Curious
Half-elven
Jul 12 2012, 4:09pm
Views: 825
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Was it just Gandalf or did he often forget he invited people for tea? Might explain his lack of friends! It was Gandalf. Bilbo has an appointment book and often has visitors, but Gandalf flustered him, as the narrator tells us. At the beginning of the book, it appears that Bilbo has many social acquaintances and an excellent reputation, meaning he is not the type of person who would forget he invited people to tea. Whether they are true friends is another matter.
But it isn't Gandalf it's a dwarf, Dwalin. With a blue beard and dark-green hood. Hood colours are important! Or are they? How accurate should a certain film -maker keep to this text? And a blue beard! Does Tolkien mean literaly blue? How does a dwarf beard get blue? None of the others seem to have blue beards, not even Gandalf. Tolkien makes highlights hood and beard colors in this chapter, and then, IIRC, we rarely hear about them again. The unusual beard colors, some not normally found in nature, help make the dwarves seem cute and comic rather than alien and foreboding. Like Bilbo and Gandalf, the dwarves are strange, but not in a scary or monstrous way -- although in the case of Gandalf, appearances can be deceiving.
However, Tolkien manages to give the dwarves various descriptions without really giving them distinct personalities. Only Thorin, Bombur, and maybe Balin stand out from the crowd, and only Thorin has a real character arc. Dwalin is generally remembered only as Balin's brother because their names rhyme. This could be considered a flaw or a feature, depending on how much you like the way The Hobbit is different from LotR. The multitude of extra dwarves are like a comic chorus, like the Keystone Cops, trailing along for comic effect without ever really offering much assistance. Oh, and they do provide an excuse to add Bilbo to the party as the lucky number 14.
So why Dwarves? Why did apart from Hobbits, Tolkien decided to focus upon Dwarves rather than Man or Elves his main love? I suppose that Dwarves are good enough to be trusted by Bilbo but have their tricksy little ways, room for future conflict. Good question! Perhaps to make Bilbo seem more human? Perhaps just for comic effect? It's really hard to say. Most of Tolkien's fantasy stories are not about dwarves, so it's not an obvious decision.
Anyway as has been mentioned this entrance is very similar to the trick Gandalf pulls on Beorn. Though maybe not exactly the same. Perhaps the Dwarves did come individually to Bag End from their various halls! Same trick, very different reason. Here the idea is to avoid scaring Bilbo; with Beorn the idea was to avoid angering him. It's like the difference between tricking a rabbit or a bear.
Though is every Dwarf hood accounted for? I don't think I can find 13 hoods in the text. I'm not sure, but that's another sign that it isn't really important, except perhaps to gloss over the fact that most of the dwarves are just filler.
1615 recipe for seed cake. Old recipe with picture. Seed cake is an old recipe. Apparently it is like a pound cake with seeds. Caraway seeds, poppy seeds, or anise seeds may be used, although in England apparently caraway seeds are traditional. It's not like carrot cake.
I'm sure Bilbo did not have a modern freezer. Cake doesn't need a freezer unless there is a dairy product like cream cheese icing involved. Bilbo was already underground, and his pantry was naturally cool, but not cold. If the Shire had snow or ice, it could have been stored in an ice house. The problem is that the Shire is modeled on England, which does not have snow-covered mountains, and I doubt that anyone was importing ice from outside the Shire. More likely Bilbo just ate well and had visitors frequently, so he always had food on hand.
Hmmmm Pork-pie I understand but Bombur doesn't strike me as a salad person! I think the idea was to require a highly varied set of foods for comic effect. And I'm sure English salads were heavy on dried fruits and nuts and maybe sugar or eggs. But you are right, it doesn't seem appropriate for Bombur. Maybe he was trying to cut back, but couldn't resist the pork pie.
Gandalf knows Bilbo's larder because Bilbo is a very predictable hobbit, as we have been told, who loves to eat and frequently has visitors. Bilbo probably has a little of everything that is normally served to last-minute visitors.
Tolkien's rhymes often have four beats per line, without much variance. I prefer more irregular beat patterns. However, the washing-up song is made interesting by the teasing tone and the threat of mayhem, or at least of a mess. It's like the lullabye "Stay Awake" in Mary Poppins, with the words at variance with the activity.
The dragon song is made interesting because it actually tells us what the quest is about, which is why Thorin is confused when Bilbo still has questions afterwards. And what is the quest about? One part treasure, one part revenge on the dragon. But the treasure is important, and sung about at length.
Of course the question is, why would Bilbo care about treasure or the dragon?
(This post was edited by Curious on Jul 12 2012, 4:13pm)
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