“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, and down they came like huge black shadows. The wolves yammered and gnashed their teeth; the goblins yelled and stamped with rage, and flung their heavy spears in the air 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.”

Now you can understand why Gandalf, listening to their growling and yelping, began to be dreadfully afraid, wizard though he was, and to feel that they were in a very bad place, and had not yet escaped at all. All the same he was not going to let them have it all their own way, though he could not do very much stuck up in a tall tree with wolves all round on the ground below."
…
He said it to make them angry, and to show them he was not frightened of them—though of course he was, wizard though he was. But they took no notice, and they went on singing."

‘My heart’s right down in my toes, Mr. Pippin,’ said Sam. ‘But we aren’t etten yet, and there are some stout folk here with us. Whatever may be in store for old Gandalf, I’ll wager it isn’t a wolf’s belly.’
LOTR, FOTR, A Journey in the Dark

"In the wavering firelight Gandalf seemed suddenly to grow: he rose up, a great menacing shape like the monument of some ancient king of stone set upon a hill. Stooping like a cloud, he lifted a burning branch and strode to meet the wolves. They gave back before him. High in the air he tossed the blazing brand. It flared with a sudden white radiance like lightning; and his voice rolled like thunder. ‘Naur an edraith ammen! Naur dan i ngaurhoth!’ he cried. There was a roar and a crackle, and the tree above him burst into a leaf and bloom of blinding flame. The fire leapt from tree-top to tree-top. The whole hill was crowned with dazzling light. The swords and knives of the defenders shone and flickered. The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew, and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain. All the others fled.

LOTR, FOTR, A Journey in the Dark

"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."

“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 rooms looking for something that he could not find nor remember what it looked like.”

Bilbo is reluctant to explain about the invisibility ring. I like the way that this seems to make perfect sense without LOTR– Bilbo has just been given an unvarnished picture of how little the dwarves value him, and he’d rather take the credit for having skills they hadn’t guessed than to suggest he’s nearly as useless as they think, but has obtained a magical gadget by sheer luck.

LOTR readers can of course think that Ring has found a secretive and selfish part of Bilbo’s personality (the Ring as a ‘psychic amplifier’, as Tom Shippey puts it). Or we can see the Ring as a ‘sentient creature’ (Shippey again – you can find the full quote and source here http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=567432#567432 ) and infer it is compelling Bilbo to behave in the Ring’s interests – perhaps it’s eager not to become known to the dwarves or to Gandalf? On the other hand though, does that really make sense – if we assume the Ring wants to return to Sauron’s hand, why would it prefer to remain Bilbo’s secret, rather than to advertise itself? Or was Bilbo was meant to keep the Ring secret, but not by its maker?

'Dwarves': you know what they are. Gruff, practical, industrious, stout, gold-loving, blunt-speaking, Scottish-accented, Viking-helmed, booze-swilling, Elf-hating, ax-swinging, long-bearded, stolid and unimaginative, boastful of their battle prowess and their vast echoing underground halls and mainly just the fact that they are dwarves

Our Dwarves Are All The Same http://tvtropes.org/...DwarvesAreAllTheSame

The wizard, to tell the truth, never minded explaining his cleverness more than once

"I must see if I can't find a more or less decent giant to block it up again," said Gandalf, "or soon there will be no getting over the mountains at all."

He had lost hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons, and his friends.

Another bit of writing in this chapter I like is the absurdist humor at the beginning:

Quote

As if one could equate the importance of buttons with the other items in the list!

It [the door] was still ajar, but a goblin had pushed it nearly to. Bilbo struggled but 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 in the edge of the door and the door-post...

...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.

He had lost hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons, and his friends.

As the story [LOTR] proceeds, one notices that different writing styles are used to narrate passages concerning different characters. So for example, a passage focussed on Sam tends to be in fairly simple and everyday language and grammar:

“When thirteen had fallen the rest fled shrieking, leaving the defenders unharmed, except for Sam who had a scratch along the scalp. A quick duck had saved him; and he had felled his orc: a sturdy thrust with his Barrow-blade. A fire was smouldering in his brown eyes that would have made Ted Sandyman step backwards, if he had seen it.”

Fellowship of the Ring - The Bridge of Khazad-Dum

Compare that with the following passage, in which we start with Éowyn, but then see Tolkien shifting style as the focus moves between different characters. :

“Still she did not blench; maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her and her hair shone in the sunrise.

Out of the wreck rose the Black Rider, tall and threatening, towering above her. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace. Her shield was shivered in many pieces, and her arm was broken; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill.

But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry’s sword had stabbed him from behind...”

Return of the King -The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

No mere “quick duck” and “sturdy thrust” in that overtly (and gorgeously) Beowulfian first paragraph! The alliterations and the kenning (“steel-blade”) capture Éowyn’s moment in the very Anglo-Saxon manner Tolkien has given her people. But the next paragraph and a half tones that down, until the description of Merry’s surprise attack is everyday modern English, and much more hobbit-like. (One imagines Merry later sitting blushing through a Bard of Rohan’s magnificent alliterative verse rendition of his mighty deeds and muttering “But all I did was stab him from behind...”)

Narrating Middle-earth by NoWizardMe (http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=668923#668923