{"id":627,"date":"2011-11-03T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=627"},"modified":"2011-11-03T09:13:47","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T16:13:47","slug":"mark-reads-the-hobbit-chapter-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/11\/mark-reads-the-hobbit-chapter-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Hobbit’: Chapter 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth chapter of The Hobbit<\/em>, Bilbo must devise a way to free the dwarves from the Wood-elves. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Hobbit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER NINE: BARRELS OUT OF BOND<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bilbo has a lot of fear, apprehensions, and self-esteem issues to work through, and what I find so captivating about The Hobbit<\/em> is the fact that we get to witness all of this. I’m pretty sold on the general story by itself: it’s a dangerous and violent journey through a mysterious land full of fantastical creatures. That concept alone is enough to capture my attention, but I think the added subtext of this emotional journey for Bilbo makes this all the more interesting to me.<\/p>\n

Things really aren’t going so well with the dwarves, as this chapter opens with the Wood-elves capturing the remaining twelve dwarves right off the bat. And let’s just admit that this is not a hard task: even if we ignore how exhausted they all are from the spiders, they’re in a forest with almost no light in it. They’re sitting ducks. However, Tolkien makes things interesting immediately by having Bilbo slip on the ring he stole from Gollum. Instead of putting Bilbo in captivity, Tolkien goes with a different dynamic: he must use his invisibility not only to stay alive, but to find a way to free his friends.<\/p>\n

And it’s interesting for a lot of reasons; obviously, now we get to see how Bilbo faces his own fears to help his friends. But from a storytelling perspective, having Bilbo waltz about the palace of the elves is brilliant. Tolkien’s narration can now focus on showing us the physical layout of the setting without separating our view of the main character. On top of that, the tension of chapter nine derives from the fact that Bilbo has to exist in this unnatural state for such a long time, and in order to do so, he has to utilize the talents he possesses as a hobbit.<\/p>\n

From the start Bilbo does a whole lot of sneaking just to keep up with the elves without giving away his location. I loved that Tolkien constantly acknowledges the fact that Bilbo still casts a feint shadow and that he’s still going to make noise. So our little hobbit friend does his best to blend in, knowing that he doesn’t want to be left alone at the end of this, and that his friends really need his assistance.<\/p>\n

The cave of the elves is unlike anything we’ve seen before and I love my copy of The Hobbit<\/em> has these tiny ink illustrations in it. I get the sense that the Wood-elves are much more neat and organized than the cave-dwelling goblins. Tolkien also makes a point to show us that they’re not evil, but concerned, perhaps irritated that the dwarves have come upon their forest in such a ridiculous manner. Sure, there are some one dimensional villains in this book, but that’s doesn’t mean that all<\/em> the antagonistic forces have to be. At heart, I felt sympathetic to what the Elvenking had to say about the dwarves:<\/p>\n

“Do you forget that you were in my kingdom, using the road that my people made? Did you not three times pursue and trouble my people in the forest and rouse the spiders with your riot and clamour? After all the disturbance you have made I have a right to know what brings you here, and if you will not tell me now, I will keep you all in prison until you have learned sense and manners!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s an unfortunate situation, but I get<\/em> it. To the elves, the dwarves’ story simply doesn’t look good. It’s suspicious, and I think they have every reason to think that this shit is sketchy<\/em>. Still, as I said, it’s unfortunate, but once the dwarves are made prisoners, it falls on Bilbo to figure out how to rectify this situation:<\/p>\n
He often wished, too, that he could get a message for help sent to the wizard, but that of course was quite impossible; and he soon realized that if anything was to be done, it would have to be done by Mr. Baggins, alone and unaided.<\/p>\n
Thus, we are presented with the main conflict of chapter nine, both the physical problem of imprisoned dwarves, and the emotional core of Bilbo’s growth. If you remember, the last time Bilbo felt good about himself, it was because he realized he could be clever; here, he takes that idea to set about finding a method to free the dwarves in the safest way possible.<\/p>\n
Eventually, after a week or two of this sneaking sort of life, by watching and following the guards and taking what chances he could, he managed to find out where each dwarf was kept.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’M SORRY. A WEEK OR TWO?????<\/em><\/strong> Oh holy SHIT. This is not what I expected!!! When I first read this, I thought it seemed ridiculous. THAT SEEMS LIKE AN AWFULLY LONG TIME TO JUST SKIP OVER. But in the passages that followed this, it was clear to me that Tolkien was building up to where this chapter would eventually end up. In truth, there’s no way an escape like the one Bilbo pulls off could happen in the turn of a day. What he does is observe, and this takes a considerable amount of time. Not only does it give Bilbo a chance to find out all twelve locations where the dwarves are being imprisoned, but in the process, Tolkien gets to show us the vastness of the Wood-elves’ lair. It is during this that Bilbo is able to determine a method of escape.<\/p>\n
In the lowest part of the palace, Bilbo finds a stream that leads out to the Forest River, and observes how the other Wood-elves will send out the empty wine barrels by dropping them into the stream to float out of the palace. This provides Bilbo with an idea, albeit one that is incredibly risky and dangerous. More than anything else, this is what Bilbo has to face: his own fear of disappointing himself and others, of being unable to do anything or be useful to the dwarves he is traveling. We see that he is<\/em> getting better at believing in himself and putting aside his fear in order to go about setting up this escape in virtually no time. That’s what’s most impressive to me about this: Bilbo comes up with this plan and executes it in like an hour. This is not like the Bilbo Baggins I met in chapter one, and it’s goddamn gorgeous.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
Even further, when he finally gathers all the dwarves up and tells them his plan, his reaction to the dwarvish derision is so surprising to me because IT IS TIME FOR BILBO TO GET FEISTY:<\/p>\n
“Very well!” said Bilbo very downcast, and also rather annoyed. “Come along back to your nice cells, and I will lock you all in again, and you can sit there comfortably and think of a better plan–but I don’t suppose I shall ever get hold of the keys again, even if I feel inclined to try.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh, SNAP. You dwarves just got told<\/em>. Can you feel the burn??? Yet even when Bilbo is at his maximum level of sassy, I’m just so impressed<\/em> that he still has room to also be one hell of a gentleman by giving the guard his keys back<\/em>:<\/p>\n
“That will save him some of the trouble he is in for,” said Mr. Baggins to himself. “He wasn’t a bad fellow, and quite decent to the prisoners. It will puzzle them all too. They will think we had a very strong magic to pass through all those locked doors and disappear.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THIS IS SO ADORABLE<\/strong>. He doesn’t want to get the guard in trouble! BILBO YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL.<\/p>\n
From here on, chapter nine is INTENSITY IN TEN CITIES. Because this escape plan is so improvisational, it is not without a whole host of problems, but the group has to smooth them over out of desperation. First of all, the barrels pose a size issue, especially when they’re too large, which would mean that the ride down the river might be far more painful than expected. But Bilbo, determined to set them all free, helps all thirteen dwarves get into their barrels, sealing them all after they climb in, and setting them up to be cast down into the stream.<\/p>\n
Which then presents the second problem: WHO IS GOING TO HELP BILBO. Oh god IT IS ALREADY A DISASTER<\/em>.<\/p>\n
It was just at this moment that Bilbo suddenly discovered the weak point in his plan. Most likely you saw it some time ago and have been laughing at him; but I don’t suppose you would have done half as well yourselves in his place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THIS IS MY FAVORITE INTERJECTION FROM THE AUTHOR. Because he’s totally right, isn’t he? This plan is pretty damn fantastic for something he came up with on the spot, and most of the dwarves had already been pushed out to float downstream before Bilbo figured out what he should do. I at first worried that this stream might be made of the same substance that was in that terrifying river in the last chapter, but it turns out that Bilbo really only has to worry about two other things: keeping afloat and not freezing to death.<\/p>\n
I honestly love what Tolkien does with this, and it’s the uncertainty of this plan that not only makes it suspenseful, but compelling as well. Bilbo may very well die from this, but he does it anyway, shivering from the cold, attempting to keep his balance so that his head is above water, all the while thinking more about the well-being of his dwarf friends than of himself. Again, this is not the same hobbit I met at the beginning of the book. BLESS YOU, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. BLESS YOU<\/em>. I mean, he steals food at one point when he is able to wade to shore. And I’m not judging him for doing so. He can’t starve! But it’s entirely inconceivable that the Bilbo Baggins back in that hobbit-hole would ever have done such a thing. He’s becoming a new person throughout this. (Wait, can I even use the term “person” anymore? He’s not human.)<\/p>\n
The chapter really ends on a great note, too. By not telling us how<\/em> on earth Bilbo is going to get all thirteen dwarves to a safe spot and<\/em> release them from their barrels, we get the sense that these characters are now way beyond the point of no return. This isn’t just shit getting real; we are seeing that the journey they are on is legitimately dangerous and frightening, and the horrors they face are here to stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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