SETTING
The first chapter takes place in the hobbits’ village (named Hobbiton, a piece of information which is not given in this chapter), more precisely at the protagonist’s home, “a hole in the ground”. Notice how the surroundings are described and called: everything revolves around the notions of peace,cosiness, simplicity and nature, and the idea that things never change – quite the opposite of what is going to happen from the second chapter onwards… Actually, it is also precisely where the story will also end (this circular structure of the story is obvious in the subtitle of the novel, “There And Back Again”): after the turmoil of adventure, peace again, but although the places have not changed, Bilbo has: he has become the hero Gandalf claimed he could not find easily in Chapter 1 (“… and in this neighbourhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found” [lines 476-7]).
The Hobbit is set in "Middle-earth," a fantasyland created by Tolkien. Within Middle-earth, The Hobbit is restricted to settings in the Western lands. It starts and ends in Hobbiton, a town in the Shire, a peaceful region usually untouched by troubles elsewhere in the world. During the course of the book, the setting changes, moving east across the Misty Mountains and through the great forest of Mirkwood to the area around the Lonely Mountain, which includes the Desolation of Smaug, Lake-town, and the ruins of the town of Dale.
The culture and climate of Middle-earth is akin to that of Europe in the Middle Ages, but presupposes a time much older, when magic was still a powerful force, and elves, dwarves, and other races shared the world with humans. The geography of Middle-earth, however, is not that of earth as it is now known, and regions and landmarks in The Hobbit have no familiar parallels. (Tolkien said elsewhere that it may be that the shape of the land has since changed.) Middle-earth is, therefore, a world both vaguely familiar and altogether strange.
The Shire, the pastoral and idyllic homeland of the hobbits, is on one level simply Tolkien's idealized portrait of rustic, rural England. On a deeper level, however, it symbolizes the withdrawn life, the insulated life, the too-self-directed life. Bilbo must leave the Shire, not really to go questing after dragon's gold, but in order to grow up – in order to engage the world and to find his place in it. As Gandalf tells him near the novel's end, Bilbo is "only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all" – but that "only" still leaves quite a large role for Bilbo to play, and he must discover that role in the wide world for himself. The Shire represents comfort and tranquility, and while these experiences are not bad in and of themselves, they are also not all that constitutes life. When Bilbo returns to the Shire, he is a more experienced and more knowledgeable person, especially of himself, than he could have been had he stayed in the Shire forever. He has learned to value the world outside; as his own song puts it, "The road goes ever on." There are always more journeys – outer as well as inner – to be taken, even at one's home.
DON’T FORGET
Mention the way the importance of Gandalf in the shaping of Bilbo’s adventure is hinted at in the movie version of The Lord Of The Rings shot by Peter Jackson: Gandalf’s understatement to Frodo, Bilbo’s nephew: “If you refer to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved”.
THEMES
Simplicity and comfort of rural life
THE DOUBLE NATURE OF SIGNS (words, symbols, situations)
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
IMPORTANT
The role of Gandalf in shaping Bilbo’s real self.
Bilbo’s reactions to the situation.
COMMENTARY
INTRODUCTION:
The passage to be studied is a part from the first chapter of Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit – Or There And Back Again that was published in 1937. Before starting the commentary, it is worth mentioning that this story was first meant as a bed-time story Tolkien intended for his children.
In this story, Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit from the Shire (a part of the fictitious world of Middle-Earth), is led by an omniscient wizard called Gandalf to take part in an adventure in which – with his 13 dwarf companions – he will fight or encounter creatures he would never have dreamt of meeting: goblins, elves, a dragon… And in doing so, he will come to possess by chance a magical and mighty ring, which has the power of making its wearer invisible. He will undergo dramatic changes, and when he comes back from this perilous journey to his homeland, he is not the cowardly, unadventurous Hobbit of the first chapter anymore.
The passage to be studied takes place at the very beginning of the story, and although the adventure has not really started yet, it becomes obvious that things will not stay as simple and comfortable as they are in Bilbo’s cosy world of eating, drinking, sleeping and smoking pipe-weed.
We will see that in this passage, which starts with a typically phatic conversation about a good spring morning, one of the two protagonists – namely Gandalf the wizard, who is introduced in this passage for the first time – hints at what awaits the little unsuspecting hobbit from the second chapter onwards. It becomes soon obvious that Gandalf is not just a wizard, but the driving force shaping the future of our Hobbit – as well as the particulars of the adventure about to unfold.
DISCUSSION:
In this part of the chapter, we have the first real encounter between two of the main protagonists of the novel, namely Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, and Gandalf, a wizard. Actually, Gandalf is more than ‘just’ a wizard: he is the one who will take hold of Bilbo’s life: from a typical Hobbit (who loves eating, smoking pipe-weed and above all having nothing to do with any adventures of any sort), Bilbo will turn into a full-fledged hero embarking (unwillingly at first) on a quest.
This role as a ‘destiny-shaper’ is made obvious in the way Gandalf handles the conversation in the passage under study. From a peaceful and phatic exchange about weather on a fine spring morning (it is April [line 284]), the conversation turns into a trap where Bilbo finds himself promising something he had absolutely not foreshadowed: taking part into an adventure. Gandalf plays on the different pragmatic meanings of the simple “Good morning” sentence, twisting it into something that will serve his purpose, that is, make Bilbo agree to the adventure.
QUOTATIONS TO BE KEPT IN MIND:
“By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)Gandalf came by. Gandalf! 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.” [49-55]
“since his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like” [56-7]
“All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff.” [59]
DESCRIPTIONS + STEREOTYPES
““Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it” [62]
““What do you mean?” he said.“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?” [65-6]
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.”” [72-4]
“We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!” [75-6]
“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.” [78-80]
“I will give you what you asked for.” “I beg your pardon, I haven't asked for anything!” “Yes, you have! 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.”” [106-10]
“with the spike of his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit's beautiful green front-door.” [119-20]
“Bilbo was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had escape adventures very well.” [120-1]