Hobbitish

I didn't actually see him during the event, but apparently I recently ran with a Hobbit Wannabe.

I Shall Now Be Known As

Honeysuckle Bunce of Brockenborings

courtesy of Hobbit Name Generator

Unless I'm feeling elvish - Natulcien Felagund

Deconstructing the Lonely Mountain

"I am far too fat for such fly-walks," he said. "I should turn dizzy and tread on my beard, and then you would be thirteen again."

I thought they had to cut their beards off because of the sticky spider-webs?

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.

I'm technically a bit old for this, but I guess I'm from the MTV-ADHD generation. I can't just sit and think for very long. Walk, run, bike, or swim and think for hours, but not just sit. I take a book with me everywhere so I have something to do if I get stuck waiting. I usually have the TV or talk radio on for company and background noise. I've hiked and camped and worked at technology-less camps, so I have a general idea of what that kind of quiet, slow life can be, but it's not my general mode of existence.

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 teacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much.

I'm with Gobula. For some reason this reading has me really losing any respect I might have had for the dwarves. They just don't seem all that capable or decent.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

Duh!

His rage passes description--the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted.

A bit of social commentary snuck into the mix.

They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug--which had always been a weak point in their plans.

Duh! They really didn't seem to have any plan at all except to walk toward the mountain and hope something lucky happened. It was Gandalf who guided them across the mountains and Beorn who set their path through the forest, and they barely survived those travels. Haven't these dwarves been wandering the world for over a hundred years or something? How did they ever manage to get from one place to another and even survive long enough to get there? And then to think they will somehow magically banish the dragon with absolutely no inkling how? Stupid.

The steps were not made, all the same, for hobbit-legs.

In most of the depictions of dwarves and hobbits I've seen, they aren't that significantly different in size. Sure, hobbits are smaller, but dwarves are supposed to be shorter and stockier than humans too. I've been surprised at how many references Tolkien makes to Bilbo not being able to keep up with the dwarves and may need to rethink the size differential I have pictured in my mind.

Resting and Recovering in Lake-Town

Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody.

Attercop - either a spider or a "peevish, ill-natured person."
Tomnoddy - either a puffin or a fool or dunce.
I'm guessing it's the second meaning of each that was intended and taken.

[Bilbo's] 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 and left Bombur to Bilbo.

I have a little trouble believing the cultivated adventure-hater from the start of the book transforms into such a fierce warrior so instantly. Tolkien gave him a background for being good as a burglar and with a thrown stone, but it seems unlikely to me he's ever had any training with a sword or ever had to do any first-hand killing (even of animals like spiders). It's the first time he's actually fought this entire story. So I could see him flailing about with the sword in desperation, but his efficiency seems a bit much.

The feasting people were Wood-elves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. . . . Still elves they were and remain, and that is Good People.

Even though Tolkien tries to assure us the wood-elves are "good people," their actions have never left that impression on me and I've never really bought it. Maybe they are basically decent, but not in this situation and that's not the feeling I have about them after the story.

"But what brought you into the forest at all?" asked the king angrily.

At that Thorin shut his mouth and would not say another word.

Why is Thorin so difficult here? Why wouldn't he simply tell the elf king what he told the great goblin, that We were on a journey to visit our relatives? It's a believable enough explanation, isn't it? This strikes me as a plot device to give Bilbo another chance to be the hero.

He was in the dark tunnel floating in icy water, all alone--for you cannot count friends that are all packed up in barrels.