Tri-lingual Hobbit re-read: Chapter 10 (General notes)

[annathepiper]

Been a bit, but now, getting back to it, let’s do Chapter 10 of The Hobbit!

Objectively speaking, not terribly much actually happens in this chapter. We’re basically talking the following chain of events:

Bilbo and dwarves: *float downriver to Laketown*
Bilbo: *gets dwarves out of barrels*
Thorin: “I am Thorin Oakenshield! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD–” (Wait, wrong movie.)
Lake-town Men and Elves: “Wut just happened? WOO HOO PARTY WITH THE DWARVES!”
Thorin: “We’re all going to go beat up on the dragon now!”
Lake-town Men: “Yeah okay, you have fun with that.”
Bilbo: *spends entire chapter with a cold*

Raise your hand if you’re imagining Martin Freeman looking miserable throughout this chapter. It does rather add an extra element of “aww your poor thing!”

General notes:

It’s going to be amusing to see the shots in the next movie of Thorin and Fili and Kili coming out of those barrels. Somehow, I suspect they’re still going to manage to look dreamy even when bedraggled. And I can see Martin Freeman looking sneezy and unimpressed during their entire visit to Lake-town, too.

The narrator tells us that “I have never heard what happened to the chief of the guards and the butler.” Which, even though I understand that this is being said for effect here, still translates to me as “I didn’t feel like bothering to fill that in”. It’s yet another little thing I’m pretty sure a modern writer would never get away with!

Noticed this actually when going through the French, but since Tolkien phrased it this way in English too, it goes up here: Thorin telling the party that “we must thank our stars and Mr. Baggins”. I note the lack of “lucky” in this phrase, but that would seem to be the intent here.

I have to wonder how trusting the folk of Lake-town are! The town Master clearly isn’t buying Thorin’s arrival for an instant, but the town at large goes pretty much batshit with Happy–and all it takes is this band of ragged-looking dwarves walking up, and the one in front going, “I’m King under the Mountain!” And *bam*, they all start singing. Either they’re very trusting, or else they’re looking for an excuse to party.

French notes in the next post!

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I have been referring to Kili especially as "Unexpectedly Sexy Dwarf". Goodness me.

[annathepiper]

The movie version pretty much IS 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Hotness of Dwarves'. ;D

Which reminds me that I now OWN THE BLU-RAY, which must be watched!

[wrog]

I have to wonder how trusting the folk of Lake-town are! The town Master clearly isn’t buying Thorin’s arrival for an instant, but the town at large goes pretty much batshit with Happy–and all it takes is this band of ragged-looking dwarves walking up, and the one in front going, “I’m King under the Mountain!” And *bam*, they all start singing. Either they’re ve,ry trusting, or else they’re looking for an excuse to party.

I would guess the latter. If you look at the map, you'll see that they're pretty well isolated and they clearly can't get much in the way of commerce and tourism. Hardly anything is going to get through the forest with the spiders and the Elfking, which rules out pretty much everthing involving Gondor and Rohan; the goblins in the Misty Mountains block everything from further west (Eriador).

As for the east, Tolkien implies in the appendices that there are settlements out there somewhere, and this is clearly where all of Laketown's trade actually goes; just follow the River Running. Though even when we get the larger map in LoTR and we finally get to see where the river ends up -- in the Sea of Rhûn after passing through what looks like a massive wasteland or steppe with no settlements at all -- it's clear things aren't a whole lot of fun in that direction either. Rhûn is farther away than Hobbiton, and although floating barges along a river is clearly much easier than pushing mules through the Misty Mountains, it's not entirely clear whether Rhûn is indeed the ultimate destination or whether the easterlings are just off the map completely. The latter seems more likely given that Rhûn is within spitting distance of the back side of Morder, which has, among other things, a whole lot of orcs ... at which point I have to ask, why does Laketown even exist. What were they thinking?

Bottom line is there are a lot of things about Middle Earth geography/economics that just make no sense

[annathepiper]

Fair points all around and very well argued, sir!

I myself, as I noted in previous posts on this re-read, HAVE wondered how the hell shepherds in the Misty Mountains actually manage to keep sheeps--what with all the Orcs running around, not to mention the periodic divebombings of Eagles. Who, while at least theoretically friendly, DO find those sheep awfully tasty-looking!

Wikipedia's entry on the town suggests that it's a remnant left over from a greater town pre-dating Smaug. That certainly seems to be backed up by the Tolkien Gateway's page on it, as well as what I myself was seeing in Chapter 10. I could envision a scenario, I suppose, where the descendants of ruined Dale said 'fuck it, we're going to build a town here' after they fled as far as possible from Smaug taking out Erebor and Dale.