The History of the Hobbit Page 23
After a while Gollum began to hiss with pleasure to himself: ‘Is it nice, my precious; is it juicy; is it scrumptiously crunchable?’ he said, peering at Bilbo out of the dark.
‘Half a moment’ said Bilbo. ‘Give me a chance, I gave you a good long one’.
‘It must make haste, haste’ said Gollum, beginning to climb out of the boat to come at Bilbo. But when he put his long webby foot in the water, a fish jumped out in fright to get away from him and touched Bilbo’s toe. ‘Ugh’ he said ‘it’s cold and clamy’ – and so he guessed.
‘Fish, fish’ he said ‘it is fish!’
Gollum was dreadfully disappointed, but Bilbo asked another riddle as quick as ever he could so that Gollum had to get back [added: in the boat] and think.
‘No legs lay on one-leg; two-legs sat near on three legs; four-legs got some.’ he said. It wasn’t the right moment for this riddle at all, but he was a bit flurried. Very likely Gollum wouldn’t have guessed it, if Bilbo had asked it at another time. As it was, talking of fish, ‘no-legs’ wasn’t so very difficult, and after that the rest is easy.
Fish on little table; man at table on a stool. – gives bones to the cat – that is the answer of course, and Gollum soon gave it. Then he thought the time was come to ask something hard, and horrible.
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
Poor Bilbo sat in the dark thinking of all the horrible names of all the giants and ogres he had ever heard told of in tales; but never a one had done all these things. He began to feel frightened. The answer wouldn’t come. Gollum began to get out of the boat. He flapped into the water and paddled to the bank; Bilbo could see his eyes coming towards him. His tongue seemed to stick to his mouth; he wanted to shout out ‘give me more time, give me more time’ but all that came out in a sudden squeal was
“Time! Time!”
And that of course was the answer. Bilbo was saved by pure luck.
Gollum was dreadfully disappointed again. And now he was getting tired of the game, and also the game had begun to make him hungry once more. So he didn’t go back to his boat. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo,TN23 and that made the hobbit most horribly uncomfortable, and scattered his wits.
‘It’s got to ask us a question, my precious, yes yes just one more question to guess, yes, yes’ said Gollum; but Bilbo simply couldn’t think of one with that nasty wet cold thing sitting next to him poking him. He scratched his head, he pinched himself, still he couldn’t think of anything.
‘Ask us, ask us’ said Gollum.
He pinched himself, he slapped himself, he gripped on his little sword, he even felt in his pocket with his other hand. There he found the ring he had picked up in the passage.
‘What have I got in my pocket?’ he said aloud (but he only meant it for himself). Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was dreadfully upset.
‘Not fair, not fair’ he hissed ‘it isn’t fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it’s got in its nasty little pockets’.
Still Bilbo having nothing better to ask stuck to his question. ‘What have I got in my pocket’ he said louder.
‘S-s-s-s’ hissed Gollum. ‘it must give us three guesses, my precious, three guesses’.
‘Very well’ said Bilbo ‘guess away’.
‘Hands’ said Gollum.
‘Wrong’ said Bilbo ‘guess again’. He had taken his hand out and held the ring [> with the ring in it] (which was lucky). TN24
‘S-s-s’ said Gollum, more upset than ever. He thought of all the things [people keep in pockets >] he kept in his pockets (fish bones), TN25 goblins teeth, bits of stone to sharpen his teeth on and other nasty things) he tried to think and remember what other people kept in their pockets.
‘Knife’ he said.
‘Wrong again’ said Bilbo who had lost his some time ago (very luckily again). ‘Last guess!’
Now Gollum was in a much worse state that when Bilbo asked him the egg-question. He hissed and spluttered, and rocked backwards and forwards, and slapped his feet on the floor and wiggled and squirmed – but still he did not dare to waste his last guess.
‘Come on’ said Bilbo ‘I am waiting’. He tried to sound bold and cheerful, but he didn’t feel at all sure how the game was going to end, whether Gollum guessed or no [> right or not].
‘Time’s up’ he said.
‘String, or Nothing’ said [> shrieked] Gollum – which wasn’t quite fair, [trying >] working in two answers at once: still it was a very nasty thing to answer.
‘Both wrong!’ said Bilbo very much relieved – and jumped to his feet and held out his little sword with his back to the wall. But funnily enough, he need not have been frightened. For one thing the Gollum had learned long long ago was never to cheat at the riddle-game. Also there was the sword. He simply sat and blubbered [> whimpered].
‘What about the present?’ said Bilbo, not that he cared very much; still he felt he had won it, and in very difficult circumstances too.
‘Must we give it precious; yes we must – we must fetch it precious, and give it to the thing the present we promised.’ So he paddled back into his boat, and Bilbo thought he had heard the last of him. But he hadn’t. The hobbit was just thinking of going back up the passage (having had quite enough of the Gollum and that dark water-edge), when [Gollum came back >] he heard Gollum wailing and squeaking away in the dark [cancelled: on his island]. He was on his island (of which Bilbo, of course, knew nothing) scrabbling here and there, searching and seeking in vain, and turning out his pockets.
‘Where is it, where is it’ he heard him squeaking. ‘Lost, lost, my precious, lost lost; bless us and splash us, we haven’t the present we promised, and we haven’t [added: even] got it for ourselves’.
Bilbo turned round and waited, wondering what it could be that the creature was making such a fuss about. This turned out very fortunately; For Gollum came back, and made a tremendous chatter and whispering and croaking; and in the end Bilbo [found >] understood, that Gollum had a ring, a wonderful beautiful ring, a ring that he had been given for a birthday-present ages and ages before in old days when such rings were less uncommon. Sometimes he had kept it in his pocket; usually he kept it in a little hole in the rock on his island; sometimes he wore it – wore it when he was very very hungry and tired of fish, and crept along the dark passages looking for stray goblins. Then (being very hungry) he ventured even into places where the torches were lit and made his eyes blink and smart; but he was safe. O yes quite [> very nearly] safe; for if you slipped that ring on your fingers, you were invisible; only in the strongest sunlight could you be seen, and then only by your shadow, and that was [a faint >] only a faint shaky sort of shadow.
I don’t know how many times Gollum begged Bilbo’s pardon. And he offered him fish caught fresh to eat instead (Bilbo shuddered at the thought of it); [but somehow or other he had to >] TN26 but he said ‘no thank you’ quite politely.
He was thinking, thinking hard – and the idea came to him thatTN27 he must have found that ring, that he had that very ring in his pocket. But he had the wits not to tell Gollum. ‘Finding’s keeping’ he said to himself; and being in a very tight place I think he was right, and anyway the ring belonged to him now.
But to Gollum he said: ‘Never mind, the ring would have been mine now if you could have found it, so you haven’t lost it. And I will forgive you on one condition’.
‘Yes what is it, what does it wish us to do, my precious.’
‘Help me to get out of these places’, said Bilbo.
To this Gollum agreed, as he had to if he wasn’t to cheat, though he would very much have liked to have just tasted what Bilbo was like. Still he had lost the game [> promised]; and also there was the sword, and also Bilbo was wide awake & on the look out, not unsuspecting as the Gollum li
ked to have things which he caught.
That is how Bilbo got to know that the tunnel ended at the water, and went on no further on the other side, where the mountain wall was dark and solid. He ought to have turned down one of the side passages before he came to the bottom, but he couldn’t follow the directions he was given to find it. So he made Gollum come and show him.
As they went along up the tunnel together, Gollum flip-flapping along, Bilbo going very quietly, Bilbo thought he would try that ring. He slipped it on.
‘Where are you [> is it], where is it gone to?’ said Gollum at once, peering round with his long eyes.
‘Here I am following behind’ said Bilbo slipping off the ring, and feeling very pleased to have it in his pocket.TN28 So on they went, while Gollum counted the passages to left and right: ‘one left, one right, two right, three right, two left’ and so on. He began to get very shaky and afraid as he got further from the water, and at last he stopped by a low opening on the left (‘six right, four left’).
‘Here’s the passage [added: he whispered]; it must squeeze in, and sneak down, – we durstn’t go with it, my precious, no we durstn’t: Gollum!’
So Bilbo slipped under the arch, and said goodbye to the nasty miserable creature, and very glad he was. He wasn’t comfortable till he felt quite sure it was gone; and he kept his head out in the main tunnel listening until the flip flap of Gollum going back to his boat died away in the darkness.
Then he went down the new passage. It was a low narrow one, roughly made. It was all right for the hobbit, except when he stubbed his toes in the dark on nasty jags in the floor, but it must have been a bit low for Goblins. Perhaps it was not knowing that goblins are used to this sort of thing and go along quite fast stooping low with their hands almost on the floor, that made Bilbo forget the danger of meeting them, and go along a bit recklessly.
When he saw a glimmer of light in front of him, not red light of torch or fire or lantern, but pale ordinary out of doors sort of light that seemed to be filtering in round the comer of the passage, he began to really hurry. Scuttling along as fast as his little legs would take him, he came round a corner right into a wider place where the light seemed suddenly clear and bright after all that time in the black tunnel. Really the light was only in through a door, a stone door, left a little way open. Bilbo blinked, and then he suddenly saw the goblins. Goblins in full armour with swords sitting just inside the door watching it and the passage that led to it. They saw him at once, and yelled with delight as they rushed at him.
Whether it was accident or presence of mind I don’t know. Accident, I think, because Bilbo was not yet used to his new treasure. Anyway he slipped the ring on his left hand – and the goblins stopped. But they yelled all the louder, only not quite so delighted.
They couldn’t see him any more. ‘Where is he’ they called. ‘Go back in the passage’ some shouted ‘This way; that way’ some said. ‘Mind the door’ said others. Whistles blew, armour clashed, swords rattled, goblins cursed and swore and ran hither and thither, getting in one another’s way, and getting very angry. There was a terrible outcry, to do and disturbance.
Bilbo was very frightened, but he had the sense to understand what had happened, and to sneak behind a big barrel which held drink for the goblin-guards, and to get out of the way, and avoid being bumped into, trampled to death, or being caught by feel.
‘I must get to the door! I must get to the Door’ he kept on saying to himself, but it was a long time before he ventured to try. Then it was like a horrible game of blind-man’s buff.TN29 The place was full of goblins running about, and poor little Bilbo dodged this way, dodged that way; was knocked over by a goblin that could’nt make out what he had bumped into; scrambled away on all fours; slipped between the legs of a big goblin just in time; got up and ran for the door.
It was still ajar – but a goblin had pushed it nearly to. Bilbo struggled but he couldn’t move it. He tried to squeeze through the crack; he squeezed and squeezed – and he stuck!
Wasn’t that horrible! His buttons had got wedged on the edge of the door & the door post. He could see outside into the open air, there were steep steps running down into what seemed a valley; [there was the river shining bright>] the sun came out from behind a cloud & shone bright on the outside of the door – but he could’nt get through.
Suddenly one of the goblins inside shouted: ‘There’s a shadow by the door. Somebody’s outside!’ Bilbo’s heart jumped into his mouth; he gave terrific squirm, buttons burst off in all directions, and he was through with a torn coat and waistcoat, and leaping down the steps like a goat, while bewildered goblins were still picking up his nice brass buttons on the doorstep.
Of course they soon came down the steps, hooting and hollering, and hunting among the trees of the valley. But they don’t like sun – it makes them quickly faint and feeble – and anyway they couldn’t find Bilbo with the ring on, while he slipped in and out in the shadow of the trees, and took care not to throw any shadows. Soon they went back grumbling and cursing to guard the door, and Bilbo had escaped.
TEXT NOTES
1 This was altered to ‘But however far he went [either back >] in either direction he couldn’t find anything’.
2 Added in margin and marked for insertion at this point: ‘nor even why his head was so sore’.
3 Both here and at the next occurrence, ‘bacca’ has been changed to ‘baccy’.
4 Note that Bilbo is conversant with elven history to some extent even before his adventures began, as witnessed by his familiarity with the ‘many songs’ about Gondolin.
5 There is a slight change of ink at this point.
6 This line was changed to ‘. . . no sound of any one except occasionally the whirr of a bat near his ears, which startled him at first.’ Also, a sentence was added in the top margin in very small letters and marked for insertion at this point: ‘I don’t know how long he kept on like this hating to go on, not daring to stop, on, on till he was tired as tired – it certainly seemed like all the way tomorrow and over it to the day beyond.’
7 This passage was revised to read ‘so he thought that it must be a pool or a lake & not a moving river.’
8 The unfinished sentence presumably would have read something along the lines of ‘like lanterns to see in the dark’.
9 Crowded into the top margin and marked for insertion at this point: ‘They [made the >] came on the road [> lake] when they were tunnelling down long ago and they found they could go no further, so there their road ended in that direction, and there was no reason to go there unless the King sent them. Sometimes he took a fancy for fish from the lake. And sometimes neither goblin nor fish came back.’
10 The word ‘flummuxed’ (or flummoxed) is old slang for confused or perplexed or bewildered. Probably of dialectical origin (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Sheffield), it seems to have come into vogue in early Victorian times (the OED’s earliest citation is from Dickens’ Pickwick Papers [1837]) and largely faded from use after mid-century (only one OED citation postdates 1857, and that is from 1892, the year of Tolkien’s birth).
11 Added at this point: ‘my precious,’. For more on ‘ye’ (dialectical for you), see p. 187 (Note 10).
12 This sentence was revised to read ‘It likes riddles, does it praps?’ – with the dehumanizing shift from ‘he’ to ‘it’. ‘Praps’ is of course a clipped form of perhaps; like bitsy it injects almost a touch of babytalk into the sinister conversation.
13 Added in pencil at the end of the paragraph: ‘It was the only game
14 Added at this point: ‘up rises > up up it goes’.
15 Tolkien originally followed this sentence with the single cancelled word, ‘What’. Only two of the riddles begin with this word: the one Bilbo has just answered, and the final, unanswerable question that ends the contest – raising the possibility that Bilbo’s first response was also to be his last and bring the exchange to a sudden, pre
mature close. If such was the case, we can be grateful that Tolkien changed his mind and interpolated the full contest into this scene. It would also show that he had the scene’s conclusion firmly in mind from the very beginning. An alternate explanation might be that he accidently began to repeat the first riddle but caught his mistake in time.
No separate drafts for the riddles have been found. All are written right into the text, but despite hesitations and minor variants these are so close to the final versions that it would be remarkable if they were all spontaneous compositions. It seems likely, then, that Tolkien may have been writing down riddles he had composed, perhaps orally, at some earlier point. At any rate, whether he was transcribing them from rough drafting (now lost) or recreating them from memory, the order in which he used them was not yet set (see p. 174).
16 Here ‘toosies, tooies’ were cancelled in ink, and ‘teeth, teeth’ written above them.
17 The next, cancelled words – ‘Alive without breath’ – indicate that originally the fish-riddle was to follow next.
18 This is the first of five references to Bilbo’s opponent as ‘the Gollum’ rather than just Gollum; in three cases (pages 156, 157, & 160), Tolkien cancelled the article but in two others (pp. 160 & 161) he let it stand.
19 This last sentence was cancelled and replaced by the following, which was added in the top margin and marked for insertion at this point: ‘On the other hand they made him hungry: So he tried something a bit more difficult, and more nasty.’
20 This line was originally preceded by a cancelled partial line: ‘follows & comes a > Goes before &’.
21 This sentence was cancelled and the following crowded in at the end of the line: ‘Unfortunately for him Bilbo had heard one rather like that before.’ At the same time, the following line was altered to read ‘“Dark” said he without even scratching his head, or putting on his thinking cap.’
22 The opening of this sentence was replaced by the following mostly marginal addition: ‘He thought it a dreadfully easy chestnut; but it proved a nasty poser for Gollum.’