The Hobbit

Chapter I: An Unexpected Party

• In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

• "Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out farther than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.

• "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."

"I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"

• Far over the misty mountains cold
  To dungeons deep and caverns old
  We must away ere break of day
  To seek the pale enchanted gold.

• As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.

• The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt up - probably somebody lighting a wood-fire - and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.

• "I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses, time required and remuneration, and so forth" - by which he meant: "What am I going to get out of it? and am I going to come back alive?"

• Old Took's great-grand-uncle Bullroarer...was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of The Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the battle was won, and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.

• Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
  Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
  That's what Bilbo Baggins hates.

Chapter V: Riddles in the Dark

• He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.

• What has roots as nobody sees,
  Is taller than trees,
  Up, up it goes,
  And yet never grows?
  • One of Gollum's riddles for Bilbo. The answer is "mountain".

• Thirty white horses on a red hill,
  First they champ,
  Then they stamp,
  Then they stand still.
  • One of Bilbo's riddles for Gollum. The answer is "teeth".

• Alive without breath,
  As cold as death;
  Never thirsty, ever drinking,
  All in mail never clinking.
  • One of Gollum's riddles for Bilbo. The answer is "fish".

• 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.
  • One of Gollum's riddles for Bilbo. The answer is "time".

• Bilbo pinched himself and 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 and forgotten about.

"What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud.

• "Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!"

Chapter XII: Inside Information

• It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they know it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long possession; and Smaug was no exception.

• To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.

• 'I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me. I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.'

• "Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!" he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb.

Chapter XV: The Gathering of the Clouds

• The king is come unto his hall
  Under the Mountain dark and tall.
  The Worm of Dread is slain and dead,
  And ever so our foes shall fall!

Chapter XVII: The Clouds Burst

• "The Eagles!" cried Bilbo once more, but at that moment a stone hurtling from above heavily on his helm, and he fell with a crash and knew no more.

Chapter XVIII: The Return Journey

• "Farewell, good thief," he said. "I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds at the Gate."

• There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!

Chapter XIX: The Last Stage

• As all things come to an end, even this story, a day came at last when they were in sight of the country where Bilbo had been born and bred, where the shapes of the land and of the trees were as well known to him as his hands and toes.

• Eyes that fire and sword have seen
  And horror in the walls of stone
  Look at last on meadows green
  And trees and hills they have long known.

• He took to writing poetry and visiting the elves; and though many shook their heads and touched their foreheads and said "Poor old Baggins!" and though few believed any of his tales, he remained very happy to the end of his days, and those were extraordinarily long.

• "And why not? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies just because you helped them come about. You don't really suppose do you that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck? Just for your sole benefit? You're a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I'm quite fond of you. But you are really just a little fellow, in a wide world after all."

"Thank goodness!"

Quotes about The Hobbit

• Seventeen years ago there appeared, without any fanfare, a book called The Hobbit which in my opinion, is one of the best children's stories of this century.
  • W. H. Auden in The New York Times Book Review