grammaboodawg
Elvenhome
Apr 25, 12:10pm
Post #26 of 27
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Today in Middle-earth
Who's that coming up the road?
April 25, 2941 (S.R. 1341)
1. Gandalf visits Bilbo at Bag End.
(determined from text – referencing Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Atlas of Middle-earth)
..."All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall 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 morning!' said Bilbo, and he meant it.... ...But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
..."What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good 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... ...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 mine! There's no hurry, we have all the day before us!" Then Bilbo sat down on a seat... ...crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The Hill.
..."Very pretty!" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this 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... ...We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them,' said our Mr. Baggins... ...Then he took out his morning letters... ...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 morning... ...We don't 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 won't be good till I move off.""
..."Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don't think I know your name..?"
... "...I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you do know my name, though you don't remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! 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... ...Not the man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve... ...I beg your pardon, but I had no idea you were still in business."
... "Where else should I be?" said the wizard. "All the same I 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..."
... "...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."
... "Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea—any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good-bye!" 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....
... "...Gandalf... ...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 escaped adventures very well."
[TIME entries in this calendar are maintained and updated by fans of The Lord of the Rings, and are in no way affiliated with Tolkien Enterprises or the Tolkien Estate. Copyrights and trademarks for the books from which dates and short quotes are taken are held by their respective owners and their use is allowed under the fair use clause of the Copyright Law.
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(This post was edited by grammaboodawg on Apr 25, 12:25pm)
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