Like those before me I'll be skipping out on the TH-as-part-of-the-Legendarium debate. After all, the main reason I'm participating in this CbC is to help me appreciate the book itself more, not so much as to acknowledge its place in the Legendarium. I'll have to admit that I've spent more than a year in the Downs without reading The Hobbit - and so to answer half of
Lalwendė's question, I don't think that
not reading TH before LotR accounted for much of a difference. Well, except of course that one is bound to think that Bilbo might seem a bit overrated in LotR without having read what he had been through in TH. Yep, that's me.
Two more things I have to admit about not liking TH much is that one, I never really appreciated Dwarves fully. *ducks from
Kuruharan's projectiles* And two, I find the lack of female characters here most disappointing. You see, one of my gauges for determining a good read is that I have to be able to relate with the characters somehow. The first time I finished reading TH there was nothing like that all...perhaps because before then I've already met and related with Eowyn.
Which is the exact point of why I'm determined to follow through the discussions as best I could as I read the book again; I'm hoping that this time around I'll find lovable things in TH that I didn't notice before...with your help, my dear Downers.
[/rambling]
So this time around, from the very beginning I tried to place my feet inside Bilbo's shoes...not that he wore any.
Pathetic comic attempts aside, I felt terribly annoyed and harassed for him. That leads me to think deeper and consider why in the world Gandalf could have chosen Bilbo instead of some other hobbit...and of course Bilbo's Tookish bloodline sprang to mind. I wonder if Gandalf expected Bilbo to stick to his alleged burglary for whatever reason, or if he took a gamble and crossed his fingers and hoped that Bilbo wouldn't decline. But we see later on in the chapter that Gandalf took the matters into his own intimidatingly large hands when things started to get out of hand (begging your pardon), that is when Gloin started to question Bilbo if he really is what he claimed to be (or more accurately, what Gandalf claimed
for him to be). Since I will be reading the book as if I have never read it before (which might as well have been the case as I vaguely remember anything from it), I'll be looking out for the answer to this as I plod on.
My view of the Dwarves - which had been rather dismal so far, considering how they seemed to be oblivious to Bilbo's situation - began to lighten up with their first song. Not only was I relieved to find them finally helping with something, the song itself was also very amusing, particularly the fact that they were able to discern part of Bilbo's personality despite having just met him.
What I found most odd here is that in spite of the seriousness of the matter in their hands later that evening (especially with Thorin speaking), I had a bit of difficulty considering it so. Perhaps the initial cheery atmosphere carried on for me throughout the chapter, and whether that is a good thing or bad I cannot tell.
Quite needless to say I had fits of laughter as I read through this chapter (which were usually accompanied by weird stares from people around me...hehe), and for the most part Bilbo was responsible for them. And the origin of Golf...that was just crazy.
P. S.
Esty, if I'm not mistaken Nilp came out with an RPG idea on the love story between Belladonna Took and Bungo Baggins before. Just thought I'd mention it.