The Hobbit-Notable Moment Blog 3B

Blog 3B-Notable Moment

As I wrapped up reading The Hobbit, I went back and looked at my list of moments that I felt were notable and got me interested in the book. The first moment I took note of was in the first chapter, an unexpected party, when all the dwarves started showing up. This part interested me because one after another the dwarves began arriving at Bilbo’s home, and along with each dwarf, we soon found out, came a different trait that made each one unique. But as I read on, the goblins caught my interest, and so did the scene where Bilbo said his goodbyes to the dwarves and Thorin. I soon realized that so many creatures were alive in this book, but I decided to go with the scene where Bilbo and Gollum are telling riddles back and forth to each other.

This part of the book interested me because the story could go in so many different ways if Bilbo got one of the riddles wrong. The suspense came when it was Bilbo’s turn to answer to riddle:

“This thing all things devour:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.”

Of course, the answer was “Time!”, but the suspense was in the air as Gollum began moving up the bank towards Bilbo, and the hobbit’s mind was racing a mile a minute to say the right answer or be eaten. This part of the book, although close to the beginning, was a climatic part in my reading and what kept me interested as the reader.

The way that the riddles played out, and were answered, was like a firework ready to go off. Similar to a fuse running out as it burned closer and closer to the explosion. Without any say on how much time was left, the hobbit was able to quickly devise a plan, in essence, to cut the fuse and stop the explosion. He did this with his idea to have Gollum guess what was in his pocket. This plan was clever at the moment, but we would soon learn that the thing in his pocket was of great importance for his survival throughout the rest of the book.

All in all, this moment in the book may serve as a lesson to the reader to not ever give up, to always keep fighting.