The text continues on the same page as before (manuscript page 18; Marq. 1/1/1:8), with its first paragraph comprising the last four lines on that page; no more than a single skipped line marks where the eventual chapter break would occur.
He jumped up and put on his dressing gown, and went out and saw all the signs of a very hurried breakfast. There was a dreadful lot of washing up in the kitchen, and crumbs and mess in the diningroom, and no fires. Nor were there any dwarves or wizard.
Bilbo would have thought it all a bad dream, if there hadn’t been such a lot of washing up and mess to clear away.
Still he could not help feeling relieved, in a way, and yet in a way a bit disappointed to think they had all gone without him – ‘and with never a thank you’ he thought. So he put on an apron [and started on the washing up >] lit fires, boiled water, washed up, had a nice little breakfast, & did the dining room. By that time the sun was shining, and the front door was open letting in a jolly warm breeze. Bilbo began to whistle, and to forget about the night before. In fact he was just sitting down to a second breakfast by the kitchen window, when in walked Bladorthin.
‘My dear fellow’ he said, ‘when ever are you going to [start >] come? What about an early start! – and here you are still having breakfast at half past ten. They left you the message because they could n’t wait’.
‘What message’ said Bilbo all in a fluster.
‘Great elephants’ said Bladorthin ‘you’re not yourself at all this morning. You have never dusted the mantelpiece.’
‘What’s that got to do with it: I have had enough to do with washing up breakfast for thirteen.’TN1
‘If you had dusted the mantelpiece you would have found this just under the clock.’ And Bladorthin handed Bilbo a note (written of course on his own note paper). This is what he read:
‘Gandalf and company to Burglar Bilbo, greetings! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms cash on delivery up to and not exceeding one fourteenth share of total profits. Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose we have proceeded in advance to make necessary preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Great MillTN2 across the river at 11 a.m sharp. Trusting you will be punctual we remain yours deeply G & Co.’
‘That leaves you just ten minutes. It is a mile. You will have to run!’ said Bladorthin.
‘But – ’ said Bilbo. ‘No time for it’ said the wizard. Even to this day Bilbo does not remember how he found himself outside without a hat, or a walking stick, or any money, and leaving half of his second breakfast unfinished and not washed up, and leaving his keys in Bladorthin’s hand, and running as fast as his furry feet would carry him down the lane, and over the bridge, across the river, and so for a whole mile or more.
Very puffed he was when he got there on the stroke of eleven, and found he hadn’t brought a pocket handkerchief!
‘Bravo’ said Balin who was standing by the mill door [added: looking out for him]. Just then all the others came round the corner of the lane from the village. They were on ponies, and each pony was slung about with all kinds of baggages, packages, parcels and paraphernalia. There was a pony for Bilbo.
‘Up you two get’ said Gandalf ‘and off we go!’
‘I am awfully sorry’ said Bilbo ‘but I have come without my hat, and I have left my pocket handkerchief behind, and my money. I didn’t get your note till after 10.45, to be precise.’
‘Don’t be precise’ said Dwalin, ‘and don’t worry. You will have to manage without pocket handkerchiefs, and lots of other things before we get to our journey’s end. As for a hat I have a spare hood and cloak in my luggage.’
That’s how they all came to start, jogging off from the mill one fine morning just before May, on laden ponies; and Bilbo was wearing a dark green hood (a little weather stained) and a dark green cloak borrowed from Dwalin. But he hadn’t a gold chain, nor a beard so he couldn’t be mistaken for a dwarf, not from close to.
They hadn’t been riding very farTN3 when up came Bladorthin very splendid on a white horse. He had brought a lot of pocket handkerchiefs and Bilbo’s pipe and tobacco. So after that the party went very merrily, and they told stories and sang songs as they rode along all day, except of course when they stopped for picnic meals. These weren’t quite as often as Bilbo was used to, but still he began to feel that he was enjoying himself.
Things went on like this for quite a long while. There was a good deal of wide respectable country to pass through inhabited by decent respectable folk, men or hobbits, or elves, or what not, with good roads, an inn or two, and every now and then a dwarf or a tinker or a farmer ambling by on business.
But after a time they came to places where people spoke strangely and sang songs Bilbo had never heard before. Inns were rare, the roads were not good, and there were hills in the distance rising higher and higher. There were castles on some of the hills, and some looked as if they had not been built for any good purpose. Also the weather, which had off and on been as good as May can be even in tales and legends, took a nasty turn.
‘To think it is June the first tomorrow’ grumbled Bilbo, as he splashed along behind the others in a very muddy track. It was after tea-time; it was pouring with rain (and had been all day); his hood was dripping into his eyes, his cloak was full of water; the pony was tired and stumbled [and shook >] on stones; the others were too grumpy to talk – ‘and I am sure the rain has got at my dry clothes and into the food bags’ thought Bilbo. ‘Bother burglary and everything to do with it. I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire with the kettle just beginning to sing.’ It was not the last time he wished that.
Still the dwarves jogged on, never turning round or taking any notice of the hobbit. Somewhere behind the grey clouds the sun must have gone down, for it began to get dark. Wind got up, and the willows along the riverbank [added: bent and sighed] – I don’t know what river it was, a rushing red one swollen with the rains of the last few days that came down from the hills and mountains in front of them.
Soon it was nearly dark. The winds broke up the grey clouds, and a waning moon appeared above the hills between the flying rags. They stopped and Gandalf muttered something about ‘supper, and where shall we get a dry patch to sleep on’.
Not until then did they notice that Bladorthin was missing. So far he had come all the way with them, never saying if he was in the adventure or merely keeping them company for a while. He had eaten most, talked most, and laughed most. But now he simply wasn’t there at all.
‘Just when a wizard would have been most useful too,’ growled Dori & Nori (who shared the hobbit’s opinions about regular meals, lots and often).
It seemed it would have to be a camp. They had camped before and knew they would soon have to camp regularly when they were among the misty mountains and beyond and far from the lands of respectable people, it seemed a bad wet evening to begin with.TN4
They moved to a clump of trees. It was drier underneath them, but the wind shook the rain off the leaves and the drip drip was most annoying. Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind. But they couldn’t do it that night.TN5 Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted. He got in the river before they could catch him; and before they got him out again Fili & Kili were nearly drowned, and all the baggage was washed away off him. Of course it was mostly food, and there was mighty little left for supper, and less for breakfast.
There they all sat glum and wet and muttering while Bofur & Bombur tried to light a fireTN6 and quarrelled about it. Bilbo was sadly reflecting that adventures are not all pony-rides in May sunshine, when DwalinTN7 who was always their look-out man said: ‘There’s a light over there’.
There was a hill some way off with some trees on, pretty thick in parts. Out of the trees shone a light, a reddish comfortable looking light, as it might be a fire or torches twinkling. When they had looked at it, they fell to arguing. Some said ‘no’ and some said ‘yes’. Some said they could but go and see, and any thing was better than little supper less breakfast and wet clothes all night. Others said ‘These parts are none too well known, and too near the mountains. Not even a policeman on a bicycle is ever seen this way; they have rarely heard of the king even; and the less inquisitive you are as you go along the less trouble you are likely to find’
Some said: ‘After all there are fourteen of us’. Others said ‘Where has Bladorthin got to.’ This remark was repeated by all. Then they went at it again. Just then the rain began again, and Dori & NoriTN8 began to fight. That settled it. ‘After all we have got a burglar with us’ they said, and so they made off leading their ponies (with all due & proper caution) in the direction of the light.
They came to the hill, and were soon in the wood. Up the hill they went, but there was no proper path to be seen, and do what they could they made a deal of rustling and crackling and creaking (and a lot of grumbling and dratting) as they went through the trees.
Suddenly the red light shone out very bright not far ahead. ‘Now it is the burglar’s turn’ they said, meaning Bilbo. ‘You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if all is perfectly safe and canny’ said Gandalf to the hobbit. ‘Now scuttle off, and come back quick, if all is well. If not come back if you can. If you can’t hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a white screech owl, and we will do what we can’.
Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he couldn’t hoot even once like any kind of owl, no more than fly like a bat.
At any rate hobbits can move quietly in woods, absolutely quietly. They take a pride in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called ‘all this dwarvish racket’ as they went along – though I don’t suppose you or I would have noticed anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade had passed us two feet off.
As for Bilbo walking primly towards the red light, I don’t suppose even a weasel would have stirred a whisker at it. So naturally he got right up to the fire – for fire it was – without disturbing anyone. And this is what he saw. Three very large persons sitting round a very large fire of beech logs; and they were toasting mutton on long spits of wood, and licking the gravy off their fingers. It smelt very fine and toothsome, and they had a barrel of good drink at hand, and were drinking out of jugs. But they were trolls. Obviously trolls. Even Bilbo, in spite of a sheltered life, could see that, from the great heavy faces of them, and their size and the shape of their legs, not to mention their language, which wasn’t drawingroom fashion at all, at all.
‘Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey if it don’t look like mutton again tomorrow’ said one of the trolls.
‘Never a blinking bit of manflesh have we had for long enough’ said another. ‘What the ’ell William was [a] thinking of in bringing us into these parts at all, beats me – and the drink running short, what’s more’ he said, jogging the elbow of William who was having a [drink >] pull at his jug.
William choked. ‘Shut your mouth’ he said, as soon as he could. ‘You can’t expect folk to stay here for ever just to be eaten [< et up] by you and Bert. You’ve et a village and a half between you since we came down from the mountains. Ow much more d’yer want. And time’s been up our way when yerd have said “thank yer Bill” for a nice bit of valley-mutton like wot this is’. He took a big bite off a sheep’s leg he was toasting, and wiped his lips on his sleeve.
Yes I am afraid trolls behave like that, even those with one head only. TN9
After hearing all this Bilbo ought to have done something. Either he ought to have gone back and warned his friends that there were three fairsized trolls at hand in a nasty mood when they would be quite likely to try toasted dwarf, or even pony as a change. Or else he should have gone on burglaring. A really good and legendary burglar would at this point have picked the Trolls’ pockets – it is nearly always worth while, if you can do it – pinched the very mutton off their spits, purloined the beer, and walked off without their noticing him.TN10
Others more practical but with less professional pride would perhaps have stuck a dagger into each of them before they observed it. Then the night could have been spent cheerily.
Bilbo knew it. He had read a good deal more than he had seen or done. He was very much alarmed, and yet, and yet he did not somehow go straight back to Gandalf and company emptyhanded.
Of the various burglarious proceedings [added: he had heard of] picking the Trolls’ pockets seemed the least difficult. He crept behind a tree, just behind William. Bert and Tom went off to the barrel. William was having a drink. [So >] Then Bilbo plucked up courage, and put his hand in William’s pocket. There was a purse in it. ‘Ha’ thought Bilbo warming to his new work, and he lifted it carefully out, ‘this is a beginning!’.
It was. Trolls’ purses are the mischief, and this was no exception. ‘Ere, oo are you’ it squeaked as soon as he took it, and William turned round and grabbed him by the neck before he could duck behind the tree.
‘Blimey, Bert look what I’ve copped’ said William.
‘What is it?’ said the others.
‘Lumme if I knows! What are yer?’
‘Bilbo Baggins a bur – a hobbit’ said poor Bilbo shaking all over and wondering how to make owl-noises, before they throttled him.
‘A burrahobbit’ said they a bit startled. Trolls are a bit slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.
‘What’s a burrahobbit got to do with my pocket, anyways’, said William.
‘And can yer cook ’em?’ said Tom.
‘You can try’ said Bert picking up a skewer.
‘He wouldn’t make above a mouthful’ said William who had already had a fine supper, ‘not when he was skinned and boned.’
‘Perhaps there are more of him round about’ said Bert ‘Ere you are there more of yer sneaking in these here wood, yer nassty little rabbit’ said he looking at Bilbo’s furry feet. And he picked him up by his toes and shook him.
‘Yes lots’ said Bilbo before he remembered not to give friends away. ‘No none at all, not one’ he said immediately afterwards.
‘Wot d’yer mean’ said Bert holding him right way up by the hair this time.
‘What I say’ said Bilbo gasping. ‘And please don’t cook me, kind sirs. I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook if you see what I mean. I’ll cook beautifully for you a perfectly beautiful breakfast for you, if only you won’t have me for supper.’
‘Poor little blighter’ said William (I told you he had already had supper, also he had had lots of beer). ‘Let him go.’
‘Not till he says what he means by “lots” and “none at all”’ said Bert. ‘I don’t want my throat cut in me sleep. Hold his toes in the fire till he talks.’
‘I won’t ’ave it’ said William. ‘I caught him any way’.
‘You’re a fat fool William’ said Bert ‘as I said afore this evening’.
‘And you’re a lout’.
‘And I won’t take that from you’ says Bert, and puts his fist in William’s eye. Then there was a gorgeous row. Bilbo had just enough wits left to scramble out of the way of their feet, before they were fighting like dogs and calling each other all sorts of perfectly true and applicable names in very loud voices. Soon they were locked in one another’s arms and rolling nearly into the fire kicking and thumping, while Tom whacked them both with a branch to bring them to their senses – and that of course made them madder than ever.
That would have been the time for Bilbo to have left. But his poor little feet were very squashed by Bert’s big paw, and he had no breath left. So he lay for a while just outside the firelight.
In the middle of this fight up came Balin. The dwarves had heard the noise from afar, and waited, and when neither Bilbo came, nor the hoots were heard, they started off one by one to creep towards the fire.
No sooner did Tom see Balin come into the light, than he gave an awful howl. Trolls simply detest the sight of dwarves. Bert and William stopped fighting immediately, and ‘a sack Tom quick’ they said. Before Balin (who was wondering where Bilbo was in all this commotion) knew what was happening – a sack was over his head and he was down.
‘There’s more to come yet’ said Tom ‘or I’m [added: mighty] mistook. Lots and none at all, it is’ said he. ‘No burrahobbits, but lots of these ere dwarves. That’s about the shape of it.’
‘I reckon ye’re right’ said Bert, ‘and we’d best get out of the firelight.’ And so they did. With the sacks in their hands that they used for carrying off meat and other plunder they waited in the shadows. As each dwarf came up and looked at the fire and the spilled jugs and the gnawed mutton in surprise, pop went a nasty smelly sack over his head and he was down.
Soon Dwalin lay by Balin, and Fili and Kili together, and Dori Nori and Ori all in a heap, and Oin Gloin Bifur Bofur and Bombur uncomfortably near the fire.
‘That’ll teach ’em’ said Tom; for Bofur and Bombur had given a lot of trouble, and fought like mad, as dwarves do when cornered. Gandalf came last – and he wasn’t caught unawares. He came expecting mischief, and didn’t need to see legs sticking out of sacks to tell him things were not all well.
He stood outside in the shadows a way off, and said:
‘What’s all this trouble. Who has been knocking my people about.’
‘It’s Trolls’ said Bilbo from behind a tree. They had forgotten all about him. ‘They’re hiding in the bushes with sacks’ said he.
‘O are they’ said Gandalf, ‘Bladorthin will make them sorry for it when he comes back.’ This was bluff, for he did not know whether Bladorthin ever was coming back; and he didn’t know whether the Trolls knew his name well enough to be scared by it.TN11 And he leaped forward to the fire before they could jump on him. He caught up a big branch all afire at one end and Bert got an end in his eye before he could step aside. That put him out of the battle for a bit. Bilbo did his best. He caught hold of Tom’s leg (as well as he could, it was as fat as a young tree trunk) but was sent spinning off into the bushes when Tom kicked up the sparks into Gandalf’s face.
He got the branch in his teeth for that, and lost one of the front ones. It made him howl, I can tell you; but William came up behind and popped a sack right over Gandalf’s head. And so it ended. A nice pickle they were all in now, all nicely tied up in sacks, with three angry trolls (and two with burns and bruises to remember) sitting over them, and arguing whether they should roast them slowly, or mince them fine and boil them, or just sit on them one by one and squash them; And Bilbo up in a bush with his clothes and skin torn not daring to move for fear they should hear him.
It was just then that Bladorthin chose to come back. But no one saw him. The trolls had just decided to roast them and eat them later – that was Bert’s idea.
‘No good roasting ’em, it’d take all night’ said a voice. Bert thought it was William’s. ‘Don’t start the argument all over again, Bill’ he said, ‘or it will take all night’.
‘Who’s a-arguing?’ said William who thought it was Bert that had spoken.
‘You are’ said Bert.
‘You’re a liar’ said William.
And so the argument began all over again, and in the end they decided to mince them fine and boil ’em. So they got a big black pot, and they took out their knives.
‘No good boiling ’em; we ain’t got no water and it’s a long way and all to the well’ said a voice.
Bert and William thought it was Tom’s. ‘Shut up’ said they ‘or we’ll never have done; and you can fetch the water yerself [added: if you argue]’.
‘Shut up yerselves’ said Tom, ‘and get on with it, and fetch the bloody water.TN12 Who’s arguing but yerself, I’d like to know.’
‘You are you booby’ said William.
‘Booby yourself’ said Tom.
And so the argument began and went on hotter than ever again, until in the end they decided to sit on the sacks one by one and squash them, and boil them next time.
‘Who shall we sit on first?’ said the voice.
‘Anyone,’ said Bert [> William], who thought it was Tom speaking and didn’t mind because he hadn’t been hurtTN13
‘Better sit on the last fellow first’ said Tom [> Bert] whose eye was burnt by Gandalf; he thought Tom was talking.
‘Don’t talk to yourself’ said William [> Tom]. ‘Where is he?’
‘The one with the yellow stockings’ said Bert.
‘Nonsense, the one with grey stockings’ said his voice [> a voice like William’s].
‘I made sure it was yellow’ said Bert.
‘Yellow it was’ said William.
‘Then what did you say it was grey [added: for?].’ said Bert.
‘I never did, Tom said it’.
‘That I didn’t’ said Tom ‘it was you’.
‘Two to one so shut your mouth’ said Bert.
‘Oo are you talking to’ said William.
‘Now stop it’ said Tom and Bert together: ‘the night’s getting on and the dawn comes early. Let’s get on with it’.
‘Dawn take you both and be stone to you!’ said a voice, that sounded like William’s. But it wasn’t. For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, I have no doubt, for Trolls as you know must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again. That’s what had happened to Bert and Tom and William.
‘Excellent’ said Bladorthin as he stepped from behind the bushes, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of the thorn [bush >] tree. Then Bilbo understood. It was Bladorthin’s voice that had kept the trolls bickering and arguing till the dawn came and they were turned to stone.
The next thing was to untie the sacks and let out the dwarves. They were nearly suffocated, and very annoyed, and they hadn’t [added: at all] liked lying there and listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and squashing them and mincing them.
They had to hear Bilbo’s account of what happened to him twice over before they were satisfied. ‘Silly time to go practising burglary and pocket-picking,’ said Bombur; ‘when what we wanted was fire and food’.
‘And that you couldn’t have got [added: out of these fellows] without a struggle’ said Bladorthin; ‘and anyway you are wasting time now. You must [> don’t seem to] realize that the Trolls must have a cave or a hole dug somewhere near to hide from the sun in. We must look into it’.
So now they searched about and found the mark of troll’s stony boots, and followed them through the trees and further up the hill, until, hidden by bushes they came to a big door, and that they couldn’t open. Not though they all pushed, and Bladorthin tried some magic.
‘Would this be any good?’ said Bilbo when they were getting tired. ‘I found it on the ground where the Trolls were fighting’. He held out a largish key, but no doubt William thought it very small & secret. Out of his pocket it must have fallen before he was turned to stone, very luckily too.
‘Why didn’t you mention it before!’ they said and Bladorthin grabbed it and fitted it in the key hole. Then the stone door swung back with a big push, and they all went inside. There were bones on the floor and a nasty smell in the air; but there was a deal of coins in earthen pots at the far end of the cave, and a sword or two on the walls, and a bunch of curious keys on a nail; and that was all they found.
The coins they carried out and loaded onto ponies and took them away and buried them very secretly not far from the track by the river, with a deal of spells and curses over them, just in case they ever had the chance to come back and cart them home. Bladorthin took a sword, and Gandalf another; and Bilbo took a little dagger in a leather sheath – little for a dwarf, but a big sword for Bilbo.TN14 ‘They have a good look [> look like good blades]’ said Bladorthin, ‘but if we can read the runes on ’em, we shall know more about ’em.’
‘Let’s get out of the smell’ said Fili. And so they went, and would have left the keys.
‘Hello!’ said Bladorthin ‘what are these do you suppose? There are no other locks or doors in here. These keys were not made for this place’. So he brought them out and hung them on his belt.
By that time it was breakfast time. They eat what they found of the trolls’ that was good to eat – there was bread and cheese and ale to spare and bacon to roast in the embers of the fire. Then they slept, for their night had been disturbed. In the afternoon they got on their ponies, and jogged along the track [added: again Eastward].
‘Where did you get to, if I may ask?’ said Gandalf to Bladorthin as they went along. ‘To look ahead’ said he.
‘What brought you back, in the nick of time?’
‘Looking behind!’ said he.
‘Exactly’ said Gandalf; ‘but could you be more plain?’
‘I went on to spy out our road, which will soon become dangerous and difficult – and I found out a good deal that will be of service (especially in the replenishment of our small stock of provisions). But also I heard about the three trolls from the mountains & their settlement in the woods near the track where they waylaid strangers. So I had a feeling I was needed back. And looking behind I saw a fire and came to it. That’s that’.
‘Thank you’ said Gandalf.
TEXT NOTES
1 The correct number, fourteen (= the thirteen dwarves plus Bladorthin), appears in the first typescript (1/1/52:1).
2 The Great Mill remained the rendezvous spot right up until the page proofs (Marq. 1/2/1: page 41), where it was changed first to the Green Man and then to the familiar Green Dragon Inn. Note that even after these changes, the first illustration in the published book, ‘The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water’, traces Bilbo’s entire route from his round green door in the distance right down to the Mill, not the Inn. The Great Mill was based on Sarehole Mill, near which Tolkien lived when a boy (1896–1900); see ‘The Mill on the River Cole’ by Peter Klein in An Afternoon in Middle-Earth [1969], pages 15–16.
3 Immediately after the word ‘far’ appears another illegible, cancelled word. It appears that Tolkien originally wrote this line to read ‘. . . hadn’t been riding very far <west>’, but the final cancelled word is too blotted to be sure. If the cancelled word was initially ‘west’, then it shows just how fluid his conception of the tale’s geography was at the time.
4 This sentence was changed to read ‘They hadn’t camped before & although they knew they would soon have to camp regularly . . . it seemed a bad wet evening to begin on.’ Note that ‘the misty mountains’ remains a descriptive term, as in the dwarves’ song, and has not yet become a proper noun (something which first occurs early in Chapter III; see p. 111).
5 Added at this point: ‘not even Oin & Gloin who were especially good at it’.
6 Here ‘Bofur & Bombur tried to light a fire’ is changed to ‘Oin & Gloin went on trying to light a fire’ to tie in with the previous insertion (see TN5).
7 ‘Dwalin’ is changed here to ‘Balin’, suggesting that Tolkien was initially undecided which of these brothers would be the group’s look-out (a role that ultimately fell to Balin). Note that it was Dwalin who was first to arrive at Bilbo’s house – as we might expect of a look-out man sent ahead to scout out their reception, while it is his brother who sees Bilbo arrive out-of-breath at the Mill; the addition of the phrase ‘looking out for him’ there makes it clear that Balin was acting as look-out at the time.
8 ‘Dori & Nori’ is changed to ‘Oin & Gloin’ here, as the climax of the little scene inserted in the preceding revisions noted in TN5 and TN6.
9 This observation was originally followed by the cancelled (and incomplete) lines: ‘Bilbo had no idea what [to do >] a burglar ought to do, or how to do it. we can tell him what of course but how is’.
Trolls with multiple heads appear in many stories, perhaps the most famous of which is Dasent’s ‘Soria Moria Castle’, where the hero must confront and defeat first a three-headed troll, then a six-headed troll, and finally a nine-headed troll (East o’ the Sun & West o’ the Moon [1888], pages 397–401). This same story might have contributed to the naming of Moria; see Tolkien’s letter to Mr. Rang, August 1967; Letters p. 384.
10 This passage originally read: ‘. . . pinched the very mutton off their spits, purloined the beer, and if he hadn’t maybe stuck a dagger into each of them without their noticing it – After which the night could have been spent cheerily’ before the latter section was cancelled and moved into its own following paragraph.
For examples of ‘really good and legendary’ burglars, see Dunsany’s thieves’ tales such as ‘The Bird of the Difficult Eye’,† ‘The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller’,†† ‘The Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men’,†† A Night at an Inn [1916], and especially ‘How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles’.††
† From The Last Book of Wonder [1916].
†† From The Book of Wonder [1912].
11 These two sentences relating Gandalf’s bluff were cancelled sometime before the first typescript of this passage was made.
12 This passage was revised to read ‘Shut up yerself’ said Tom, who thought it was William’s voice. ‘Who’s arguing . . .’
13 This paragraph was cancelled. Upside down on the bottom of the next page (the back of this same sheet) is preserved a scrap of draft dialogue that preceded this exchange – one of several occasions where Tolkien started a piece of draft, abandoned and cancelled it, then flipped the piece of paper over and began again on the other side. The entire cancelled passage reads as follows:
‘Which shall we sit on first?’ said the voice.
‘Anyone,’ said William,† who thought it was Tom speaking and didn’t mind because he hadn’t been hurt.
Better sit on the last fellow
† Here Tolkien began to write ‘Bert’ but changed his mind after writing down only the first two letters and changed it to ‘William’.
14 ‘little for a dwarf, but a big sword for Bilbo’ was changed to ‘a little penknife for a troll, but . . .’
We are dealing here with rough, first-draft text, yet the story is already well-advanced, both in general outline and in many details. Some of the wittiest lines and sharpest rejoinders are yet to come – e.g., ‘trolls simply detest the sight of dwarves’ lacks the parenthetical addendum ‘(uncooked)’ – but the draft is recognizably the same book as the final polished text (as when the angry trolls call each other ‘all sorts of perfectly true and applicable names’). Indeed, it is this closeness between first and final text which makes the divergences all the more interesting. As in the first chapter, there is much shifting of the roles assigned to the dwarves, with an eye toward consolidation and simplification. Thus it is originally Dwalin, not Balin, who is ‘always their look-out man’ (despite Balin’s having apparently filled that role only a few pages before). Similarly, it is Bofur and Bombur who try to light the fire, and Dori and Nori who come to blows, before revisions assign both roles to Oin and Gloin, adding an earlier mention that these two dwarves were ‘especially good at it’ (firebuilding, that is), giving the scene a cumulative, cascading effect. Once again Tolkien’s first impulse was to make use of his full cast, whereas the end result is to let a few of the dwarves make a strong impression on the reader while reducing the rest to nonentities.
Like so much else in Bilbo’s world, trolls enter the mythology through the Lost Tales. However, they played no part in the story of the Elder Days, only appearing on the scene on the cusp of historical times, ‘many ages of Men’ after the War against Melko (Morgoth). They belong rather to the frame story, the tale of Eriol. In an early outline for what later became ‘The History of Eriol’, or ‘Ælfwine of England’, we are told that after the disaster of the Faring Forth and the final defeat and fading of the Elves, ‘Men come to Tol Eressëa [i.e., the isle of Great Britain] and also Orcs, Dwarves, Gongs, Trolls, etc.’ (BLT II.283, italics mine). And while Eriol is himself mythical, Tolkien took pains to tie him to historical figures, making him the father of Hengest and Horsa, the Jutes who led the English invasion of Britain in A.D. 449–455 (BLT II.290; Finn and Hengest [1982] p. 70). Thus, trolls did not enter England until the Germanic invasions (appropriately enough, since they derive from Scandinavian and not Celtic or Roman mythology) and are not yet conceived of as part of Melko the Morgoth’s retinue.
A less oblique appearance, and more direct precursor for William, Bert, and Tom, comes not from the legendarium but in a poem Tolkien wrote while at Leeds (i.e., 1920–25), one of the ‘Songs for the Philologists’ later compiled by A. H. Smith in his 1936 booklet. Originally known as ‘Pero & Podex’ (Latin for ‘boot and bottom’), it appeared in Songs for the Philologists as ‘The Root of the Boot’1 and, in suitably revised form, in Chapter XII of The Lord of the Rings.2 The text of the original manuscript, of interest because here we meet Tolkien’s first troll character with a speaking part, differs slightly from any of the published versions:
Pero & Podex
A troll sat alone on his seat of stone
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone,
And long and long he had sat there lone
And seen nor man nor mortal
Ortal!
portal!
And long and long he had sat there lone
And seen nor man nor mortal
Up came Tom with his big boots on;
‘Hullo!’ says he ‘pray, what is yon?
It looks like the leg of me uncle John,
As should be a-lyin’ in churchyard’.
Searchyard
birchyard &c.
‘Young man’ says the troll, ‘that bone I stole;
But what be bones, when mayhap the soul
In heaven on high hath an aureole
As big and as bright as a bonfire?’
On fire
Yon fire &c.
Says Tom ‘Oddsteeth! ’tis my belief,
If bonfire there be ’tis underneath;
For old man John was as proper a thief
As ever wore black on a Sunday,
Grundy
Monday &c.
But still thou old swine ’tis no matter o’ thine
A-trying thy teeth on an uncle o’ mine,
So get to Hell before thou dine
And ask thee leave of me nuncle
uncle
buncle &c.’
In the proper place upon the base
Tom boots him right but alas that race
Hath as stony a seat as it is in face
And Pero was punished by Podex
Odex!
Codex!&c.
Now Tom goes lame since home he came,
And his bootless foot is grievous game;
But troll will not gnaw that bone for shame
To think it was boned of a boner
owner!
donor! &c.3
Note that while the troll’s speech is somewhat archaic, it is loftier, more formal and correct, than Tom’s, as when the troll speaks airily of an ‘aureole’ (halo), in contrast to Tom’s dropped consonants and low curses.4 The exact opposite applies to the trolls Bilbo meets in The Hobbit, who all speak a comic cockney slang in contrast to Bilbo’s correct, rather formal way of speaking. It may seem odd, at first glance, that William, Bert, and Tom speak cockney rather than some rustic, rural dialect. The later character Sam Gamgee proves that Tolkien could write comic rustic extremely well: why, then, did he assign an urban dialect like cockney, the speech of lower-class Londoners, to these trolls rather than ‘Mummerset’ or some other country dialect?
The simplest explanation is that he adopted cockney because it was easily recognizable to his intended audience: i.e., John, Michael, and Christopher. As such, it need not be an accurate representation of actual Londoner speech to achieve his purpose, so long as it succeeds in creating the desired comic effect, as it certainly does.5 Incongruity has a charm of its own, and the cockney trolls are of a piece with the anachronisms embedded in the text (the policeman on a bicycle in the current chapter is an obvious example, and very Dunsanian).6 Then, too, with his love of the countryside and idealization of rural life Tolkien may have thought an urban dialect more appropriate to ruffians than any country dialect. In any case, it is hardly credible that marauders in parts where ‘they have rarely heard of the king even’ should speak the King’s English.
More curious than their speech is the trolls’ fate, the result of the first of a whole string of deceitful, misleading, or riddling conversations that run throughout the book. Despite Tolkien’s breezy addition of ‘as you know’ to the description of their petrification, he seems to have introduced the motif to English fiction;7 allergies to sunlight play no part in the most famous story involving trolls before Tolkien, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, nor in T.H. White’s short story ‘The Troll’ [1935]. In Dasent’s East o’ the Sun & West o’ the Moon [1859; expanded edition 1888], the trolls ‘burst’ with disappointment when defeated,8 while Lang’s Pink Fairy Book [1897] records a troll whose heart is hidden inside a fish; he dies when the fish is killed and cut up (as Tolkien noted, a very old motif, going back to Egyptian times; OFS.20). Katharine Briggs, who should certainly know, credits Tolkien with popularizing, but not inventing, the motif,9 and the evidence of Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, with its massive listing of every ‘motif’ or plot-element in fairy tales and folklore, bears this out.10
Tolkien’s source, insofar as he had a specific source, was probably one of two poems from the Elder Edda, Helgaqviða Hjervarðzsonar (‘The Lay of Helgi Hjorvard’s Son’) and Alvíssmál (‘The Lay of Alvis’). In the former, the heroes Atli and Helgi prolong a conversation with the giantess Hrimgerd, who seeks to destroy their ship and drown them all, until the sun rises and petrifies her:
Atli said:
‘Turn your eyes east, Hrimgerd, Helgi’s runes
have brought you down to death;
at sea or in harbor the fleet is safe,
and the warriors with it too.’
Helgi said:
‘It’s day now, Hrimgerd, Atli delayed you–
now you must face your fate:
you’ll mark the harbor and make men laugh
when they see you turned to stone.’
—Helgaqviða Hjorvarðzsonar, stanzas 30–31;
[rev. ed., 1990], p. 110.
Similarly, in Alvíssmál, the dwarf Alvis (‘All-wise’) comes to Valhalla to claim his promised bride and is delayed by Thor, who questions him until sunrise, whereupon he is destroyed:
Thor said:
‘I never met another man
so learned in ancient lore;
but too much talk has trapped you, dwarf,
for you must die in daylight.
The sun now shines into the hall.’
—Alvíssmál, stanza 35;
Poems from the Elder Edda, tr. Terry, p. 95.
Neither of these victims is what Tolkien would call a troll, but Jacob Grimm notes in his massive compendium and overview of religion and folklore, Teutonic Mythology, ‘numerous approximations and overlappings between the giant-legend and those of dwarfs . . . as the comprehensive name troll in Scandinavian tradition would itself indicate. Dwarfs of the mountains are, like giants, liable to transformation into stone, as indeed they have sprung out of stone’ (Teutonic Mythology, tr. James Stallybrass [1883], volume II p. 552). On page 551 in the same book Grimm alludes to the many legends of neolithic stone circles being petrified giants (indeed, although Grimm does not mention it, one of the old names for Stonehenge was ‘The Giants’ Dance’), and concludes (citing Hrimgerd’s fate as his authority) that ‘It would appear . . . that giants, like dwarfs, have reason to dread the daylight, and if surprised by the break of day, they turn to stone.’ Tolkien obviously chose not to use this motif for his dwarves, but Grimm’s comment about the inclusiveness of ‘troll’ as a descriptive term perhaps helps explain the presence of giants in some of his stories (the nameless giant who starts all the trouble in Farmer Giles of Ham, the stone-giants in Chapter IV of The Hobbit) yet their apparent absence from the final version of his mythology as presented in The Lord of the Rings; see p. 144.
So while Tolkien is on solid folk-lore ground in having his three trolls petrified by sunlight,† he is strongly at variance with what an English audience of his day had been taught to expect about trolls. In fact, he is ignoring or sidestepping a modern fairy-tale tradition in favor of reviving an ancient folk-lore belief once held by people who actually believed in such creatures, just as his elves (whom we shall shortly meet) are the elves of medieval Europe, not the ‘flower fairies’ of Conan Doyle’s gullible imagination. When given a choice, Tolkien opts over and over again for folk-lore over fairy tale (as the term was understood before Tolkien redefined it in On Fairy-Stories), ancient belief over artificial invention.
The trolls’ hoard is almost as interesting as its owners. Bladorthin’s inability to read the runes on the swords is a simple set-up for the scene with Elrond in the next chapter, which was thus clearly already planned. Later development of the wizard as a peerless lore-master (as in, for example, the Moria gate and ‘Scroll of Isildur’ scenes in The Lord of the Rings) created a paradox that Elrond could read the runes while Gandalf the Grey could not, a puzzle that Tolkien resolved with typical panache in the 1960 Hobbit (see pp. 801 & 813). We will return to the swords and their explicit ties to the older mythology in the commentary following the next chapter.
In terms of plot, the troll hoard can be viewed as a simple means of getting needed items plausibly into the characters’ hands – most notably the two swords and Bilbo’s dagger. But in the manuscript they find a fourth treasure, ultimately more important than any of the others: the troll-key. This is a major departure from the published text, where the key to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain is given by the wizard to Thorin in the first chapter along with the map, having conveniently been overlooked by the Necromancer’s jailers when they stripped his father and threw him into their dungeons. Tolkien’s original plan, however, was to have the necessary key turn up by chance (‘if chance we can call it’) along the way. This scheme remained in place all through the first draft. This extraordinary bit of luck is really no greater than that involved in Bilbo’s finding the ring or his happening in his wanderings below the mountains upon the one person who could show him the way out, and it avoids the puzzling carelessness of the Necromancer in the published version. Based upon the portrayal in ‘The Lay of Leithian’, Thû is a cunning, careful jailor who might conceivably miss a scrap of parchment or find it amusing to leave someone imprisoned without hope of escape with a map to a treasure he could never reach, but it seems utterly unlikely he would ever allow a prisoner to keep a key anywhere about his person.
In the odd behavior of the dwarves over the gold plundered from the trolls’ lair, we see once again the dwarven association with curses and malefic magic:
The coins they carried out and loaded onto ponies and took them away and buried them very secretly not far from the track by the river, with a deal of spells and curses over them, just in case (p. 97)
For more on dwarven curses, see pp. 598–9.
As already noted in the discussion of Fimbulfambi’s Map (p. 23), Tolkien delighted in providing his readers with physical objects from the world of the story. Some of these, such as the map of the Mountain, found their way into print as part of the books they were meant to accompany, although not as he had envisioned them. Others, such as the pages from the Book of Mazarbul meant to accompany the Moria chapters of The Lord of the Rings, proved too difficult to reproduce and languished for decades, only to be printed at last in art books, divorced from their proper context. Another fine example is the previously unpublished copy of Bilbo’s contract (plate two of the Frontispiece), written in tengwar, the most famous of Tolkien’s invented alphabets. Since it uses the name ‘Thorin’ for the chief dwarf rather than ‘Gandalf’, it obviously belongs to a later stage of composition and in fact was made sometime between February 1937 and February 1938.11
The tengwar text is a semiphonetical transcription (for example, the word ‘honour’, in Thorin’s closing line is spelled ‘onr’). The text is essentially that of the published book, differing from the draft mainly in the name-change from ‘Gandalf and company’ to ‘Thorin & Co’ (he even signs the facsimile with his initial, þ[orin] O[akenshield]) and in the addition of extra legalese. Thus ‘necessary preparations’ becomes ‘requisite preparations’. More amusingly, the terms of the contract are expanded to cover a number of eventualities: after the phrase ‘one fourteenth share of total profits’ are added the following riders:
. . . total profits (if any); all travelling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for.
– i.e., if the burglar has not been eaten or met with some similar fate. The comic precision of these terms later becomes important in the climax, when fair distribution of the treasure becomes the moral crux upon which the resolution of the story depends.
In addition to this facsimile, Tolkien also made three illustrations of the troll-scene, only one of which was used. Together, they illustrate the whole encounter. The first, and best, of the pictures, ‘Trolls’ Hill’ (Plate IV [bottom]), shows the fire Dwalin spotted off in the distance as a single red spot on an otherwise black-and-white drawing; the necessity for colour reproduction was probably the key factor in this slightly ominous picture’s exclusion. The second, the sinister picture included in The Hobbit (‘The Trolls’), shows a dwarf approaching a forest clearing where three monstrous figures lurk just out of sight among the trees.12 The third and final illustration (Plate V [top]) shows the great lumpish figures of the trolls turning to stone at sunrise; also clearly visible are the wizard with his staff, Bilbo hiding in the thorn bushes, and the captive dwarves.
Another illustration probably intended for this chapter is the ‘The Hill: Hobbiton’ (Plate IV [top]), which in one version or another has long served as a frontispiece for the published book; the whole sequence is reproduced in Artist & Illustrator (H-S#92–98), while Anderson places three examples in their proper place, near the beginning of ‘Chapter 2: Roast Mutton’ (DAA.62–3). As noted in Text Note 2 (p. 98), the placement of Bag-End at the top and the Great Mill at the bottom shows us the route Bilbo took in his mad dash to keep his appointment with Gandalf & Company. The change of the rendezvous from the Great Mill to first the Green Man and then the Green Dragon Inn obscured the picture’s direct tie to the action, relegating it to a background piece. In all versions, we can see Bag-End centered in the distance, with the winding road Bilbo ran down (‘a mile or more’) before meeting the dwarves outside the Mill.
Text of Bilbo’s Contract
For purposes of comparison, I give here the text from the Second Phase manuscript (pp. 88–9) followed by Taum Santoski’s transcription of the tengwar document.
Manuscript text:
Gandalf and company to Burglar Bilbo, greetings! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms cash on delivery up to and not exceeding one fourteenth share of total profits. Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose we have proceeded in advance to make necessary preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Great Mill across the river at 11 a.m sharp. Trusting you will be punctual we remain yours deeply G & Co.
Tengwar text from the facsimile document:
Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo
Greeting!
For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all travelling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for.
Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at 11 a.m. sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual,
—We have the honour to remain
Yours deeply
Thorin & Co.
† See page 110