As I’ve said before, The Hobbit is one of my most cherished books, thanks to it being entertaining and instructive. Of the many good morals taught in the story is the corrupting nature of loving wealth. If you’ve read it before, you likely caught at least some of that lesson because it’s at the forefront of the story, but I’m going to dig a little deeper.
Obviously, the whole point of the dwarves’ journey is to retake the Lonely Mountain. The why behind that is twofold. On the one hand, it’s about setting right an old wrong when Smaug overthrew a powerful dwarf kingdom which benefited others in the area.
But the other motivation for the dwarves is the massive treasure contained in the mountain. At times, it seems that material wealth completely overshadows the moral motivations of the quest. That’s when things really go sideways.
How Tolkien describes the dwarves in The Hobbit reminds me so much of people I have known: “dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money.” He further explains while some are evil and don’t keep their word, others are “decent enough” with the qualification of “if you don’t expect too much.”
In other words, the dwarves won’t outright steal from others, but if you get in between them and riches, watch out. This comes to fruition later in the story when the men and elves show up asking for compensation after Lake-town is destroyed by Smaug. Rather than being charitable to them, Thorin treats what’s a reasonable request as a set of outrageous demands. After all, had it not been for Bard, the problem of a dragon coming back to reclaim all those riches would’ve been very much a concern for the dwarves. At the very least, payment for eliminating that threat is warranted.
Speaking of that beast, it’s significant that at one point, Tolkien describes a sleeping Smaug as having “dreams of greed and violence.” That is the nature of the dragon, to think on such things day and night, taking pleasure in such evils.
Even more significant is the fact Smaug and his kin would take over vast treasures only to literally slumber on them. In other words, they stole great riches, gaining pleasure from them not because of what they could buy with the wealth, but because the dragons deprived the original owners of enjoying the benefits of the gold, jewels, etc. To find joy in hurting others is perhaps even more depraved than setting one’s heart on material things.
Another motivation for Smaug arises when he declares everyone will once again know who the “real kind under the mountain is” before soaring off to pay Lake-town a destructive visit. In other words, the dragon very much cares about pride and the public perception of his power, which in his mind is his social station. He bested the dwarf king and deprived everyone from benefitting from the treasure, ostensibly making him greater and worthy of veneration, something he values greatly.
Even Bilbo at one point starts to cave to the temptation of the untold wealth contained in the mountain. When he first enters the hold, his attention is of course focused on the sleeping dragon and the extreme danger the creature poses. However, once he looks around more, he is overtaken by “the splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure…” Tolkien goes on to describe how the hobbit’s “heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of the dwarves.”
Bilbo is able to better understand the sickness which overtook Thorin and the others later because he experiences a measure of it himself. Thankfully, that lesson helps him to avoid the temptation of taking too much of the treasure back to the Shire since the sheer physical burden of that endeavor might mean his ultimate demise in the wilderness.
The trick to understanding the problem with wealth in The Hobbit as well as in real life is to not concentrate too much on the material. Those who do, whether they have wealth or perceive others do, are missing the point. What’s the true sin is in focusing on the material to the exclusion of higher principles. In other words, setting one’s heart on riches, either your own or someone else’s, sets you on the wrong spiritual and moral path. Tolkien does an excellent job of illustrating this in his timeless tale.
Image credit JRR Tolkien
Steven Symes 