There are many great lessons in the pages of The Hobbit written by JRR Tolkien, among them how to deal with adversity in life. After all, the entire tale revolves around severe adversity as Bilbo Baggins and his dwarf companions go from one dangerous situation to the next, including sometimes transitioning “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
Bilbo leaves the comfort of Bag End in the Shire, with his many meals, quiet garden, and familiar folk in exchange for walking long distances, struggling with starvation, and surviving run-ins with the likes of trolls, goblins, and wargs. He has plenty of reasons to give up and just go home, although once across the Misty Mountains doing so would mean a perilous return journey.
Why does Bilbo keep going? One could cite his Tookish side and its need for adventure as a possible reason. But there’s a stronger motivation hidden early on in Chapter 5, Riddles in the Dark.
After Gandalf, the dwarfs, and Bilbo take refuge in a cave in the Misty Mountains during a horrific storm, they learn too late while asleep that a hidden door is connected to the goblins’ vast network of tunnels. The wizard avoids capture, then creates a commotion during which his companions are able to run for it.
But Bilbo becomes separated from the others. Alone, in complete darkness, he stumbles around trying to find his way without being captured or worse. He must have been terrified in that moment, as anyone would.
That’s when the thought enters his mind that he could turn around and go back, perhaps running into the dwarfs as they could possibly do the same, looking for the hobbit. But he quickly realizes backtracking was “no good at all.” After all, that would increase his chances of running into the goblins looking for him.
He then draws the conclusion that forward is not only a good thing to do, it’s the only thing to do in the situation. It’s interesting to note Tolkien says at that point Bilbo began to “trot” instead of simply stumbling or walking forward. True, he was aided by the faint glow of Sting, his sword, which helped give him confidence. But I’d argue he was also emboldened by realizing he was only going to get through the trial by moving forward.
It’s also true that as Bilbo did go forward, he descended further into the mountain and eventually crossed paths with the creature Gollum, who tried to trick and kill him. You could argue that by moving forward, the little hobbit in a way got himself into a worse position. While that’s certainly true, the trial only lasted for a bit and he gained even more confidence, plus the ring.
Without the ring, Bilbo wouldn’t have been able to rescue the dwarfs from the spiders or elves and he certainly wouldn’t have been able to hide from Smaug. And he wouldn’t have gained the ring had he not gone through the overwhelming separation from his companions and matching wits with Gollum by himself.
Even more importantly, the trial earlier in the story helps Bilbo learn confidence while in the midst of adversity. That serves him well as he finds himself descending a tunnel in a mountain once again, that time to come up against a cunning dragon, a much more formidable foe than Gollum. As Tolkien notes, “He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he even saw the vast danger that lie in wait.”
Would Bilbo have had the bravery to face Smaug had he not successfully confronted Gollum? Likely not. The trial in the Misty Mountains prepared him for the one in the Lonely Mountain. He learned the only way to deal with trials is to move forward, rather than cowering in fear and not progressing.
But the confrontation with Gollum teaches Bilbo even more. While he foolishly tells Gollum his name and where he was from, by the time he’s confronted by the dragon, the hobbit learns to keep such critical information obscured.
Smaug tries tripping Bilbo up through verbal jockeying in a more sophisticated way than Gollum ever did, so without the preparation provided by the previous game of riddles, Bilbo might not have been ready for the dragon’s tricks.
Even when we face situations we never imagined ourselves in, when we’re stumbling through the dark, the best thing to do is bravely move forward like Bilbo did. While we might find ourselves still facing scary situations, the experiences will be for our benefit in the long run.
Steven Symes 