Author |
Message |
Reiki
Member
08-12-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:18 am
This is the area to discuss Chapter 2 - Roast Mutton.
The Trolls by JRR Tolkien Timeline for this chapter: April 27 – Thorin and Company ride out of Hobbiton at 11:00 am. May 29 – The company crosses a river and are captured by trolls Link to pictures for this chapter: Chapter 2 Pictures
|
Secretsmile
Member
08-19-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 8:32 am
I loved how in this chapter Bilbo decides to pick pockets because he was hired as a burglar. How often do we become what other people think we are? Bilbo is trying to live up to other's expectations of him. He came along on the journey because Gandalf said he was "just the right sort", even though he had been content with his life up until this point. Words have such power over our actions.
|
Reiki
Member
08-12-2000
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 5:04 pm
Poor Bilbo has been left to clean up the breakfast dishes. Why didn't the dwarves do it like they did the night before? Seem more than a little rude to me. Dwalin gives Bilbo his spare cloak and hood. That was nice of him. Funny to imagine Gandalf back at BagEng thinking to fetch Bilbo's pocket-handkerchiefs, pipe and tobacco. In LOTR tobacco becomes pipe weed in fiting with the idea that Middle Earth is an ancient European society. Tobacco was brought to Europe from the New World long after the Third Age. Gandalf leaves the company without a word! No see you later. No see you in a few days after I explore ahead a bit. Geesh. The dwarves seem grumpy and quarrelsome. It's a wonder they ever got anything done. I like that we find out here that hobbits are stealthy when need be. The trolls make me think of the Billy Goat Gruff. The idea of a two-headed troll is alarming. Bilbo feels the need to live up to his role as a burglar. Personally I think the talking purse is a silly plot device - too childrens story for me. I like to think that Bilbo took literary license when writing that part of the story. I find it interesting that not only do trolls have names like Tom, Bill and Bert - they have last names - indicating some sort of troll society. Thorin Oakenshield has experience using a tree branch as a weapon: When he was just fifty-three (a young age for a Dwarf) he marched with a mighty Dwarf-army to the valley they called Azanulbizar, Nanduhirion beneath the East-gate of Moria. There they fought the Battle of Nanduhirion, the last and greatest in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. In that battle, Thorin's shield was broken, so he cut a bough from an oak-tree with his axe, and used that instead to fend off his enemies' blows, or to club them. It was that oaken branch that gave Thorin his surname, but it did not completely save him from injury - it is recorded that he was wounded in the battle. - From The Encyclopedia of Arda
|
Wargod
Member
07-16-2001
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 7:06 pm
LOL about Gandalf taking off. I got to thinking about every fantasy book I've ever read where a company of heros takes off on some grand adventure, led by an older, wiser man (usually a wizard or sorcerer) who never tells his companions anything unless they absolutely need to know. It's annoying. He takes off when he wants to, comes back when he wants, and won't tell them anything more than he was scouting. Tells them they will be going to Rivendell, but won't tell Bilbo where it's at. I'm thinking if they're travelling by horse, they have plenty of time for Gandalf to give Bilbo a little geography lesson, lol.
|
Reiki
Member
08-12-2000
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 7:34 pm
I tend to forget that this book helped set that pattern for fantasy adventure stories. While it was by no means the first one, it was the one with the greatest influence on modern fantasy fiction. It's also the basic story of all the Zelda type video games. Reluctant hero and companions do battle with monsters for experience points, finding treasure along the way.
|
Wargod
Member
07-16-2001
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 11:02 pm
Well, I can turn around and look at my book shelf and see about a dozen series that follow the same basic pattern. Unwilling hero, comedic side kicks, fighters, older, wiser, respected leader. Not that it's a bad formula, it's held up through years and years, and many different stories and authors!
|
Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Friday, March 05, 2004 - 4:47 pm
I think the beginning journey is symbolic for the awakening journey within Bilbo.
|
Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 12:11 pm
That's a good point, Twiggy, I like that. I love this chapter. The whole situation with Gandalf and the trolls cracks me up. I also laugh at their arguing about how they are going to cook the dwarves. The whole idea of dwarf jelly is just very amusing to me! It makes me think of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk wanting to "grind his bones to make my bread." I guess he could smear the bread with dwarf jelly! Yum! Tolkien said that his children really enjoyed this chapter and thought it was kind of a shame that the trolls had to be turned to stone. His children "thought there was something rather nice about Trolls." When the trolls first find Bilbo and he pleads with them not to cook him, William says, "Poor little blighter! Let him go!' That is fascinating to me because it seems so out of character and it makes me wonder if there is a softer side to trolls that we don't see often or if William said it only to tick off the other two. Bilbo cracks me up in this chapter. I love it when he starts to tell the trolls that he is a burglar and stops himself, leaving them thinking he is a "burrahobbit." Also when he has the key to open the trolls' secret place (cave?) and completely forgets about it while Gandalf and the dwarves are trying everything they can think of to get in the trolls secret place. Bilbo still has a lot to learn. He still gets enormously flustered, which of course he would! How could he not? I just love Bilbo!
|
Ocean_islands
Member
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 7:23 pm
I notice in this chapter JRRT refers to two-headed trolls. I'm not sure if these ever appear anywhere. The other thing I noticed is that an inanimate object talks (the pilfered wallet). I'm not sure if anything else ever did anything like that again in JRRT world.
|
|