Plot Notes B

[page] 1

Bilbo follows party into the cave. Description of the Elfking and his halls. The dwarves are put into different cells. Bilbo cannot find the way out through the magic gates. He goes from cell to cell and manages to speak to the dwarves; and he tells them he has found Gandalf in a very deep dungeon. Gandalf will not tell the king his errand, because he will not share his treasure with the wood-elves.

The river flows under part of the caves & issues by a secret water gate. That way the wood-elves get many of their supplies, especially of wine. When the barrels were empty they dropped them into the river, and they floated out through the watergate until the current brought them to a place on the bank not far from the edge of the forest. There they were linked together and floated like a raft down past the marshes and the reedy places to the Long Lake.

<All/At> <times> Bilbo <illegible> <on> lurking in the king’s passages, living on scraps of food. ‘Living like a burglar that can’t get out again’ he thought. But in the end he had a desperate idea.

Steal jailers keys and lets out a dwarf at a time. Hides them in barrels. In this way they are all <?thrown> [in] water.

<Indeed> Bilbo escape only by sitting outside one. Difficulty of getting through watergate. the barrels assembled. Grumbles of elves.^TN3 Raft. Floating past the marshes. Raftsmen tell tales of the disappearance of the <rafts> and the loss of men & beasts in these places.

Reach Long Lake and a town of men. The dwarves leap out of their Barrels and gallop off with the waggons.^TN4 [But only go off towards the Mountain far with >] To the town.

Argument of Gandalf and the Mayor. They buy food, and waggons (but <how> to get the stuff back <large> quest!) and go off. The elves go back to the king who makes a plan.

[page] 2

All the land desert.^TN5

The dwarves camped in a hollow near the skirts of the mountain. From here some went <taking> Bilbo up the river from the Lake, the Running river. They look on the Ruins of Dale. Smoke comes out of the Front Door.

Then Smaug is still alive? Doesn’t <tell>. Inside of M. is probably pretty hot!

A whole year had now gone by since they stayed with Elrond. It was summer. But black bleak and lonely. They crept near<er> the mountain by stages but only saw crows and ravens, and were afraid of them as spies. The summer waned. After endless search on the west side of the mountain guided by the map they found a wall of rock standing in a kind of bay. <Strangely> flat with grass up to its feet. It was the door. But it had no key and nowhere could any crack or chink be seen. Nothing they could do would make any of it stir.

Bilbo was wandering disconsolately. The dwarves were silent <fierce> and unfriendly, and he wd. hear them muttering that the burglar – esp with his ring – ought to go in by F.G.^TN6 if necessary. He had <clombered> up the hill and <on> to the little flat terrace platform where the flat rock-face stood. Looking back he could see the line of the forest far to west, a yellow gleam of light on the marshes the trees in the distance going brown towards autumn. Suddenly he saw the orange sun setting and saw the new moon pale and sharp in the Western sky as well. At the very moment he heard a sharp crack. There on a grey stone was a huge and ancient thrush, coal black with white heart and black freckles. It was cracking snails upon the stone. Crack crack.

Bilbo <yells on> hill. <Fetches> dwarves. They watch excitedly as the sun sinks lower and lower. It goes behind a cloud to their despair. But suddenly just before it touches the rim of the forest a red ray shoots through a rent in the sky and falls on the rock-slab. There is a crack. There is a hole in the wall as if <illegible> by the sun as a flake of rock falls off.

The troll-key fits the door swings in. Darkness falls suddenly and the moon goes quickly after the sun.

[page] 3

—:Bilbo earns his reward:—^TN7

The dwarves say he must go in. He begs them to come too. They won’t, until he has explored: all save old Balin yellow-beard. Balin & the hobbit creep into the dark mountain.^TN8

Not as difficult as they expected – the tunnel ran absolutely straight and slight[ly] Down. Down down down for ever. Soon they see a light at the end, growing steadily redder and redder. A bubbling snoring <burbling>^TN9 noise. It gets very hot. Vapors float up to them.

At last they peep into a <large> hall, the greatest of all the halls under mountain. It is nearly dark. Lit by a red glow. Coming from the large red [gold] dragon lying there fast asleep upon a pile of jems.^TN10 Crushed under him, as he lay half on his side. He steals a cup to show he has been there. He sees shields and spears.^TN11

The dwarves pleased & pat him on the back.

Wrath of the dragon. He comes out – <of course>^TN12 he cannot get up the secret tunnel – and sniffs all round the mountain.^TN13 and settles flying on the mountain, fly fiercely round and round to find the thief. Terror of the dwarves as he flies over them in fire, while they crouch in holes and behind rocks. They dig holes to hide in.

Bilbo steals another cup.

Greater wrath of dragon – but this time, Dwarves have dug deep caves to hide in.^TN14

Bilbo steals a gem.^TN15 Seen by dragon as he escapes up the tunnel. Dragon sends [fire >] fiery <spouts> up after him, and poor B. is burned badly. Dragon thinks that it is men from Long Lake. Goes off in a dreadful rage to destroy their town. The people see him coming [and fly. but he dare not come down >] and cut down the bridge to their lake-dwelling. [Dragon doesn’t come out onto the water. >] Dragon flies over town trying to set the town on fire. They put fire out with water and shoot at him. He settles at end of lake and vast clouds of steam go up.

[page] 4

The dwarves and Bilbo can see this from the mountain side.

The dwarves go in while dragon is away and bring out a store of gold. Bilbo gets them to tell of all the treasure there. And he asks how they are going to get it all back^TN16

Bilbo goes back a third time. [added: Steals a marvellous gem] Dragon wakes and speaks to him as he peers from mouth of tunnel into the hall.

‘Who are you’

Says dwarves don’t worry about him – how is he going to get his share home.

B. flatters dragon. D. says he is impregnable. Even on soft underside he is encrusted. B. makes him show. Sees there is a patch.

He goes back to the dwarves filled with misgivings and asks them about their future plans. They tell him of the Jem of Girion king of Dale the gem for the arming of his son. Bilbo keeps on looking at his gem. He must earn it.

He goes in and kills dragon as it sleeps [added: exhausted after battle] with a spear

O Down the swift dark stream you go

Back to woods you once did know.

Leave the northern forest deep

Leave the halls and caverns deep

Leave the northern mountains steep

Where the forest wide and dim

<Stoops> in shadow grey and grim.

Float beyond the world of trees

pass the out into the whispering breeze

past the rushes past the reeds

where past the marsh’s waving weeds

through the mist that rises pale white

<from> <where> the land of lake and mere

up from meres and pools and night

<Then> find the lake of many isles

Gather at the town

Find the town of <illegible> the bridges and the piles

Where the town is

in lower left margin:

Follow follow <illegible> his leaping stars

Spring from the mists

<Spring> <illegible> from <his>

Up the heavens high & steep

<Illegible> Through the mist above the land

Over rapid over sand

South away and south away

Seek the sunlight and the day

Seek the <gardens> and field

in top margin:

<Find>

Seek the garden and the fields

Back to pasture, back to mead

back to where the <herder> <fat> kine & oxen feed

Back to gardens on the hills

where the berry swells and fills

in upper left margin:

Under sunlight and under day

South away and south away.

<Down the swift> <dark stream> go

Back to <illegible> you once did know

The following final page of Plot Notes B, originally numbered page 5, had its pagination cancelled in a lighter ink and was renumbered page 6; this occurred when Plot Notes D was incorporated into the composite Plot Notes B/C/D text (see Text Note 2). Significantly, even at that late date (when Tolkien was nearing the end of Chapter XIII) this projection of the ending of the book was still considered current, as indicated by the repagination. Not until the creation of Plot Notes E and F, at the very end of the Second Phase and beginning of the Third Phase, respectively (that is, written after the story broke off part way through Chapter XV) was the following page describing Bilbo’s return journey superceded. The page begins with a small decorative flourish that seems intended to separate it from the preceding and mark the beginning of a new section.

[page] 5

With an army – a battle is gathering in the west. B. puts on [the >] a suit of silver mail made for an elf-king’s son, and goes with the wood-elves to battle.

The men of the woods and the wood elves [and >] gather a great army, and men come from the south, and the goblins of the Misty Mountains & wargs are defeated[.] Beorn Medwed is there with a troop of bears. After the battle the way is clear over the mountains. Bilbo with only a little treasure – a nice set of golden dinner service – and the Gem of Girion – goes home.^TN17 The wizard won’t have <any more>. They uncover the trolls’ gold & leave it.

Brief stay at Elrond’s. But in end B. <thinks> he will go home to his own hole. Took is getting tired.

Arrival at own home. ‘Presumed dead’[.] In middle of an auction. Puts Gem in a safe but looks at it every day. Otherwise <just becomes> a hobbit again – but very different. Takes to writing poetry and is regarded as a bit queer.

Long after when he is very old he returns the Gem.^TN18

His ring he used when unwelcome callers came.

Explanation of troll key

The wizard’s reward.

The back of this page (Marq. 1/1/10:8) is a rough pencil map, forerunner of the finished map that accompanied the ‘home manuscript’, showing the relative locations of Mirkwood, the Marshes, the Forest River, Laketown, the Lonely Mountain, and the Withered Heath. As with the final map, this one shows mountains or spurs reaching down in a great crescent from the north-east until they almost touch the outstretched arm of the Mountain; these apparently form the eastern barrier to the Withered Heath.

TEXT NOTES

1 Marquette 1/1/10:1–2 (original pages 1 & 2), 1/1/25:1–2 (original pages 3 & 4), and 1/1/10:7–8 (original page 5 plus the draft penciled map).

2 That is, new page 4 from Plot Notes C was cancelled and replaced by a new sheet containing newer pages 4 and 5 (= Plot Notes D), at which point the final page of text from Plot Notes B (original page 5) was renumbered by Tolkien ‘[page] 6’. The full sequence of the composite manuscript can be shown thusly in tabular form:

3 The last two words (‘of elves’) were cancelled.

4 Tolkien originally followed this sentence with the word ‘Present’ here at the end of a line and then immediately struck it out; perhaps it would have been the beginning of a line about the dwarves presenting themselves to the Mayor of Lake Town or simply some phrase beginning with the word ‘Presently’.

5 This line, added at the top of the second page, uses ‘desert’ in the old sense of deserted and desolate (‘a desert island’), not dotted with sand and cacti.

6 F.G.: that is, the Front Gate.

7 ‘Bilbo earns his reward’ is written almost as a title, alone at the top of the page, preceded by an inverted triangle of three dots and followed by a small decoration that looks like a colon and a dash. The same words are repeated, like a catch-phrase, in the first line of Plot Notes C: see p. 495.

Although this sheet (1/1/25:1–2) is now brown with age, it is of the same paper and type as the somewhat more well-preserved sheet (1/1/10:1–2) that once preceded it.

8 This and the following two paragraphs were altered so that Bilbo would be forced to explore the tunnel alone, as in the published book, although the alteration was not consistently carried out (note the two accidental retentions of they which should have been changed in each case to he). The revised text reads:

9 burbling: This word is nearly illegible, but certainly begins with a b, which seems to be followed by an -ur-, and ends in -ly or -ling. If my reading is correct, then it’s a very old (Middle and Early Modern English) word meaning a bubbling, gurgling sound. Tolkien’s use, however, probably derives not from the fourteenth- through sixteenth-century usages cited by the OED but from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’, from Through the Looking-Glass [1871]:

And as in uffish thought he stood

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood

And burbled as it came!

—lines 13–16.

For Tolkien’s fondness for Carroll, and his propensity for quoting from Carroll’s nonsense poetry (of which ‘Jabberwocky’ is perhaps the most famous), see p. 65, Nt 30.

10 Originally Smaug is described as red; the addition makes him a ‘red gold dragon’.

It’s possible that Tolkien’s use of jem instead of gem in these plot notes was a deliberate archaism; the OED cites examples of that alternate spelling from c. 1400 to as late as 1799. If so he quickly rejected the idea and settled on the standardized spelling. Curiously enough, by the early eighteenth century ‘jem’ had become a slang term among the London underworld for a ring, particularly a valuable (gold or diamond) ring.

11 This last sentence may have been added later; it’s written in a slightly smaller hand than the rest of the preceding paragraph. If so, its purpose was probably to help set up the dragon-killing episode on this outline’s next page.

12 The word(s) immediately following the dash appear to be ‘of course’, but it could also be ‘after’, either of which makes sense in the context.

13 ‘sniffs all round the mountain’ was struck out; originally the phrase was preceded by two words which appear to be ‘flying’ and ‘camp’, although this last is doubtful. The general sense, however, is clear even as Tolkien struggled with variant phrasing to best capture the scene of Smaug flying around, searching, attempting to sniff them out. Cf. Smaug’s comment in the published book that he ‘know[s] the smell (and taste) of dwarf – no one better’ (DAA.280), and note also the reappearance of the motif of being hunted by scent in Frodo’s first encounter with the Black Riders in Chapter III of The Lord of the Rings (LotR.88).

14 All the sentence following the dash is struck through, but Tolkien has underlined it with a dotted line and written ‘stet’ in the left margin, indicating that he withdrew the cancellation.

15 This line, which was probably struck through at the same time that the line ‘Steals a marvellous gem’ was added to the next page, represents the first appearance of what would become the Jem or Gem of Girion (the Arkenstone); see commentary below.

The entire paragraph, with its many hesitations and cancellations, was struck out with two parallel diagonal lines, but Tolkien also wrote ‘stet’ both above and to the left of the paragraph, indicating he restored the cancellation. It is not clear if this restoration applies to the cancelled first sentence or not.

16 This paragraph is cancelled by a stroke through it, and another set of cancellation lines extend up to include the preceding paragraph as well. Tolkien has written the word ‘Stet’ (i.e., do not delete) in the left margin opposite the preceding paragraph about Bilbo and the dwarves watching the mayhem from the mountain side, but presumably that restoration does not apply to the paragraph describing their removal of the gold.

17 This line was struck through and an arrow drawn from it to the middle of the penultimate paragraph, presumably to indicate that this topic was to be dealt with there. For more on the idea that Bilbo would either set out with very little treasure or would lose most of it on the way home, see Plot Notes F and also Text Note 11 to Chapter XIX.

18 This sentence is bracketed by Tolkien, usually a sign that the material thus marked needs to be moved, reconsidered, or deleted.

(i)
The Story Foreseen from the Capture by Wood-elves

As with Plot Notes A, this second set of Plot Notes begins with confidence and follows what would become the next chapter or so closely but increasingly diverges beyond that point. By contrast with Tolkien’s indecision in the final paragraphs of Plot Notes A where he struggled to find an acceptable way of extricating his characters from the Elvenking’s dungeons (see p. 296), here he starts by smoothly plotting out their escape from captivity; with Chapter VIII behind him the immediate road ahead had become clearer. It is no longer Bilbo who goes into the barrel but all his friends, while he must ‘[sit] outside one’ (a complete reversal of the situation projected in Plot Notes A, where Bilbo escaped alone inside a barrel). Bilbo no longer has to retrace his steps back through Mirkwood to beseech help from Medwed, the great eagles, and Bladorthin, nor does Bladorthin reappear just long enough to solve all their problems before disappearing yet again. Instead, Bilbo’s ‘desperate’ plan proves wholly successful and gets them all safely out of the forest and all the way to Long Lake, just as in the final book.

(ii)
Visiting the Mewlips

The rather ominous line about rafts, men (i.e., raft-elves), and beasts disappearing in the Long Marshes suggests that Tolkien had some adventure in mind for what unpleasantness would have befallen the hobbit and his companions had they found their way into the marshes. The disappearances described here might simply be the work of Smaug’s foraging, but this seems unlikely – the dragon’s hunting seems to have been far from subtle, and from later descriptions it sounds as if he has kept close to the Lonely Mountain for many years past. We do, however, have a description of sinister cannibalistic monsters lurking in a swamp in another of Tolkien’s works: his poem ‘The Mewlips’ (ATB poem #9).¹ Given the degree to which Tolkien borrowed freely from his earlier works when writing The Hobbit – what I have elsewhere called his knack for autoplagiarism – it would be entirely in keeping for him to have done the same here, but in the event the story took a different direction and Bilbo luckily avoided having to slog through the marshes entirely.

(iii)
Lake Town

Tolkien originally conceived of the arrival at Lake Town (or, rather, at ‘a town of men’ on the shores of the Long Lake) somewhat more dramatically – rather than crawling from their barrels stiff and grumbling the dwarves boldly ‘leap out’, steal some wagons, and gallop off. At first Tolkien apparently thought to have them ride away from the lake towards the mountain, but on second thought he had them dash away from the elven rivermen (who might try to re-imprison them) and go to the human town instead, where they were no doubt able to claim sanctuary as in the published book. Interestingly enough, this settlement on the Long Lake is not yet named anywhere in the text but remains merely ‘a town of men’, although the label ‘Lake Town’ had appeared on the very first map drawn into the Pryftan Fragment in the initial stage of composition on the book: see the Frontispiece. After wrangling with the Mayor (who never does receive a name in any version of the story) and buying supplies, they set off toward the Mountain.

(iv)
The Original Time-Scheme

Another variance from the final story is revealed by the line ‘A whole year had now gone by since they stayed with Elrond’: as in Plot Notes A, the original conception whereby Bilbo’s journey lasted more than a year, possibly two, was still in place. It was already late autumn when Bilbo climbed the tree in Mirkwood (cf. p. 304: ‘for autumn was now far on’ and Text Note 6 to Chapter VIII), while their captivity in the elf-mound lasted month after month, all through winter and into spring (again, see Plot Notes A, p. 296). Now more months pass as summer wears away while they slowly draw near the mountain, although whether fear or rough terrain is responsible for their slow progress is not made clear. When Durin’s Day (which is not so named here) does arrive, it occurs on the first new moon of autumn, as in the original conception (an echo of which remained in the text of The Hobbit until 1995; see DAA.101–2 and my commentary on p. 135), not the last moon of autumn as in the published tale. The reference to crows and ravens indicates that the motif of the friendly ravens, Roäc and Carc, had not yet arisen (see Plot Notes D, p. 569, and Plot Notes E: ‘Little Bird’, p. 628).

(v)
Into the Dragon’s Lair

The scene with the finding and opening of the secret door is in outline much the same as in the fuller version that was to follow; this episode had clearly been foreseen from at least as far back as the drafting of what is now Chapter III; see p. 116. The initial exploration of Smaug’s lair is also similar, except for the all important fact that originally Tolkien thought that two of the party, Bilbo and Balin (who is beginning to emerge as the most sympathetic of the dwarves), would make the initial foray, before revising it to make Bilbo go alone. Bilbo steals the cup as in the final story (a detail inspired by The Beowulf; see p. 533) and the dragon emerges and goes on a rampage.

At this point, the outline begins to diverge from the story as it eventually developed, with the amusing detail of the dwarves digging holes to hide in (memories of WWI foxholes?) as the angry dragon flies over: a rather comic idea that did not survive. This is followed by mere repetition, with Bilbo stealing another cup, the dragon going on another prowl, and the dwarves hiding in deeper caves they have prepared (trenches like those on the Western Front?). Bilbo’s third foray, where he steals a gem, ends in his being seriously injured (‘burned badly’) by the dragon; this injury survives into the final book – cf. DAA.283, where Bilbo is in ‘great pain’ – but is rather downplayed since Bilbo continues to act normally despite being scorched down to the skin.

The dragon’s departure to attack the lake-men first occurs here, as does the first evidence that their settlement is actually on, not beside, the lake: we are explicitly told that once they have ‘cut down the bridge to their lake-dwelling’ the dragon cannot reach them because that would mean coming out over the water. The bifurcation of the story that later led to the resequencing and reversal of Chapters XIII and XIV (see pp. 547 & 577) has not yet occurred: here Bilbo and the dwarves know of Smaug’s attack on the town because they can see it from the slopes of the Mountain – proof, by the way, that Smaug did not succeed in finding and sealing the secret door from outside. Indeed the dwarves, far from cowering in doubt for several days, seize this opportune moment to begin plundering Smaug’s hoard; and it is seeing the first load (‘a store of gold’) on the mountain side that sparks Bilbo’s doubts about the magnitude of the enterprise he has undertaken.

(vi)
Conversations with Smaug

At least some of the repetition in the account here of Bilbo’s forays into Smaug’s lair is more apparent than real, since Tolkien cancelled several paragraphs (everything between ‘Dwarves have dug deep caves to hide in’ and ‘asks how they are going to get it all back’; see Text Notes 14, 15, & 16), after which the outline then goes back to sketch out a different way Bilbo’s third descent into Smaug’s lair might have gone, introducing the motif of ‘conversation with Smaug’. Smaug’s vulnerable patch appears here for the first time, a detail probably inspired by the Sigurd legend (where the dragon-slayer himself could only be slain if stabbed in one secret vulnerable spot; see pp. 500–501) and Tolkien’s own earlier account of the dragon Glorund’s death in ‘Turambar and the Foalókë’, stabbed suddenly by surprise in ‘a very vital and unfended spot’ (BLT II.107).² Bilbo’s second thoughts and misgivings reappear but are now the result of his talk with the dragon.

(vii)
The Gem of Girion

As with the previous Plot Notes, the final sections of this outline mark the widest divergence from the eventual path the story took. The Arkenstone first appears here in Plot Notes B (although not yet under that name), initially prefigured by a simple statement that ‘Bilbo steals a gem’, then developed (or perhaps merely elaborated) as ‘a marvellous gem’ and finally given a name and history as the Gem of Girion.³ Unlike the cup-theft motif borrowed from Beowulf (or, more accurately, from a scholarly reconstruction of a damaged page in the Beowulf manuscript), the pilfering of the jewel seems to be Tolkien’s own invention, although no doubt influenced by folk-tales and legends.⁴ But far from being a hidden treasure the ‘expert treasure-hunter’ smuggles out without the dwarves’ knowledge and keeps concealed as a guilty secret, in this initial conception the dwarves openly offer it to Bilbo as his promised reward, which they apparently insist he has not yet earned. The Gem already has its strange allure and power to cause those who see and handle it to act in uncharacteristic ways to gain it⁵ – a motif Tolkien transferred in the sequel to Bilbo’s ring, which of course lacked that characteristic in The Hobbit itself – but here it is Bilbo, not the chief dwarf (Gandalf/Thorin), who is most affected. In retrospect, the phrase ‘Bilbo keeps on looking at his gem’ has a somewhat sinister aspect.⁶ For more on the Gem of Girion, see Plot Notes C.

(viii)
Bilbo Kills Smaug

Most extraordinary of all is Tolkien’s intention of casting Bilbo in the role of dragon-slayer. Admittedly, there is a certain amount of folk-tale logic to this: the eponymous hero of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ – one of the two most famous English fairy tales (the other being ‘Jack the Giant Killer’)⁷ and a perfect example of ‘There and Back Again’ – is an apparently ordinary person who one day goes off on an unexpected adventure that culminates in his killing an evil monster and coming home with a marvelous treasure. It would mark the apotheosis of little Bilbo, the Hobbit, who has passed in the course of the story from ‘fat little fellow bobbing on the mat’ to reluctant traveller very much out of his depth, to effective warrior (and slayer of dozens of giant spiders), highly competent burglar (who evades the wood-elves in their own halls for weeks if not months), resourceful lucky number (whose plan gets all his companions out of their dungeons and safely away back on their adventure), to here being the only one who dares to do a deed that no hero or warrior could accomplish. It would also have had the effect of making Bladorthin’s words from the first chapter deeply ironic:

The motif of Bilbo as dragon-slayer was developed more thoroughly in the next stage of outlines (Plot Notes C), which Humphrey Carpenter quoted from in his biography (Tolkien: A Biography [1977], page 179); see my commentary on Plot Notes C, pp. 499–501, for more on this projected plot-thread. For now I will only observe that the projected scheme of Bilbo stabbing the dragon ‘as it sleeps, exhausted after battle’, while very much in keeping with Jack the Giant Killer’s ruthless practicality (see Note 7), has the drawback of creating sympathy in the reader’s mind for the villain of the story. The eventual solution Tolkien ultimately arrived at, while much more complex and unexpected, smites down this mass-murderer in the midst of his villainy, which is far more satisfactory from the point of view of the story’s moral code.⁸

(ix)
The Poem

The Raft-elves’ song needs no explication here, other than to note that while this is evidently the very first rough drafting of the poem many lines emerge that remain exactly as in the final piece. It is worth noting, however, that the fact the plot-note material only takes up half this page and continues over onto the next page may indicate that the poem predates the plot notes. If so, this need not disrupt our projected sequence that Plot Notes B were written before Chapter IX, in which the finished poem appears: Tolkien had already decided by the end of Plot Notes A, written during the composition of Chapter VII, that at least one of the characters was going to escape the Elvenking’s Halls by hiding in a barrel and may already by that point have decided on the water-route and hence the need for such a song; see p. 296.

(x)
A Battle Gathering in the West

One of the most remarkable departures between the story projected in this outline and that which Tolkien actually came to write was that the great battle near the end of the story did not take place at the Lonely Mountain, nor indeed did the dwarves play any part in it. Instead, Bilbo apparently parts from his companions after the dragon’s death, presumably leaving them in possession of their ancestral home and treasure (although this is not actually stated; contrast Plot Notes C, p. 497) and taking his reward (the Gem of Girion) with him. Wearing his ‘suit of silver mail’ (which appears here for the first time; see p. 581), he joins the wood-elves and wood-men in their battle against the goblins and wargs, aided by ‘a troop of bears’ led by Medwed/Beorn.⁹ Thus we see here the emergence of the climactic battle in which five armies take part – humans, elves, goblins, wargs, and bears – yet placed in a very different context, and apparently with somewhat different motivations (no doubt essentially to avenge the Great Goblin’s death, subjugate the wood-men, and establish goblin/warg dominance over the region; cf. DAA.147–8). At some point the wizard reappears – he is casually mentioned in the immediate aftermath of the battle – but there is no indication of whether or not the eagles would intervene at the last moment, though given Tolkien’s fondness for this motif I suspect it would have occurred in some form. Ultimately, rather than bringing Bilbo to the battle Tolkien decided in Phase Three to bring the battle to Bilbo, thus reducing the much more eventful return journey projected here to a long coda (‘and back again’).

In order to distinguish the battle projected here from the Battle of Five Armies taking place at the Lonely Mountain, I will refer to it as ‘the Battle of Anduin Vale’, this being the name for the area on either side of the Great River between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains in the more developed geography of The Lord of the Rings.

(xi)
Just a Hobbit Again

Finally, the idea that Bilbo would come safely back home again after all his adventures is affirmed, along with the twin contradictory assurances that he on the one hand ‘just becomes a hobbit again’ yet on the other that he is ‘very different’, a writer of poetry, and regarded as ‘a bit queer’ (i.e., odd). That is, thereafter he is outwardly a normal hobbit but ‘different’ inside, with his writing poetry (one sample of which, ‘Bilbo’s first poem’, is given as the last poem in the book – see commentary p. 693) as an outward manifestation of this. His journey has changed him, yet that change does not prevent him from putting his adventures behind him and picking up the thread of his daily life. Significantly for the later development of the story, a good deal of attention is given to his ultimate disposal of the Gem of Girion, yet his magic ring is only mentioned in the brief list of loose ends that need to be wrapped up, along with how the key to the Secret Door wound up in the trolls’ lair and what the wizard got out of all this – outside of, presumably, amusement (‘very amusing for me, very good for you’; see p. 31). And even at this very early stage Tolkien foresaw that in his extreme old age Bilbo would relinquish his greatest treasure (‘when he is very old he returns the Gem’), as indeed becomes the case in the opening chapter of The Lord of the Rings.

Armed with this detailed five-page set of plot notes outlining the second half of the story, Tolkien was able to resume the Second Phase where he left off and smoothly carry the story forward; see p. 379.