The Hobbit

In the third chapter of The Hobbit, “A Short Rest”, we find the same Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Rings leading thirteen dwarfs on a quest to conquer the dragon, Smaug, and reclaim the treasure of their forefather, Thrain, “King under the Mountain”. As with the rest of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the journey is perilous, good souls die but in the end, good overcomes evil. And just like The Fellowship of the Rings, this fellowship of fifteen finds rest on their journey in the home of Elrond, the chief of the Elves of Rivendell. This is what Tolkien writes of their stay:

“His house was perfect, whether you like food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.”

“Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway. They stayed long in that good house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave. Bilbo would gladly have stopped there for ever and ever – even supposing a wish would have taken him right back to his hobbit hole without trouble. Yet there is little to tell about their stay.”

My heart resonated with Tolkien’s when I read the last line. “For ever and ever”, at least the rest of Bilbo’s waning life, would have been little to tell about if he never left the “things that are good to have and days that are good to spend”. But he left that good house and there is much to tell about the rest of his stay in Middle Earth.

-J