Quite a Little Fellow

That is Gandalf talking to Bilbo at the end of The Hobbit.

First things first, if you don’t know about Gandalf or Bilbo or Hobbits, then…well I have no idea what to say to you. How is that possible?

The immediate problem in discussing The Hobbit is not that nobody knows the book. Tolkien’s books are right there with Rowling’s in being cultural landmarks.

The problem is that many people do not take The Hobbit seriously as literature. On the other hand, some people take Tolkien as the be-all, end-all of literature. Tolkien Studies is a genre unto itself.

How big is Tolkien Studies? Consider this: Touchstone Magazine has a section on their website describing the process of submitting a book review. At the end of the discussion, there is this paragraph:

On Lewis and Tolkien: Touchstone has a special interest in the work of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, but the massive proliferation of secondary literature on these authors, including submissions to this journal, has made it necessary that we only accept the especially interesting or illuminating. As their lives and writings are parsed ever finer we find less of what we receive passing these tests. This being said, we will be glad to read over what we are sent, but ask the author not to be excessively disappointed if even a well-written manuscript is turned down.

Here is the challenge, Dear Reader. Find something interesting to say about The Hobbit that a) has not already been said before and b) will be of interest to the entire range of people between those who have never read the book and those who have read all those books about Tolkien that Touchstone is no longer reviewing.

Having stated the challenge I herewith ignore it. I’m not even going to try to be original here.

To return the Gandalf’s statement at the outset. (Just to be clear: the outset of this blog post; it is at the end of the novel.) We have here a novel, a famous novel, a great novel, a wonderful, beloved and charming novel, in which the protagonist is merely “quite a little fellow” in the big world.

Part of us wants to reject that description of Bilbo Baggins. He is a hero, right? He has a book detailing his adventures and he is the starting place for the even grander, truly epic, story of The Lord of the Rings. We very much want to think of Bilbo as larger than life.

But, when you look at the story, Gandalf is exactly right. Bilbo is not larger than life. He is a little fellow, both in stature and in his place in society. He muddles through the tale of this novel, and seemingly through blind chance and a whole lot of luck, he ends up doing all sorts of important things. But, it is all just chance.

Think about it: what does he actually do? (If you do not know the story, the following paragraph will make zero sense.) Gandalf arranges to have Bilbo on the quest. Gandalf saves everyone from the trolls. Bilbo finds the ring by chance (or as we find out in The Lord of the Rings, the ring actually finds Bilbo). He is daring in the spider episode, but doesn’t actually succeed in much; the elves are the ones who save the dwarves. He rescues the dwarves only by the mere luck of everyone in the castle getting drunk on the same night they ship out the barrels. He finds the secret tunnel only by the complete luck of literally and accidentally being in the right place on the right day at the right time. He does cleverly get Smaug to reveal the chink in his armor (we can give him that). But, others kill Smaug. He does beat the dwarves in his game with the Arkenstone—but it isn’t clear that this helps matters. And since he accidentally gets knocked out while invisible in the final war, he survives it.

And now you, Dear Reader, want to object that this is all just belittling Bilbo. Ah, but it isn’t. The fact that Bilbo is not classically Heroic or Great is exactly what makes him so Amazing. He is just a Little Fellow in the Wide World. Yet, he is important. He is important because he is quite a little fellow in a wide world.

Consider his journey. He joins up with the dwarves on what can only be described as a whim. But, then he keeps going. There is a constant refrain in the book:

“Bother burgling and everything to do with it! I wish I was at home in my nice hall by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!” It was not the last time that he wished that!

Not for the last time indeed. Bilbo has this wish through the entire story. Bilbo would vastly prefer his quiet life in his little hole, but he agrees to do something without having any idea at all what he was agreeing to do. When the road gets rough, Bilbo just keeps going. He doesn’t keep going because he sees himself as a Hero. He doesn’t keep going because he wants to change the world. He doesn’t keep going because he has no fondness for a return to his old life. He just keeps going because the future beckons and Bilbo wants to see what is ahead.

Life is like that.

You and I, Dear Reader, are just like Bilbo Baggins. Quite a little fellow in a wide world. The choice before us is whether to just keep trudging along the path even when we want to retreat to our comfortable little hole in the ground. Just keep trudging. There is a nobility in that. Indeed, as The Hobbit teaches us, it is the most noble life of all.

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