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Good morning!
May. 25th, 2024 05:33 pmI've been rereading The Hobbit's first chapter, and I'm struck by the way Bilbo uses manners and civility to keep the fae at arm's length, and how poorly it works.
So what he really wants to do is send Gandalf packing but he doesn't dare, wizard's being wizards. Instead, he invites him round to tea the next day, which feels a little like bumping into an old acquaintance and saying you should really get to dinner sometime. Only this ha an actual planned meet up so it's already less effective than our modern variant. It does, though, give him a well-mannered way out of the current way to end this interaction, and sets the stage for what the next one. It will be a tea, there will be Rules and a set end-date.
Only notsomuch. The dwarves arrive when poor Bilbo expects his wizard, and they just keep coming. There's the rude knocking, the odd belongings, the eating all his seed-cake and keeping him running to meet there every request. The only thing that seems to make it worse is when he's grousing about all the work these unexpected guests are causing him, and instead of taking the hint and leaving, they actually help him clean up.
Again, he's clinging to manners to try to make them feel unwelcome, to highlight the imposition, but all he really does is make a space for them to keep on staying. He's actually inviting them in explicitly, both Gandalf and the dwarves, but it's in this way I think anyone playing by the same rule book as him would recognize wasn't a true invitation. That the only polite reply-back was to see they weren't welcome and withdraw.
It does remind me of folk-tales about vampires and other baddies, who must be given verbal permission to enter. I don't think Bilbo could have really done anything to avoid this adventure once Gandalf marked his door, but it's fascinating to me just how clearly Tolkien shows the normal rules of society don't apply, his Baggins side and all the social niceties that shape his reality just are completely ineffective in the face of these strange beings from beyond the blue.
I'm beginning to think it's no small thing Tolkien had him forget to put this event in his diary. As if this wide, dangerous world could ever be diaried in.
"I beg your pardon, I haven't asked for anything!" [said Bilbo]
"Yes, you have! Twice now. My pardon. I give it you. In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me, very good for you and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it."
"Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea - any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good-bye!"
With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seem rude. Wizards after all are wizards.
"What on earth did I ask him to tea for!" he said to himself, as he went to the pantry. He had only just had break fast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright. Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and laughing long but quietly. After a while he stepped up, and with the spike of his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit's beautiful green front-door.
So what he really wants to do is send Gandalf packing but he doesn't dare, wizard's being wizards. Instead, he invites him round to tea the next day, which feels a little like bumping into an old acquaintance and saying you should really get to dinner sometime. Only this ha an actual planned meet up so it's already less effective than our modern variant. It does, though, give him a well-mannered way out of the current way to end this interaction, and sets the stage for what the next one. It will be a tea, there will be Rules and a set end-date.
Only notsomuch. The dwarves arrive when poor Bilbo expects his wizard, and they just keep coming. There's the rude knocking, the odd belongings, the eating all his seed-cake and keeping him running to meet there every request. The only thing that seems to make it worse is when he's grousing about all the work these unexpected guests are causing him, and instead of taking the hint and leaving, they actually help him clean up.
"Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!" he said aloud. "Why don't they come and lend a hand?" Lo and behold! There stood Balin and Dwalin at the door of the kitchen, and Fili and Kili behind them, and before he could say knife they had whisked the trays and a couple of small tables into the parlour and set out everything afresh.
Gandalf sat at the head of the party with the thirteen dwarves all round: and Bilbo sat on a stool at the fireside, nibbling at a biscuit (his appetite was quite taken away), and trying to look as if this was all perfectly ordinary and not in the least an adventure. The dwarves ate and ate, and talked and talked, and time got on. At last they pushed their chairs back, and Bilbo made a move to collect the plates and glasses.
"I suppose you will all stay to supper?" he said in his politest unpressing tones. "Of course!" said Thorin. "And after. We shan't get through the business till late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!"
Again, he's clinging to manners to try to make them feel unwelcome, to highlight the imposition, but all he really does is make a space for them to keep on staying. He's actually inviting them in explicitly, both Gandalf and the dwarves, but it's in this way I think anyone playing by the same rule book as him would recognize wasn't a true invitation. That the only polite reply-back was to see they weren't welcome and withdraw.
It does remind me of folk-tales about vampires and other baddies, who must be given verbal permission to enter. I don't think Bilbo could have really done anything to avoid this adventure once Gandalf marked his door, but it's fascinating to me just how clearly Tolkien shows the normal rules of society don't apply, his Baggins side and all the social niceties that shape his reality just are completely ineffective in the face of these strange beings from beyond the blue.
I'm beginning to think it's no small thing Tolkien had him forget to put this event in his diary. As if this wide, dangerous world could ever be diaried in.
