwood is dark, dangerous and difficult," he said. "Water is not easy to find there, nor food. The time is not yet come for nuts (though it may be past and gone indeed before you get to the other side), and nuts are about all that grows there fit for food; in there the wild things are dark, queer, and savage. I will provide you with skins for carrying water, and I will give you some bows and arrows. But I doubt very much whether anything You find in Mirkwood will be wholesome to eat or to drink. There is one stream there, I know, black and strong which crosses the path. That you should neither drink of, nor bathe in; for I have heard that it carries enchantment and a great drowsiness and forgetfulness. And in the dim shadows of that place I don't think you will shoot anything, wholesome or unwholesome, without straying from the path. That you MUST NOT do, for any reason.
"That is all the advice I can give you. Beyond the edge of the forest I cannot help you much; you must depend on your luck and your coura and the food I send They thanked him, of course, with many bows and sweepings of their hoods and with many an 66at your service, 0
master of the wide wooden hallsl" But their spirits sank at his grave words, and they all felt that the adventure was far more dangerous than they had thought, while all the time, even if they passed all the perils of the road, the dragon was waiting at the end.
All that morning they were busy with preparations. Soon after midday they ate with Beom for the last time, and after the meal they mounted the steeds he was lending the@ and bidding him many farewells they rode off through his gate at a good pace.
As soon as they left his high hedges at the cast of his fenced lands they turned north and then bore to the northwest. By his advice they were no longer making for the main forest-road to the south of his land. Had they followed the pass, their path would have led them down the stream from the mountains that joined the great river miles south of the Carrock. At that point there was a deep ford which they might have passed, if they had still had their ponies, and beyond that a track led to the skirts of the wood and to the entrance of the old forest road. But Beom had warned them that that way was now often used by the goblins, while the forest-road itself, he had heard, was overgrown and disused at the eastern end and led to impassable marshes where the paths had long been lost. Its eastern opening had also always been far to the south of the Lonely Mountain, and would. have left them still with a long and difficult northward march when they got to the other side.
North of the Carrock the edge of Mirkwood drew closer to the borders of the Great River, and though here the Mountains too drew down nearer, Beorn advised them to take this way; for at a place a few days'
ride due north of the Carrock was the gate of a little-known pathway through Mirkwood that led almost straight towards the Lonely Mountain.
"The blins " Beom had said "will not dare to cross
QUEER LODGINGS
135
but I should ride fast; for if they make their raid soon they will cross the river to the South and scour all the edge of the forest so as to cut you off, and Wargs ran swifter than ponies. Still you are safer going north, even though you seem to be going back nearer to their strongholds; for that is what they will least expect, and they will have the longer ride to catch you. Be off now as quick as you may!"
That is why they were now riding in silence, galloping wherever the ground was grassy and smooth, with the mountains dark on their left, and in the distance the line of the river with its trees drawing ever closer. The sun had only just turned west when they started, and till evening it lay golden on the land about them. It was diffirult to think of pursuing goblins behind, and when they had put many miles between them and Beom's house they began to talk and to sing again and to forget the dark forest-path that lay in front. But in the evening when the dusk came on and the peaks of the mountains glowered against the sunset they made a camp and set a guard, and most of them slept uneasily with dreams in which there came the howl of hunting wolves and the cries of goblins.
Still the next morning dawned bright and fair again.
There was an autumn-like mist white upon the ground and the air was chill, but soon the sun rose red in the East and the mists vanished, and while the shadows were still long they were off again.
So they rode now for two more days, and all the while they saw nothing save grass and flowers and birds and scattered trees, and occasionally small herds of red deer browsing or sitting at noon in the shade.
Sometimes Bilbo saw the horns of the harts sticking up out of the long grass, and at first he thought they were the dead branches of trees.
That third evening they were so eager to press on, for Beom had said that they should reach the forest-gate early on the fourth day, that they rode still forward after dusk and into the night beneath the moon.
As the faded B 136 THIB HOBBIT it to Gandalf, the wizard only said: "Hushl Take no noticel" Next day they started before dawn, though their night had been short. As soon as it was light they could see the forest coming as it were to meet them, or waiting for them like a black and frowning wall before them. The land began to slope up and, up, and it seemed to the hobbit that a silence began to draw in upon them.
Birds began to sing less. There were no more deer; not even rabbits were to be seen. By the afternoon they had reached the eaves of Mirkwood, and were resting almost beneath the great overhanging boughs of its outer trees. Their @ were huge and gnarled, their branches twisted, their leaves were dark and long. Ivy grew on them and trailed along the ground.
"Well, here is Mirkwoodl" said Gandalf. "The greatest of the forests of the Northern world. I hope you like the look of it. Now you must send back these excellent ponies you have borrowed."
The dwarves were inclined to grumble at this, but the wizard told them they were fools. "Beom is not as far off as you seem to think, and you had better keep your promises anyway, for he is a bad enemy.
Mr. Baggins'eyes are sharper than yours, if you have not seen each night after dark a great hear going along with us or sitting far off in the moon watching our camps. Not only to guard you and guide you, but to keep an eye on the ponies too. Beorn may be your friend, but he loves his animals as his children. You do not guess what kindness - he has shown you in letting dwarves ride them so far and so fast, nor what would happen to you, if you tried to take them into the forest."
"What about the horse, then?" said Thorin. "You don't mention sending that back."
"I don't, because I am not sending it."
"What about your promise then?"
"I will look after thai I am not sending the horse back, I am riding itl" Then they knew that Gan the very edge of Mirkwood, and they were in despair.
But nothing they could say would change his mind.
"Now we had this all out before, when we landed on the Carrock,"
he said. "It is no use arguing. I have, as I told you, some pressing business away south; and I am already late through bothering with you people. We may meet again before all is over, and then again of course we may not.
That depends on your luck and on your courage and sense; and I am sending Mr. Baggins with you. I have told you before that he has more about him than you guess, and you will find that out before long. So cheer up Bilbo and don't look so glum. Cheer up Thorin and Company!
This is your 6xpedition after all. Think f the treasure at the end 0
and forget the forest and the dragon, at any rate until t@ morrow morning!"
When tomorrow morning came he still said the same.
So now there was nothing left to do but to fill their waterskins at a clear spring they found close to the forest-gate, and unpack the ponies. They distributed the packages as fairly as they could, though Bilbo thought his lot was wearisomely heavy, and did not at all like the idea of trudging for miles and miles with all that on his back.
"Don't You worry!" said Thorin. "It will get lighter all too soon. Before long I expect we shall all wish our packs heavier, when the food begins to run short."
Then at last they said good-bye to their ponies and turned their heads for home. Off they trotted gaily, seeming very glad to put their tails towards the shadow of Mirkwood. As they went away Bilbo could have sworn that a thing Re a bear left the shadow of the trees and shambled off quickly after them.
Now Gandalf too said farewell. Bilbo sat on the und feeling very unhappy and wishing he was beside the gwriozard on his tall horse. He had gone just inside the forest after breakfast (a very poor one), and it had seemed as dark in there in the morning as at night, and very secret: "a sort of watching and wait' to you all, good-bye! Straight through the forest is your way now. Don't stray off the track!-if you do, it is a thousand to one you will never find it again and never get out of Mirkwood; and then I don't suppose 1, or one cmc else, wiii ever see you again."
"Do we really have to go through?" groaned the hobbit.
"Yes, you do!" said the wizard, "if you want to get to the other side. You must either go through or give up your quest. And I am not going to allow you to back out now, Mr. Baggins. I am ashamed of you for thinking of it. You have got to look after all these dwarves for me," he laughed.
"No! no!" said Bilbo. "I didn't mean that. I meant, is there no way round?"
"There, is, if you care to go two hundred miles or so out of your way north, and twice that south. But you wouldn't get a safe path even then. There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.
Before you could get round Mirkwood in the North you would be right among the slopes of the Grey Mountains, and they are simply stiff with goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs of the worst description. Before you could get round it in the South, you would get into the land of the Necromancer; and even you, Bilbo, won't need me to tell you tales of that black sorcerer. I don't advise you to go anywhere near the places overlooked by his dark tower! Stick to the forest-track, keep your spirits up, hope for the best, and with a tremendous slice of luck you may come out one day and see the Long Marshes lying below you, and beyond them, high in the East, the Lonely Mountain where dear old Smaug lives, though I hope he is not expecting you."
"Very comforting you are to be sure," growled Thorin.
"Good-bye! If you won't come with us, you had better get off without any more talk!"
"Good-bye then, and really good-bye!" said Gandalf, and be turned his horse and rode down into the West.
But he could not resist the temptation to have the last word.
Before he had passed quite out of hearing he turned and put his hands to his mouth and called to them. They heard his voice come faintly: "Good-bye! Be good, take care of yourselves-and DON'T LEAVE'RHE
YK'TVi@" Then he galloped away and was soon lost to sight. "O good-bye and go awayl" grunted the dwarves, all the more angry because they were really filled with dismay at losing him. Now began the most dangerous part of all the journey.
They each shouldered the heavy' pack and the waterskin which was their share, and turned from the light that lay on the lands outside and plunged into the forest.
Flies an(i Sp'
They walked in single file. The entrance to the path was like a sort of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel made by two great trees that leant together, too old and strangled with ivy -a-nd Hung with lichen to bear more than a few blackened leaves. The path itself was narrow and wound in and out among the trunks. Soon the light at the gate was like a little bright hole far behind, and the quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened.
As their eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer. occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck @o slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and till more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased altogether.
There were black squirrels in the wood. As Bilbo's sharp inquisitive eyes got used to seem@ things he could catch glimpses of them whisking off the path and scuttling behind tree-tr@ks. There were queer noises too, grunts, scufflings, and hurryings in the undergrowth, and among the leaves the forest-floor, that lay piled endlessly thick in places on but what made the noises he could not see. The nastiest -re the cobwebs: dark dense cobwebs things they saw we with threads extraordinarily thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them. There were none stretched across the path, but whether because some magic kept it clear, or for what other reason they, could not guessI40
FLIES AND SPMERS
It was not long before they grew to hate the heartily as they had hated the tunnels of the gob it seemed to offer even less hope of any ending.
had to go on and on, long after they were sick fc of the sun and of the sky, and longed for the feel on their faces. There was no movement of air dov the forest-roof, and it was everlastingly still and i stuffy. Even the dwarves felt it, who were used t( ling, and lived at times for long whiles without th( the sun; but the hobbit, who liked holes to make in but not to spend summer days in, felt he w slowly suffocated.
The nights were the worst. It then became pitcl not what you call pitch-dark, but really pitch; so b you really could see nothing. Bilbo tried flapping in front of his nose, but he could not see it at a perhaps it is not true to say that they could see they could see eyes.
They slept all closely huddled and took it in turns to watch; and when it wa,, turn he would see gleams in the darkness roue and sometimes pairs of yellow or red or green ey( stare at him from a little distance, and then sloi and disappear and slowly shine out again in anoth And sometimes they would gleam down from the I just above him; and that was most terrifying. But that he Eked the least were horrible pale bulbou!
eyes. "Insect eyes" he thought, "not animal eyes, c are much too big."
Although it was not yet very cold, they tried watch-fires at night, but they soon gave that up. It to bring hundreds and hundreds of eyes all roun though the creatures, whatever they were, were never to let their bodies show in the little fricke@ flames. Worse still it brought thousands of dark-i black moths, some nearly as big as your hand, flapl whirring round their ears. They could not stand t the huge bats, black as a top-hat, either; so they,
fires and sat at night and dozed ih the enormous uncanny
darkness.
All this went on for what seemed to the hobbit ages upon ages; and he was always hungry, for they were extremely careful with their provisions. Even so, as days followed days, and still the forest seemed just the same, they began to get anxious. The food would not last for ever: it was in fact already beginning to get low. They tried shooting at the squirrels, and they wasted many arrows before they managed to bring one down on the path. But when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels.
They were thirsty too, for they had none too much water, and in all the time they had seen neither spring nor stream.
This was their state when one day they found their path blocked by a running water. It flowed fast and strong but not very wide right across the way, and it was black, or looked it in the gloom. It was well that Beom had warned them against it, or they would have drunk from it, whatever its colour, and filled some of their emptied skins at its bank. As it was they only thought of how to cross it without wetting themselves in its water. There had been a bridge of wood across, but it had rotted and fallen leaving only the broken posts near the bank.
Bilbo kneeling on the brink and peering forward cried: "There is a boat against the far bankl Now why coul(&t it have been this sidel"
"How far away do you think it is?" asked Thorin, for by now they knew Bilbo had the sharpest eyes among them.
"Not at all far. I shouldn't think above twelve yards."
"Twelve yards! I should have thought it was thirty at least, but my eyes don't see as well as they used a hundred years ago. Still twelve yards is as good as a mile. We can't jump it, and we daren't try to wade or swi@" "Can any of you throw a rope?"
"What's the good of that? The boat is sure to be tied up, even if we could hook it, which I doubt."
"I don't believe it is tied," said Bilbo, "though of course
It
FLIES AND SPIDERS I can't be sure in this light; but it looks to me as if it just drawn up on the bank, which is low just there w, the path goes down into the water.,, "Dori is the strongest, but Fill is the youngest and has the best sight," said Thorin. "Come here Fiti, and if you can see the boat Mr. Baggins is talking about."
Fill thought he could; so when he had stared a longw to get an idea of the direction, the others brought U rope. They had several with them, and on the end of longest they fastened one of the large iron hooks they used for catching their packs to the straps about t shoulders. Fill took this in his hand, balanced it fc moment, and then flung it across the stream.
Splash it fell in the water! "Not far enough!" said B: who was peering forward. "A couple of feet and you wio have dropped it on to the boat. Try again. I don't supp the magic is strong enough to hurt you, if you just toi a bit of wet rope.,, Fill Picked up the hook when he had drawn it be rather doubtfully all the same. This time he threw it 'R greater strength.
"Steady!" said Bilbo, "you have thrown it right into Wood on the other side now. Draw it back gently.,, hauled the rope back slowly, and after a while Bilbo sa "Carefully! It is lying on the boat; let's hope the b( will catch."
It did, The rope went taut, and Fill pulled in vain. I came to his help, and then Oin and Gloin. They tugged , tagged, and suddenly they all fell over on their bac Bilbo was on the lookout, however, caught the rope, a with a piece of stick fended off the little black boat ai came rushing across the stream. "Help!" he shouted, a Ba@ was just in time to seize the boat before it floated down the current.
"It was tied after aIL" said he, looking at the snaps Painter that was still dangling from it. "That was a go pull, my lads; and a good job that our rope was I stronger."
"Who'll cross first?" asked Bilbo.
"I shall," said Thorin, "and you will come with me, and Fill and Balm. That's as many as the boat will hdld at a time. After that Kill and Oin and Gloin and Dori; next Ori and Nori, Bifur and Bofur; and last Dwalin and Bombur."
"I'm always last and I don't like it," said Bombur. "It's somebody else's turn today."
"You should not be so fat. As you are, you must be with the last and lightest boatload. Don't start grumbling against orders, or something bad will happen to you."
"There aren't any oars. How are you going to push the boat back to the far bank?" asked the hobbit.
"Give me another length of rope and another hook," said Fill, and when they had got it ready, he cast into the darkness ahead and as high as he could throw it. Since it did not fall down again, they saw that it must have stuck in the branches. "Get in now," said Fill, "and one of you haul on the rope that is stuck in a tree on the other side.
One of the others must keep hold of the hook we used at first, and when we are safe on the other side he can hook it on, and you can draw the boat back."
In this way they were all soon on the far bank safe across the enchanted stream. i)walin had just scrambled out with the coiled rope on his arm, and Bombur (still grumbei-ig) was getting toddy to follow, when something bad did happen. There was a flying sound of hooves on the path ahead.
Out of the gloom came suddenly the shape of a flying deer.
It charged into the dwarves and bowled them over, then gathered itself for a leap. High it sprang and cleared the water with a mighty jump. But it did not reach the other side in safety. Thorin was the only one who had kept his feet and his wits. As soon as they had landed he had bent his how and fitted an arrow in case any hidden guardian of the boat appeared. Now he sent a swift and sure shot into the leaping beast. As it reached the further bank it stumbled. The shadows swallowed it up, but they heard a dreadful wail from Bilbo put all thoughts of venison o of their minds. "Dombur has fallen in!
Bombur is drow ing!" he cried. It was only too true. Bombur had only oi foot on the land when the hart bore down on him, at sprang over him. He had stumbled, thrusting the boat aw, from the bank, and then toppled back into the dark watt his hands slipping off the slimy roots at the edge, while tl boat span slowly off and disappeared.
They could still see his hood above the water when thi ran to the bank. Quickly they flung a rope with a hcK towards him. His hand caught it, and they pulled him toti shore. He was drenched from hair to boots, of course, hi that was not the worst. When they laid him on the bar.
he was already fast asleep, with one hand clutching tt rope so tight that they could not get it from his grasp; an fast asleep he remained in spite of all they could do.
They were still standing over him, cursing their ill lucl and Bombur's clumsiness, and lamenting the loss of th boat which made it impossible for them to go back an look for the hart, when they became aware of the did blowing of horns in the wood and the sound as of dog baying far off. Then they all fell silent; and as they sat seemed they could hear the noise of a great hunt going b to the north of the path, though they saw no sign of it.
There they sat for a long while and did not dare to mak a move.
Bombur slept on with a smile on his fat face, a if he no longer cared for all the troubles that vexed them Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer a hind and fawns as snowy white as the bart had beer dark. They glimmered in the shadows. Before Thorin coul( cry out three of the dwarves had leaped to their feet anc loosed off arrows from their bows. None seemed to fine their mark. The deer turned and vanished in the trees a@ Silently as they had come, and in vain the dwarves shot their arrows after them.
"Stop! stop!" shouted Thorin; but it w
They were a gloomy party that night, and the gloom 'Yhey in the following days.
gathered still deeper on them had crossed the enchanted stream; but beyond it the path seemed to straggle on just as before, and in the forest they could see no change. Yet if they had known more about it and considered the meaning of the hunt and the white deer that had appeared upon their path, they would have known that they were at last drawing towards the eastern if they could have kept edge, and would soon have come, trees and places up their courage and their hope, to thinner where the sunlight came again.
But they did not know this., and they were burdened with the heavy body of Bombur, which they had to carry along with them as best they could, taking the wearisome task in turns of four each while the others shared their packs. If these had not become all too light in the last few days, they would never have managed it; but a slumbering and smiling Bombur was a poor exchange for packs filled with food however heavy. In a few days a time came when there was practically nothing left to eat or to drink. Nothing wholesome could they see growing in the Woods, only funguses and herbs with pale leaves and unpleasant smell.
About four days from the enchanted stream they came to a part where most of the trees were beeches. They were at first inclined to be cheered by the change, for here there was no undergrowth and the shadow was not so deep.
There was a greenish light about them, and in places they could see some distance to either side of the path. Yet the light only showed them endless lines of straight grey trunks Eke the pillars of some huge twilight hall. There was a breath of air and a noise of wind, but it had a sad sound.
A few leaves came rustling down to remind them that outside autumn was coming on. Their feet ruffled among the dead leaves of countless other autumns that drifted over the banks of the path from the deep red carpets of the forest.
Still Bombur slept and they grow very weary. At times ometimes there was s .
FLIES AND SPIDERS
147
vok.,s @ DIp ciDlims, and ibe among was beautiful, but it sounded eerie and strange, and they were not comforted, rather they hurried on from those parts with what strength they had left.
Two days later they found their path going downwards and before long they were in a valley filled almost entirely with a mighty growth of oaks.
"Is there no end to this accursed forest?" said Thorin.
"Somebody must climb a tree and see if he can get his head above the roof and have a look round. The only way is to choose the tallest tree that overhangs the path."
Of course "somebody" meant Bilbo. They chose him because to be of any use the climber must get his head above the topmost leaves, and so he must be light enough for the highest and slenderest branches to bear him. Poor Mr. Baggins had never had much practice in climbing trees, but they hoisted him up into the lowest branches of an enormous oak that grew right out into the path, and up he had to go as best he could. He pushed his way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in the eye; he was greened and grimed from the old bark of the greater boughs; more than once he slipped and caught himself just in time; and at last, after a dreadful struggle in a difficult place where there seemed to be no convenient branches at all, he got near the top. All the time he was wondering whether there 'Were spiders in the tree, and how he was going to get down again (except by falling).
@ the end he poked his head above the roof of leaves, and then he found spiders all right. But they were only small ones of ordinary size, and they were after the butterflies.
Bilbo's eyes were nearly blinded by the light. He could hear the dwarves shouting up at him from far below, but he could not answer, only hold on and blink. The sun was shining brilliantly, and it was a long while before he could bear it-When he could, he saw all round Win a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze-an 148 THE
HoBBrr oak-woods, but these were not purple at all, they were a dark dark velvety black without any markings to be seen.
He looked at the 'black emperors' for a long time, and enjoyed the feel of the breeze in his hair and on his face; but at length the cries of the dwarves, who were now simply stamping with impatience down below, reminded him of his real business. It was no good. Gaze as much as he migh4
he could see no end to the trees and the leaves in any direction.
His heart, that had been lightened by the sight of the sun and the feel of the wind, sank back into his toes: there was no food to go back to down below.
Actually, as I have told you, they were not far off the edge of the forest; and if Bilbo had had the sense to see it, the tree that he had climbed, though it was tall in itself, was standing near the bottom of a wide valley, so that from its top the trees seemed to swell up all round like the edges of a great bowl, and he could not expect to see how far the forest lasted. Still he did not see this, and he climbed down full of despair. He got to the bottom again at last scratched, hot, and miserable, and he could not see anything in the gloom below when he got there. His report soon made the others as miserable as he was.
oes on for ever and ever and ever in all "The forest g directions!
Whatever shall we do? And what is the use of sending a hobbit!" they cried, as if it was his fault. They did not care tuppence about the butterflies, and were only made more angry when he told them of the beautiful breeze, which they were too heavy to climb up and feel That night they ate their very last scraps and crumbs of food; and next morning when they woke the first thing they noticed was that they were still gnawingly hungry, and the next thing was that it was r@g and that here and there the drip of it was dro!) ' heavily on the forest floor.
PM9
That only reminded them that they were also parchingly to relieve them: cannot Scrap of comfort there was, came unexpectedly from Bombur.
He woke up suddenly and sat up scratching his head.
He could not make out where he was at all, nor why he felt so hungry; for he had forgotten everything that had happened since they started their journey that May morning long ago. The last thing that he remembered was the party at the hobbit's house, and they had great difficulty in making him believe their tale of all the many adventures they had had since.
When he heard that there was nothing to eat, he sat down 'and wept, for he felt very weak and wobbly in the legs. "Why ever did I wake up!" he cried. "I was having such beautiful dreams. I dreamed I was walking in a forest rather like this one, only lit with torches on the trees and lamps swinging from the branches and fires burning on the ground; and there was a great feast going on, going on for ever. A woodland king was there with a crown of leaves, and there was a merry singing, and I could not count or describe the things there were to eat and drink."
"You need not try," said Thorin. "In fact if you can't talk about something else, you had better be silent. We are quite annoyed enough with you as it is. If you hadn't waked up, we should have left you to your idiotic dreams in the forest; you are no joke to carry even after weeks of Short commons."
There was nothing now to be done but to tighten the belts round their empty stomachs, and hoist their empty sacks and packs, and trudge along the track without any great hope of ever getting to the end before they lay down and died of starvation. This they did all that day, going very slowly and wearily, while Bombur kept on wailing that his legs would not carry him and that he wanted to lie down and sleep.
"No you don'tl" they said. "Let your legs take their sha said.
"I'm just going to lie here and sleep and dream of food, if I can't get it any other way. I hope I never wake up again."
At that very moment Balm, who was a little way ahead, called out: "What was that? I thought I saw a twinkle of light in the forest."
They all looked, and a longish way off, it seemed, they saw a red twinkle in the dark; then another and another sprang out beside it.
Even Bombur got up, and they hurried along then, not caring if it was trolls or goblins. The light was in front of them and to the left of the path, and when at last they had drawn level with it, it seemed plain that torches and fires were burning under the trees, but a good way off their track.
"It looks as if my dreams were coming true," gasped Bombur puffing up behind. He wanted to rush straight off into the wood after the lights. But the others remembered only too well the warnings of the wizard and of Beom.
"A feast would be no good, if we never got back alive from it,"
said Thorin.
"But without a feast we shan't remain alive much longer @yway,"
said Bombur, and Bilbo heartily agreed with him.
They argued about it backwards and forwards for a long while, until they agreed at length to send out a couple of spies, to creep near the lights and find out more about them' But then they could not agree on who was to be sent: no one seemed anxious to run the chance of being lost and never finding Ws friends again. In the end, in spite of warnings, hunger decided,them, because Bombur kept on describing all the good things that were being eaten, according to his dream, in the woodland feast; so they all left the path and plunged into the forest together.
After a good deal of creeping and crawling they peered round the trunks and looked into a clearing where some trees had been felled a .
nd the ground levelled. There were - kin folk all dressed in green were torches fastened to some of the trees round about; but most splendid sight of all: they were eating and drinking and laughing merrily.
The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food. No sooner had the first stepped into the clearing than all the lights went out as if by magic. Somebody kicked the fire and it went up in rockets of glittering sparks and vanished. They were lost in a completely lightless dark and they could not even find one another, not for a long time at any rate. After blundering frantically in the gloom, falling over logs, bumping crash into trees, and shouting and calling till they must have waked everything in the forest for miles, at last they managed to gather themselves in a bundle and count themselves by touch.
By that time they had, of course, quite forgotten in what direction the path lay, and they were all hopelessly lost, at least till morning.
There was nothing for it but to settle down for the night where they were; they did not even dare to search on the ground for scraps of food for fear of becoming separated again. But they had not been lying long, and Bilbo was Only just getting drowsy, when Dori, whose turn it was to watch first, said in a loud whisper: "The lights are coming out again over there, and there are more than ever of them."
Up they all jumped. There, sure enough, not far away Were scores of g lights, and they heard the voices and the laughter quite plainly.
They crept slowly towards them, in a single line, each touching the back of the one in front. When they got near Thorin said: "No rushing forward this time! No one is to stir from hiding till I say.
I shall send Mr. Baggins alone first to talk to them. They won't be frightened of him-('What about me of them?,
thou
pushed Bilbo suddenly from behind. Before be bad time to slip on his ring, he stumbled forward into the full blaze of the fire and torches. It was no good. Out went all the lights again and complete darkness fell.
If it had been difficult collecting themselves before, it was far worse this time. And they simply could not find the hobbit. Every time they counted themselves it only made thirteen. They shouted and called: "Bilbo Baggins! Hobbit! You dratted hobbit! Hil hobbit, confusticate you, where are you?" and other things of that sort, but there was no answer.
They were just giving up hope, when Dori stumbled across him by sheer luck. In the dark he fell over what he thought was a log, and he found it was the hobbit curled up fast asleep. It took a deal of shaking to wake him, and when he was awake he was not pleased at all.
"I was having such a lovely dream," he grumbled, "all about having a most gorgeous dinner."
"Good heavens! he has gone like Bombur," they said.
"Don't tell us about dreams. Dream-dinners aren't any good, and we can't share them."
44 pi They are the best I am likely to get in this beastly ace,"
he muttered, as he lay down beside the dwarves and tried to go back to sleep and find his dream again.
But that was not the last of the lights in the forest. Later when the night must have been getting old, Kill who was watching then, came and roused them all again, saying: "There's a regular blaze of light begun not far awayhundreds of torches and many fires must have been lit suddenly and by magic. And hark to the singing and the harpsl" After lying a nd listening for a while, they found they could not resist the desire to go nearer and try once more to get help. Up they got again; and this time the result was disastrous. The feast that they now saw was greater and he head of a Ion
FLTES AND SPIDERS T5
the figure in his dream. The elvish folk were passing bowl from hand to hand and across the fires, and some wer@ harping and many were singing. Their gleaming hair wa,--l twined with flowers; green and white gems glinted on thei,collars and their belts; and their faces and their songs weri filled with mirth. Loud and clear and fair were those songs and out stepped Thorin into their midst.
Dead silence fell in the middle of a word. Out went al light.
The fires leaped up in black smokes. Ashes an( cinders were in the eyes of the dwarves, and the wood wa,, filled again with their clamour and their cries.
Bilbo found himself running round and round (as he thought) and calling and calling: "Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Fill, Kill, Bombur, Bifur, Bofur, Dwalin, Balm, Thorin Oakenshield," while people he could not see or feel were doing the same all round him (with an occasional "Bilbo!" thrown in). But the cries of the others got steadily further and fainter, and though after a while it seemed to him they changed to yells and cries for help in the far distance, all noise at last died right away, and he was left alone in complete silence and darkness.
That was one of his most miserable moments. But he soon made up his mind that it was no good trying to do anything till day, came with some little light, and quite useless to go blundering about tiring himself out with no hope of any breakfast to revive him. So he sat himself down with his back to a tree, and not for the last time fell to thinking of his far-distant hobbithole with its beautiful pantries.
He was deep in thoughts of bacon and eggs and toast and butter when he felt something touch him. Something like a strong sticky string was against his left hand, and when he tried to move he found that his legs were already wrapped in the same stuff, so that when he got up he fell over.
The t a hairy legs as it struggled to wind its abominable threads round and round him. It was lucky that he bad come to his senses in time. Soon he would not have been able to move at all. As it was, he had a desperate fight before he got free. He beat the creature off with his hands-it was trying to poison him to keep him quiet, as small spiders do to flies-until he remembered his sword and drew it out.
Then the spider jumped back, and be had time to cut his legs loose.
After that it was his turn to attack. The spider evidently was not used to things that carried such stings at their sides, or it would have hurried away quicker. Bilbo came at it before it could disappear and struck it with his sword right in the eyes. Then it went mad and leaped and danced and flung out its legs in horrible jerks, until he killed it with another stroke; and then he fen down and remembered nothing more for a long while.
There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about him when he came to his senses. The spider lay dead beside him, and his sword-blade was stained black. Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr.
Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.
"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall can you Sting."
After that he set out to explore. The forest was grim and silent, but obviously he had first of all to look for his friends, who were not likely to be very far off, unless they had been made prisoners by the elves (or worse things).
Bilbo felt that it was unsafe to shout, and he stood a long while wondering in what direction the path lay, and in what direction he should go first to look for the dwarves.
"O! why did we not remember Beorn's advice, and see
FLRES AND SPIDERS 1155
direction from which the cries for help bad come in the night-and by luck (he was born with a good share of it) he guessed more or less right, as you will see. Having made up his mind he crept along as cleverly as he could. Hobbits are clever at quietness, especially in woods, as I have already told you; also Bilbo had slipped on his ring before he started. That is why the spiders neither saw nor heard him coming.
He had picked his way stealthily for some distance, when he noticed a place of dense black shadow ahead of him black even for that forest, like a patch of midnight that had never been cleared away. As he drew nearer, he saw that it was made by spider-webs one behind and over and tangled with another. Suddenly he saw, too, that there were spiders huge and horrible sitting in the branches above him, and ring or no ring he trembled with fear lest they should discover him.
Standing behind a tree he watched a group of them for some time, and then in the silence and stillness of the wood he realised that these loathsome creatures were speaking one to another. Their voices were a sort of thin creaking and hissing, but he could make out many of the words that they said. They were talking about the dwarvesl "It was a sharp struggle, but worth it," said one. "What nasty thick skins they have to be sure, but I'll wager there is good juice inside."
"Aye, they'll make fine eating, when they've hung a bit," said another.
"Don't hang 'em too long," said a third. "They're not as fat as they might be. Been feeding none too well of late, I should guess."
"Kill'em, I say," hissed a fourth; "kill 'em now and hang 'cm dead for a while."
"They're dead now, I'll warrant," said the first.
"That they are not. I saw one a-struggling just now.
Just comin round a ain I should after a b@autfful 156 THE HOBBTT
came to a dozen bundles banging in a row from a high branch. Bilbo was horrified, now that he noticed them for the first time dangling in the shadows, to see a dwarvish foot sticking out of the bottoms of some of the bundles, or here and there the tip of a nose, or a bit of beard or of a hood.
To the fattest of these bundles the spider went-"It is poor old Bombur, I'll bet," thought Bilbo-and nipped hard at the nose that stuck out. There was a muffled yelp inside, and a toe shot up and kicked the spider straight and hard. There was life in Bombur still. There was a noise like the kicking of a flabby football, and the enraged spider fell off the branch, only catching itself with its own thread just in time.
The others laughed. "You were quite right," they said, "the meat's alive and kickingl" "I'll soon put an end to that,%' hissed the angry spider climbing back onto the branchBilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something. He could not get up at the brutes and he had nothing to shoot with; but looking about he saw that in this place there were many stones lying in what appeared to be a now dry little watercourse. Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and it did not take him long to find a nice smooth egg-shaped one that fitted his hand cosily.
As a boy he used to practise throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop; and even grownup he bad still spent a deal of his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepin- 'Ind other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort-indeed he could do lots of things, besides blowing smokerings, asking riddles and . cooking, that I haven't had time to tell time now. While he was FLIES AND SPIDERS 15', senseless off the tree, flop to the ground, with all its log curled up.
The next stone went whizzing through a big web,. snap Ping its cords, and taking off the spider sitting in the middle of it, whack, dead. After that there was a deal of commotion in the spider-colony, and they forgot the dwarves for a bit I can tell you. They could not see Bilbo, but they coul( make a good guess at the direction from which the stone,4
were coming. As quick as lightning they came running an( swinging towards the hobbit, flinging out their long thread,; in all directions, till the air seemed full of waving snares.
Bilbo, however, soon slipped away to a different place, The idea came to him to lead the furious spiders further and further away from the dwarves, if he could; to make them curious, excited and angry all at once. When about fifty had gone off to the place where he had stood before, he threw some more stones at these, and at others that had stopped behind; then dancing among the trees he began to sing a song to infuriate them and bring them all after him, and also to let the dwarves hear his voice.
This is what he sang: Old fat spider spinning in a treel Old fat spider can't see mel .4 ttercopi 4 ttercop!
Won't you stop, Stop your spinning and look for mel Old Tomnoddy, all big body, Old Tomnoddy can't spy mel A ttercop! A ttercop!
Down you dropt You'll never catch me up your treel Not ve erha but then the spiders in the place came after him: some dropped to the ground, others raced along the branches, swung from tree to tree, or cast new ropes across the dark spaces. They made for his noise far quicker than he had expected. They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody.
Off Bilbo scuttled to a fresh place, but several of the spiders had run now to different points in the glade where they lived, and were busy spinning webs across all the spaces between the tree-stems. Very soon the hobbit would be caught in a thick fence of them all round him-that at least was the spiders' idea. Standing now in the middle of the hunting and spinning insects Bilbo plucked up his courage and began a new song: Lazy Lob and crazy Cob are weaving webs to wind me.
I am far more sweet than other meat, but still they cannot find mel Here am 7, naughty little fly, you are fat and lazy.
You cannot trap me, though you try, in your cobwebs crazy.
With that he turned and found that the last space between two tall trees had been closed with a we@but luckily not a proper web, only great strands of double-thick spider-rope run hastily backwards and forwards from trunk to trunk. Out came his little sword. He slashed the threads to pieces and went off singing. suppose they The spiders saw the sword, though I don't knew what it was, and at once the whole lot of them d and the FLTES AND SPTDERS 159
into the forest until Bilbo had gone as far as he dared.
Then quieter than a mouse he stole back.
He had precious little time, he knew, before the spiders were disgusted and came back to their trees where the dwarves were hung. In the meanwhile he had to rescue them. The worst part of the job was getting up on to the long branch -where the bundles were dangling. I don't suppose he would have managed it, if a spider bad not luckily left a rope hanging down; with its help, though it stuck to his hand and hurt him, he scrambled u@nly to meet an old slow wicked fat-bodied spider who had remained behind to guard the prisoners, and had been busy pinching them to see which was the juiciest to eat. It bad thought of starting the feast while the others were away, but Mr.
Baggins was in a hurry, and before the spider knew what was happening it felt his sting and rolled off the branch dead.
Bilbo's next job was to loose a dwarf. What was he to do? If he cut the string which hung him up, the wretched dwarf would tumble thump to the ground a good way below. Wriggling along the branch (which made all the poor dwarves dance and dangle like ripe fruit) he reached the first bundle.
"Fill or Kill," he thought by the tip of a blue hood sticking out at the top. "Most likely Fill," he thought by the tip of a long nose poking out of the winding threads. He managed by leaning over to cut most of the strong sticky threads that bound him round, and then, sure enough, with a kick and a struggle most of Fill emerged. I am afraid Bilbo actually laughed at the sight of him jerking his stiff arms and legs as he danced on the spider-string under his armpits, just like one of those funny toys bobbing on a wire.
Somehow or other Fill was got on to the branch, and then he did his best to help the hobbit, although he was feeling very sick and ill from spider-poison, and from hanging most of the night and the next day wound round and nd with onl his nose to breathe throu h. It took him i6o THE HOBBTT tween them they started to haul up first one dwarf and then another and slash them free. None of them were better off than Fill, and some of them were worse. Some had hardly been able to breathe at all (long noses are sometimes useful you see), and some had been more poisoned.
In this way they rescued Kill, Bifur, Bofur, Dori and Nori. Poor old Bombur was so exhausted-he was the fattest and had been constantly pinched and poked-that he just rolled off the branch and fell plop on to the ground, fortunately on to leaves, and lay there. But there were still five dwarves hanging at the end of the branch when the spiders began to come back, more full of rage than ever.
Bilbo immediately went to the end of the branch nearest the tree-trunk and kept back those that crawled up. He had taken off his ring when he rescued Fill and forgotten to put it on again, so now they all began to splutter and hiss: "Now we see you, you nasty little creatural We will eat you and leave your bones and skin hanging on a tree. Ugh!
he's got a sting has he? Well, we'll get him all the same, and then we'll hang him head downwards for a day or two."
While this was going on, the other dwarves were working at the rest of the captives, and cutting at the threads with their knives.
Soon all would be free, though it was not clear what would happen after that. The spiders had caught them pretty easily the night before, but that had been unawares and in the dark. This time there looked like being a horrible battle.
Suddenly Bilbo noticed that some of the spiders had gathered round old Bombur on the floor, and had tied him up again and were dragging him away. He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him.
They quickly gave way, and he scrambled and fell down the tree right into the middle of those on the ground. His little sword was something new in the way of stings for them. How it darted to and fro! It shone with delight as he stabbed at them. Half a dozen were killed before the rest drew off FLRES AND SPRDERS i6i on the branch. "Don't stay up there and be netted!" For he saw spiders swarming up all the neighboring trees, and crawling along the boughs above the heads of the dwarves.
Down the dwarves scrambled or jumped or dropped, eleven all in a heap, most of them very shaky and little use on their legs. There they were at last, twelve of them counting poor old Bombur, who was being propped ui) on either side by his cousin Bifur, and his brother Bofur;'and Bilbo was dancing about and waving his Sting; and hundreds of angry spiders were goggling at them all round and about and above.
It looked pretty hopeless.
Then the battle began. Some of the dwarves had knives, and some had sticks, and all of them could get at stones; and Bilbo bad his elvish dagger. Again and again the spiders were beaten off, and many of them were killed. But it could not go on for long. Bilbo was nearly tired out; only four of the dwarves were able to stand firmly, and soon they would all be overpowered like weary flies. Already the spiders were beginning to weave their webs all round them again from tree to tree.
In the end Bilbo could think of no plan except to let the dwarves into the secret of his ring. He was rather sorry about it, but it could not be helped.
"I am going to disappear," he said. "I shall draw the spiders off, if I can; and you must keep together and make in the opposite direction. To the left there, that is more or less the way towards the place where we last saw the elf-fires."
It was difficult to get them to understand, what with their dizzy heads, and the shouts, and the whacking of sticks and the throwing of stones; but at last Bilbo felt he could delay no longer-the spiders were drawing their circle ever closer. He suddenly slipped on his ring, and to the great astonishment of the dwarves he vanished.
Soon there came the sound of "Lazy Lob" and "Atter" from amon t i62 THE HOBBTT them so angry that they lost their wits. Then Balm, who had grasped Bilbo's plan better than the rest, led an attack. The dwarves huddled together in a knot, and sending a shower of stones they drove at the spiders on the left, and burst through the ring.
Away behind them now the shouting and singing suddenly stopped.
Hoping desperately that Bilbo had not been caught the dwarves went on. Not fast enough, thoug@. They were sick and weary, and they could not go much better than a hobble and a wobble, though many of the spiders were close behind. Every now and then t I hey had to turn and fight the creatures that were overtaking them and already some spiders were in the trees above them and throwing down their long clinging threads.
Things were looking pretty bad again, when suddenly Bilbo appeared and charged into the astonished spiders unexpectedly from the side.
"Go on! Go on!" he shouted. -1 will do the stingingf" And he did. He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near. The spiders Swelled with rage, and Spluttered and frothed, and hissed out horrible curses; but they had become mortally afraid of Stingg and dared not come very near, now that it had come back So curse as they would, their prey moved slowly but steadiii away. It was a most terrible business, and seemed to d take hours. But at last, just when Bilbo felt that he coul d for a single stroke more, the spiders sudnot lift his ban more, but went denly gave it up, and followed them no back disappointed to their dark colony. the The dwarves then noticed that they had come to edge of a ring where elf-fires had been.
Whether it was one of those they had seen the night before, they could not tell.
But it seemed that some good magic lingered in such spots, which the spiders did not like. At any rate here the light d thre
PLriES AND SPTDERS ir63
But very soon they began to ask questions. They had to have the whole vanishing business carefully explained, and the finding of the ring interested them so much that for a while they forgot their own troubles. Balm in particular insisted on having the Gollum story, riddles and all, told all over again, with the ring in its proper place. But after a time the light began to fail, and then other questions were asked. Where were they, and where was their path, and where was there any food, and what were they going to do next? These questions they asked over and over again, and it was from little Bilbo that they seemed to expect to get the answers. From which you can see that they had changed their opinion of Mr. Baggins very much, and had begun to have a great respect for him (as Gandalf had said they would).
Indeed they really expected him to think of some wonderful plan for helping them, and were not merely grumbling. They knew only too well that they would soon all have been dead, if it had not been for the hobbit; and they thanked him many times. Some of them even got up and bowed right to the ground before him, though they fell over with the effort, and could not get on their legs again for some time. Knowing the truth about the vanishing did not lessen their opinion of Bilbo at all; for they saw that he had some wits, as well as luck and a magic ring-and all three are very useful possessions. In fact they praised him so much that Bilbo began to feel there really was something of a bold adventurer about himself after all, though he would have felt a lot bolder still, if there had been an@ thing to eat.
But there was nothing, nothing at all; and none of them were fit to go and look for anything, or to search for the lost path. The lost path! No other idea would come into Bilbo's tired head. He just sat staring in front of him at the endless trees; and after a while they all fell silent again. All except Balm. Long after the others had stopped talking and shut their eyes, he kept on muttering and chuckling to himself.
i64 THE HOBBrr Mr. Baggins? Buttons all over the doorstep! Good old Bilbo-Bilbo-Bilbo-ho-ho-@' And then he fell asleep, and there was complete silence for a long time.
All of a: sudden Dwalin opened an eye, and looked round at them.
"Where is Thorin?" he asked.
it was a terrible shock. of course there were only thirteen of them, twelve dwarves and the hobbit. Where indeed was Thorin? They wondered what evil fate had befallen him, magic or dark monsters; and shuddered as they laY lost in the forest. There they dropped off one by one into uncomfortable sleep full of horrible dreams, as evening wore to black night; and there we must leave them for the presents too sick and weary to set guards or take turns watchingThorin had been caught much faster than they had.
YOU remember Bilbo falling like a log into sleeps as he stepped into a circle of light? The next time it had been Thorin who stepped forward, and as the lights went Out he fell like a stone enchanted.
All the noise of the dwarves lost in the night, their crier, as the spiders caught them and bound them, and all the, sounds of the battle next day, had passed over him unheard. Then the wood-elves had come to him, and bound him, and carried him away.
The feasting people were Woodelves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There, the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft in the making of beautiful and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World. In the Wide of our Sun
FLTES AND SPRDERS i65
in the great forests that grew tall in lands that are now lost.
They dwelt most often by the edges of the woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt, or to ride and run over the open lands by moonlight or starlight; and after the coming of Men they took ever more and more to the gloaming and the dusk. Still elves they were and remain, and that is Good People.
In a great cave some miles within the edge of Mirkwood on its eastern side there lived at this time their greatest ldng. Before his huge doors of stone a river ran out of the heights of the forest and flowed on and out into the marshes at the feet of the high wooded lands. This great cave, from which countless smaller ones opened out on every side, wound far underground and had many passages and wide halls; but it was lighter and more wholesome than any goblin-dwe@g, and neither so deep nor so dangerous. In fact the subjects of the king mostly lived and hunted in the open woods, and had houses or huts on the ground and in the branches. The beeches were their favourite trees. The ldng's cave was his palace, and the strong place of his treasure, and the fortress of his people against their enemies.
It was also the dungeon of his prisoners. So to the cave they dragged Thorin-not too gently, for they did not love dwarves, and thought he was an enemy. In ancient days they had had wars with some of the dwarves, whom they accused of stealing their treasure. It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account, and said that they only took what was their due, for the elf-king had bargained with them to shape his raw gold and silver, and had afterwards refused to give them their pay. If the elf-king had a weakness it was for treasure, especially for silver and white gems; and though his hoard was rich, he was ever eager for more, since he had not yet as great a treasure as other elf-lords of old. His people neither mined nor worked metals or jewels, nor did they bother much with trade or i66
TffE HOBBrr quently Thorin the old quarrel I have spoken of. Conse was angry at their treatment of him, when they took their spell off him and he came to his senses; and also he was determined that no word of gold or jewels should be dragged out of him.
The king looked sternly on Thorin, when he was brought before him, and asked him many questions. But Thorin would only say that he was starving.
,folk three tim "Why did you and your es try to attack my people at their merrymaking?" asked the king.
"We did not attack them @9 answered Thorin; "we came 19
to beg, because we were starving.
"Where are your friends now, and what are they doing?"I dotet know, but I expect starving in the forest."
"What were you doing in the forest?" " 44@@g for food and drink, because we were starving.
"But what brought you into the forest at all?" asked the king angrily.
At that Thorin shut his mouth and would not SRY another word.
C&Very well!" said the king. "Take him away and keep him safe, until he feels inc@ed to tell the truth, even if he i waits a hundred years."
Then the elves put thongs on him, and shut him in one .
of the inmost caves with strong wooden doors, and left him.' They gave him food and drink, plenty of both, if not very d were reasonably fine; for Woodelves were not goblins, an an.
well-'behaved even to their worst enenues, when they c ers were the only living t@iwgs tured them. The giant spid that they had no mercy Upon-poor Thorin lay; and aft,,r There in the king's dungeon
ulness for bread and meal and
he had got over his thankf wome of his u,,'tor water, he began to wonder what had b ered;
S. It was not very long before he disco'v tunate friend e next chapter and the be inin elo s to th
Barrels Out of Bond The day after the battle with the spiders Bilbo and the dwarves made one last despairing effort to find a way out before they died Of hunger and thirst. They got up and staggered on in the direction which eight out of the thirteen of them guessed to be the one in which the path lay; but they never found out if they were right.
Such day as there ever was in the forest was fading once more into the blackness of night, when suddenly out sprang the light of many torches all round them, like hundreds of red stars. out leaped Woodelves with their bows and spean and called the dwarves to halt.
There was no thought of a fight. Even if the dwarves bad not been in such a state that they were actually glad to be captured, their small knives, the only weapons they had, would have been of no use against the arrows of the elves that could hit a bird's eye in the dark. So they simply Stopped dead and sat down and waited-all except Bilbo, who popped on his ring and slipped quickly to one side.
That is why, when the elves bound the dwarves in a long line, one behind the other, and counted the@ they never found or counted the hobbit.
Nor did they hear or feel him trotting along well behind their torchlight as they led off their prisoners into the forest. Each dwarf was blindfold, but that did not make much difference, for even Bilbo with the use of his eyes could not see where they were going, and neither he nor the others knew where they had started from anyway.
Bilbo had all he could do to keep up with the torches, for the elves were making the dwarves go as fast as ever they could, sick and weary as th were. The kin had ordered them to make haste. Suddenly the torches stopped, and the hobbit had just time to catch them up before they began to cross the bridge. This was the bridge that led across the river to the king's doors. The water flowed dark and swift and strong beneath; and at the far end were gates before the mouth of a huge cave that ran into the side of a steep slope covered with trees.
There the great beeches came right down to the bank, till their feet were in the stream.
Across this bridge the elves thrust their prisoners, but Bilbo hesitated in the rear. He did not at all like the look of the cavern-mouth and he only made up his mind not to desert his friends ust in time to scuttle over at the heels of i the last elves, before the great gates of the king closed behind them with a clang.
Inside the passages were lit with red torchlight, and the elf-guards sang as they marched along the twisting, crossing, and echoing paths. These were not like those of the goblincities: they were smaller, less deep underground, and filled with a cleaner @. in a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat the Eiven@g on a chair of carven wood. On his head was a crown of berries and red leave,% for the autumn was come again. In the spring he wore a crow.
of woodland flowers. in his hand he held a carven staff of oak.
, The prisoners were brought before him; and though he looked grimly at them, he told his men to unbind them, for they were ragged and weary. "Besides they need no ropes in here," said he. ,There is no escape from my magic doors for those who are once brought inside."
Long and searchingly he questioned the dwarves about their doings, and where they were going to, and where they were coming from; but he got little more news out Of them than out of Thorin. They were surly and angry and did not even pretend to be polite. 0 king?" said Balm, who was the "What have we done, eldest left. "is it a crime to be lost in the forest, to be hungry BARRELS OUT OF BOND i6c@ Such a question of course made the king angrier tbal ever, and he answered: 'clt is a crime to wander in mi realm without leave. Do you forget that you were 'in Mi kingdom, using the road that my people made? Did you no three times pursue and trouble my people in the forest an( rouse the spiders with your riot and clamour? After all th( disturbance You have made I have a right to know wha brings you here, and if you will not tell me now, I wil keep you all in prison until you have learned sense anc manners?"
Then he ordered the dwarves each to be put in a separate cell and to be given food and drink, but not to be allowe@ to pass the doors of their little prisons, until one at least of them was willing to tell him all he wanted to know. Bul he did not tell them that Thorin was also a prisoner with him. It was Bilbo who found that out.
Poor Mr. Baggins-it was a weary long time that he lived in that place all alone, and always in hiding, never daring to take off his ring, hardly daring to sleep, even tucked away in the darkest and remotest corners he could find.
For something to do he took to wandering about the EIvenking's palace. Magic shut the gates, but he could sometimes get out, if he was quick. Companies of the Woodelves, sometimes with the king at their head, would from time to time ride out to hunt, or to other business in the woods and in the lands to the East. Then if Bilbo was very nimble, he could slip out just behind them; though it was a dangerous thing to do. More than once he was nearly caught in the doors, as they clashed together when the last elf passed; yet he did not dare to march among them because of his shadow (altogether thin and wobbly as it was in torchlight), or for fear of being bumped into and discovered. And when he did go out, which was not very often, he did no good.
He did not wish to desert the dwarves, and indeed he did not know where in the world to go without them. He could
172 THE HOEBRT
good deal of traffic went out and in by the watergate. If anyone had come in that way, he would have found himself in a dark rough tunnel leading deep into the heart of the hill; but at one point where it passed under the caves the roof had been cut away and covered with great oaken trapdoors. These opened upwards into the king's cellars.
There stood barrels, and barrels, and barrels; for the Woodelves, and especially their king, were very fond of wine, though no vines grew in those parts. The wine, and other goods, were brought from far away, from their kinsfolk in the South, or fromtbe vineyards of Men in distant lands.
Hiding behind one of the largest barrels Bilbo discovered the trapdoors and their use, and lurking there, listening to the talk of the king's servants, he learned how the wine and other goods came up the rivers, or over land, to the ong Lake. It seemed a town of Men still throve there, built out on bridges far into the water as a protection against enemies of all sorts, and especially against the dragon of brought the Mountain. From Lake-town the barrels were en they were just tied together like up the Forest River. Oft am; sometimes they big rafts and poled or rowed up the stre were loaded on to flat boats.
When the barrels were empty the elves cast them through barrels opened the watergate, and out the the trapdoors,
until they were
floated on the stream, bobbing along, r where carried by the current to a place far down the rive the bank jutted out, near to the very eastern edge of Mirkwood. There they were collected and tied together and floated back to Lake-town, which stood close to the point where the Forest River flowed into the Long Lake.
For some time Bilbo sat and thought about this watergate, and wondered if it could be used for the escape of his friends, and at last he had the desperate beginnings of a plan. air to the risoners. The Then Bilbo heard the king's butler bidding the chief of the guards good-night.
"Now come with me," he said, "and taste the new wine that has just come in. I shall be hard at work tonight clearing the cellars of the empty wood, so let us have a drink first to help the labour."
"Very good," laughed the chief of the guards. "I'll taste with you, and see if it is fit for the king's table. There is a feast tonight and it would not do to send up poor stuffl" When he heard this Bilbo was all in a flutter, for he saw that luck was with him and he had a chance at once to try his desperate plan. He followed The two elves, until they entered a small cellar and sat down at a table on which two large flagons were set. Soon they began to drink and laugh merrily. Luck of an unusual kind was with Bilbo then. It must be potent wine to make a wood-elf drowsy; but this wine, it would seem, was the heady vintage of the great gardens of Dorwinion, not meant for his soldiers or his servants, but for the king's feasts only, and for smaller DOWls, not for the butler's great flagons.
Very soon the chief guard nodded his head, then he laid t i on the table and fell fast asleep. The butler went on talking and laughing to himself for a while without seeming to notice, but soon his head too nodded to the table, and he fell asleep and snored beside his friend.
Then in crept the hobbit. Very soon the chief guard had no keys, but Bilbo was trotting as fast as he could along the passage towards the cells. The great bunch seemed very heavy to his arms; and his heart was often in his mouth, in spite of his ring, for he could.not prevent the keys from making every now and then a loud cl\* and clank, which put him all in a tremble.
First he unlocked Balm's door, and locked it again carefully as soon as the dwarf was outside. Balm was most
174 THE HOB]3rT
ask questions, and know what Bilbo was going to do, and all about it.
"No time now!" said the hobbit. "You must follow met We must all keep together and not risk getting separated.
All of us must escape or none, and this is our last chance.
If this is found out, goodness knows where the king will put you next, with chains on your bands and feet too, I expect. Don't argue, there's a good fellow!"
Then off he went from door to door, until his following had grown to twelve-none of them any too nimble, what with the dark, and what with their long imprisonment.
Bilbo's heart tbumj)ed every time one of them bumped into another, or grunted or whispered in the dark. "Drat this dwarvish racket!" he said to himself. But all went well, and they met no guards. As a matter of fact there was a great autumn feast in the woods that night, and in the halls above. Nearly all the king's folks were merrymaking.
At last after much blundering they came to Thorin's dungeon, far down in a deep place and fortunately not far from the cellars.
"Upon my word!" said Thorin, when Bilbo whispered to him to come out and join his friends, "Gandalf spoke true, as usual. A pretty fine burglar you make, it seems, when the time comes. I am sure we are all for ever at your service, whatever happens after this. But what comes next?"
Bilbo saw that the time had come to explain his idea, as far as he could; but he did not feel at all sure how the dwarves would take it.
His fears were quite justified, for they did not like it a bit, and started grumbling loudly in spite of their danger.
"We shall be bruised and battered to pieces, and drowned too, for certain!" they muttered. "We thought you had got some sensible notion, when you managed to get hold of the keys. This is a mad ideal"
"Very well!" said Bilbo very downcast, and also rather
It
BARRELS OUT OF BOND
and think of a better plan-but I don't suppose I shall er75
ver get hold of the keys again, even if I feel inclined to try."
That was too much for them, and they calmed down.
In the end, of course, they had to do just what Bilbo suggested, because it was obviously impossible for them to try and find their way into the upper halls, or to fight their Way out of gates that closed by magic; and it was no good grumbling in the passages until they were caught again.
So following the hobbit, down into the lowest cellars they crept.
They passed a door through which the chief guard and the butler could be seen still happily snoring with smiles upon their faces. The wine of Dorwinion brings deep and pleasant dreams. There would be a different expression on the face of the chief guard next day, even though Bilbo, before they went on, stole in and kindheartedly put the keys back on his belt.
"That will save him some of the trouble he is in for," said Mr.
Baggins to himself. "He wasn't a bad fellow, and quite decent to the prisoners. It will puzzle them all too.
They will think we had a very strong magic to pass through all those locked doors and disappear. Disappearl We have got to get busy very quick, if that is to happen!"
]Balm was told off to watch the guard and the butler and give warning if they stirred. The rest went into the adjoining cellar.with the trapdoors. There was little time to lose, Before long, as Bilbo knew, some elves were under orders to come down and help the butler get the empty barrels through the doors into the stream.
These were in fact already standing in rows in the middle of the floor waiting to be pushed off. Some of them were wine-barrels, and these were not much use, as they could not easily be opened at the end without a deal of noise, nor could they easily be secured again. But among them were several others which had been used for bringing other stuffs, butter, apples, and all sorts of things, to the king's palace.
T asi in the dwarves thought anxiously of the shaking and the all bumping they would get inside, though Bilbo did his best to find straw and other stuff to pack them in as cosily as could W' Al be managed in a short time. At last twelve dwarves were stowed. Thorin had given a lot of trouble, and turned and If twisted in his tub and grumbled like a large dog in a small Pu ex' kennel; while Balm, who came last, made a great fuss about his air-holes and said he was stifling, even before his lid was on. Bilbo had done what he could to close holes in ha the sides of the barrels, and to fix on all the lids as safely wi as could be managed, and now he was left alone again, Bi , running round putting the finishing touches to the packing, all and hoping against hope that his plan would come off.
dv It had not been a bit too soon. Only a minute or two th, after Balm's lid had been fitted on there came the sound of a'u a@ voices and the flicker of lights. A number of elves came laughing and talking into the cellars and singing snatches of song. They had left a merry feast in one of the halls and d,u were bent on returning as soon as they could.
fr( "Where's old Gallon, the butler?" said one. "I haven't seen him at the tables tonight. He ought to be here now hi to show us what is to be done."
as "I shall be angry if the old slowcoach is late," said th another. "I have no wish to waste time down here while ic4 the song is up!"
"Ha, ha!" came a cry. "Here's the old villain with his la head on a jug! He's been having a little feast all to himself dN and his friend the captain."
th "Shake him! Wake him!" shouted the others impatiently.
SP Gabon was not at all pleased at being shaken or wakened, and still less at being laughed at. "You're all late," Ch he grumbled.
"Here am I waiting and waiting down here, Y( while you fellows drink and make merry and forget your tasks. Small wonder if I fall asleep from weariness!"
9( "Small wonder," said they, "when the explanation stands close at hand in a jug! Come give us a taste of your Then they drank once round and became mighty merry all of a sudden. But they did not quite lose their wits.
"Save us, Gallon!" cried some, "you began your feasting early and muddled your wits! You have stacked some full casks here instead of the empty ones, if there is anything in weight."
"Get on with the work!" growled the butler. "There is nothing in the feeling of weight in an idle toss-pot's arms.
These are the ones to go and no others. Do as I say!"
"Very well, very well," they answered rolling the barrels to the opening. "On your head be it, if the king's full buttertubs and his best wine is pushed into the river for the Lake-men to feast on for nothing!,, Roll-roll-roll-roll, roll-roll-rolling down the hole I Heave ho! Splash plump !
Down they go, down they bump!
So they sang as first one barrel and then another rumbled to the dark opening and was pushed over into the cold water some feet below.
Some were barrels really empty, some were tubs neatly packed with a dwarf each; but down they all went, one after another, with many a clash and a bump, thudding on top of ones below, smacking into the water, jostling against the walls of the tunnel, knocking into one another, and bobbing away down the current.
It was just at this moment that Bilbo suddenly discovered the weak point in his plan. Most likdly you saw it some time ago and have been laughing at him; but I don't suppose you would have done half as well yourselves in his place. Of course he was not in a barrel himself, nor was there anyone to pack him in, even if there had been a chance! It looked as if he would certainly lose his friends this time (nearly all of them had already disappeared through the dark trapdoor), and get utterly left behind and have to stay lurking I78 TffE HOBBIT he, had precious small chance of ever finding the dwarves again. He did not know the way by land to the place where the barrels were collected. He wondered what on earth would happen to them without him; for he had not had time to tell the dwarves all that he had learned, or What he had meant to do, once they were out of the woodWhile all these thoughts were passing through his mind, the elves being very merry began to sing a song round the xiver.-door. Some had already gone to haul oil the, ropes which pulled up the portcullis at the watergate so as to let out the barrels as soon as they were all afloat below.
Down the swift dark stream you go Back to lands you once did knowl Leave the halls and caverns deep, Leave the northern mountains steep, Where the forest wide and dim Stoops in shadow grey and griml Float beyond the world of trees Out into the whispering breeze, Past the rushes, past the reeds, Past the marsh's waving weeds, is!t that riseth white Through the tn Up from mere and pool at nightf Follow, follow stars that leap Up the heavens cold and steep; Turn when dawn comes over land, Over rapid, over sand, South away! and South awayl Seek the sunlight and the day, Back to Pasture, back to mead, Where the kine and oxen feedl Back to gardens on the hills fills Where the berry swells and Under sunlight, under dayl Now the very last barrel was being rolled to the doors!
In despair and not knowing what else to do, poor little Bilbo caught hold of it and was pushed over the edge with it. Down into the water he fell, splash! into the cold dark water with the barrel on top of him.
He came up again spluttering and clinging to the wood like a rat, but for all his efforts he could not scramble on top. Every time he tried, the barrel rolled round and ducked lim under again. It was really empty, and floated light as a cork. Though his ears were full of water, he could hear the elves still singing in the cellar above.
Then suddenly the trapdoors fell to with a boom and their voices faded away. He was in the dark tunnel, floating in icy water, all alone-for you cannot count friends that are all packed up in barrels.
Very soon a grey patch came up in the darkness ahead.
He heard the creak-of the watergate being hauled up, and he found that be was in the midst of a bobbing and bumping mass of casks and tubs all pressing together to pass under the arch and get out into the open stream. He had as much as he could do to prevent himself from being bustled and battered to bits; but at last the jostling crowd began to break up and swing off, one by one, under the stone arch and away. Then he saw that it would have been no good even if he -bad managed to get astride his barrel, for there was no room to spare, not even for a hobbit, between its top and the suddenly stooping roof where the gate was.
Out they went under the overhanging branches of the trees on either bank. Bilbo wondered what the dwarves were feeling and whether a lot of water was getting into their tubs. Some of those that bobbed along by him in the Ooom seemed pretty low in the water, and he guessed that these had dwarves inside.
"I do hope I put the lids on tight enough!" he thought, but before long he was worrying too much about himself
THE 19OBBIT
wondered if be would die of it before the luck turned, and and whether how much longer he would be able to hang on
he should risk the chance Of leg go and trying to swim
to the bank. long-. the eddying curThe luck turned all right before point and rent carried several barrels close ashore at one there for a while they stuck against some hidden root. Th., Bilbo took the opportunity of scrambling up the side of his barrel while it was held steady against another. Up he crawled like a drowned rat, and lay on the top spread out to keep the balance as best he could. The breeze was cold but better than the water, and he hoped he would not suddenly roll off again when they started off once more.
Before long the barrels broke free again and turned and off twisted down the stream, and out into the main current.
Then he found it quite as difficult to stick on as he had feared; but he managed it somehow, though it was miserably uncomfortable.
Luckily he was very light, and the barrel was a good big one and being rather leaky had now it was like shipped a small wnount of water. All the same trying to ride, without bridle or stirrups, a round-beleed pony that was always thinking of rolling on the grass.
In this way at last Mr. Baggins came to a place where the trees on either hand grew thinner. He could see the paler sky between them.
The dark river opened suddenly wide, and there it was joined to the main water of the Forest River flowing down in haste from the kinles great doors.
There was a dim sheet of water no longer overshadowed, and on its sliding surface there were dancing and broken reflections of clouds and of stars. Then the hurrying water of the Forest River swept all the company of casks and tubs away to the north bank, in which it had eaten out a wide bay. This had a shingly shore under hanging banks and was walled at the eastern end by a little jutting cape of hard I
rock. On the shallow shore most of the barrels ran agrouil@
shallows, and when they had counted them they rope them together and left them till the morning. Poor dwarve Bilbo was not so badly off now. He slipped from his barr and waded ashore, and then sneaked along to some hu that he could see near the water's edge. He no ]on thought twice about picking up a supper uninvited if he the chance, he had been obliged to do it for so long, and b knew Only too well what it was to be really hungry, n merely politely interested in the dainties of a well-fill larder. Also he had caught a glimpse of a fire through th trees, and that appealed to him with his dripping an ragged clothes clinging to him cold and clammy.
There is no need to tell you much of his adventures tha night, for "I we are drawing near the end of the east journey and coming to the last and greatest adventure, s we must hurry on. Of course helped by his magic ling got On very well at first, but he was given away in the en by his wet footsteps and the trail of drippings that he lef wherever he went or sat; and also he began to snivel, an wherever he tried to hide he was found out by the terrifi explosions Dr his suppressed sneezes. Very soon there wa a fine conimotio\_n in the village by the riverside; but BilbO.Scaped into the woods carrying a loaf and a leather bottl Of @o and a pie that did not belong to him. The rest o the night he had to pass wet as he was and far from a fire, but the bottle helped him tD do that, and he actually dozed 8 little on some dry leaves, even though the year was get\_ ting late and the air was chilly.
He woke again with a specially loud sneeze. It was already grey morning, and there was a mcrry racket down by the river. They were making up a raft of barrels, and the raft-elves would soon be steering it off down the stream to Lake-town. Bilbo sneezed again. He was no longer d@PPing.but . he felt cold all over-He scrambled down as to cast an awkward shadow, and for a mercy he did not sneeze again for a good while.
There was a mighty pushing of poles. The elves that were standing in the shallow water heaved and shoved. The barrels now all lashed together creaked and fretted.
"This is a heavy load!" some grumbled. "Thdy fl6at too deep-some of these are never empty. If they had come ashore in the daylight, we might have had a look inside," they said.
"No time now!" cried the raftman. "Shove off !SI And off they went at last, slowly at first, until they had passed the point of rock where other elves stood to fend them off with poles, and then quicker and quicker as they
caught the main stream and went sailing away down, down
towards the Lake.
They had escaped the dungeons of the king and were still remains through the wood, but whether alive or dead
to be seen.
A Warm Welcome
The day grew lighter and warmer as they floated along.
After a while the river rounded a steep shoulder of land that came down upon their left. Under its rocky feet like an inland cliff the deepest stream had flowed lapping and bubbling. Suddenly the cliff fell away. The shores sank.
The trees ended. Then Bilbo saw a sight: The lands opened wide about him, filled with the waters of the river which broke up and wandered in a hundred winding courses, or halted in marshes and pools dotted with isles on every side; but still a strong water flowed on steadily through the midst. And far away, its dark head in a torn cloud, there loomed the Mountain! Its nearest neighbours to the NorthEast and the tumbled land that joined it to them could not be seen. All alone it rose and looked across the marshes to the forest.
The Lonely Mountain! Bilbo had come far and through many adventures to see it, and now he did not like the look of it in the least.
As he listened to the talk of the raftmen and pieced together the scraps of information they let fall, he soon realized that he was very fortunate ever to have seen it at all, even from this distance. Dreary as had been his imprisonment and unpleasant as was his position (to say nothing of the poor dwarves underneath him) still, he bad been more lucky than he had guessed. The talk was all of the trade that came and went on the waterways and the growth of the traffic on the river, as the roads out of the East towards Mirkwood vanished or fell into disuse; and of the bickerings of the Lake-men and the Woodelves about 184 TM HOIBBT@T Those lands had changed much since the days when dwarves dwelt in the Mountain, days which most people now remembered only as a very shadowy tradition. They had changed even in recent years, and since the last news that Gandalf had had of them. Great floods and rains had swollen the waters that flowed east; and there had been an earthquake or two (which some were inclined to attribute to the dragon-alluding to him chiefly with a curse and an ominous nod in the direction of the Mountain). The marshes and bogs had spread wider and wider on either side. Paths had vanished, and many a rider and wanderer too, if they had tried to find the lost ways across. The elf-road through the wood which the dwarves had followed on the advice of Beom now came to a doubtful and little used end at the eastern edge of the forest; only the river offered any longer a safe way from the skirts of Mirkwood in the North to the mountain-shadowed plains beyond, and the river was guarded by the Woodelves? king.
So you see Bilbo had come in the end by the only road that was any good. It might have been some comfort to Mr. Baggins shivering on the barrels, if he had known that news of this had reached Gandalf far away and given him great anxiety, and that he was in fact finishing his other business (which does not ciodac into this tale) and' getting ready to come in search of Thorijfs company. But Bilbo did not know it.
All he knew was that the river seemed to go on and on and on for ever, and he was hungry, and had a nasty cold in the nose, and did not like the way the Mountain seemed to frown at him and threaten him as it drew ever nearer.
After a while, however, the river took a more southerly course and the Mountain receded again, and at last, late in the day the shores grew rocky, the river gathered all its wandering waters together into a deep and rapid flood, and they swept along at great speed.
The sun had set when turning with another sweep toA WARM WELCOME
185
eitler side whose feet were i)iled with shingles. The Long Lake!
Bilbo had never imagined that any water that was not the sea could look so big. It was so wide that the opposite shores looked small and far, but it was so long that its northerly end, which pointed towards the Mountain, could not be seen at all. Only from the map did Bilbo know that away up there, where the stars of the Wain were already twinkling, the Running River came down into the lake from Dale and with the Forest River filled with deep waters what must once have been a great deep rocky valley.
At the southern end the doubled waters poured out again over high waterfalls and ran away hurriedly to unknown lands. In the still evening air the noise of the falls could be heard like a distant roar.
Not far from the mouth of the Forest River was the strange town he heard the elves speak of in the king's cellars. It was not built on the shore, though there were a few huts and buildings there, but right out on the surface of the lake, protected from the swirl of the entering river by a promontory of rock which formed a calm bay. A great bridge made of wood ran out to where on huge piles made of forest trees was built a busy wooden town, not a town of elves but of Men, who still dared to dwell here under the shadow of the distant dragon-mountain. They still throve on the trade that came up the great river from the South and was carted past the falls to their town; but in the great days of old, when Dale in the North was rich and prosperOus, they had been wealthy and powerful, and there had been fleets of boats on the waters, and some were filled with gold and some with warriors in armour, and there had been wars and deeds-which were now only a legend. The rotting piles of a greater town could still be seen along the shores when the waters sank in a drought.
But men remembered little of all that, though some still sang old songs of the dwarf-kings of the Mountain, Thror gold would flow in rivers through the motintain-gates, and all that land would be filled with new song and new laughter. But this pleasant legend did not much affect their daily business.
As soon as the raft of barrels came in sight boats rowed out from the piles of the town, and voices hailed the raftsteerers. Then ropes were cast and, oars were pulled, and soon the raft was drawn out of the current of the Forest River and towed away round the high shoulder of rock into the little bay of lake-town. There it was moored not far from the shoreward head of the great bridge. Soon men would come up from the South and take some of the casks away, and others they would fill with goods they had brought to be taken back up the stream to the Woodelves' home. In the meanwhile the barrels were left afloat while the elves of the raft and the boatmen went to feast in Lake-town.
They would have been surprised, if they could have seen what happened down by the shore, after they had gone and the shades of night had fallen. First of all a barre was cut loose by Bilbo and pushed to the shore and opened.
Groans came from inside, and out crept a most unhappy dwarf. Wet straw was in his draggled beard; he was so sore and stiff, so bruised and buffeted he could hardly stand or stumble through the shallow water to lie groaning on the shore. He had a famished and a savage look like a dog 1 for a week.
that has been chained and forgotten in a kenne it was Thorin, but you could only have told it by his r of his now dirty and tatgolden chain, and by the colon tered sky-blue hood with its tarnished silver tassel. It was some time before he would be even polite to the bobbit.
"Well, are you alive or are you dead?" asked Bilbo quite en that he had had at least crossly. Perhaps he had forgott one good meal more than the dwarves, and also the use of allowance of his arms and legs, not to speak of a greater A WARM VMLCOME T97
it's Yours after all and not mine-you had better slap your arms and rub your legs and try and help me get the others out while there is a chance!"
Thorin of course saw the sense of this, so after a few -more groans he got up and helped the hobbit as well as he could. In the darkness floundering in the cold water they had a difficult and very nasty job finding which were the right barrels. Knocking outside and calling only discovered about six dwarves that could answer. They were unpacked and helped ashore where they sat or lay muttering and moaning; they were so soaked and bruised and cramped that they could hardly yet realize their release or be properly thankful for it.
Dwalin and Balm were two of the most unhappy, and it was no good asking them to help. Difur and Bofur were less knocked about and drier, but they lay down and would do nothing. Fib and ICII, however, who were young (for dwarves) and had also been packed more neatly with plenty of straw into smaller casks, came out more or less smiling, with only a bruise or two and a stiffness that soon wore off.
"I hope I never smell the smell of apples again!" said Fill.
"My, tub was full of it. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is maddening. I could eat anything in the wide $,p world now, for hours on end@but not an applet With the willing help of Fill and Kill, Thorin and Bilbo at last discovered the remainder of the company and got them out. Poor fat Bombur was asleep or senseless; Dod, Nori, Ori, Oin and Gloin were waterlogged and seemed only half alive; they all had to be carried one by one and laid helpless on the shore.
"Well! Here we are!" said Thorin. "And I suppose we ought to thank our stars and Mr. Baggins. I am sure he has a right to expect it, though I wish he could have arra properly grateful, when we are fed and recovered. In the meanwhile what next?"
"I suggest Lake-town," said Bilbo. "What else is there?"
Nothing else could, of course, be suggested; so leaving the others Thorin and Fill and Kill and the bobbit went along the shore to the great bridge. There were guards at the head of it, but they were not keeping very careful watch, for it was so long since there had been any real need. Except for occasional squabbles about river-tolls they were friends with the Woodelves. Other folk were far away; and some of the younger people in the town openly doubted the existence of any dragon in the mountain, and laughed at the greybeards and gammers who said that they had seen him flying in the sky in their young days. That being so it is not surprising that the guards were drinking and laughing by a fire in their hut, and did not hear the noise of the unpacking of the dwarves or the footsteps of the four scouts. Their astonishment was enormous when Thorin Oakenshield stepped in through the door.
"Who are you and what do you want?" they shouted leaping to their feet and groping for weapons.
"Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror King under the Mountain!" said the dwarf in a loud voice, and he looked it, in spite of his torn clothes and draggled hood. The gol gleamed on his neck and waist: his eyes were dark ana deep. "I have come back. I wish to see the Master of your town!"
Then there was tremendous excitement. Some of the more foolish ran out of the hut as if they expected the Mountain to go golden in the night and all the waters of the lake to turn yellow right away. The captain of the guard came forward.
"And who are these?" he asked, pointing to Fill and Kill and Bilbo.
"The sons of my father's daughter," answered Thorir4
A WARM WELCOME 189
"If you come in peace lay down your arms!" said the captain.
"We have none," said Thorin, and it was true enough: their knives had been taken from them by the wood-elves, and the great sword Orcrist too. Bilbo had his short sword, hidden as usual, but he said nothing about that. "We have no need of weapons, who return at last to our own as spoken of old. Nor could we fight against so many.
Take us to your masterl" "He is at feast," said the captain.
','Then all the more reason for taking us to him," burst m Fill, who was getting impatient at these solemnities.
'We are worn and famished after Our long road and we have sick comrades. Now make haste and let us have no more words, or your master may have something to say to YOU-99
"Follow me then," said the captain, and with six men about them he led them over the bridge through the gates and into the market-place of the town. Ms was a wide circle of quiet water surrounded by the tall piles on which were built the greater houses, and by long wooden quays with many steps and ladders going down to the surface of the lake.
From one great hall shone many lights and there came the sound of many voices. They passed its doors and stood b@g in the light looking at long tables filled with folk.
"I am Thorin son of Thrain son Of Thror King under the Mountain!
I return!" cried Thorin in a loud voice from the door, before the captain could say anything.
All leaped to their feet. The Master of the town sprang from his great chair. But none rose in greater surprise than the raftmen of the elves who were sitting at the lower end of the hall. Pressing forward before the Master's table they cried: "These are prisoners of our king that have escaped, wandering vagabond dwarves that could not give any goodIE 190 THE HOBBIT A WARM WELCOME igi pr "Is this true?"
asked the Master. As a matter of fact he The streams shall run in gladness, thought it far more likely than the return of the King under The lakes shall,vhine and burn, M' the Mountain, if any such person had ever existed. And sorrow fail and sadness "It is true that we were wrongfully waylaid by the Elven-A t the Mountain-king's returill the king and imprisoned without cause as we journeyed back al to our own land," answered Thorin. "But lock nor bar, So they sang, or very like that, only there was a great tt may hinder the homecoming spoken of old. Nor is this town: deal more of it, and there was much shouting as well as the
in the Woodelves' realm. I speak to the Master of the town!
music of harps and of fiddles mixed up with it. Indeed such
w ni of the Men of the lake, not to the raftmen of the king."
Then the Master hesitated and looked from one to t other. The Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no enmity with him, nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to trade and tolls, to cargoes and gold, to which habit he owed his n b position. Others were of different mind, however, an( quickly the matter was settled without him. The news ha( a n t, spread from the doors of the hall like fire through all thi town. People were shouting inside the hall and outside it The quays were thronged with hurrying feet. Some begai to sing snatches of old songs concerning the return of th King under the Mountain; that it was Thror's grandsoi not Thror himself that had come back did not bothe them at all. Others took up the song and it rolled loud am
high over the lake.
The King beneath the mountains, The King of carven stone, The lord of silver fountains t Shall come into his ownl I His crown shall be upholden, I His harp shall be restrung, I His halls shall echo golden 4
To songs of yore re-sung.
The woods shall wave on mountains
i "citement had not been known in the town in the memory of the oldest grandfather. The Woodelves themselves beLan to wonder greatly and even to be afraid. They did not mOW Of course how Thorin had escaped, and they began to think their king might have made a serious mistake. As for the Master he saw there was nothing else for it but to obey the general clamour, for the moment at any rate, and to oretend to believe that Thorin was what he said. So he ga@e up to him his own great chair and set Fill and Kiii -beside him in places of honour.
Fven Bilbo was given a seat at the high table, and no explanation of where he came in-no songs had alluded to him even in the obscurest way-was asked for in the general bustle.
Soon afterwards the other dwarves were brought into the town amid scenes of astonishing enthusiasm. They were all doctored and fed and housed and pampered in the most delightful and satisfactory fashion. A large house was given up to Thorin and his company; boats and rowers were put at their service; and crowds sat outside and sang songs all day, or cheered if any dwarf showed so much as his nose.
Some of the songs were old ones; but some of them were quite new and spoke confidently of the sudden death of the dragon and of cargoes Of rich Presents coming down the river to Lake-tow@. These Were inspired largely by the Master and they did not particularly please the dwarves, but in the meantime they were well contented and they ickly grew fat and strong again. Indeed within a week was already regained and Smaug chopped up into little pieces.
Then, as be had said, the dwarves' good feeling towards the little hobbit grew stronger every day. There were no more groans or grumbles.
They drank his health, and they patted him on the back, and they made a great fuss of him; which was just as well, for he was not feeling particularly cheerful. He had not forgotten the look of the Mountain, nor the thought of the dragon, and he had besides a shocking cold.
For three days he sneezed and coughed, and he could not go out, and even after that his speeches at banquets were limited to "Thag you very buch."
In the meanwhile the Woodelves had gone back up the Forest River with their cargoes, and there was great excitement in the king's palace. I have never heard what happened to the chief of the guards and the butler. Nothing of course was ever said about keys or barrels while the dwarves stayed in Lake-town, and Bilbo was careful never to become invisible. Still, I daresay, more was guessed than was known, though doubtless Mr. Baggins remained a bit of a mystery. In any case the king knew now the dwarves' errand, or thought he did, and he said to himself: "Very well! We'll see! No treasure will come back through Mirkwood without my having something to say in the matter. But I expect they will all come to a bad end, and serve them right!" He at any rate did not believe in dwarves fighting and killing dragons like Smaug, and he strongly suspected attempted burglary or something like it -which shows he was a wise elf and wiser than the men of the town, though not quite right, as we shall see in the end. He sent out his spies about the shores of the lake and as far northward towards the Mountains as they would go, and waited.
At the end of a fortnight Thorin began to think of dearture.
While the enthusiasm still lasted in the town was A WARM WIELCOM-E 193
cillors and said that soon he and his company must go on towards the Mountain.
Then for the first time the Master was surprised and a little frightened; and he wondered if Thorin was after all really a descendant of the old kings. He had never thought that the dwarves would actually dare to approach Smaug, but believed they were frauds who would sooner or later be discovered and be turned out. He was wrong. Thorin, of course, was really the grandson Of the King under the Mountain, and there is no knowing what a dwarf will not dare and do for revenge or the recovery of his own.
But the Master was not sorry at all to let them go. They were expensive to keep, and their arrival had turned things into a long holiday in which business was at a standstill.
"Let them go and bother Smaug, and see how he welcomes them!" he thought. "Certainly, 0 Thorin Thrain's son Thror's sonill was what he said. "You must claim your own. The hour is at hand, spoken of old.
What help we can offer shall be yours, and we trust to your gratitude when your kingdom is regained."
So one day, although autumn was now getting far on, and winds were cold, and leaves were falling fast, three large boats left Lake-town, laden with rowers, dwarves, Mr. Baggins, and many Provisions. Horses and ponies had been sent round by circuitous paths to meet them at their appointed landing-place. The Master and his councillors bade them farewell from the great steps of the town-hall that went down to the lake. People sang on the quays and out of windows. The white oars dipped and splashed, and off they went north up the lake on the last stage of their long journey. The only person thoroughly unhappy was Bilbo.
On the Doorstep In two days going they rowed right up the Long Lake and passed out into the River Running, and now they could all see the Lonely Mountain towering grim and tall before them. The stream was strong and their going slow. At the end of the third day, some miles up the river, they drew in to the left or western bank and disembarked.
Here they were joined by the horses with other provisions and necessaries and the ponies for their own use that had been sent to meet them. They packed what they could on the ponies and the rest was made into a store under a tent, but none of the men of the town would stay with them even for the, night so near the shadow of the Mountain.
"Not at any rate until the songs have come true!" said they. It was easier to believe in the Dragon and less easy to believe in Thorin in these wild parts. Indeed their stores had no need of any guard, for all the land was desolate and empty. So their escort left them, making off swiftly down the river and the shoreward pathsy although the night was already drawing on.
They spent a cold and lonely night and their spirits fell.
The next day they set out again. Balm and Bilbo rode behind, each leading another pony heavily laden beside him; the others were some way ahead picking out a slow road, for there were no paths-They made northwest, slanting away from the River Running, and drawing ever nearer and nearer to a great spur of the Mountain that was flung out southwards towards them.
It was a weary journey, and a quiet and stealthy one. i There was no laughter or song or sound of harps, and the' ad stiffed in their hearts at the 1
ON THE R)OORSTEP T95
singing of old songs by the lake died away to a plodding gloom.
They knew that they were drawing near to the end of their journey, and that it might be a very horrible end.
The land about them grew bleak and barren, though once, as Thorin told them, it had been green and fair. There was little grass, and before long there was neither bush nor tree, and only broken and blackened stumps to speak of ones long vanished. They were come to the Desolation of the Dragon, and they were come at the waning of the year.
They reached,the skirts of the Mountain all the same without meeting any danger or any sign of the Dragon other than the wilderness he had made about his lair. The Mountain lay dark and silent before them and ever higher above them. They made their first camp on the western side of the great southern spur, which ended in a height called Ravenhill. On this there had been an old watch-post; but they dared not climb it yet, it was too exposed.
Before setting out to search the western spurs of the Mountain for the hidden door, on which all their hopes rested, Thorin sent out a scouting expedition to spy out the land to the South where the Front Gate stood. For this purpose he chose Balm and Fill and Kill, and with them went Bilbo. They marched under the grey and silent cliffs to the feet of Ravenhill. There the river, after winding a wide loop over the valley of Dale, turned from the Mountain on its road to the Lake, flowing swift and noisily. Its bank was bare and rocky, tall and steep above the stream; and gazing out from it over the narrow water, foaming and splashing among many boulders, they could see in the wide valley shadowed by the Mountain's arms the grey ruins of ancient houses, towers, and walls.
"There lies all that is left of Dale," said Balm. "The mountain's sides were green with woods and all the sheltered valley rich and pleasant in the days when the bells rang in that town." He looked both sad and grim as he said thi
i96 TnE HoT3Brr
They did not dare to follow the river much further towards the Gate; but they went on beyond the end of the southern spur, until lying hidden behind a rock they could look out and see the dark cavernous opening in a great cliff-wall between the arms of the Mountain. out of it the waters of the Running River sprang; and out of it too there came a steam and a dark smoke. Nothing moved in the waste, save the vapour and the water, and every now and again a black and ominous crow. The only sound was the sound of the stony water, and every now and again the harsh croak of a bird. Balm shuddered.
"Let us return!" he said. "We can do no good herel And I don7t like these dark birds, they look like spies Of evil."
"The dragon is still alive and in the halls under the Mountain then-or I imagine so from the smoke," said the hobbit.
"That does not prove it," said Balm, "though I don't doubt you are right. But he might be gone away some time, or he might be lying out on the mountainside keeping watch, and still I expect smokes and steams would come out of the gates: all the halls within must be filled with his foul reek."
With such gloomy thoughts, followed ever by croa g crows above them, they made their weary way back to the camp. Only in June they had been guests in the fair house of Eirond, and though autumn was now crawling towards winter that pleasant time now seemed years ago. They were alone in the perilous waste without hope of further help. They were at the end of their journey, but as far as ever, it seemed, from the end of their quest. None of them had much spirit left.
Now strange to say Mr. Baggins had more than the others. He would often borrow Thorin's map and gaze
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197
for the secret door. They moved their camp then to a long valley, narrower than the great dale in the South where the Gates of the river stood, and walled with lower spurs of the Mountain. Two of these here thrust forward west from the main mass in long steep-sided ridges that fell ever downwards towards the plain. On this western side there were fewer signs of the dragon's marauding feet, and there was some grass for their ponies. From this western camp, shadowed all day by cliff and wall until the sun began to sink towards the forest, day by day they toiled in parties searching for paths up the mountainside. If the map was true, somewhere high above the cliff at the valley's head must stand the secret door. Day by day they came back to their camp without success.
]But at last unexpectedly they found what they were seeking.
'Fill and Kill and the bobbit went back one day down the valley and scrambled among the tumbled rocks at its southern corner. About midday, creeping behind a great stone that stood alone like a pillar, Bilbo came on what looked like rough steps going upwards. Following these excitedly he and the dwarves found traces of a narrow track, often lost, often rediscovered, that wandered on to the top of the southern -ridge and brought them at last to a still narrower ledge, which turned north across the face of the Mountain. Looking down they saw that they were at the top of the cliff at the valley's bead and were gazing down on to their own camp below. Silently, clinging to the rocky wall on their right, they went in single file along the ledge, till the wall opened and they turned into a little steep-walled bay, grassy-floored, still and quiet. Its entmce which they had found could not be seen from below because of the overhang of the cliff, nor from further off because it was so small that it looked like a dark crack and no more. It was not a cave and was open to the sky above; but at its inner end a flat wall rose
198 THE HO]3'flrr
sign of bar or bolt or keyhole; yet they did not doubt. that they had found the door at last. imThey beat on it, they thrust and pushed at it, they plored it to move, they spoke fragments of broken spells of opening, and nothing @ed. At last tired out they rested on the grass at its feet, and then at evening began their long climb down.
There was excitement in the camp that night. In the morning they prepared to move once more. Only Bofur and Bombur were left behind to guard the ponies and such stores as they had brought with them from the river. The others went down the valley and up the newly found path, and so to the narrow ledge. Along this they could carry no bundles or packs, so narrow and breathless was it, with a fall of a hundred and fifty feet beside them on to sharp rocks below; but each of them took a good coil of rope wound tight about his waist, and so at last without mishap they reached the little grassy bay.
There they made their third camp, hauling up what they needed from below with their ropes. Down the same way they were able occasionally to lower one of the more active dwarves, such as Kill, to exchange such news as there wA or to take a share in the guard below, while Bofur was hauled up to the higher tamp. Bombur would not come UP either the rope or the path.
"I am too fat for such fly-walks," he said. "I should ad on my beard, and then you would be turn dizzy and tre thirteen again. And the knotted ropes are too slender for MY weight." Luckily for him that was not true, as you will see.
In the meanwhile some of them explored the ledge beyond the opening and found a path that led higher and higher on to the mountain; but they did not dare to vent= very far that way, nor was there much use in it.
there a silence rei d, brcwkeii no bird or sound except
Out up r
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The Others who were busy with the secret of the door bad no more success. They were too eager to troubleraebstoiutgthtoe runes or the moon-letters, but tried without discover where exactly in the smooth face of the rock the door was hidden. They had brought picks and tools of many sorts from Lake-town, and at first they tried topuse handles s linthese. But when they struck the stone the - heads tered and Jarred their arms cruelly, and the steel broke or bent like lead. Mining work, they saw clearly was no good against the magic that had sbu@t this door; and they grew terrified, too, of the echoing noise.
Bilbo found sitting on the doorstep lonesome and wearisome-there was not a doorstep, of course, really, but they used to call the little grassy space between the wall and the opening the "doorstep" in fun, remembering Bilbols words long ago at the unexpected party in his hobbithole, when he said they could sit on the doorstep till they thought Of something. And sit and think they did, or wandered aimlessly about, and glummer and glummer they became.
Their spirits had risen a little at the discovery of the path, but now they sank into their boots; and yet they would not give it up and go away. The hobbit was no longer much brighter than the dwarves. He would do nothing but sit with his back to the rock-face and stare away west through the opening, over the cliff, over the wide lands to the black wall of Mirkwood, and to the distances beyond, in which he sometimes thought he could catch @impses of the Misty Mountains small and far. If the dwarves asked him what he was doing he answered: "You said sitting on the doorstep and thinking would be my job, not to mention getting inside, So I am sitting and think;ng." But I am afraid he was not thinking much of the job, but of what lay beyond the blue distance, the quiet Wester-,i Land and the Hill and his 'hobbithole under it.
S A large grey stone lay in the centre of the gras and he rock, and there were many of them of huge size crawling slowly and stickily along its sides.
"Tomorrow begins the last week of Autumn," said Thorin one day.
"And winter comes after autumn," said Bifur.
"And next year after that," said Dwalin, "and our beards will grow till they hang down the cliff to the valley before anything happens here. What is our burglar doing for us?
Since he has got an invisible ring, and ought to be a specially excellent performer now, I am beginning to think he might go through the Front Gate and spy things out a bitl" Bilbo heard this-the dwarves were on the rocks just above the enclosure where he was sitting-and "Good Gracious!" he thought, "so that is what they are beginning to think, is it? it is always poor me that has to get them out of their difficulties, at least since the wizard left. Whatever am I going to do? I might have known that something dreadful would happen to me in the end. I don't think I could bear to see the unhappy valley of Dale again, and as for that steaming gate!
That night he was very miserable and hardly slept-Next day the dwarves all went wandering off in various directions; some were exercising the ponies down below, some .Were roving about the mountainside. All day Bilbo sat gloomily in the grassy bay gazing at the stone, or out west through the narrow opening. He had a queer feeling that he was-waiting for something. "Perhaps the wizard will suddenly come back today," he thought.
If he lifted his head he could see a glimpse of the distant forest. As the sun turned west there was a gleam of yellow upon its far roof, as if the light caught the last pale leaves.
Soon he saw the orange ball of the sun sinking towards the level of his eyes. He went to the opening and there pale and faint was a thin new moon above the rim of Earth.
At that very moment he heard a sharp crack behind
ON TffE DOORSTEP 201
with dark spots. Crack! It had caught a snail and was knocking it on the stone. Crack! Crack!
Suddenly Bilbo understood. Forgetting all danger he stood on the ledge and hailed the dwarves, shouting and waving. Those that were nearest came tumbling over the rocks and as fast as they could along the ledge to him, wondering what on earth was, the matter; the others shouted to be hauled up the ropes (except Bombur, of course: he was asleep).
Quickly Bilbo explained. They all fell silent: the hobbit standing by the grey stone, and the dwarves with wagging beards watching impatiently. The sun sank lower and lower, and their hopes fell. It sank into a belt of reddened cloud and disappeared. The dwarves groaned, but still Bilbo stood almost without moving. The little moon was dipping to the horizon. Evening was coming on. Then suddenly when their hope was lowest a red ray of the sun escaped like a finger through a rent in the cloud. A gleam of light came straight through the opening into the bay and fell on the smooth rock-face. The old thrush, who had been watching from a high perch with beady eyes and head cocked on one side, gave a sudden trill. There was a loud crack.
A flake of rock split from the wall and fell. A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the ground.
Quickly, trembling lest the chance should fade, the dwarves rushed to the rock and i3ushed-in vain.
"The key! The keyl" cried Bilbo. "Where is Thorin?"
Thorin hurried up.
"The key!" shouted Bilbo. "The key that went with the map! Try it now while there is still time!"
Then Thorin stepped up and drew the key on its chain from round his neck. He put it to the hole. It fitted and it turned! Snap! The gleam went out, the sun sank, the moon was gone, and evening sprang into the sky.
Now they all pushed together, and slowly a part of the rock-wall gave way. Long straight cracks appeared and seemed as if darkness flowed out like a vapour from the hole in the mountainside, and deep darkness in which nothing could be seen lay before their eyes, a yawning mouth leading in and down.
Imide Hormation For a long time the dwarves stood in the dark before the door and debated, until at last Thorin spoke: "Now is the time for our esteemed Mr. Baggins, who has proved himself a good companion on our long road, and a hobbit full of courage and resource far exceeding his size, and if I may say so possessed of good luck far exceeding the usual allowance-now is the time for him to perform the service for which he was included in our Company; now is the time for him to earn his Reward."
You are familiar with Thorin's style on important occasions, so I will not give you any more of it, though he. went on a good deal longer than this. It certainly was an important occasion, but Bilbo felt impatient. By now he was quite familiar with Thorin too, and he knew what he was driving at.
"If you mean you think it is my job to go into the secret passage first, 0 Thorin Thrain's son Oakenshield, may your beard grow ever longer," he said crossly, "say so at once and have done! I might refuse. I have got you out of two messes already, which were hardly in the original bargain, so that I am, I think, already owed some reward.
But 'third time pays for all' as my father used to say, and somehow I don't think I shall refuse. Perhaps I have begun to trust my luck more than I used to in the old days'@he meant last spring before he left his own house, but it seemed centuries ago-"but anyway I think I will go and have a peep at once and get it over. Now who is coming with me?"
He did not expect a chorus of volunteers, so he was not disappointed. Fill and KiU looked uncomfortable and stood except old Balm, the lookout man, who was rather fond of the hobbit. He said he would come inside at least and perhaps a bit of the way too, really to call for help if necessary.
The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls at the beginning of their adventures before they had any particular reasons for being grateful to him. There it is: dwarves are not heroes, 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.
The stars were coming out behind him in a pale sky barred with black when the hobbit crept through the enchanted door and stole into the Mountain. It was far easier going than be expected. This was no goblin entrance, or rough wood-elves' cave. It was a passage made by dwarves, at the height of their wealth and skill: straight a a ruler, smooth-floored and smooth-sided, going with a gentle never-varying slope direct-to some distant end in the blackness below.
After a while Balm bade Bilbo "Good luck!" and stopped where he could still see the faint outline of the door, and by a trick of the echoes of the tunnel hear the rustle of the whispering voices of the others just outside. Then the hobbit slipped on his ring, and warned by the echoes to take more than hobbit's care to make no sound, he crept noiselessly down, down, down into the dark. 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 ran
TNSIDE RNFORMATTON 205
loosened his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on.
"Now you are in for it at last, Bilbo Baggins," he said to himself. "You went and put your foot right in it that night of the party, and now you have got to pull it out and pay for it! Dear me, what a fool I was and am!" said the least Tookish part of him. "I have absolutely no use for dragon-guarded treasures, and the whole lot could stay here for ever, if only I could wake up and find this beastly tunnel was my own front-hall at home!" , He did not wake up of course, but went still on and on, till all sign of the door behind had faded away. He was altogether alone. Soon he thought it was beginning to feel warm. "Is that a kind of a glow I seem to see coming right ahead down there?- he thought.
It was. As he went forward it grew and grew, ti 1
I there was no doubt about it. It was a red light steadily getting redder and redder. Also it was now undoubtedly hot in the tunnel. Wisps of vapour floated up and past him and he began to sweat.
A sound, too, began to throb in his ears, a sort of bubbling like the noise of a large pot galloping on the fire, mixed with a rumble as of a gigantic torn-cat purring This grew to the unmistakable gurgling noise of some vast animal snoring in its sleep down there in the red glow in front of him.
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it-He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.
At any rate after a short halt go on he did; and you can picture him coming to the end of the tunnel, an opening of much the same size and shape as the door above. Through it peeps the hobbit's little head.
Before him lies the great bottommost cellar or
2o6 HE HOB131T
guessed, but rising from the near side of the rocky floor there is a great glow. The glow of Smaugl 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, Jay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.
Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his
rp
x:nde arts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed.
Behind him where the walls were nearest could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and axes, swords and spears hanging; and there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could not be guessed.
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful. Bilbo had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before, but the splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure had never Yet come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of dwarves; and he gazed motionless, almost forgetting the frightful guardian, at the gold beyond price and count.
He gazed for what seemed an age, before drawn almost against his will, he stole from the sha4ow of the doorway, across the floor to the nearest edge of the mounds of treasure. Above him the sleeping dragon lay, a dire menace even in his sleep. He grasped a great two-handled cup, as heavy as he could carry, and cast one fearful eye upwards.
Smaug TNSTDE TNFORMATION 207
Then Bilbo fled. But the dragon did not wake-not yet -but shifted into other dreams of greed and violence, lying there in his stolen hall while the little hobbit toiled back up the long tunnel. His heart was beating I and a more fevered shaking was in his legs than when he was going down, but still he clutched the cup, and his chief thought was: "I've done it! This will show them- 'More like a grocer than a burglar' indeed! Well, we'll hear no more of that."
Nor did he. Balm was overjoyed to see the hobbit again, and as delighted as he was surprised. He picked Bilbo up and carried him out into the open air. It was midnight and clouds had covered the stars, but Bilbo lay with his eyes shut, gasping and taking pleasure in the feel of the fresh air again, and hardly noticing the excitement of the dwarves, or how they praised him and patted him on the back and put themselves and all their families for generations to come at his service.
The dwarves were still passing the cup from hand to hand and talking delightedly of the recovery of their treasure, when suddenly a vast rumbling woke in the mountain underneath as if it was an old volcano that had made up its mind to start eruptions once again. The door behind them was pulled nearly to, and blocked from closing with a stone, but up the long tunnel came the dreadful echoes, from far down in the depths, of a bellowing and a trampling that made the ground beneath them tremble.
Then the dwarves forgot their joy and their confident boasts of a moment before and cowered down in fright.
Smaug was still to be reckoned with. It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they know it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long Possession; and Smaug was no exception. He had passed from an uneasy dream (in which a-warrior, altogether insignificant in size but Provided with a bitter sw r air in his cave. Could there be a draught from that little hole?
He had never felt quite happy about it, though it was so small, and now he glared at it in suspicion and wondered why he had never blocked it up. Of late be had half fancied he bad caught the dim echoes of a knocking sound from far above that came down through it to his lair.
He stirred and stretched forth his neck to sniff. Then he missed the cupl Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened fince first he came to the Mountain! His rage passes de@eription-the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something @b at they have long had but have never before used or wanted. His fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain-roots. He thrust Ms head in vain at the little hole, and then coiling his length together, roaring like thunder underground, he sped from his deep lair through its great door, out into the huge passages of the mountainpalace and up towards the Front Gate.
To hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the thief and had torn and trampled him was his one thought. He issued from the Gate, the waters rose in fierce whistling steam, and up he soared blazing into the air and settled on the mountain-top in a spout of green and scarlet flame.
The dwarves heard the awful rumour of his flight, and they crouched against the walls of the grassy terrace cringing under boulders, hoping somehow to escape the frightful eyes of the hunting dragon.
There they would have all been killed, if it had not been for Bilbo once again. "Quick! Quickl" he gasped. "The door! The tunnel!
It's no good here."
Roused by these words they were just about to creep inside the tunnel when Bifur gave a cry: "My cousins!
Bombur and Bofur-we have forgotten them, they are down in the valley!"
"Th will be slain and all our es too, and all out
INSIDE TNFORMATION 209
Cannot leave them. Get inside Mr. Baggins and 'Balm, and You two Fill and Kill-the dragon shan't have all of us.
Now you others, where are the ropes? Be quick!"
Those were perhaps the worst moments they had been through yet.
The horrible sounds of Smaug's anger were echoing in the stony hollows far above; at any moment be might come blazing down or fly whirling round and find them there, near the perilous cliff's edge hauling madly on the ropes. Up came Bofur, and still all was safe.
Up came Bombur, puffing and blowi-ig while the ropes creaked, and still all was safe. Up came some tools and bundles of stores, and then danger was upon them.
A whirring noise was heard A red light touched the Points of standing rocks. The dragon came.
They had barely time to fly back to the tunnel, pulling and dragging in their bundles, when Smaug came hurtling from the North, licking the mountainsides with flame, beating his great wings with a noise like a roaring wind.
His hot breath shrivelled the grass before the door, and drove in through the crack they had left and scorched them as they lay hid.
Flickering fires leaped up and black rockshadows danced. Then darkness fell as be passed again.
The ponies screamed with terror, burst their ropes and galloped wildly off. The dragon swooped and turned to pursue them, and was gone.
"That'll be the end Of our poor beasts!" said Thorin.
"Nothing can escape Smaug once he sees it. Here we are and here we shall have to stay, unless any one fancies tramping the long open miles back to the river with Smaug on the watch!"
It was not a pleasant thought! They crept further down tie tunnel, and there they lay and shivered though it was warm and stuffy, until dawn came pale through the crack of the door. Every now and again through the night they could hear the roar of the flying dragon grow and then pass and fade, as he hunted round and ro camps be had discovered, that men bad come uT) from the river and the lake and had scaled the mountain k -side from the valley where the ponies had been standine, but the door withstood his searching eye, and the little high-walled bay had kept out his fiercest flames. Long he had hunted in vain till the dawn chilled his wrath and he went back to his golden couch to sleep-and to gather new strength.
He would not forget or forgive the theft, not if a thousand years turned him to smouldering stone, but he could afford to wait. Slow and silent he crept back to his lair and half closed his eyes.
When morning came the terror of the dwarves grew less. They realized that dangers of this kind were inevitable in dealing with such a guardian, and that it was no good . . up their quest yet. Nor could they get away just now, glvmg - Their ponies were lost or killed, as Thorin had pointed out e to wait some time before Smaug and they would hay long relaxed his watch sufficiently for them to dare the way on foot. Luckily they had saved enough of their store, to last them still for so me time.
to be done, but they They debated long on what was could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug-which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt clined to point out. Then as is -the nature of folk that are thoroughly perplexed, they began to grumble at the hobbi4
pleased them: for blaming him for what had at first so bringing away a cup and stirring up Smaug's wrath SO soono do?" asked I'@at else do you suppose a burglar is t Bilbo angrily. "I was not engaged to kill dragons, that easure. I made the best is warrior's work, but to steal tr beginning I could. Did you expect me to trot back with the whole hoard of Tbror on my back? If there is any grumbling to be done, I think I might have a Say. YOU of one. I ought to have brought five hundred burglars n am sure it reflects great credit on your grandfather, but INSIDE INFORMATION 211
to bring it all up, if I was fifty times as big, and Smaug as tame as a rabbit."
After that of course the dwarves begged his pardon.
"What then do you propose we should do, Mr. Baggins?"
asked Thorin politely.
"I have no idea at the moment-if you mean about removing the treasure. That obviously depends entirely on some new turn of luck and the getting rid of Smaug.
Getting rid of dragons is not at all in my line, but I will do my best to think about it. Personally I have no hopes at all, and wish I was safe back at home."
"Never mind that for the moment! What are we to do now, to-day?"
"Well, if you really want my advice, I should say w e can do nothing but stay where we are. By day we can no doubt creep out safely enough to take the air. Perhaps before long one or two could be chosen to go back to the store by the river and replenish our supplies. But in the meanwhile everyone ought to be well inside the tunnel by night.
"Now I will make you an offer. I have got my ring and will creep down this very noon-then if ever Smaug ought to be napping-and see what he is up to. Perhaps something will turn up. 'Every worm has his weak spot,' as my father used to say, though I am sure it was not from personal experience."
Naturally the dwarves accepted the offer eagerly. Already they had come to respect little Bilbo.
Now he had become the real leader in their adventure. He had begun to have ideas and plans of his own. When midday came he got ready for another journey down into the Mountain. He did not like it of course, but it was not so bad now he knew, more or less, what was in front of him. Had he known more about dragons and their wily ways, he might have been,,more frightened and less hopeful of catching this one napping.
The sun was shining when he started, but it was as dark
that smoke on a gentle wind could hardly have surpassed it, and he was inclined to feel a bit proud of himself as he drew near the lower door. There was only the very faintest glow to be seen.
"Old Smaug is weary and asleep," he thought. "He can't see me and he won't hear me. Cheer up Bilbo!" He had forgotten or had never heard about dragons' sense of smell.
It is also an awkward fact that they keep half an eye open watching while they sleep, if they are suspicious.
Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, almost dead and dark, with scarcely a snore more than a whiff of unseen steam, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance.
He was just about to step out on to the floor when he caught a sudden thin and piercing ray of red from under the drooping lid of Smaug's left eye. He wag only pretending to sleep! He was watching the tunnel entrancel Hurriedly Bilbo stepped back and blessed the luck of his ring. Then Smaug spoke.
"Well, thiefl I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to sparel"' But Bilbo was not quite so unlearned in dragon-lore as all that, and if Smaug hoped to get him to come nearer so the easily he was disappointed. "No thank you, 0 Smaug Tremendous!" he replied. "I did not come for presents.
I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them."
"Do you now?" said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it "Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, 0 Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities,"
replied Bilbo.
You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon.
"You seem familiar with my name, but I doni seem to remember smelling you before. Who are you and RNSTDE TNFORMATIO?Q 2T3
the bills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen."
"So I can well believe," said Smaug, "but that is hardly your usual name."
"I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number."
"Lovely titles!" sneered the dragon. "But lucky numbers don't always come off .21
"I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.'9
'These don't sound so creditable," scoffed Smaug.
"I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider," went on Bilbo beginning to be pleased with his riddling.
"That's better!" said Sihaug. "But don't let your imagination run away with you!"
This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don't want to reveal your proper name (which is wise), and don't want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise). No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it. There was a (t lot here which Smaug did not understand at all bough I expect you do, since you know all about Bilbo's adventares to which he was referring), but he thought he understood enough, and he chuckled in his wicked inside.
"I thought so last night," he smiled to himself. "Lake.
Men, some nasty scheme of those miserable tub-trading Lake-men, or I'm a lizard. I haven't been down that way for an age and an age; but I will soon alter that!9' "Very well, 0 Barrel-rider!" he said aloud.
"Maybe Barrel was your pony's name; and maybe not, though it was fat enough. You may walk unseen, but you did not walk all the way. Let me tell YOU I ate six ponies last night and 214 THE H03RBIT for your good: don't have more to do with dwarves than you can help!"
"Dwarves!" said Bilbo in pretended surprise.
"Don't talk to me!" said Smaug. "I know the smell (and taste) of dwarf-no one better. DoiWt tell me that I can eat a dwa-@f ridden pony and not know it! You'll come to a bad end, if you go with such friends. Thief Barrel-rider.
I don't mind if you go back and tell them so from me."
But he did not tell Bilbo that there was one smell he could not make out at all, hobbit-smell; it was quite outside his experience and puzzled him mightily,41 suppose you got a fair price for that cup last night?"
he went on. "Come now, did you? Nothing at all! Well, that's just like them. And I suppose they are skulking outrous work and get side, and your job is to do all the dange what you can when I'm not looking-for them? And you will get a fair share? DojVt you believe it! If you get off alive, you will be lucky."
Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable' Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an unaccountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell. But plucking up courage he spoke again.
hty)" "You don't know everything, 0 Smaug the Mig said he. "Not gold alone brought us hither."
"Hal Ha! You admit the 'us'," laughed Smaug. "Why not say 'us fourteen' and be done with it. Mr. Lucky Number? I am pleased to hear that you had other business in these parts besides my gold. In that case you may, perhaps, not altogether waste your time.
"I don't know if it has occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit-a matter of a hundred years
TNSTDR INFOR?4ATTON 215
pose, or sornethinp,, like it, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? @at about armed guards and tolls?" And Smal-lg laughed aloud. He had a wicked and a wily heart, and he knew his guesses were not far out. though he suspected that the Lake-men were at the back of the plans, and that most of the plunder was meant.to stop there in the town by the bore that in his Young day had been called Esgaroth.
You will hardly believe it, but Poor Bilbo was really very taken aback. So far all his thoughts and energies had been concentrated on gettine to the Mountain and finding the entrance. He had never-botheied to wonder how the treasure was to be r
tha emoved, certainly never how any part of it
t m',ght fall to his share was 10 be brought back all the way to Da,'Z-Fnd UnderHill.
Now a nasty suspicion began to grow in his 'nind-had the dwarves forgotten this important point too, or were they laughing in their sleeves at him all the time? That is the effect that dragon-talk has on the inexperienced. Bilbo of course Ought to have been on his guard; but Smaug had rather an overwhelming personality.
"I tell You," he said, in an effort to friends and to keep hi, end u , -remain royal to his 8fterthought with us. we - p "that gold was only an came Over hill and under hill, by wave and in, for Revenge.
Surely, 0 S unassessably wealthy, you must rnaug the has rn realize that Your success ade you some bitter enemies?,, Then Smaue really did laugh-a devastating sound 'which shook Bilbo to the floor, while far up in the dwar, es huddled to@l-thr a-,id imagined that the hobbit v had come to a sudden and a nasty end.
"Revenge!" he snorted, and the light of his eyes lit the the hall from floor to ceilinl, .
lenge! The KinL, under the like scarlet lightning. "Rehis ki.,i that dare'- @Ountain is dead -and where are seek re I? I I
the tunnel
of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong. Thief in the Shadows!" he gloated. "My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"
"I have always understood," said Bilbo in a frightened squeak, "that dragons were softer underneath, especially in the region of th r@hest; but doubtless one so
fortified has thought Of that-" "Your infor ped Short in his boastingThe dragon stop ed. ati am armoured above mation is antiquated," he snapp iron scales and hard gems. No blade can and below with Pierce me." aid Bilbo. "Truly there ea" tij might have guessed it," s anowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug the Impenetr
ble. What magnificence to possess a waistcoat of fine
diamonds!$' rful, indeed," said Smaug styes, it is rare and wonde e hobbit had absurdly pleased. He did not know that th already caught a glimpse of his peculiar under-covering and was itching for a closer view C&LOoklil On his previous visit, gon rolled Over.
for reasons of his own-The dra he said. 46VAat do you Say to that?"i Flawlessl Stagge@g!"
&&Dazzlingly marvellous! Perfect exclaimed Bilbo aloud, but what he thought inside was: "Old fool! Why there is a large patch in the hollow Of hi' left breast as bare as a snail out of its shellt" After he had seen that Mr. Bagging' one idea was to get Magnificence "Well, I really must not detain Your
away. you from much needed resl
any longer," he said, "or keep believe, after a long start ponies take some catching I And so do burglars," he added as a parting shot, as he darted back and fled up the tunnel.
it was an unfortunate remarks for the dragon spou'O@ and fast though he sped ul the terrific flames after him, far enough to be comfortable slope, he had not gone nearly t against the before the ghastly head of Smaug was thrus
TNSTDE MFORMATTON 2T7
opening behind. Luckily the whole bead and jaws could not squeeze in, but the nostrils sent forth fire and vapour tc, Pursue him, and he was nearly overcome, and stumbled blindly on in great pain and fear.
He had been feeling rather pleased with the cleverness of his conversation with Smaug, but his mistake at the end shook him into better sense.
"Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!" he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of hishrloautegrh, and passed into a proverb. "You aren't nearly tr-u this adventure yet," he added, and that was pretty e as well.
The afternoon was turning into evening when he came out again and stumbled and fell in a faint on the 'doorstep.' The dwarves revived him, and doctored his scorches as well as they could; but it was a long time before the hair on the back of his head and his heels grew properly again: it had all been singed and frizzled right down to the skin.
In the meanwhile his friends did their best to cheer him up; and they were eager for his story, especially wanting to know why the dragon had made such an awful noise, and how Bilbo had escaped.
But the hobbit was worried and uncomfortable, and they had difficulty in getting anything out of him. On thinking things over he was now regretting some of the things he had said to the dragon, and was not eager to repeat them.
The old thrush was sitting on a rock near by with his head cocked on one side, listening to all that was said. It shows what an ill temper Bilbo was in: he picked up a stone and threw it at the thrush, which merely fluttered aside and came back.
"Drat the bird!" said Bilbo crossly. "I believe he is listening, and I don't like the look of him.' "Leave him alone!" said Thorin.
"The thrushes are good and friendly-this is a very old bird indeed, and is maybe the last left of the ancient breed that used to live about here, tame to the hands of my father and grandfather. They were a long-lived and magical race, and this might even be one of those that were alive then, a couple of hundreds of years or more ago. The Men of Dale used to have the trick of understanding their language, and used them for messengers to fly to the Men of the Lake and elsewhere."
"Well, he'll have news to take to Lake-town all right, if that is what he is after," said Bilbo; "though I don't supny people left there that trouble with pose there are a thrush-language. 19
"Why what has happened?" cried the dwarves. "Do get on with your tale!"
So Bilbo iold them all he could remember, and he confessed that he had a nasty feeling that the dragon guessed too much from his riddles added to the camps and the ponies. "I am sure he knows we came from Lake-town and had help from there; and I have a horrible feeling that his next move may be in that direction. I wish to goodness I had never said that about Barrel-rider; it would make -men 91
parts think of the Lake even a blind rabbit in these "Well, well!
It cannot be helped, and it is difficult not to slip in talking to a dragon
, or so I have always heard, 19
said Balm anxious to comfort him. "I think you did very well, if you ask me-you found out one very useful thing at any rate, and got home alive, and that is more than most 9
can say who have had words with the likes of Smau . It may be a mercy and a blessing yet to know of the bare patch in the old Worm's diamond waistcoat."
That turned the conversation, and they all began discussing dragon-slayings historical, dubious, and mythical, and the various sorts of stabs and jabs and undercuts, and the different arts, devices and stratagems by which they had been accomplished. The general opinion was that catching a dragon napping was not as easy as it sounded, and the at tempt to stick one or prod one'asleep was more likely to end in disaster than a bold frontal attack. All the while they talked the thrush listened, till at last when the stars began
awa
INSIDE RNFORMATION 219
Bilbo became more and more unhappy and his foreboding grew.
At last he interrupted them. "I am sure we are very unsafe here,"
he said, ic and I don't see-the Point of sitting here. The dragon has withered all the pleasant green, and anyway the night has come and it is cold. But I feel it in my bones that this place will be attacked again. Smaug knows now how I came down to his ball, and you can trust him to guess where the other end of the tunnel is. He will break all this side of the Mountain to bits, if necessary, to stop up our entrance, and if we are smashed with it the better he will like it."
"You are very gloomy, Mr. Baggins!" saident,hiofrihne' "Why has not Smaug blocked the lower end, th is so eager to keep us out? He has not, or we should have heard him.,,
"I don't know,
wanted to try and lure mle dont know-because at first he in again, I suppose, and now perhaps because he is waiting till after tonight's hunt, or because he does not want to damage his bedroom if he can help itbut I wish you would not arge. Smaug will be coming ut at any minute now, ,nd our Only hope is to get well in the tunnel and shut the door."
He seemed so much in earnest that the dwarves at last did as he said, though they delayed shutting the door-it seemed a desperate plan, for no one knew whether or how they could get it open again from the inside, a thought of being shut in a place from which the o nd the out led through the dragon's lair was not one the nly way y liked.
Also everything seemed quite quiets both outside and down the tunnel. So for a longish while they sat inside not far down from the half-open door and went on talking.
The talk turned to the dragon's wicked words about the dwarves.
Bilbo wished he had never heard them, or at least that he could feel quite certain that the dwarves now were absolutely honest when they declared that they had never said Thorin, "and we know that still; and I still think that when we have won it will be time enough to think what to do about it. As for your share, Mr. Baggins, I assure you we are more than grateful and you shall choose your own fourteenth, as soon as we have anything to divide. I am sorry if you are worried about transport, and I admit the difficulties are great-the lands have not become less wild with the passing of time, rather the reverse-but we will do whatever we can for you, and take our share of the cost when the time comes. Believe me or not as you like!"
From that the talk turned to the great hoard itself and to the things that Thorin and Balm remembered. They wondered if they were still lying there unharmed in the hall below: the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each bad a thriceforged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for wamors long dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two handed, hammered and carven with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels; coats of mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion, dred emeralds green as Lord of Dale, made of five him grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel. But fairest of all was the great white gem, which the dwarves had found beneath the roots of the Mountain, the Heart of the Mountain, the Arkellstone of Thrain.
"The Arkenstonel The Arkenstone!" murmured Tho@ in the dark, half dreaming with his chin upon his knees.
"It was like a globe with a thousand facets; it shone like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, Eke rain upon the Moon!"
But the enchanted desire of the hoard had fallen from ilbo. All through their talk he was only half listening to
RNSTDE RNFORMATION 221
for echoes beyond the murmurs of the dwarves, for any whisper of a movement from far below.
Darkness grew deeper and he grew ever more uneasy.
"Shut the door!" he begged them. "I fear that dragon in my -marrow. I like this silence far less than the uproar of last night.
Shut the door before it is too late!"
Something in his voice gave the dwarves an uncomfortable feeling.
Slowly Thorin shook off his dreams and getting up he kicked away the stone that wedged the door.
Then they thrust upon it, and it closed with a snap and a clang.
No trace of a keyhole was there left on the inside.
They were shut in the Mountain!
And not a Moment too soon. They had hardly gone any distance down the tunnel when a blow smote the side of the Mountain like the crash of battering-rams made of forest aks and swtmg by giants. The rock boomed, the walls cracked and stones fell from the roof on their heads.
What would have happened if the door had still been open I don't like to think. They fled further down the tunnel glad to be still alive, while behind them outside they heard the roar and rumble of Smaug's fury. He was breaking rocks to pieces, smashing wall and cliff with the lashings of his huge tail, till their little lofty camping ground, the scorched grass, the thrush's stone, the snail-wvered walls, the narrow ledge, and all disappeared in a jumble of s@thereens, and an avalanche of splintered stones fell over the cliff into the valley below.
Smaug had left his lair in silent stealth, quietly soared into the air, and then floated heavy and slow in the dark like a monstrous crow, down the wind towards the west of the Mountain, in the hopes of catching unawares something or somebody there, and of spying the outlet to the passage which the thief had used. This was the outburst of his wrath when he could find nobody and see nothing, even where he guessed the outlet must actually be.
ikfter he had let off his rage in this way he felt better 222 THE
HOBBIT our feet vengeance to take. "Barrel-rideri" he snorted. ccy e withfrom the waterside and up thewater you cam came fr know your smell, but if you are not
out a doubt. I do@t the Lake, you had their help. They
one of those men of Tnberwho is the real King under the shall see me and reme
Mountain!"
He rose in fire and went away South toward, the Running River.
In the meanwhile, the dwarves sat in darkness, and utter silence fell about them. Little they ate and little they spoke.
They could not count the passing of time; and they scarcely dared to move, for the whisper of their voices echoed and rustled in the tunnel. If they dozed, they woke still to darkness and to silence going on unbroken. At last after days and days of waiting, as it seemed, when they were becoming choked and dazed for want of air, they could bear it no longer. They would almost have welcomed sounds from below of the dragon's return. In the silence they feared some cunning devilry of his, but they could not sit there for ever.
Thorin spoke: "Let us try the door!" he said. "I must feel the wind on my face soon or die. I think I would rath@-, be smashed by Smaug in the open than suffocate in her-,!"
So several of the dwarves got up and groped back to where the door had been. But they found that the upper end of the tunnel had been shattered and blocked with broken rock. Neither key nor the magic it had once obeyed would ever open that door again.
"We are trapped!" they groaned. "This is the end. We shall die here."
But somehow, just when the dwarves were most despairing, Bilbo felt a strange lightening of the heart, as if a eavy weight had gone from under his waistcoat.
'Come, come!" he said. "While there's life there's ope!" as my father used to say, and 'Third time pays for B.' I am going down the tunnel once again. I have been
Not at Home sure. Anyway the only way out is down. And I think this time you had better all come with me."
In desperation they agreed, and Thorin was the first to go forward by Bilbo's side.
"Now do be careful!" whispered the bobbit, "and as quiet as you can be! There may be no Smaug at the bottom, but then again there may be. Don't let us take any unnecessary risks!"
Down, down tbev went. The dwarves could not, of course, compare with the hobbit in real stealth, and they i made a deal of puffing and shuffling which echoes magnified alarmingly; but though every now and again Bilbo .
in fear stopped and listened, not a sound st@ed below.
Near the bottom, as well as he could judge, Bilbo slipped on his ring and went ahead. But be did not need it: the darkness was complete, and they were all invisible, ring or no ring. In fact so black was it that the hobbit came to the opening unexpectedly, put his hand on air, stumbled forward, and rolled headlong into the hall!
There he lay face downwards on the floor and did not dare to get up, or hardly even to breathe. But nothing moved. There was not a gleam of light-unless, as it seemed to him, when at last he slowly raised his head, there was a pale white glint, above him and far off in the 9100m But certainly it was not a spark of dragon-fire, though the wonnstench was heavy in the place, and the taste of vapour was on his tongue.
At length Mr. Baggins could bear it no longer. "COnfound you, Smaug, you worm!" he squeaked aloud. "Stop playing hide-and-seek!
Give me a light, and then eat m; if you can catch me!"
Faint echoes ran round the unseen hall, but there was no answer.
Bilbo got up, and found that he did not know in wbg direction to turn. n
ti I wonder what on earth Smaug is playing at," he
NOT AT ROME 225
6er-boxes, Perhaps we can make a little light, and have a look round before the luck turns.,, "Lightt" he cried. "Can anybody make a light?"
The dwarves, of course, were very alarmed when Bilbo fell forward down the step with a bump into the hall, and they sat huddled just where he had left them at the end of the tunnel.
"Sh! sh!" they hissed, when they heard his voice: and though that helped the hobbit to find out where they were, it was some time before he could get anything else out of them. But in the end, when Bilbo actually began to stamp on the floor, and screamed out clightll at the top of his shrill voice, Thorin gave way, and Oin and Gloin were sent back to their bundles at the top of the tunnel.
After a while a twinkling gleam showed them returning, Oin with a small pine-torch alight in his hand, and Gloin with a bundle of others under his arm. Quickly Bilbo trotted to the door and took the torch; but he could not persuade the dwarves to light the others or to come and join him yet. As Thorin carefully explained, Mr. Baggins was still officially their expert burglar and investigator. If he liked to risk a light, that was his affair. They would wait in the tunnel for his report. So they sat near the door and watched.
They saw the little dark shape of the hobbit start across the floor holding his tiny light aloft. Every now and again, 'while he was still near enough, they caught a glint and a tinkle as he stumbled on some golden thing. The light grew smaller as he wandered away into the vast hall; then it began to rise dancing into the air. Bilbo was climbing the great mound of treasure. Soon he stood upon the top, and still went on. Then they saw him halt and stoop for a moment; but they did not know the reason.
It was the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain. so Bilbo guessed from Thorin@ s descri
226 THE ROB13rr
gleam had shone before him and drawn his feet towards it.
Slowly it grew to a little globe of pallid light. Now as he came near, it was tinged with a flickering sparkle of many colours at the surface, reflected and splintered from the wavering light of his torch, At last he looked down upon it, and he caught his breath. The great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner light, and yet, cut and fashioned by the dwarves, who had dug it from the heart of the mountain light that fell upon it and changed long ago, it took all it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow.
Suddenly Bilbo's arm went towards it &awn,by its enchantment. His small hand would not close about it for it was a large and heavy gem; but he lifted it, shut his eyes, and put it in his deepest pocket.
"Now I am a burglar indeed!" thought he. "But I Sul), pose I must tell the dwarves about it-some time. They did say I could pick and choose my own share-, and I think I would choose this, if they took all the rest!" All the same he had an uncomfortable feeling that the picking and choosing had not really been meant to include this marvel.
, ious gem, and that trouble would yet come of it.
Now he went on again. Down the other side of the great mound he climbed, and the spark of his torch vanished from the sight of the watching dwarves. But soon they say it far away in the distance again.
Bilbo was crossing the floor of the hall.
He went on, until he came to the great doors at the further side, and there a draught of air refreshed him, but it almost puffed out his light. He peeped timidly throug@ and caught a glimpse of great passages and of the dim beginnings of wide stairs going up into the gloom. And still there was no sight nor sound of Smaug. He was just goiq to turn and back when a black shape swooped at @
NOT AT ROME 22-,
"But now what am I to do? Which is East, South, Nortl or West?"
"Thorin! Balm! Oin! Gloin! Fiti! Kiii!" he cried as loud as he could-it seemed a thin little noise in the wide blackness. "The light's gone out! Someone come and,find me and help mel" For the moment his courage had failed altogether.
Faintly the dwarves heard his small cries, though the O"IY word they could catch was 4help!, "Now what on earth or under it has happened?" said Thorn' "Certa'nly not the dragon, or be would not go on squeaking.
They waited a moment or two, and still there were no dragon-noises, no sound at all in fact but Bilbo's distant voice.
"'Come, one of you, get another light or two!" Thorin ordered. "It seems we have got to go and help our burglar.11
'clt is about our turn to help," said Balm, "and I-am quite willing to go. Anyway I expect it is safe for the moment.,, Gloin ]it several more torches, and then they all Crept Out, one by one, and went along the wall as hurriedly as they could. It was not long before they met Bilbo himself wining back towards them. His wits had quickly returned Os soon as he saw the twinkle of their lights.
"Only a bat and a dropped torch, nothing worse!" he said in answer to their questions. Though they were much relieved, they were me@ed to be grumpy at being frighte,,ed for Iothing; but what they would have said, if he had told them at that moment about the Arkenstone, I don't know-The mere fleeting glimpses of treasure which they had caught as they went along had rekindled all the fire of their dwarvish he@s; and when the heart of a dwarf, even the most respectable, is wakened by gold and by jewels, he grows suddenly bold, and he may @come fierce.
The dwarves indeed no longer needed any ur All
they forgot fear and even caution. They spoke aloud, and cried out to one another, as they lifted old treasures from the mound or from the wall and held them in the light, caressing and fingering them.
Fill and Kill were almost in merry mood, and finding still hanging there many golden harps strung with silver they took them and struck them; and being magical (and also untouched by the dragon, who had small interest in music) they were still in tune. The dark hall was filled with a melody that had long been silent. But most of the dwarves were more practical; they gathered gems and stuffed their pockets, and let what they could not carry fall back through their fingers with a sigh. Thorin was not least among these; but always he searched from side to side for something which he could not find. It was the Arkenstone; but he spoke of it yet to no one.
Now the dwarves took down mail and weapons from the walls, and armed themselves. Royal indeed did Thorin look, clad in a coat of gold-plated rings, with a silverhafted axe in a belt crusted with scarlet stones.
"Mr. Baggins!" he cried@ "Here is the first payment of ur reward! Cast off your old coat and put on thisl" YO With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago. It was of silver-steel which the elves call mithril, and with it went a belt of pearls and crystals. A light helm of figured leather, strengthened beneath with hoops of steel, and studded about the bri, with white gems, was set upon the hobbit's head.
"I feel magnificent," he thought; "but I expect I look rather absurd. How they would laugh on the Hill at homel Still I wish there was a looking-glass handyl" All the same Mr. Baggins kept his head more clear of the bewitchment of the hoard than the dwarves did. Long before the dwarves were tired of examining the treasur4
he became wary of it and sat down on the floor; and he
NOT AT HOME 229
he thought, "for a drink of something cheering out of one of Beom's wooden bowls!"
"Thorin!" be cried aloud. "What next? We are armed, but what good has any armour ever been before against Smaug the Dreadful? This treasure is not yet won back.
We are not looking for gold yet, but for a way of escape; and we have tempted luck too long!,, ggyou speak the truth!" answered Thorin, recovering his wits. "Let us go! I WHI guide you. Not in a thousand years should I forget the ways of this palace " Then he hailed the others, and they gathered together, and holdi.ig their torches above their heads they passed thro igh the gaping doors, not without many a backward glance of longing.
Their glittering mail they had covered again wit,i their old cloaks and their bright helms with their tattered hoods, and one by one they walked behind Thorin, a line of little lights in the darkness that halted often, listening in fear once more for any rumour of the dragon's coming.
Though all the old adornments were long mouldered or destroyed, and though all was befouled and blasted with the comings and goings of the monster, Thorin knew every passage and every turn. They climbed long stairs, and turned and went down wide echoing ways, and turned again and climbed yet more stairs, and yet more stairs again.
These were smooth, cut Out of the living rock broad and fair; and up, up, the dwarves went, and they met no sign of any living thing, Only furtive shadows that fled from the approach of their torches fluttering in the draughts.
The steps were not made, all the same, for hobbit-legs, lMd Bilbo was just feeling that he could go on no longer, when suddenly the roof sprang high and far beyond the reach of their torchlight. A white g@er could be seen coming through some opening far above, and the air smelt sweeter. Before them light came-dimly through great doors
hall of feasting and of council. Not far off now is the Front
Gate.99
They passed through the ruined chamber. Tables were rotting there; chairs and benches were lying there overturned, charred and decaying.
skulls and bones were upon the floor among flagons and bowls and broken drinkinghorns and dust. As they came through yet more doors a!
the further end, a sound of water fell upon their ears' all(I the grey light grew suddenly more full"There is the birth of the Running River@" said Thorin.
"From here it hastens to the Gate. Let us follow it!"
out of a dark opening in a wall of rock there issued a boiling water, and it flowed 'swirling in a narrow channel carved and made straight and deep by the cunnng of a".
cient hands. Beside it ran a stone-paved road, wide enough for many men abreast. swiftly along this they ran, and oldt before them -sweeping turn d beh round a wide stood the broad light of day. in front there rose a tall arc@ still showing the fragments of old carven work within, wOrn ered and blackened though it was. A misty slm and splint untain, and sent its pale light between the arms of the MO
pavement at the threshold.
beams of gold fell on the ed from slumber by their smokA whirl of bats frightening torches flurried over them; as they sprang forward the@ oth and slimed by feet slithered on stones bbed sino
g of the dragon. Now before them the water
the passin towards the valley, outward and foamed down tood fell noisily torches to the ground, nd , They flung their pale re come to the From gazing out with dazzled eyes. They we out upon Dale.
Gate, and were looking cted to be looking o@ &cWell!" said Bilbog "I never expe so pleased 'LO Set of this door. And I never expected to be t, the, wind on my face. Bu the sun again, and to feel this wind is coldl" breeze blew with a th'7eat it was. A bitter easterly
NOT AT HOME 2311
After their long time in the stewing depths of the dragonhaunted caverns, they shivered in the sun.
Suddenly Bilbo realized that he was not only tired but also very hungry indeed. "It seems to be late mornings he said, "and so I suppose it is more or less breakfast-time -if there is any breakfast to have. But I don't feel that Smaug's front doorstep is the safest place for a meal. Do let's go somewhere where we can sit quiet for a bit!"
"Quite rights said ]3alin. "And I think I know which way we should go: we Ought to make for the old lookout post at the South-West corner of the Mountain.9, "How far is that?" asked the hobbit.
"Five hours march, I should think. It will be rough going. The road from the Gate along the left edge of the stream seems all broken up. But look down therel The river loops suddenly east across Dale in front of the ruined town.
At that point there was once steep a bridge, leadingrotaod runand so to a
stairs that climbed up the right bank, ath that left
ning towards Ravenhill. There is (or was) a p the road and climbed up to the post. A hard climb, too, even if the old steps are still there."
"Dear mel" grumbled the hobbit. "More walking and more climbing without breakfast! I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals, we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?"
As a matter of fact two nights and the day between had gone by (and not altogether without food) since the dragon smashed the magic door, but Bilbo had quite lost count, and it might have been one night or a week of nights for all he could tell.
"Come, come! " said Thorin laughing-his spirits had begun to rise again, and he rattled the precious stones in
, .
ms pockets. "Don't call my place a nasty holel You wait fE it has been cleaned and redecorated!"
"That won't be till Smaug's dead," said Bilbo glumly.
'In the meanwhile where is he? I would ' a THE HOBBrr 232
That idea disturbed the dwarves mightily, and they quickly decided that Bilbo and Balm were right.
"I feel as "We must move away from hereg" said Dori.
if his eyes were on the back Of my head."
66jtts a cold lonesome place," said Bombur. ccthere may be drink, but I see no sign of food-A dragon would always be hungry in such PWU"' d the others. 'clet m follow 96Come on! Come onl" crie
BalWs Pathl$t
Under the rocky wall to the right there was no paths the left side of 'o . they trudged among the 'tones sobered the river, and the emptiness and desolation soon even Thorin again. The bridge that Balm had spoken d most Of its stones were no'w of they found long fallen, an but they forded only boulders in the shallow noisy stream; the ancient the water wthout much difficulty, and found ort steps, and climbed the hi2h bank . After going ash way they struck the old r@d, and before long came to a the rocks; there they rested for deep dell sheltered among chiefly ajdast as they could, a while and had such a bre to know what cram is, I can cr,,@ and water. (If you want is biscuitisk only say that I don't know the recipe; but it supposed to be sustaining, and keeps good indefinitely is very uninteres
g, being in fact tim
was made by the Lake-meD is certainly not entertainin
except as a chewing exercise, It
for long journeYS) - on again; and now the road struck After that they went and the great shoulder of the westwards and left the river9
drew ever nearer. At lengt
It scrambled steeply up, and
the other, tiH at last in N the top of the ridge and saw sun gong downwards to the West.
the wintry - flat place without a wall On three Here they found a a ro face in whi
NOT AT ROME
233
"Here," said BaHn, "in the old days we used always to keep watchmen, and that door behind leads into a rockhewn chamber that was made here as a guardroom. There were several places like it round the Mountain. But there seemed small need for watching in the days of our prosperity, and the guards were made over comfortable, perhap therwise we might have had longer warnings of the coming of the dragon, and things might have been different. Still, here we can now lie hid and sheltered for a while, and can see much without being seen."
"Not much use, if we have been seen coming here," said Dori, who was always looking up towards the Mountain's peak, as if he expected to see Smaug perched there like a bird on a steeple.
"We must take our chance of that," said Thorin. "We can go no further to-day."
"Hear, hearl" cried Bilbo, and Hung himself on the ground.
In the rock-chamber there would have been room for a hundred, and there was a small chamber further in, more removed from the cold outside. It was quite deserted; not even wild animals seemed to have used it in all the days of Smaug's dominion. There they laid their burdens; and some threw themselves down at once and slept, but the others sat near the outer door and discussed their plans.
In all their talk they came perpetually back to one thing: where was Smaug? They looked West and there was nothing, and East there was nothing, and in the South there was no sign of the dragon, but there was a gathering of very many birds. At that they gazed and wondered; but they were no nearer understanding it, when the first cold stars came out.
Fire and Water you wish, like the dwarves, to hear news Of STnaug, Now if
you must go back again to the evening when he smashed
the door and new off in rage, two days before.
The men of the lake-town Esgaroth were mostly indoors, ast and chill, but a for the breeze was from the black E few were walking on the quays, d watching, as they were fond of doing, the stars shine out from the smooth Patches of the lake as they opened in the sky. From their town the ain was mostly screened. by the low hills Lonely Mount ugh a gap in which the Runat the far end of the lake, thro its high peak ning River came down from the North. Only ed seldom at ther, and they look could they see in clear wea . the light Of morn' it, for it was Ominous and drear even in e dark.
ing. Now it was lost and gone, blotted in th touched Suddenly it flickered back to view; a brief glow it and faded. mi Last 'fight th'
tclook!" said one-icne lights aga
and fade from midnight 'a
watchmen saw them start 9 UP there.11
dawn. Something is happenin forging gold," 6cPerhaps the King under the mountain is . ce he went north. It is time the said another.
"It is long sin songs began to prove themselves again." voice. "As lib ,,Which king?" said another with a grim fire of the Dragon, the only ki4
as not it is the marauding 19
under the Mountain we have ever known-things!" said f "You are always foreboding gloomy d fish. Think others. ,Anything from floods to Po'sone something cheerful!" in the low place i ddeni a reat light appeared FIRE "D WATER 235
"The King beneath the Mountain!" they shouted. "His wealth is like the Sun, his silver like a fountain, his rivers golden runf The river is running gold from the Mountain!"
they cried, and everywhere windows were opening and feet were hurrying.
There was once more a tremendous excitement and enthusiasm. But the grim-voiced fellow ran hotfoot to the Master. "The dragon is coming or I am a fool!" he cried.
"Cut the bridges! To arms! To armsl" Then wamin-a trumpets were suddenly sounded, and echoed along the rocky shores. The cheering stopped and the joy was turned to dread. So it was that the dragon did not find them quite unprepared.
Before long, so great was his speed, they could see him as a spark of fire rushing towards them and growing ever huger, and more bright, and not the most foolish doubted that the prophecies had gone rather wrong. Still they had a little time. Every vessel in the town was fined with water, every warrior was ar7ned, every &Tow and dart was ready, and the bridge to the land was thrown down and destroyed, before the roar of Smaug's terrible approach grew loud, and.the lake rippled red as fire beneath the awful beating of his wings.
Amid shrieks and wailing and the shouts of men he @e over them, swept towards the bridges and was foiledl The bridge was gone, and his enemies were on an island in deep water-too deep and dark and @l for his liking.
If he -plunged into it, a vapour and a steam would arise enough to cover all the land with a mist for days; but the lake was mightier than he, it would quench him before he could pass through.
Roaring he swept back over the town. A hail of darkarrows leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales and jewels, and their shafts fell back kindled by his breath burning and hissing into the lake. No fireworks you ever imagined equalled the sights that ni 236 @ HOBBrr it. No one bad dared to give battle to him for many an age; nor would they have dared now, if it had not been for the grim-voiced man (Bard was his name), who ran to and fro cheering on the archers and urging the Master to order them to fight to the last arrow.
Fire leaped from the dragon9s laws. He circled for a while high in the air above them lighting all the lake; the trees by the shores shone like copper and like blood with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down he swooped straight through the arrOW-storm, reckless in his rage, taking no heed to turn his scaly sides towards his foes, seeking only to set their town ablaze.
Fire leal3ed from thatched roofs and wooden beam-ends as he hurtled down and past and round again, though all had been drenched with water before he came. Once more water was flung by a hundred hands wherever a spark aPpeared. Back swirled the dragon. A sweep Of his ta" and the roof of the Great House crumbled and smashed down.
Flames unquenchable sprang high into the night.
Another swoop and another, d another house and then another sprang afire and fell; and still no arrow hindered Smaug or hurt him more than a fly from the marshes, Already men were lumping into the water on every side.
women and children were being huddled into laden boats in the market-pool. Weapons were flung down. There was njourning and weeping, where but a little time ago the old songs of mirth to come had been sung about the dwarves.
Now men cursed their names. The Master himself was turning to his great gilded boat, hoping to row away in the confusion and save himself. Soon all the town would be deserted and burned down to the surface of the lake.
That was the dragon's hope. They could all get into boats for all he cared. There he could have fine sport hunting them, or they could stlp till they starved. Let them FRRE AND WATER @37
and pasture. Just now he was enjoying the sport of townbaiting more than he had enjoyed anything for years.
But there was still a company of archers that held their ground among the burning houses. Their captain was Bard, grim-voiced and grim-faced, whose friends had accused him of prophesying floods and poisoned fish, though they knew his worth and courage. He was a descendant in long line of Girion, Lord of Dale, whose wife and child had escaped down the Running River from the niin long ago.
Now he shot with a great yew how, till all his arrows but one were spent. The flames were near him. His companions were leaving him. He bent his how for the last time.
Suddenly out of the dark something fluttered to his shoulder. He started-but it was only an old thrush. Unafraid it perched by his ear and it brought him news. Marvelling he found he could understand its tongue, for he was of the race of Dale.
"Wait! Wait!" it said to him. "The moon is rising. Look for the hollow of the left breast as he flies and turns above you!" And while Bard paused in wonder it told him of tidings up in the Mountain and of all that it had heard.
Then Bard drew his how-string to his ear.,The dragon was circle back, flying law, and as he came the moon rose above the eastern shore and silvered his great wings.
"Arrow!" said the bowman. "Blaqk arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you. I had you from my father and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the Mountain, go now and speed well!"
The dragon swooped once more lower than ever, and as he turned and dived down his belly glittered white with sparkling fires of gems in the moon-but not in one place.
'he great how twanged. The black arrow sped straight from the string, straight for the hollow by the left breast here the foreleg was flung wide. In it smote and vanished, 238 TM HOBBrr rned over and crashed Sma@ shot spouting into the air, In down from on high in rum.
st throes splintered it to Full on the town he fell. His la steam leaped sparks and gledes. The lake roared in. A vast up, white in the sudden dark under the moon. There was a at was the hiss, a gushing whirl, and then silence. And th end of Smaug and Esgaroth, but not of Bard.
rose higher and higher and the wind
The waxing MOON bending t twisted the white fog into grew loud and cold. I the West to pillars and hurrying clouds and drove it off to scatter in tattered shreds over the marshes before Mirkwood. Then the many boats could be seen dotted dark on the wind came the voices the surface of the lake, and down town and of the people of Esgaroth lamenting their lost ey had really much to be s and ruined houses. But th good thought of it, though it could hardly thankful for, had they e quarters of be expected that they should just then: thre @live; their the people of the town had at least escaped ost of their Woods and fields and pastures and cattle and m was dead.
boats remained undamaged; and the dragon what that meant they had not yet realized.
crowds upon the western They gathered in mournful first cornshores, shivering in the cold wind, and their o had left plaints and anger were against the Master, wh the to" so soon, while some were still willing to defend it.
pecially his
but he is no good when me murmured own business," so It they praised the courage
anything serious happensl And he had not been
of Bard and his last mighty Shot- "'f only a king. Bard killed,"
they all said, "we would snake him that he the Dragon-shooter of the line of Giriont Alas
lost!,P a tall figure stepped
And in the very midst of their talk, his black from the shadows.
He was drenched with water,
hair him wet over his face and shoulders, and a fierce
4GHe may have a good head for busines
FTRE AND WATER 239
when the enemy was slain. I am Bard, of the line of Girion; I am the slayer of the dragon!"
"King Bard! King Bard!" they shouted; but the I Master ground his chattering teeth.
"Girion was lord of Dale, not king of Esgaroth," he said.
"In the Lake-town we have always elected masters from among the old and wise, and have not endured the rule of mere fighting men. Let 'King Bard' go back to his own kingdom-Dale is now freed by his valour, and nothing hinders his return. And any that wish can go with him, if they prefer the cold shores under the shadow of the Mountain to the green shores of the lake. -The wise will stay here and hope to rebuild our town, and enjoy again in timd its peace and riches."
"We will have King Bard"' the people near at hand shouted in reply. "We have had enough of the old men and the money-countersl" And people further off took up the cry: "Up the Bowman, and down with Moneybags," fffl the clamour echoed along the shore.
"I am the last man to undervalue Bard the Bowman," said the Master warily (for Bard now stood close beside him). "He has tonight earned an eminent place in the roll of the benefactors of our town; and he is worthy of many imperishable songs. But, why 0 People?'@and here the Master rose to his feet and spoke very loud and clear6( why do I get all your blame? For what fault am I to be deposed? Who aroused the dragon from his slumber, I might ask? Who obtained of us rich gifts and ample help, and led us to believe that old songs could come true9
Who played on our soft hearts and our pleasant fancies9 What sot of gold have they sent down the river to reward us?
Dragor.-fire and ruint From whom should we claim the recompense of our damage, and aid for our widows and orphans?"
As you see, the Master had not got his position for nothing. The result of his wo
240 THE HOBBTT
Wild and bitter words were shouted from many sides; and some of those who had before sung the old songs loudest, es had heard as loudly crying that the dwarv
were now eliberat--IY!
stirred the dragon up against ihl d words and wrath On c6For)lsl"
said Bard. c4@y waste those unhappy creatures? Doubtless they perished first in me to us.,, Then even as he was fire, before Smaug ca came into his heart of the fabled speaking, the thought ardor owner) treasure of the Mountain lying without gu astees -le thought of the M
and he fell suddenly silent. I bells, if words, and of Dale rebuil@
and filled with golden he could but find the me" ,This is no time for angry At length he spoke again: of change.
words, Master, or for considering weighty Plans is work to do-I serve you still-tholigh afcr a There rds and 90 North with while I may think again of your wo any that will follow me-99 ordering of the camps lien he strode off to help 1, the of the sick and the wounded.
But the and in the care back as he went, and remained sitthlg Master scowled at his much but said little, unless it on the ground. He thought him fire and food.
was to call loudly for me,, to bring d talk @ng Eke
Now everywhere Bard went he foun
fire among the, people concerning the vast treasure that was now unguardedly Men spoke of the recompense for all the@ that they would soon get from it, and wealth Ovet
harm things from the South;
and to spare with which to buy rich That was as and it cheered them greatly in their P"ght' co well, for the night was bitter and r6serable. Shelters uld (the Master had one) and there was be contrived for few hort). Many took ill of little food (even the Master went s t, and afterwards diea wet and cold and sorrow that nigh wn; and ho had escaped uni-niured from the ruin of the to
there was much sickness and gre4
FME AND WATER 24@ tons for their Protection and housing, Probably most 0 them would have perished in the winter that now burrie( after autumn, if help had not been to hand. But help cam( swiftly; for Bard at once had speedy messengers sent ur the river to the Forest to ask the aid of the King of the Elves of the Wood, and there messengers bad found a host already on the move, although it was then only the third day after the fall of Smaug.
The Elvenking had received news from his own messengers and from the birds that loved his folk, and already knew much of what had happened. Very great indeed was the commotion among all things with wings that dwelt on the borders of the Desolation of the Dragon. The air was filled with circling flocks, and their swift-flying messengers flew here and there across the sky. Above the borders of the Forest there was whistling, crying and piping. Far over Mirkwood tidings spread: "Smaug is dead!" Leaves rustled and startled ears were rifted.
Even before the Elvenking rode forth the news had passed west right to the pinewoods of the Misty Mountains; Beom had beard it in his wooden house, and the goblins were at council in their caves.
"That will be the last we shall hear of Thorin Oakenshield, I fear," said the king. "He would have done better to have remained my guest. It is an ill wind, all the same," be added, "that blows no one any good." For be too had not forgotten the legend of the wealth of Thror. So it was that Bard's messengers found him now marching with many spearmen and bowmen; and crows were gathered thick, above him, for they thought that war was awakening again, such as had not L)een in those parts for a long age.
]3ut the king, when he received the prayers of Bard, had pity, for be was the lord of a good and kindly people; song his march, which had at first been direct towards the Mountain he h
242 TM ROBBIT
to the marches and the treacherous lands between the Forest and the Lake, their going was swift. Only five days after the death of the dragon they came upon the shores and looked on the ruins of the town.
Their welcome was good, as may be expected, and the men and their Master were ready to make any bargain for the future in return for the Elvenking's aid.
Their plans were soon made. With the women and the children, the old and the unfit, the Master remained behind; and with him were some men of crafts and many skilled elves; and they busied themselves felling trees, and collecting the timber sent down from the Forest.
Then they set about raising many huts by the shore against the oncoming winter; and also under the Master's direction they began the planning of a new town, designed more fair and large even than before, but not in the same place. They removed northward higher up the shore; for ever after they had a dread of the water where the dragon lay. He would never again return to his golden bed, but was stretched cold as stone, twisted upon the floor of the shallows. There for ages his huge bones could be seen in calm weather amid the rained piles of the old town. But few dared to cross the cursed spot, and none dared to dive into the shivering water or recover the precious stones that fell from his rotting carcase.
But all the men of arms who Were still able, and the most of the Etvenking's array, got ready to march north to the Mountain. It was thus that in eleven days from the of the town the head of their host passed the rock-gates at the end of the lake and came into the desolate lands.
Cl'aPter 15
The Catheririg @f the Clou& we W"' return to Bilbo and the dwarves. All night One Of them had watched, but when rnornin had not heard or seen any sign of d 9 came they thickly the birdswere gatherin anger. But ever more ing 9. Their companies came flyfrom the South; and the crows that still lived about the Mountain were wheeling and crying m "Something ceasingly above.
s@ge is happening," said Thorin. "The time has gone for the autumn wanderings; and these are birds that dwell always in the land; there are starlings and flocks of finches; and far off there are many c@on brds as if a battle were afoot!), Suddenly Bilbo Pointed: "There is that old thrush againl" he cried. "He seems to ha a smashed tie mOunt@-side, but ive esc Ped, when Sraaug have!" don't suppose the snails Sure enough the Old thrush was there, and as Bilbo POinted, he flew towards them and Perched on a stone
W& -GY. -eiten The
-buttered Ills win
cocked his head on one gs and @g; then he
side, as if to. listen; and again he sang, and again he listened.
"I believe he 'but I cannot lo's trying to tell us something,"'
said 13a@; Ilow the speech of such birds, it is quick and difficult.
Can YDu make it out Baggins?" 'Very "Not 'very well," said Bilbo (as a matter of fact, he could make nothing Dr it at all); "but the old fellow seems very excitedly
461 Only wish he was a ra i,,
tures at that, and rude as well. You must have heard the ugly names they were calling after us. But the ravens are different. There used to be great friendship between them and the people of Thror; and they often brought us secret news, and were rewarded with such bright things as they coveted to hide in their dwellings. emories are long, "They live many a year, and their m and they hand on their wisdom to their children. I knew many among the ravens of the rocks when I was a dwarflad. This very height was once named Ravenhill, because there was a wise and famous pair, old Carc and his wife, that lived here above the guard-chamber. But I doift suppose that any of that ancient breed linger here now."
No sooner had he finished spealdng than the old thrush
gave a loud call, and immediately flew away.
"We may not understand him, but that old bird understands us, I am sure," said Balm. "Keep watch now, and see what happens!"
Before long there was a fluttering of wings, and back came the thrush; and with him came a most decrepit old bird. He was getting blind, he could hardly fly, and the top of his head was bald. He was an aged raven of great size. He alighted sfiffly on the ground before them, slowly flapped his wings, and bobbed towards Thorin.
"O Thorin son of Thrain, and Balm son of Fujidin," he croaked (and Bilbo could understand what he said, for he used ordinary language and not bird-speech). "I am Rolic son of Care. Care is dead, but he was well known to you once. It is a hundred years and three and fifty since I came out of the egg, but I do not forget what my father .told me. Now I am the chief of the great ravens of the Mountain. We are few, but we remember still the kin 9
that was of old. Most of my people are abroad, for there are great tidings in the South-some are tidings of joy to you, and some you will not think so good.
"Behold! the birds are gathering back again to the for THE
GATHERING OF THE CLOUDS 245
"Dead! Dead?" shouted the dwarves. "Dead! Then we have been in needless fear-and the treasure is ourslll They all sprang up and began to caper about for joy.
"Yes, dead," said Roiic. "The thrush, may his feathers never fall, saw him die, and we may trust his words. He saw him fall in battle with the men of Esgaroth the third night back from now at the rising of the moon."
It was some time before Thorin could bring the dwarves to be silent and listen to the raven's news. At length when he had told all the tale of the battle he went on: "So much for joy, Thorin Oakenshield. You may go back to your halls in safety; all the treasure is yours-for the moment. But many are gathering hither beside the birds. The news of the death of the guardian has already gone far and wide, and the legend of the wealth of Thror has not lost in the telling during many years; many are eager for a share of the spoil. Already a host of the elves is on the way, and carrion birds are with them hop 9
for in battle and slaughter. By the lake men murmur that their sorrows are due to the dwarves; for they are homeless and many have died, and Smaug has destroyed their town.
They too think to find amends from your treasure, whether you are alive or dead.
"Your Own wisdom must decide your course, but thirteen is small remnant of the great folk of Durin that once dwelt here, and now are scattered far. If You will listen to my counsel, You will not trust the Master of the Lake-men, but rather him that shot the dragon with his how. Bard is he, of the race of Dale, of the line of Girion; he is a grim man but true. We would see peace once more amon the long desolation; but dwarves and men and elves after 9
it may cost you dear in gold. I have spoken."
Then Thorin burst forth in anger: "Our thanks, Rolic Carc's son.
You and Your people shall not be forgotten.
But none Of Our gold shall thieves take or the violent carry off while. we are alive-If You would earn our thanks still that you would send messengers to our Idn in the mountains of the North, both west from here and east, and tell them of our plight. But go specially to my cousin Dam in the Iron Hills, for he has many people well-armed, and dwells nearest to this place. Bid him hastenl" .., willnot say if this counsel be good or bad," croaked Rolic; "but I @ do what can be done." Then off he slowly flew.
"Back now to the MOuntaini" cried Thorin. "We have little time to lose." ed Bilbo, always practical on "And little food to use!" cri such points. In any case he felt that the adventure wa . s, g, over with the death of the dragon-In properly speabn ould have given which he was much mistaken-and he w most of his share of the profits for the Peaceful W'nd'ng up of these affairs. ey "Back to the Mountain!"
cried the dwarves as if th had not heard him; so back he had to 90 with them' As you have heard some of the events already, You WU] see that the dwarves still had some days before them.
They explored the caverns once more, and found, as they expected, that only the Front Gate remained open; an (except, of course, the small secret door) the other gates d blocked by Smaug, and nO had long ago been broken an sign of them remained. So now they began to labour hard in lo@g the main entrance, and in remaking the road t. Tools were to be found in plenty that th@ that led from and at miners and quarriers and builders of old had used; such work the dwarves were still very skilled.
As they worked the ravens brought them constant td' ,ngs. 1. this way they learned that the Elve@g had turned aside to the Lake, and they still had a breathing their ponies had space. Better still, they heard that three of banks d escaped and were wandering wild far down the THE
GATHERING OF THE CLOUDS 247
work, Fill and Kiii were sent, guided by a raven, to find the Ponies and bring back all they could.
They were four day, gone, and by that time they knew were that the joined armies of the Lake-men and the Elves were burying towards the Mountain. But now their hopes higher; for they had food for some weeks with care-chiefly cram, of course, and they were very tired of it; but cram gate was is much better than nothing-and already the but very blocked with a wall of squared stones laid dry, in the thick and high across the opening. There were holes wall through which they could see (or shoot) but no entrance. They climbed in or out with ladders, and hauled stuff up with ropes. For the issuing of the stream they had contrived a small low arch under the new wall; but near the entrance they had so altered,the narrow bed that a wide pool stretched from the mountain-wall to the head of the fall over which the stream went towards Dale. Approach to the Gate was now only possible, without swimming, along a narrow ]edge of the cliff, to the Tight as one looked . outwards from the wall. The ponies they had brought only to the head of the steps above the old bridge, and unloading them there had bidden them return to their masters and sent them back riderless to the South.
There came a night when suddenly there were many lights as of fires and torches away south in Dale before them.
"They have come!" called Balm. "And their camp is very great.
They must have come into the valley under the cover of dusk along both banks of the river."
That night the dwarves slept little. The morning was kill pale when they saw a company approaching. From behind their wall they watched them come up to the valley's head and climb slowly up. Before Ion they could see 9
that both men of the lake armed as if for war and elvish bowmen were among them. At length the foremost of these bed th TM HOBBrr 248
and the Gate blocked with a wall of new-hevvn fore them stone.
As they stood pointing and speling to one another IN"o are YOU,,'
he called in a very Thorin hailed then: ' the gates of Thorin ,,that come as if in war to loud voice, ain, and what do you son of Thrain2
King under the Mount
desiret' Some turned wiftly back,
But they answered nothing.
and the others after gazinlz or a while at the Gate and its defences soon followed them. That day the camp was ght right between the arms of the moved and was brou and with
en with voices
Mountain. The rocks echoed th t done for many a day. There was the song, as they had no music; and as it
sound, too, of elven-harps and of sweet f the air
en, it seemed that the chill 0 echoed uip towards th the fragrance Of and they caught faintly was warmedi . g in spring..
woodland flowers blOssOmm dark fortress and
Then Bilbo longed to escape from the by the fares.
to go down and join in the m@ and feasting eir hearts, arves were moved in th Some of the younger dw wished things had fallen too, and they muttered that they folk as out otherwise and that they might welcome such friends; but Thorin scowled. , themselves brought forth harps and Then the dwarves d, and made music to instruments regained from the hoar h song, and
their song was not as elvis
soften his mood; but had sung long before in was much like the song they Bilbo's little hobbithole, Under the Mountain dark and tall The King has come unto his hall!
His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread, And ever so his foes shall fall.
is sharp, the spear is long, The sword , Gate is strong; THE
GAVMRING OF THE CLOUDS 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.
On silver necklaces they strung The light of stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, from twisted wire The melody of harps they wrung.
The mountain throne once more is freedl O! wandering folk, the summons heed!
Come hastel Come haste! across the waster The king of friend and kin has need.
Now call we over mountains cold, 'Come back unto the caverns old'I 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 falli This song appeared to please Thorin, and he smiled again and grew merry; and he began reckoning the distance to the Iron Hills and how long it would be before Dam could reach the Lonely Mountain, if he had set out as soon as the message reached him. But Bilbo's heart fell, both at the song and the talk: they sounded much too warlike.
The next morning early a company of spearmen was seen crossing the river, and marching up the valley. They bore with them the green banner of the Elvenking And the blue banner of the Lake, and they advanced until they stood right before the wall at the Gate.
249
250under the M'Duntaln?" 'Ms time he Was ,of Thrain, IGng answered.ood forward, dark of tair and @ (If face, A tall man stall Thorint Why do you fence Yourself and be cried: "14 foes, and we like a jobber in his hold? We -are not Yet We came exond our hope.
rejoice that You are alive bey e; yet now that we are Thet to find none IMng her - ' It pecting a parley and a council .
there is matter for .. of what would you Parle3Oil 44,no are you, and . and was the dragon slain and "I am Bard. and by my h ms I elivered. Is that not a matter that conce your treasure d by light descent the heir of Girion of you? moreover I am d much Of the wealth of our hoard is @glee. is not that a Dale, and in y s
which of old rnaug StOl . .
Further in his last battle EsgaToth, of the men Of Master. lwould speak for no thought for the sorrow m your distressi and misery hi only, and in though doubt and true. if iproudly and were fair w -
would at Now these a; and Bilb( that T'aOriu se, I-le did not, Of cOu'
0
that it was he wh
dragon7s weak spot; and that ever did. But also he did nOt ut)on which a dTagoT, hearts. Long hours In and the l@u@t
reek( with e ai
has long b ded, nor 'A. d'w spent in the treasurys the past di ah he had hunted chiefly lo' of it was I another on-I consider well the claims that have been urged, an eye for Mary nd
the Arker out which were wou declared our foe. At the least he shall deliver one
THE GANMRTNG OF THE CLOUDS his evil deeds should be amended with a share of price of the goods and the assistance that we rec the Lake-men we will fairly pay-in due time. But will we give, not even a loaf's worth, under threat While an armed host lies before our doors, we look as toes and thieves.
"It is in my mind to ask what share of their inh you would have paid to our kindred, had you lo hoard unguarded and us slain."
"A just question," replied Bard. "But you are n and we are not robbers. Moreover the wealthy m pity beyond right on theneedy that befriended the they were in want. And still ray other claims rem answered."
"I will not parley, as I have said, with armed teNor at all with the people of the Elvenk MY p I remenaber with small kindness. In this debate th no place. Begone now ere our arrows fly! And if speak with me again, first dismiss the elvish host woods where it belongs, and then return, laying do arms before you approach the threshold."
"The Elvenking is my friend, and he has su people of the Lake in their need, though they bad n but friendship on him," answered Bard.
"We will time to repent your words. Gather your wisdom return!" Then he departed and went back to the Ere many hours were past, the banner-bearers re and tnmnpeters stood forth and blew a blast: "In the name of Esgaroth and the Forest," "we speak unto Thorin Thrain's son Oakenshield, himself the King under the Mountain, and we had of old, then he will give also somewhat of his own for the comfort of the men of the Lake."
Then Thorin seized a how of horn and shot an arrow at the speaker.
It smote into his shield and stuck there quivering.
... Since such is your answer," he called in return, "I declare the Mountain besieged. You shall not depart from it, until you call on your side for a truce and a parley. We will bear no weapons against you, but we leave you to your gold. You may eat that, if you will!"
With that the messengers departed swiftly, and the dwarves were left to consider their case. So grim had Thorin become, that even if they had wished, the others would not have dared to find fault with him; but indeed most of them seemed to share his mind-except perhaps old fat Bombur and Fill and Kill. Bilbo, of course, disapproved of the whole turn of affairs. He had by now had more than enough of the Mountain, and being besieged inside it was not at all to his taste.
"The whole place still stinks of dragon," he grumbled to himself, "and it makes me sick. And cram is beginning simply to stick in my throat."
A Thief in the Ni ht
9
Now the days passed slowly and wearily. Many of the dwarves spent their time Piling and ordering the treasure; and now Thorin spoke of the Arkenstone of 'fbrain, and bade them eagerly to look for it in every corner.
"For the Arkenstone Of my father," he said, clis worth more than a river of gold in itself, and to me it is beyond price. That stone of all the treasure I name unto myself, and I Will be avenged on anyone who finds it and withholds it.,, Bilbo heard these words and he grew afraid, wondering what would happen, if the stone was found-wrapped in an old bundle of tattered Oddments that he used as a pillow-All the same he did not speak of it, for as the weariness of the days grew heavier, the beginnings of a plan had come into his little head.
Things had gone on like this for some time, when the ravens brought news that Dam and more than five hundred dwarves, hurrying from the Iron Hills, were now within about two days, march of Dale, coming from the NorthEast.
"But they cannot reach the Mountain unmarked,'@ said Rolic, "and I fear lest there be battle in the valley. I do not call this counsel good. Though they are a grim folk, they are not likely to overcome the host that besets you; and even if they did so, what will you gain?
Winter and snow is hastening behind them. How shall you be fed without the friendship and goodwill of the Inds about you?
The treasure is likely to be your death, though the dragon is no more! It
But Thorin was not moved'
254 TM HoBBiT ay find tbelr and elvesl'9 he said, tgand they m friends both men to bear. With my dwelling in the waste grievous Will perhaps be behind them - winter upon them, they in softer mood to parley with." sky was black made up his mind. The went to a That night 13@ t was full dark@ he soon as I st within the pate and drew and MoOnlessall hwer chamber in tone Wrapped er of corn and also the Arkells bundle a rope, nly from his -imbed to the top of the Wall. 0
in a rag. Then he @t-to watch, and the
@mbur was there9 for it !as his turn
dwarves iep, only one watcl wish we could Celt is mighty cold!19
sai
e as they have in the canpl"
have a fire up her said Bilbo .
enough inside-," gbt,19 grum Celt is warm but I am bound here till nlidn7'
business alto 'ether. Not that rin, May his beard grow eve-' .
stiff neck."
arf with a ed of 91 said Bilbo. 441 am tire
would give a good deal for the
of a strong drink feel a good suppett" hi is going on. But
turn for you
will take and I to note, er to I will lie in wake You at midnight, 0. 441 Will t,toff,you gplgl said Bilb watchman."
put on .,is Tinc, and you can wake the next Bilbo ,I
As Soon as Bombur had gone, d was
slipped down Over the wall' an ould his -rope) . Boinbur w ,,I daTesaY' bled the fat venture to longer; yet 44NOt as stairs and st(
feel of grass &%I would
in my throat
461 CWt atched, it is long S no sle,
if you like
"You I fellc if th( Vour offe mind You!
rouse me first, 3
the left, not far away-'
A TMEF IN THE NIGHT 255
the beautiful dreams he bad then); and all the others were busy with Thorin. It was unlikely that any, even Fill or Kill, would come out on the wall until it was their turn.
It was very dark, and the road after a while, when he left the newly made path and clirlibed down towards the lower course of the stream, was strange to him, At last he came to the bend where he had to cross the water, if he was to make for the camp, as he wished. The bed of the stream was there shallow but already broad, and fording it in the dark was not easy for the little hobbit. He was nearly across when he missed his footing on a round stone and fell into the cold water with a splash. He had barely scra I mbled out on the far bank, shivering and spluttering, when up came elves in the gloom with bright lanterns and searched for the cause of the noise.
"That was no fish!" one said. "There is a spy about.
Hide your lights! They will help him more than us, if it is that queer little creature that is said to be their servant.' "Servant, indeed!" snorted Bilbo; and in the middle of his snort he sneezed loudly, and the elves immediately gathered towards the sound.
"Let's have a light!" he said. "r am here, if you want me!" and he slipped off his ring, and popped from behind a rock.
They seized him quickly, in spite of their surprise. "Who are you? Are you the dwarves' hobbit? What are you doing? How did you get so far past our sentinels?" they asked one after another.
"I am Mr. Bilbo Baggins," he answered, "companion of T@, orin, if you want to know. I know your king well by sight, -Iiough perhaps he doesn't know me to look at. But Bard will remember me, and it is Bard I particularly want to -ee."
"Indeed!" said they, "and what may be your business?"
"Whatever it is, it's my own, my good elves. But if you 256 THE
HO'BBrr ck to a fire, where I can d@and then You along qui your chiefs as quick as may be. I have only let me speak to to spare."
an hour Or two That is how it cane about that some two hours after his as sitting beside a warm fire scape from the Gate, Bilbo w g curiously e tent, and there sat too, gazinin front of a large enmng and Bard. A bobbit in el'Asll at him, both the Elv .. , anket, was something armour, partly wrapped in an old bl
newtothem. knw,-)Bllbowassa@ginhisbestbusine"
I v I am tired of
&&Really yOu [!S are impossible. Personall,
manner, "thin- . I was back in the West in MY Own the whole affair. I wish But I have an mt\_erhome, where folk are more reasonable-to be pr,-cise, est in this matter,@e fourteenth sh according to a letter, which fortunate kept." He drew from a Pocket in his 0 still wore over his mail)i Thorin,s letter that had b, mantelpiece in May! p mind you,gl, he went on. 4
"A share in the PrOfits I am only too ready to consider aware of that. Personally and deduct what is right from all your Claims carefully, my own claim. However You the total before Putting in ell as I do now. I Oakenshield as w
have
the clock On
11 am A TMEP IN nE NIGHT 257
"I thought as much. I see I have some information you have not got. Dam, I may tell you, is now less than two days' march off, and has at least five hundred grim dwarves with him-a good many of them have had experience in the dreadful dwarf and goblin wars, of which you have no doubt heard. When they arrive there may be serious trouble."
"Why do you tell us this? Are you betraying your friends, or are you threatening us?" asked Bard grimly.
"My dear Bard"' squeaked Bilbo. "Don't be so hastyl I never met such suspicious folk' I am merely trying to avoid trouble for all concerned. Now I will make you an offer!!"
"Let us hear it!" they said.
"You may see itl" said he. "It is this?" and he drew forth the Arkenstone, and threw away the wrapping.
The Elvenking himself, whose eyes were used to things of wonder and beauty, stood up in amazement. Even Bard gazed marvelling at it in silence. It was as if a globe had been filled with moonlight and hung before them in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars.
"This is the Arkenstone of Thrain," said Bilbo, "the Heart of the Mountain; and it is also the heart of Thorin.
He values it above a river of gold. I give it to you. It will aid you in your bargaining." Then Bilbo, not without a shudder, not without a glance of longing, handed the don!t know ThO@ ady to sit on a heap Of gold ood marvellous stone to Bard, and he held it in his hand, as assure you. he is quite Te though dazed.
as you sit here."
starve, as long Bard. tcsuch a fool deserves "But how is it yours to give?" he asked at last with an 4 let him!" said effort.
,Well, starve@$ At the "O went" said the hobbit uncomfortably.
"It isn't ex,,(Mte so,' said Bilbo. "I see your point of view' . g ing to let it stand against an my 9 , on fast. Before 10119 you vg actly; but, well, I am will same , time winter is COM'N supplies will be d7illi@ claim, don't you know. I may be a burglar-or so they say:
be having snow and what not, and - - will be other d
o there personally I never really feltuke one-but I am an honest @yen for elves I imarffie-Als . d the dwarves Of Lu one, I h e, more or less. A I am ' back now 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.
But I wonder if Thorin oakenshield will see it so. I have more knowledge of dwarves in general than you have perhaps. I advise you to remain with us, and here you shall be honoured and thrice welcome."
"Thank you very much I am sure," said Bilbo with a how. "But I don't think I ought to leave my friends like this, after all we have gone through together. And I promised to wake old Bombur at midnight, too! Really I must be going, and quickly."
Nothing they could say would stop him; so an escort was provided for him, and as he went both the king and Bard saluted him with honour.
As they passed through the camp an old man wrapped in a dark cloak, rose from a tent door where he was sitting and came towards them.
"Well donel Mr. Baggins!" he said, clapping Bilbo on the back.
"There is always more about you than anyone expects!" It was Gandalf.
For the first time for many a day Bilbo was really delighted. But there was no time for all the questions that he immediately wished to ask.
"All in good time!" said Gandalf. "Things are drawing towards the end now, unless I am mistaken. There is an unpleasant time just in front of You; but keep your heart up! You may come through all right.
There is news brewing that even the ravens have not heard. Good nightl" Puzzled but cheered, Bilbo hurried on. He was guided to a safe ford and set across dry, and then he said farewell to the elves and climbed carefully back towards the Gate.
Great weariness began to come over him; but it was well before midnight when he clambered up the rope again-it was still where he had left it. He untied it and hid it, and then he sat down on the wall and wondered anxiously A TFHEF IN THE NIGHT 259
rolled himself up in his corner, without listening to the old dwarf's thanks (which he felt he had hardly earned). He was soon fast asleep forgetting all his worries till the morning. As a matter of fact he was dreaming of eggs
bacon. and
The Cloucls Burst Next day the trumpets rang early in the camp.
Soon a single runner was seen hurrying along the narrow path. At a distance he stood and hailed them, asking whether Thorin would now listen to another embassy, since new tidings had come to hand, and matters were changed. 44
64That will be Dam!" said Thorin when he heard. They will have got wind of his CO@g-I thought that would alter their mood! Bid them come few in number and weaponless, and I will hear," he called to the messengerAbout midday the banners Of the Forest and the Lake were seen to be borne forth again. A company of twenty was approaching-At the beginning of the narrow way they laid aside sword and spear, and came on towards the Gate.
Wondering, the dwarves S, that among them were both Bard and the ]Elvenking, before whom . old man wrapped in cloak and hood bore a strong casket of iron-bound wood. "Are you still of the same 6GHail Thorinill said Bard.
ramd?l@ 4,My mind does not change with the rising and setting of a few suns," answered Thorin. "Did you come to ask me idle questions?
Still the elf-host has not departed as I badel Till then you come in vain to bargain with me."
,,Is there then nothig for which You would yield any of your gold?"
C'Nothing that you or your friends have to offer."
IGWhat of the Arkenstone of Thrain?" said he, and at the same moment the old man opened the casket and held aloft the jewel. The light leapt from his hand, bright and THE CLOUDS BURST 26i Then Thorin was stricken dumb with amazement and confusion. No one spoke for a long while.
Thorin at length broke the silence, and his voice was thick with wrath. "That stone was my father's, and is mine," he said. "Why should I purchase my own?" But wonder overcame him and he added: "But how came you by the heirloom of my house-if there is need to ask such a question of thieves?"
"We are not thieves," Bard answered. "Your own we will give back in return for our own."
'How came you by it?" shouted Thorin in gathering rage.
"I gave it them!" squeaked Bilbo, who was peeping over the wall, by now, in a dreadful fright.
"You! You!" cried Thorin, turning upon him and grasping him with both hands. "You miserable hobbit! You undersized-burglar!" he shouted at a loss for words, and he shook poor Bilbo like a rabbit.
"By the beard of Duzin! I wish I had Gandalf here!
Curse him for his choice of you! May his beard witherl As for you I will throw you to the rocks!" he cried and lifted Bilbo in his arms.
"Stay! Your wish is granted!" said a voice. The old man with the casket threw aside his hood and cloak. "Here is Gandalf! And none too soon it seems. If you don't like my Burglar, please don't damage him. Put him down, and listen first to what he has to say!"
"You all seem in leaguer" said Thorin dropping Bilbo on the top of the wall. "Never again will I have dealings with any wizard or his friends. What have you to say, you descendant of rats?"
"Dear me! Dear me!" said Bilbo. "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 on
262 . THE HOBBff
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!"
"I will," said Thorin grimly. -'And I will let YOU 90 at that-and may we never meet again!" Then he turned and spoke over the wall. "I am betrayed," he said. "It was rightly guessed that I could not forbear to redeem the Arkenstone, the treasure of my house. For it I win give one fourteenth share of the hoard in silver and gold, setting aside the gems; but that shall be accounted the promised share of this traitor, and with that reward he shall depart, and you can divide it as you will. He will get little enough, I doubt not. Take him, if you wish him to live; and no friendship of mine goes with him.
"Get down now to your friends!" he said to Bilbo, "or I will throw you down."
"What about the gold and silver?" asked Bilbo.
"That shall follow after, as can be arranged," said he.
"Get down!"
"Until then we keep the stone," cried Bard.
"You, are not making a very splendid figure as King under the Mountain," said Gandalf. "But things may change yet."
"They may indeed," said Thorin. And already, so strong was the bewilderment of the treasure upon @, he was pondering whether by the help of Dam he might not recapture the Arkenstone and withhold the share of the reward.
And so Bilbo was smg down from the wall, and departed with nothing for all his trouble, except the armour which Thorin had given him already. More than one of the dwarves in their hearts felt shame and pity at his going.
"Farewelll" he cried to them. "We may meet again as friends."
"Be off!" called Thorin. "You have mail upon you, which was made by my lo@ and is too good for you. It cannot be ierced by arrows; but if you do not hasten, I THE CLOUDS BURST 263
tomorrow. At noon we will return, and see if you have brought from the hoard the portion that is to be set against the stone. If that is done without deceit, then we will depart, and the elf-host will go back to the Forest. In the meanwhile farewell!"
With that they went back to the camp; but Thorin sent messengers by Rolic telling Dam of what had passed, and bidding him come with wary speed.
That day passed and the night. The next day the wind shifted west, and the air was dark and gloomy. The mommg was still early when a cry was heard in the camp. Runners came in to report that a host of dwarves had appeared round the eastern spur of the Mountain and was now hastening to Dale. Dam had come. He had hurried on through the night, and so had come upon them sooner than they had expected. Each one of his folk was clad in a hauberk of steel mail that hung to his knees, and his legs were covered with hose of a fine and flexible metal mesh, the secret of whose making was possessed by Dan).'s people.
The dwarves are exceedingly strong for their height, but most of these were strong even for dwarves. In battle they wielded heavy two-handed mattocks; but each of them had also a short broad sword at his side and a roundshield slung at his back. Their beards were forked and plaited and thrust into their belts. Their caps were of iron and they were shod with iron, and their faces were grim.
Trumpets called men and elves to arms. Before long the dwarves could be seen coming up the valley at a great pace.
They halted between the river and the eastern spur; but a few held on their way, and crossing the river drew near the camp; and there they laid down their weapons and held UP their hands in sign of peace. Bard went out to meet them, and with him went Bilbo.
"We are sent from Dam son of Nain," they said when questioned.
"We are hastening to our kinsmen' in the 264 TM HOBBrr defended walls?"
This, of course, in the polite and rather old-fashioned language of such occasions, meant simply: "You have no business here. We are going on, so make way or we shall fight you!" They meant to push on between the Mountain and the loop of the river, for the narrow land there did not seem to be strongly guarded.
Bard, of course, refused to allow the dwarves to 90 straight on to the Mountain. He was determined to wait until the gold and silver had been brought out in exchange for the Arkenstone; for he did not believe that this would be done, if once the fortress was manned with so large and warlike a company. They had brought with them a great store of supplies; for the dwarves can carry very heavy burdens, and nearly all of Dam's folks, in spite of their rapid march, bore huge packs on their backs in addition to their weapons. They would stand a siege for weeks, and by that time yet more dwarves might come, and yet more, for Thorin had many relatives. Also they would be able to reopen and guard some other gate, so that the besiegers would have to encircle the whole mountains and for that they had not sufficient numbers.
These were, in fact, precisely their plans (for the ravenmessengers had been busy between Thorin and Dam); but for the moment the way was barred, so after angry words the dwarf-messengers retired muttering in their beards.
Bard then sent messengers at once to the Gate; but they found no gold or payment-Arrows came forth as soon as they were within shot, and they hastened back in dismay.
In the camp all was now astir, as if for battle; for the dwarves of Dam were advancing along the eastern bank.
,,Fools!" laughed Bard, "to come thus beneath the Mountain's arm!
They do not understand war above ground, whatever they may know of battle in the mines.
There are many of our archers and spearmen now hidden in the rocks upon their right flank. Dwarf-mail may be good, but they will soon be hard put to it. Let us set on
IW CLOUDS BURST 265
this war for gold. The dwarves cannot press us, unless we will, or do anything that we cannot mark. Let us hope still for something that will bring reconciliation. Our advantage in numbers will be enough, if in the end it must come to unhappy blows."
But he reckoned without the dwarves. The knowledge that the Arkenstone was in the hands of the besiegers burned in their thoughts; also they guessed the hesitation of Bard and his friends, and resolved to strike while they debated.
Suddenly without a signal they sprang silently forward to attack.
Bows twanged and arrows whistled; battle was about to be joined.
Still more suddenly a darkness came on with dreadful swiftness! A black cloud hurried over the sky. Winter thunder on a wild wind rolled roanng up and rumbled in the Mountain, and lightning lit its peak. And beneath the thunder another blackness could be seen whirling forward; but it did not come with the wind, it came from the North, like a vast cloud of birds, so dense that no light could be seen between their wings.
"Halt!" cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted, between the advancing dwarves and the ranks awaiting them. "Halt!" he called in a voice like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like the lightning. "Dread has come upon you all! Alas! it has come more swiftly than I @%eA. The, G&V&ns we upon youl Bolg\* of the North is coming. 0 Dam! 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!"
Amazement and confusion fell upon them all. Even as Gandalf had been speaking the darkness grew. The dwarves halted and gazed at the sky. The elves cried out with many voices.
"Come!" called Gandalf. "There is yet time for council.
So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible.
Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves. This is how it fell out. Ever since the fall of the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the dwarves had been rekindled to fury. Messengers had passed to and fro between all their cities, colonies and strongholds; for they resolved now to win the dominion of the North.
,'idings they had gathered in secret ways; and in all the --fountains there was a forging and an arming. Then they :--iarched and gathered by hill and valley, going ever by tunnel or under dark, until around and beneath the great mountain Gundabad of the North, where was their capital, a vast host was assembled ready to sweep down in time of storm unawares upon the South. Then they learned of death of Smaug, and joy was in their hearts; and they has ened night after night through the mountains, and came thus at last on a sudden from the North hard on the heels of Dam. Not even the ravens knew of their coming until they came out in the broken lands which divided the Lonely Mountain from the hills behind. How much Gandalf knew cannot be said, but it is plain that he had not expected this sudden assault.
This is the plan that he made in council with the Elvenking and with Bard; and with Dam, for the dwarf-lord now joined them: the Goblins were the foes of all, and at their coming all other quarrels were forgotten. Their only hope was to lure the goblins into the valley between the arms of the Mountain; and themselves to man the great spurs that struck south and east. Yet this would be perilous, if the goblins were in sufficient numbers to overrun the Mountain itself, and so attack them also from behind and above; but there was no time to make any 'other plan, or to summon any help.
THIR CLOUDS BURST 267
the Mountain, and whirled above them shutting out the light and filling them with dread.
44
TO the Mountain!" called Bard. "To the Mountain! Let Ustakeourplaceswhilethereisyetti e!"
On the Southern spur, in its I I m
ower slopes and in the rocks at its feet, the Elves were set; on the Eastern spur were men and dwarves. But Bard and some of the nimblest of men and elves climbed to the height of the Eastern shoulder to gain a view to the North. Soon they could see the lands before the Mountain's feet black with a hurrying multitude.
Ere long the vanguard swirled round the spur's end and came rushing into Dale. These were the swiftest wolf-riders, and already their cries and howls rent the air afar. A few brave men were strung before them to make a feint of resistance, and many there fell before the rest drew back and fled to either side. As Gandalf had hoped, the goblin army had gathered behind the resisted vanguard, and Poured now in rage into the valley, driving wildly up between the arms of the Mountain, seeking for the foe. Their banners were countless, black and red, and they came on like a tide in fury and disorder.
It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbols experiences, and the one which at the time he hated mostwhich is to say it was the one he was most proud -of, and most fond of rec@g long afterwards, although he was quite @portant in it. Actually I must say he put on his ring early in the business, and vanished from sight, if not from all danger. A magicrin of that sort is not a complete 9
Protection in a goblin charge, nor does it stop flying arrows and wild spears; but it does help in getting out of the way, and it Prevents your head from being specially chosen for a sweeping stroke by a goblin swordsman.
The elves Were the first to charge. Their hatred for the goblins is cold and bitter. Their spean and swords shone in the gloom with a gleam of chill name so dead
r
stinging fire. Behind the arrows a thousand of their spearmen leapt down and charged. The yells were deafening.
The rocks were stained black with goblin blood.
Just as the goblins were recovering from the onslaught and the elf-charge was halted, there rose from across the valley a deep-throated roar. With cries of "Moria!" and "Dam, Dam!" the dwarves of the Iron Hills plunged ' M, wielding their mattocks, upon the other side; and beside them came the men of the Lake with long swords.
Panic came upon the Goblins; and even as thcvff=ed to meet this new attack, the elves chargert apain@"th renewed numbers. Already many of the go@@S' were flying back down the river to escape from the trap; and many Of their own wolves were turning upon them and rending the dead and the wounded. Victory seemed at hand, when a cry rang out on the heights above.
Goblins had scaled the Mountain from the other side and already many were on the slopes above the Gate, and others were streaming down recklessly, heedless of those that fell screaming from cliff and precipice, to attack the spurs from above. Each of these could be reached by Paths that ran down from the main mass of the Mountain in the centre; and the defenders had too few to bar the way for long.
Victory now vanished from hope. They had only stemmed the first onslaught of the black tide.
Day drew on. The goblins gathered again in the valley.
There a host of Wargs came ravening and with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel. Soon actual darkness was coming into a stormy sky; while still the great bats swirled about the heads and ears of elves and men, or fastened vampire-like on the stricken. Now Bard was fighting to defend the Eastern spur, and yet giving slowly back; and the elf-lords were at bay
about their king upon the southern arm, near to the watch post on Ravenhill.
THE CLOUDS BURST 269
the pool. Out leapt the King under the Mountain, and his companions followed him. Hood and cloak were gone; they were in shining armour, and red light leapt from their eyes. In the gloom the great dwarf gleamed like gold in a dying fire.
Rocks were hurled down from on high by the goblins above; but they held on, leapt down to the falls' foot, and rushed forward to battle.
Wolf and rider fell or fled before them. Thonn wielded his axe with mighty strokes, and nothing seemed to harm him.
4
'To We! To me! Elves and Men! To me! 0 my kinsfolk!"
he cried,- and kts voice shook like a horn in the valley.
I Down, heedless of order, rushed all the dwarves of Dam to his help. Down too came many of the Lake-men, for Bard could not restrain them; and out upon the other side came many of the spearmen of the elves. Once again the goblins were stricken in the valley; and they were piled in heaps till Dale was dark and hideous with their corpses.
The Wargs were scattered and Thorin drove right against the bodyguards of Bolg. But he could not pierce their ranks.
Already behind him among the goblin dead lay many men and many dwarves, and many a fair elf that should have lived yet long ages merrily in the wood. And as the valley widened his onset grew ever slower. His numbers were too few. Hir, flanks were unguarded. Soon the attackers were attacked ' and they were forced into a great ring, facing every way, hemmed all about with goblins and wolves returning to the assault. The bodyguard of Bolg came howling against them, and drove in upon their ranks like waves upon cliffs of sand. Their friends could not help them, for the assault from the Mountain was renewed with redoubled force, and upon either side men and elves were being slowly beaten down.
On all this Bilbo looked with misery. He had taken his stand on Ravenhill among the Elves-partly because there was more chance of esca e from that oint, and artl
270 TH]i HoBBrr
the whole to defend the Elvenking. Gandalf, too, I may say, was there, sitting on the ground as if in deep thought, preparing, I suppose, some last blast of magic before the end.
That did not seem far off. "It will not be long now," thought Bilbo, "before the goblins win the Gate, and we are all slaughtered or driven down and captured. Really it is enough to make one weep, after all one has gone through. I would rather old Smaug had been left with all the wretched treasure, than that these vile creatures should get it, and poor old Bombur, and Balm and Fill and Kill and all the rest come to a bad end; and Bard too, and the Lake-men and the merry elves.
Misery mel I have heard songs of many battles, and I have always understood that defeat may be glorious. It seems very uncomfortable, not to say distressing. I wish I was well out of it.,, The clouds were torn by the wind, and a red sunset slashed the West. Seeing the sudden gleam in the gloom Bilbo looked round. He gave a great cry-he had seen a sight that made his heart leap, dark shapes small yet majestic against the distant glow.
"The Eaglesl The Eagles!" he shouted. "The Eagles are coming!"
Bilbo's eyes were seldom wrong. The eagles were corning down the wind, line after line, in such a host as must have gathered from all the eyries of the North.
"The Eagles! the Eagles!" Bilbo cried, dancing and waving his arms. If the elves could not see him they could hear him. Soon they too took up the cry, and it echoed across the valley. Many wondering eyes looked up, though as yet nothing could be seen except from the southern shoulders of the Mountain.
"The Eagles!" cried Bilbo once more, but at that moment a stone hurtling from above smote heavily on his helm, and he fell with a crash and knew no more.
The Return Journey When Bilbo came to himself, he was literal I ly by himself.
He was lying on the flat stones of Ravenhill, and no one was near.
A cloudless day, but cold, was broad above him.
He was shaking, and as chilled as stone, but his head burned with fire.
"NOW I wonder what has happened?" he said to himself. "At any rate I am not yet one of the fallen heroes; but I suppose there is still time enough for that!"
He sat up Painfully. Looking into the valley he could see no living goblins. After a while as his head cleared a little, he thought he could see elves moving in the rocks below. He rubbed his eyes.
Surely there was a camp still iia the plain some distance off; and there was a coming and going about the Gate? Dwarves seemed to be busy removing the wall. But all was deadly still. There was no call and no echo of a song. Sorrow seemed to be in the air.
"Victory after all, I suppose!" he said, feeling his aching head.
"Well, it seems a very gloomy business."
Suddenly he was aware of a man climbing up and corning towards him.
"HullO therel" he called with a shaky voice. "Hullo there, What news?"
"What voice is it that speaks among the stones?" said the man halting and peering about him not far from where Bilbo sat.
Then Bilbo remembered his ringi "Well I'm blessed!"
said he. "This invisibility has its drawbacks after all.
Otherwise I suppose I might have spent a warm and corn "It's me, Bilbo Baggins, companion Of Thorin!" he cried,
hurriedly taking off the ring"It is well that I have found you!"
said the man striding forward. ,-you are needed and we have looked for you long. You would have been numbered among the dead@ who are many, if Gandalf the wizard had not said that your voice was last heard in this place. I have been sent to look here for the last time. Are you much hurt?"
"A nasty knock on the head, I think," said Bilbo. "But I have a helm and a hard skull. All the same I feel sick and my legs are like straws."
,,I will carry you down to the camp in the valley," said the man, and picked him lightly UPThe man was swift and sure-footed. It was not long before Bilbo was set down before a tent in Dale; and there stood Gandalf, with his arm in a sling. Even the wizard had not escaped without a wod; and there were few unharmed in all the host.
When Gandalf saw Bilbo, he was delighted. "Bagginsl" he exclaimed. "Well I never! Alive after all-I am glade I began to wonder if even your luck would see you through! A terrible business, and it nearly was disastrous.
But other news can wait. Cornel" he said more gravely.
"You are called for;" and leading the hobbit he took him within the tent.
'4Hail! Thorin," he said as he entered. -'I have brought
him."
There indeed lay Thorin oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent arMOUr and notched axe were cast upon the floor. He looked up as Bilbo came beside him.
"Farewell, good thief," he said. ,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-" Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. IF . arewell, THE RETURN JOURNEY 273
amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils that has been more than any Baggins deserves."
"Nol" said Thorin. "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 I now.
Farewell!"
Then Bilbo turned away, and be went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse. He was a kindly little soul. Indeed it was long before he had the heart to make a joke again.
"A mercy it is," he said at last to himself, "that I woke up when I did. I wish Thorin were living, but I am glad that we parted in kindness. 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."
All that had happened after he was stunned, Bilbo learned later; but it gave him more sorrow than joy, and he was now weary of his adventure. He was aching in his bones for the homeward jou@ey. That, however, was a little delayed, so in the meantime I will tell something of events. The Eagles had long had suspicion of the goblins'
mustering; from their watchfulness the movements in the mountains could not be altogether hid. So they too had gathered in great numbers, under the great Eagle of the Misty Mountains; and at length smelling battle from afar they had come speeding down the gale in the nick of time.
They it was who dislodged the goblins from the mountainslopes, casting them over precipices, or driving them down shrieking and bewildered among their foes. It was not long before they had freed the Lonely Mountain, and elves and men on either side of the valley could come at last to the help of the battle below.
In that'last hour Beom himself had appeared-no one knew how or from where. He came alone, and in bear's shape; and he seemed to have grown almost to giant-size in his wrath.
The roar of his voice was like drums and guns; and he straws and tossed wolves and goblins from his path like feathers. He fell upon their rear, and broke like a clap of thunder through the ring. The dwarves were making a stand still about their lords upon a low rounded hill. Then who had fallen pierced Beorn stooped and lifted Thorin,
with spears, and bore him out of the fray Swiftly he returned and his wrath was redoubled, so that nothing could withstand him, and no weapon seemed to bite upon him. He scattered the bodyguard and pulled down Bolg himself and crushed him.
Then dismay fell On ariness the Goblins and they fled in all directions. But we left their enemies with the coming of new hope, and they and prevented most of them from
pursued them closely, into
escaping where they could. They drove many of them the Running River, and such as fled South or west they hunted into the marshes about the FDrest River; and there the greater part of the last fugitives perished, while those that came hardly to the Wdllves' re@
were there slain, or drawn in to die in the trackless dark of Mirkwood.
Songs have said that three Parts of the goblin warriors of the North perished on that day, and the mountains had peace for many a year. of night, but victory had been assured before the fall the pursuit was still on foot, when Bilbo returned to the camp; and not many were in the valley save the grievously wounded.
"Where are the Eagles?" he asked Gandalf that evening, as he lay wrapped in many warm blankets$'Some -are in the hunt," said the wizard, "but most have gone back to their eyries-They would not stay here, and THE RE joURNEy 275
am sorry. I mean, I should have liked to see them again," said Bilbo sleepily; "perhaps I shall see them on the way home. I suppose I shall be going home soon?"
"As soon as You like," said the wizard.
Actually it was some days before Bilbo really set out.
They buried Thorin deep beneath the Mountain, and Bard laid the Arkenstone upon his breast.
"There let it lie till the Mountain falls?" he said, "May it bring good fortune to all his folk that dwell here after!"
tivity. It is Upon his tomb the ]Elvenking then laid Orcrist the elvish sword that had been taken from Thorin in cap' said in songs that it gleamed ever in the dark if foes approached, and the fortress of the dwarves could not be taken by surprise. There now Dam son of Nain took up his abode, and he became King under the Mountain, and in time many other dwarves gathered to his throne in th ancient halls. Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fill and Kill had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother's elder brother. The others remained with Dam; for Dam dealt his treasure well.
There was, of course, no longer any question of dividing the hoard in such shares as had been planned, to Ba@ and Dwalin, and Dori and Nori and Ori, and Oin and Gloin, and ]3ifur and Bofur and Bombur@r to Bilbo. Yet a fourteenth share of all the silver and gold, wrought and unwrought, was given up to Bard; for Dam said: "We will honour the agreement of the dead, and he has now the Arkenstone in his keeping."
Even a fourteenth share was wealth exceedingly great, greater than that of many mortal kings. From that treasure Bard sent much gold to the Master of Lake-town; and he rewarded his followers and friends freely. To the Elvenking he gave the emeralds of Gition, such jewels as he most loved, which Dam had restored to him.
To Bilbo he said: "This treasure is as much yours as it is mine; thou old a that the words of Thorin, of which he repented, should not prove true: that we should give you little. I would reward you most richly of all."
"Very kind of you," said Bilbo. "But really it is a relief to me.
How on earth should I have got all that treasure home without war and murder all along the way, I doift know. And I don't know what I should have done with it when I got home. I am sure it is better in your hands."
In the end he would only take two small chests, one filled with silver, and the other with gold, such as one strong pony could carry.
--That will be quite as much as I can manage," said he.
At last the time came for him to say good-bye to his friends.
"Farewell, Balinf" he said; "and farewell, Dwalin; and farewell Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur! May your beards never grow thin!" And turning towards the Mountain he added: "Farewell Thorin Oakenshield! And Fill and Kilit May your memory never radel"
Then the dwarves bowed low before their Gate, but words stuck in their throats. "Good-bye and good luck, wherever you farel" said BaHn at last. "If ever you visit us again, when our halls are made fair once more, then the feast shall indeed be splendidl" "If ever you are passing my way," said Bilbo, I'don!t wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any timel" Then he turned away.
The elf-host was on the march; and if it was sadly lessened, yet many were glad, for now the northern world would be merrier for many a long day. The dragon was dead, and the goblins overthrown, and their hearts looked forward after winter to a spring of joy.
Gandalf and Bilbo rode behind the Elvenking, and beside them strode Beom, once again in man's shape, and he laughed and sang in a loud voice upon the road. So they TM RIETURN JOURNEY 277
Then they halted, for the wizard and Bilbo would not enter the wood, even though the king bade them stay a while in his halls. They intended to go along the edge of the forest, and round its northern end in the waste that lay between it and the beginning of the Grey Mountains. It was a long and cheerless road, but now that the goblins were crushed, it seemed safer to them than the dreadful pathways under the trees. Moreover Beom was going that way too.
"Farewell! 0 Elvenking!" said Gandalf. "Merry be the greenwood, while the world is yet young! And merry be all your folk!"
"Farewelll 0 Gandalf!" said the king. "May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expectedl The oftener you appear in my halls the better shall I be pleased!"
"I beg of you," said Bilbo stammering and standing on one foot, "to accept this gift!" and he brought out a necklace of silver and pearls that Dam had given him at their parting.
"In what way have I earned such a gift, 0 hobbit?" said the king.
"Weller, I thought, don't you know," said Bilbo rather confused, "that, er, some little return should be made for Your, er, hospitality.
I mean even a burglar has his feelings. I have drunk much of your wine and eaten much Of Your bread."
"I will take your gift, 0 Bilbo the Magnificent!" said the king gravely. "And I name you elf-friend and blessed.
May your shadow never grow less (or stealing would be too easy)!
Farewell!"
Then the elves turned towards the Forest, and Bilbo started on his long road home.
He had many hardships and adventures before he got
back. The Wild was still the Wild, and there were many other tbiings in it in those da besides lins' but he was 278 HOBBrr danger again. Anyway by mid-winter Gandalf and Bilbo had come all the way back, along both edges of the Forest, to the doors of Beorn's house; and there for a while they both stayed. Yule-tide was warm and merry there; and men came from far and wide to feast at Beorn's bidding. The goblins of the Misty Mountains were now few and terrified, and hidden in the deepest holes they could find; and the Wargs had vanished from the woods, so that men went abroad without fear. Beom indeed became a great chief afterwards in those regions and ruled a wide land between the mountains and the wood; and it is said that for many generations the men of his line had the power of taking bear's shape, and some were grim men and bad, but most were in heart like Beom, if less in size and strength. In their day the las ' t goblins were hunted from the Misty Mountains and a new peace came over the edge of the Wild.
It was spring, and a fair one with mild weathers and a bright sun, before Bilbo and Gandalf took their leave at last of Beom, and though he longed for home, Bilbo left with regret, for the flowers of the gardens of Beom were in springtime no less marvellous than in high summer.
At last they came up the long road, and reached the very pass where the goblins had captured them before. But they came to that high point at morning, and looking backward they saw a white sun shining over the outstretched lands. There behind lay N&kwood, blue in the distance, and darkly green at the nearer edge even in the spring.
There far away was the Lonely Mountain on the edge of eyesight. On its highest peak snow yet iinmelted was gleaming pale.
"So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!"
said Bilbo, and he turned his back on his adventure. The Tookish part was getting very tired, and the Baggins was daily getting stronger. "I wish now only to be in my own arm-chair!" he said.
The Last Stage It was on May the First that the two came back at last to the brink of the valley of Rivendell, where stood the Last (or the First) Homely House. Again it was evening, their ponies were tired, especially the one that carried the baggage; and they all felt in need of rest. As they rode down the steep path, Bilbo heard the elves still singing in the trees, as if they had not stopped since he left; and as soon as their riders came down into the lower glades of the wood they burst into a song of much the same kind as before. This is something like it: The dragon is withered, His bones are now crumbled, His armour is shivered, His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted, And throne and crown perish With strength that men trusted And wealth that they cherish, Here grass is still growing, And leaves are yet swinging, The white water #owing, And elves are yet singing Come! Tra-la-la-lallyl Come back to the valleyl The stars are far brighter Than gems without measure,
290 TIM HOBBff
Than silver in treasure., The fire is more shining On hearth in the gloaming Than gold won by mining, So why go a-roaming?
01 Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley.
01 Where are you going, So late in returning?
The river is flowing, The stars are all burningl oi whither so laden, So sad and so dreary?
Here elf and elf-maiden Now welcome the weary With Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley, Tra-la-la-lallY Fa-la-la-lally Fa-lat the valley came out and greeted them Then the elves of house of Elrond.
There and led them across the water to the and there were many a wami welcome was made them tale of their adventures.
eager ears that evening to hear the Gandalf it was who spoke, for Bilbo was fallen quiet and drowsy. Most of the tale he knew, for he had been in it, elf told much of it to the wizard on their ,4 and had hims of Beom; but every now homeward way or in the house e, and listen, when a part and again he would open one eY of the story whicl, he did not yet know came m.
way that he learned where Gandalf had It was in this
TFM LAST STAGE 281
that they had at last driven the Necromancer from his dark hold in the south of Mirkwood.
"Ere long now," Gandalf was saying, "The Forest will grow somewhat more wholesome. The North will be freed from that horror for many long years, I hope. Yet I wish he were banished from the world!"
"It would be well indeed," said Elrond; "but I fear that will not come about in this age of the world, or for many after."
When the tale of their joumeyings was told, there were other tales, and yet more tales, tales of long ago, and tales of new things, and tales of no time at all, till Bilbo's head fell forward on his chest, and he snored comfortably in a corner.
He woke to find himself in a white bed, and the moon shining through an open window. Below it many elves were singing loud and clear on the banks of the stream.
Sing all ye joyful, now sing all togetherl The wind's in the tree-top, the wind's in the heather, The stars are in blossom, the moon is in flower, And bright are the windows of Night in her tower.
Dance all ye joyful, now dance all together!
Soft is the grass, and let loot be like featherl The river is silver, the shadows are fleeting, Merry is May-time, and merry our meeting.
Sing we now softly, and dreams let us weave himl Wind him in slumber and there let us leave himl The wanderer sleepeth. Now soft be his pillowl Luttabyl Lullabyl Alder and Willowl Sigh no more Pine, till the wind of the mornl Fall Moon I Dark be the land!
"Well, Merry People!" said Bilbo looking out. "What time by the moon is this? Your lullaby would waken a drunken goblin! Yet I thank you."
"And your snores would waken a stone dragon-yet we thank you,"
they answered with laughter. "It is drawing towards dawn, and you have slept now since the night's beginning. Tomorrow, perhaps, you will be cured of weariness." 99
"A little sleep does a great cure in the house of Elrond, said he; "but I will take all the cure I can get. A second good night, fair friends!" And with that he went back to bed and slept till late morning.
Weariness fell from him soon in that house, and he had many a merry jest and dance, early and late, with the elves of the valley.
Yet even that place could not long delay him now, and he thought always of his own home. After a week, therefore, he said farewell to Elrond, and giving him such small gifts as he would accept, he rode away with Gandalf.
Even as they left the valley the sky darkened in the West before them, and wind and rain came up to meet them.
"Merry is May-time!" said Bilbo, as the rain beat into his face.
"But our back is to legend-, and we are coming home. I suppose this is a first taste of it."
"There is a long road yet," said Gandalf.
"But it is the last road," said Bilbo.
They came to the river that marked the very edge of the borderland of the Wild, and to the ford beneath the steep bank, which you may remember. The water was swollen both with the melting of the snows at the approach of summer, and with the daylong rain; but they crossed with some difficulty, and pressed forward, as evening fell, on the last stage of their journey.
This was much as it had been before, except that the company was smaller, and more silent; also this time there were no trolls. At each point on the road Bilbo recalled
THE LAST STAGE 283
the place where the pony had fallen in the river, and they had turned aside for their nasty adventure with Tom and Bert and Bill.
Not far from the road they found the gold of the trolls, which they had buried, still hidden and untouched. "I have enough to last me my time," said Bilbo, when they had dug it up. "You had better take this, Gandalf. I daresay you can find a use for it."
"Indeed I can!" said the wizard. "But share and share alle! You may find you have more needs than you expe,-t.19
So they put the gold in bags and slung them on the ponies, who were not at all pleased about it. After that their going was slower, for most of the time they walked.
But the land was green and there was much grass through which the hobbit strolled along contentedly. He mopped his face with a red silk handkerchief-nol not a single one of his own had survived, he had borrowed this one from Elrond-for now June had brought summer, and the weather was bright and hot again.
As all things come to an end, even this story, a day came at last when they were in sight of the country where Bilbo had been born and bred, where the shapes of the land and of the trees were as well known to him as his hands and toes. Coming to a rise he could see his own Hill in the distance, and he stopped suddenly and said: Roads go ever ever on, Over rock and under tree, By caves where never sun has shone, BY streams that never find the sea, Over snow by winter sown, And through the me"y flowers of June, Over grass and over stone, And under mountains in the moon.
Under cloud and under star Yet feet that wandering have gone Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes Ync4 \*e im4 swm& 'fitm-t -sTm ,4 nd horror in the halls of stone Look at last on meadows green And trees and hills they long have known.
Gandalf looked at him. "My dear Bilbo!" he said.
"Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were."
And so they crossed the bridge and passed the mill by the river and came right back to Bilbo's own door.
"Bless me! What's going on?" he cried. There was a great commotion, and people of all sorts, respectable and unrespectable, were thick round the door, and many were going in and out-not even wiping their feet on the mat, as Bilbo noticed with annoyance.
If he was surprised, they were more surprised still. He had arrived back in the middle of an auction! There was a large notice in black and red hung on the gate, stating that on June the Twenty-second Messrs. Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes would sell by auction the effects of the late Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton.
Sale to commence at ten o'clock sharp. it was now nearly lunchtime, and most of the things had already been sold, for @;?r.mzr@ @@ -.&v, +e,-, vrt&iaft +,z @. @%-. .% not unusual at auctions). Bilbo's cousins the SackvilleBagginses were, in fact, busy measuring his rooms to see if their own furniture would fit. In short Bilbo was "Presumed Dead," and not everybody that said so was sorry to find the presumption wrong.
The return of Mr. Bilbo Baggins created quite a disturbance, both under the frill and over the Mil, and across the Water; it was a great deal more than a nine days' wonTHE LAST STAGE 285
alive again. The people who had got specially good bargains at the Sale took a deal of convincing; and in the end to save time Bilbo had to buy back quite a lot of his own furniture. Many of his silver s-l?QQns imys-tQdQuAy peared and were never accounted for. Personally he suspected the SackvilleBagginses. On their side they never admitted that the returned Baggins was genuine, and they were not on friendly terms with Bilbo ever after. They really had wanted to live in his nice hobbithole so very much.
Indeed Bilbo found he had lost more than spoonshe had lost his reputation. It is true that for ever after he remained an elf-friend, and had the honour of dwarves, wizards, and all such folk as ever passed that way; but he was no longer quite respectable. He was in fact held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be 'queee-except by his nephews and nieces on the Took side, but even they were not encouraged in their friendship by their elders.
I am sorry to say he did not mind. He was quite content; and the sound of the kettle on his hearth was ever after more musical than it had been even in the quiet days before the Unexpected Party. His sword he hung over the mantelpiece. His coat of mail was arranged on a stand in the hall (until he lent it to a Museum). His gold and silver was largely spent in presents, both useful and extravagant -which to a certain extent accounts for the affection of t'c-
-@-&nW--@@-W-m-m-ai-e@ghexe@tagrea:t secret, for he chiefly used it when unpleasant callers came.
He took to writing poetry and visiting the elves; and though many shook their heads and touched their foreheads and said "Poor old Baggins!" and though few believed any of his tales, he remained very happy to the end of his days, and those were extraordinarily long.
One
-when there was a ring at the door. It was Gandalf and a dwarf; and the dwarf was actually BaHn.
"Come inl Come inl" said Bilbo, and soon they were settled in chairs by the fire. If Ba@ noticed that Mr.
Baggins' waistcoat was more extensive (and had real gold buttons), Bilbo also noticed that Balm's beard was several inches longer, and his jewelled belt was of great magnificence.
They fell to talking of their times together, of course, and Bilbo asked how things were going in the lands of the Mountain. It seemed they were going very well. Bard had rebuilt the town in Dale and men had gathered to him from the Lake and from South and West, and all the valley had become tilled again and rich, and the desolation was now filled with birds and blossoms in spring and fruit and feasting in autumn. And Lake-town was refounded and was more prosperous than ever, and much wealth went up and down the Running River; and there was friendship in those parts between elves and dwarves and men.
The old Master had come to a bad end. Bard had given him much gold for the help of the Lake-people, but being of the kind that easily catches such disease he fell under the dragon-sickness, and took most of the gold and fled with it, and died of starvation in the Waste, deserted by his companions.
"The new Master is of wiser @d," said Balm, "and very popular, for, of course, he gets most of the credit for the present prosperity.
They are making songs which say that in his day the rivers run with gold."
"Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.
"Of course!" said Gandalf. "And why should not they prove true?
Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself?
You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures
THE LAST STAGE
am very fond of you @ but you are only quite a little fell in a wide world after all!"
"Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.
It you are interested in Habbits you will learn a lot more about them in The Lord of the Rings: I-THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 2. THE TWO
TO@RS 3. RE@ OF laNG

