Hey, I remember Gandalf muttering this phrase in the "Fellowship of the Ring" movie.
And looks like he's found the Ring! I do admit feeling a shiver up my spine when he came across it so casually, not realizing what events he would set into motion:
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"He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment."
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Though Bilbo's been whining and complaining (at least in his head) for quite a lot of the chapters so far, I do have to admire his spunk. He's scared, hungry, feeling way out of his depth, knocked on the head, and now he finds himself completely alone in the darkness...yet he seems in remarkably determined. A hobbit personality characteristic, perhaps? It certainly seems to take a lot to make a hobbit give up, from what I've seen in LOTR:
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"Go back?" he though. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.
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And we meet Gollum for the first time. I'm curious...which was written first, LOTR or The Hobbit? i.e. Did Tolkien already know everything about Gollum's history (how he came to be Gollum) when he wrote the Hobbit?
Loved the whole sequence with the riddles. Even described in a children's tale, Gollum comes across as such a horrifying but pitiful creature. Pitiful because of the subtle references to a time when Gollum lived out in the sunshine, and was cared for and loved. Horrifying because his fury and pursuit of Bilbo when he suspects the little hobbit of having his precious is truly frightening! If I was watching this scene in a movie, I'd be cowering behind my hands (I'm not good with scary movies).
I was moved by the paragraph where Bilbo, invisible, watches Gollum in the darkness, wondering if he should kill the creature, but then feels pity:
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"A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering."
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Wonderfully exciting escape scene at the end of this chapter! My heart was in my mouth as Bilbo dodged the goblins at the exit, especially when his brass buttons got him stuck.
Yay, so now he's safe...at least for now. But he has the Ring; what will he do with it?
PREV: Chapter 4: "Over Hill And Under Hill"