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THE HOBBIT
J.R.R. Tolkien

Chapters, 4-6

Now we are getting somewhere. Having left 'the last homely house' behind (note: homely here does not mean ugly, but warm and welcoming), our intrepid band makes its way into the Misty Mountains. And immediately runs into trouble. Tolkien's goblins, sometims called orcs in this book, and exclusively by that name in LOTR, are a nasty bunch.

Then there is Gollum. A nasty creature of dark and damp; in "The Hobbit," little is told of his background. In the 1977 animated film version of the book, he had a decidely frog-like appearance. (You can find pictures of both Gollums by entering is name on Google images. It seems he is quite fond of riddles. Losing his 'precious' to Bilbo is a crushing blow to him.

I was intrigued by the almost eymbiotic realtionship between the goblins and the wolves/wargs. It was a good then for the company that the eagles appeared when they did.

Cattleman I love your post!

I love how we're already seeing the evolution of Bilbo. He's already starting to form a backbone.

I was also intrigued by the relationship between the wolves/wargs and the goblins. It was definitely an interesting mesh.

Have you ever played "Kingdom Rush"? It's an online strategy game that involves goblins, wargs, orcs, and assorted other nasties. Not terribly Tolkienesque, but it does have those bad guys.

Bilbo is still a very reluctant hero, he seems to be at the right place at the right time. He found the ring by accident and he just happened to wake up in time to alert Gandolf of the danger the group was in. So Bilbo is either very lucky or maybe it is his fate or detiny. Gandolf certainly sees something special in Bilbo.

What I liked in these chapters were the riddles. I liked that not only physical strength is powerful but mental strenth is useful as well. The riddles used in Hobbit reminds me of "The Dark Tower" series by Steven King. King uses riddles in one of thebooks in this series and the one that is the stumper is a little under handed.

Tolien is establishing his species of creatues very well. Each one he introduces he describes well, gives them a voice and characteristics. Gullum is by far my favorite. He is one of a kind! But he has his own story.

I wonder if King's use of the riddle game might be modeled after or inspired by Tolkien's description of it in The Hobbit. As I recall, in the King book, the rules were spelled out much more elaborately and explicitly than in Tolkien.

Not an unlikely scenario, Tom. Authors are always "borrowing" ideas from each other. For example, in her Vatta's War series, Elizabeth Moon borrowed the 'ansible' instantaneous communication device from Ursala LeGuin.

The ansible was a popular concept. I think a number of authors used that one. Didn't Orson Card combine it with the computer to produce a self-aware galactic network? But, back to the Hobbit...

As best I recall, the full story of Smeagol (aka Gollum) doesn't come out until Gandalf tells it to Frodo in LOTR. Is that right? In the Hobbit, we only know the character as Gollum and he doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities at all. In LOTR, he develops in some pretty surprising ways.