I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 17: The clouds burst.
This review contains spoilers.
Bard, Gandalf, and the elven king have an audience with Thorin, and reveal that they possess the Arkenstone of Thrain. They say they're willing to sell it to him for a portion of the treasure he reclaimed when Bard killed Smaug.
It's a reasonable proposition, but Thorin is swayed by the allure of a dragon's hoard. He secretly plans to agree to their terms, but only to stall until his cousin Dain arrives with a dwarven army.
Bilbo confesses to having stolen the Arkenstone, and Thorin threatens to throw him off the wall. After Gandalf reveals himself and persuades Thorin to do no harm to the hobbit, Thorin allows Bilbo to defect to the human and elf army, but swears off every working with a wizard or a hobbit ever again.
Dain arrives with an army. Just when fighting is about to erupt, the humans, elves, and dwarves are attacked by a goblin incursion. A battle between four armies begins, and just when all hope appears to be lost, a fifth army appears. The giant eagles join in the fight against the goblins. It's the battle of five armies, and Bilbo puts on his ring to stay as far out of the fray as possible (but ends up getting hit by a stray rock or something, and falls unconscious.)
As in the previous chapter, there's a hint in this one that there's some latent magic on Smaug's treasure.
In the previous chapter, I thought Tolkien was too forgiving of Thorin. You don't need draconic magic to cause a man to be greedy in the face of immeasurable wealth. However, Thorin is pretty extreme in this chapter. He not only plans on going against his word, he spites both Bilbo and Gandalf. This actually does seem unlike Thorin.
To be more precise, this seems unlike the Thorin we think we understand at this point in the book. The trouble is, Tolkien has declined to develop any of the characters, aside from Bilbo, in any personal way. For all we know, this might be typical behaviour for Thorin. All we have is Tolkien's assertion that Thorin is behaving this way because of latent draconic magic, and the general sense that Thorin is nobility and surely must follow a nobleman's mythical code of honour. Of course Thorin wouldn't fail to help those in need. He's royalty. And of course Thorin wouldn't agree to pay ransom for the Arkenstone and then not pay. A king wouldn't do that. Right?
Well, we have only Tolkien's word for it, and he says this is unlike Thorin. What we lose in emotional connection, we gain in magic. Tolkien provides us with absolute confirmation that treasure from a dragon's hoard can magically cause greed.
I'm tracking Bilbo's reputation with the dwarves, and the dwarves' reputation with Bilbo, as the book progresses. I pondered deducting a point from the dwarves for threatening Bilbo's very life. Lucky for them, I haven't established that points can be deducted, and it feels late in the game to invent a rule now. No change.
The Clouds Burst was a good 3rd act finale (or semi-final, anyway). I was disappointed in Thorin, and further disappointed in the other dwarves. Seeing Thorin turn against Bilbo, and the humans for that matter, should have triggered a failsafe within the high-ranking dwarves. But they all stand by and let Thorin shoot himself, and everyone around him, in the feet. I'm guessing that's how royalty works, but I see it as a poorly-designed system.
Tolkien doesn't provide us with an excuse for the other dwarves. I think it's suitably charitable to assume that they've all been seduced by the magical effects of dragon's gold. Bilbo, I suppose, is immune because he's a hobbit.
This was a tidy resolution to an inconvenient mess. Nobody wants the dwarves to become the enemy of everyone around them, nobody wants to see our heroic factions fighting one another. Introducing a surprise goblin attack, which itself was a product of the political turmoil caused when our adventurers killed the Great Goblin, is a great narrative trick. In fact, I think it's Tolkien at his best. What he doesn't give us in character development, he makes up for in politics. What a mastermind.
Chapter 18: The Return Journey.