Unable to find the ring, Gollum suspects the hobbit of
stealing it and runs at him in a rage. Through sheer luck, Bilbo
happens to slip on the ring, and Gollum runs right past him. Realizing
the ring’s power, Bilbo follows Gollum, who heads toward the exit
thinking that Bilbo is ahead of him. When Gollum gets near the exit,
he stops because there are goblins crowded around it. Bilbo leaps
over him, runs past the goblins unnoticed thanks to the ring, and
just barely manages to squeeze through the door into freedom and
fresh air.
Analysis: Chapters 4–5
The uniform wickedness demonstrated by the goblins in
Chapter 4 affirms the connection between
race and moral tendencies in Tolkien’s fantasy world. The different
races of Middle-Earth possess specific moral characteristics, so
that goblins, who are infamous for their ability to make cruel weapons
and instruments of torture, are evil, and elves are good. There
are no exceptions. The races of Middle-Earth also possess qualities
that have little direct bearing on their overall moral standing.
Hobbits love food, for instance, and dwarves love gold. Again, there
are no exceptions.
The characteristics of the races result primarily from
the mythic theology of Middle-Earth. Under this theology, the gods
create certain creatures for very specific purposes. Each race also
has a particular relationship with nature. Of the various characters
Tolkien depicts, Bilbo seems to be the only one capable of making
complex moral choices that test the boundaries of his race.
Bilbo’s heroism is somewhat dubious, for though he behaves heroically,
his acts seem to be the result of luck, or else destiny, rather
than effort on his part. He seems to have a knack for being in the
right place at the right time. In his first encounter with the goblins,
for example, Bilbo proves useful by shouting enough to awaken Gandalf,
who, in turn, ends up saving the whole company. Bilbo is credited
for helping the whole party when his companions were unable to do
so, even though it was only his chance awakening that enabled him
to warn everyone.
Bilbo’s unintentional heroism is most evident in his
discovery of the magic ring. In the history of Middle-Earth, this
discovery is the most important event in the novel. Though neither
Bilbo nor Gollum (the ring’s previous holder) are aware of it, the
ring is in fact an object of awesome power. Created by
the Dark Lord Sauron, who appears in The Hobbit as
the Necromancer of Mirkwood, the ring is central to Sauron’s attempt
to conquer and corrupt the world. The ring is pivotal to the plot
of The Lord of the Rings. In The Hobbit, its
greater importance is only hinted at when Tolkien cryptically comments
that Bilbo’s discovery of the ring is a turning point in his career.
Gollum’s whiny, hissing style of speech marks
him as one of the novel’s most unique and memorable characters.
Gollum’s riddle game is itself another example of Tolkien’s interaction
with epic literature in The Hobbit. Riddles and
riddle games are familiar features of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian
epics, in which heroes are defined almost as much by their prowess
with words as they are by their prowess with swords. In fact, many
of the riddles exchanged by Bilbo and Gollum come directly from
ancient Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon poems. Bilbo’s victory in the
riddle game is an important step in his development, but the eccentric
manner in which he wins is closer to that of modern comedy than
to that of ancient epic. Bilbo baffles Gollum with the question,
“What have I got in my pocket?,” which is, of course, not a true
riddle at all. A true riddle must contain clues necessary to solve
it. Gollum, with his purely ancient sensibilities, cannot even challenge
Bilbo’s question, let alone answer it.
