Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week Three

[sigridhr]

  Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week Three (The Hobbit)
Chapter V: Riddles in the Dark
Chapter VI: Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Rules

I very much doubt we'll require much in the way of formal rules, but just for the sake of formality and clarity:

• Discussion is welcome and encouraged, as is disagreement. Name-calling and personal attacks will be punished by purchasing $10,000 worth of shares in Mordor Inc. in your name. 
  
• There is no spoiler policy in place. Although we're reading the Hobbit, please feel free to bring in things from other Tolkien works, any of the films, the History of Middle Earth, the Letters of JRR Tolkien, and, if you should like, other literary sources. 
• There is no such thing as too much geekery. Or taking the text too seriously.  
• If you have any concerns at any point, I'm the closest thing this gong show has to a mod, so feel free to get in touch. I can be reached either by PM through this site, or directly by email at sigridhr.lokidottir@gmail.com. 

Discussion on this post will officially run from Friday 18th January 2013 to Friday 25th January 2013. However, the post will remain open after that point, so you're more than welcome to continue discussions on. 

Comments

[gallifaerie.livejournal.com]

Chapter five is so excellent, and so eerie. I think, for me, it's the first part of the book where I get that sort of curiosity itch where I just have to keep reading and I just need answers about what lives in the depths of tunnels, about Gollum and the ring. It's such good writing from a 'page-turner' perspective.

One of my favourite parts of Bilbo and Gollum's interaction is when they're both repeatedly asking each other 'what have you lost?' and 'what has it got in its pocketses?’, and neither of them's answering the other. You can actually feel the tension building up as you see that they're both realising what's happened. It's just so GOOD that I can't really be any more coherent about it.

And I love this line about Gollum, when he realises that he's lost the ring and Bilbo has it: 'such a rage of loss and suspicion was in his heart that no sword had any more terror for him.' I mean, that really speaks volumes about the effect the ring has on Gollum, and how he feels not just when it's lost, but when he knows someone else has it, and has, in his mind, taken it from him.

I wondered if there was any significance to Bilbo's dream at the end of chapter six - it says he's sleeping more soundly on the eyrie than he ever has in Bag End (which could represent him finally taking on the role of 'adventurer' and being comfortable with it, like a few people were discussing above me in this post), but that in his dream, he's wandering into different rooms of his hobbit hole, looking for something that he can't find or remember what it looks like. He's obviously just found the ring at this point, but he's dreaming about loss, so is there some kind of parallel to be made there?

[sigridhr]

I was wondering about the dream too, though I haven't anything intelligent to say about it. I suppose if you take his deep sleep to be his acceptance of his adventury!self, then he could be looking for his comfy!hobbit!self? He's lost the homely and respectable Baggins part of his nature, and stepped out and become a part of the wider world, I suppose. He never truly fits in when he gets home either - he's always that little bit odd, so I suppose he has truly lost the person he used to be in a way.

Or that's total nonsense. :P

[gallifaerie.livejournal.com]

I really like that take on the dream! Yes, he could be trying to unite his two contradictory halves, and he never really manages it. I suppose Bilbo, being an adventurous hobbit, is basically the walking personification of an oxymoron.

[sigridhr]

Hahaha! He is! Well, for a non-Took, I suppose. Though he is quite a bit Tookish.

It must've been so odd for him to just come home and re-settle. I wonder if he hadn't adopted Frodo, if he'd've headed off into the wilds much earlier.

ETA: hit post too quickly. He leaves literally the day Frodo comes of age after all.