Summary
Dense with detail, the Prologue is an extended introduction
to the history and customs of the race known as the Hobbits. According
to Tolkien’s fiction, their story has been passed down to us in
the form of a travel narrative called the Red Book of Westmarch,
written by a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who journeyed to the East
and returned to tell about his trip. Hobbits are small, portly,
good-natured, skillful at crafts and gardening, and have impressive
appetites. Most Hobbits live in the Shire, an area of Middle-earth
to which they migrated from the East more than 1,000 years
before the events of The Lord of the Rings take
place. They were shy even in ancient times, when the events of The
Lord of the Rings occur, but were originally a bit more
active than they are today. Hobbits do not wear shoes, as their
feet are tough and leathery and covered on top with curly hair.
They are provincial in outlook, for the most part uninterested in
the wide world. Their sole contribution to culture has been the
introduction of pipe tobacco. They have remained almost entirely
on the margins of historical events that have occurred since their
migration. However, they can demonstrate surprising toughness and
courage when called upon.
The first Hobbit to make a name for himself in the wider
world was Bilbo Baggins, author of the travel writings on which The
Lord of the Rings is supposedly based. As described in The
Hobbit, Bilbo, at the suggestion of the great Wizard, Gandalf
the Grey, went off with the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in search of
a lost treasure. Along the way, escaping from Orcs—a vicious race
of squat, swarthy creatures—Bilbo was lost for a time in the mines
under the Misty Mountains. Groping in the dark, he stumbled upon
a ring on the ground. The owner of the ring, a miserable creature
called Gollum, lived in the mines. When the two met, Gollum challenged
Bilbo to a riddle contest. If Gollum won, he would get to kill Bilbo
and eat him; if Bilbo won, Gollum would have to show Bilbo the way
out of the mines. In the end Bilbo won, though his final riddle—“What have
I got in my pocket?”—was not, in fact, much of a riddle.
However, Gollum, when he discovered that Bilbo had the
ring, flew into a rage. In fleeing Gollum, Bilbo accidentally discovered that
the ring made its wearer invisible, and he used this power to escape.
Curiously, ever after, in recounting the story of how he came by
the ring, Bilbo lied, saying that Gollum had offered it to him as
a present. Only when pointedly questioned by the skeptical Gandalf did
Bilbo reveal the truth.
Analysis
Tolkien initiates us into the world of Middle-earth in
a sophisticated way. The events and background of The Lord
of the Rings are not simply narrated to us by a detached
storyteller who conceived them in his imagination. Instead, the
narrator presents his tale as a historical record based upon a variety
of different sources: chronicle histories written from the perspectives
of both Elves and Men, folklore and oral tradition, and the narrator’s
meticulous knowledge of the language and customs of the peoples
he describes. The narrator assembles all of these disparate materials
to create a history that is broader in scope than the history of
any one race or people.
We may be surprised to learn that The Hobbit, Tolkien’s
earlier novel, is actually one of the narrator’s archival sources,
supposedly a part of a larger book we were unaware of called the
Red Book of Westmarch. Although The Hobbit itself
is narrated in the manner of a children’s book, we are now invited
to believe that the earlier novel was discovered, not created. In
presenting the Hobbits’ tale in this way, Tolkien follows in the
footsteps of many great works of Western literature, such as Don
Quixote, whose author, Cervantes, pretended to have discovered
the manuscript of the novel and published it. There is thus a long
tradition of works that claim not to be authored by their authors.
One result of this device is that the characters’ world and the
readers’ world are brought closer together. If Bilbo’s narrative
found its way into our everyday lives, then perhaps we could find
our way into Bilbo’s world. Although a huge historical gap separates
us from him, still we feel that the only difference between the
Hobbits’ reality and our own is the intervention of a few millennia.
The earth he walked on is the same earth we walk on, and the closeness
heightens our identification with Bilbo, Frodo, and all the other
characters we are about to meet.
The characteristics of the Hobbits are first outlined
in the Prologue, and we get a surprising portrait of the creatures
that we expect to be the heroes of this narrative. They are hardly
noble or majestic in appearance or lifestyle. They are short and
dumpy, and most of them live in holes underground. They like food
and leisure more than we would expect from the leaders of a mission
to rid the world of evil. Our first introduction to Bilbo, recalling
events first narrated in The Hobbit, underscores
this impression, since he is somewhat disappointingly presented.
He is not busily arranging his affairs or impressing his peers with
his strength of character; tather, he is lost in some mine shafts.
Yes, he is on a quest—for treasure—but he is misdirected and unable
to find his way. Yet there is a long literary tradition behind this
sort of introduction as well. Dante opens The Divine Comedy with
a scene of himself lost in the woods and unable to orient himself,
and his perplexity at the beginning only emphasizes the wisdom he
gains later when he does find his way in life. There is an innocence
in Bilbo that his clueless demeanor reflects, and that may indicate
a capacity for moral heroism. Honesty and candor may matter more
than strength or swiftness.
