[Kath]

The picture of Lake-town pretty much matches how I thought it should look, but for me it's reversed. In my head it looks like a mirror image. I suspect this comes from having the book read aloud to me before I read it myself, and seeing the illustration in the book upside down.

I always wondered just why the town was built out on a lake. There is mention of a previously ruined town that could only be seen by the shores of the river in time of drought. So was the original town flooded? Is that why they decided to build upon a deck in the middle of a river? It seems a dangerous decision to be pretty much as accessible and visible to attack from the air as you can be when your likeliest enemy can breathe fire from the sky. That said it does mean they can leap into the lake once the town is set on fire.

Re-reading this chapter made me realise just how detailed the description of the river and the lake is. I had no real memory of the description, and my mental image of this area is barely there, but there is so much information on how the town is situated to be of great importance. We know that it is a major trading area but the detail does help you think about how and why this trade has grown.

The wood elves continue to be strange folk in this chapter. The King is greedy and desirous of gold and treasures. This is not a normal trait in the elves we see through LotR. When Legolas, Thranduil's son, is offered the chance to see caves full of gold and jewels he declines stating they hold no interest for him. Had he been away from his father for a long time to in order to avoid this same lust for possessions? Or was Thranduil unusual amongst his people?

I love how down-trodden and grumpy Bilbo is throughout this chapter! He has a cold! He has been wet, bedraggled, given no thanks, ignored in favour of the dwarves whose necks he has saved over and over again by now and now he has a stinking cold and can't even go out and enjoy the celebrations. And as he says, it isn't his adventure. It's not his treasure they're after, it isn't his family he has to take revenge for, but still off he goes toward the Mountain he has hated since he first caught sight of it. Poor Bilbo.