The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Chapter 12 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Then Bilbo fled [with the cup]. But the dragon did not wake – not yet – but shifted into other dreams of greed and violence, lying there in his stolen hall while the little hobbit toiled back up the long tunnel. His heart was beating and a more fevered shaking was in his legs than when he was going down, but still he clutched the cup, and his chief thought was: "I've done it! This will show them. 'More like a grocer than a burglar' indeed! Well, we'll hear no more of that." (12.17)
Bilbo's still trying to prove himself to the dwarves even now that he has gotten them all the way to the Lonely Mountain thanks to his wits and good luck. Obviously, that line in the first chapter that Bilbo looks "More like a grocer than a burglar" really smarts. Like the dwarves, Bilbo doesn't seem to be thinking of his quest in grand moral terms. Given that this quest doesn't seem to be about good vs. evil exactly, why do you think Gandalf has chosen to get involved?
Quote 2
Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they know it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long possession; and Smaug was no exception. He had passed from an uneasy dream (in which a warrior, altogether insignificant in size but provided with a bitter sword and great courage, figured most unpleasantly) to a doze, and from a doze to wide waking. There was a breath of strange air in his cave. Could there be a draught from that little hole? He had never felt quite happy about it, though it was so small, and now he glared at it in suspicion and wondered why he had never blocked it up. (12.20)
Even though Smaug is evil through and through, we get more narrative from his perspective than we do from any of the goblins. Why might the novel spend so much time on Smaug's perspective (and even his feelings – like Bilbo, he has anxious dreams!)? What sense do we get of Smaug's motivations in The Hobbit?
Quote 3
"I suppose you got a fair price for that cup last night?" [Smaug] went on. "Come now, did you? Nothing at all! Well, that's just like [dwarves]. And I suppose they are skulking outside, and your job is to do all the dangerous work and get what you can when I'm not looking – for them? And you will get a fair share? Don't you believe it! If you get off alive, you will be lucky."
Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an unaccountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell. (12.62-3)
All of this time, we've been thinking Bilbo's the cunning one. Smaug has just seemed like a toothy, fire-breathing abstract threat, and not necessarily a thinking being. But here we get proof that dragons are surprisingly wily and well-spoken. And they can enchant you with their talking; they can put you under "the dragon-spell." Do we get any sense of Smaug as a character? Does he have any character depth or motivation for what he does?
Quote 4
The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls at the beginning of their adventures before they had any particular reasons for being grateful to him. There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much. (12.6)
It's damning with faint praise to say that the dwarves "are decent enough people [...] if you don't expect too much." But we're also interested in the line between duty and friendship here: the dwarves "would have done their best to get [Bilbo] out of trouble, if he got into it." They would do this for Bilbo out of a sense of duty, because he's their burglar and they "had brought him to do a nasty job for them." Do we get a sense that any of the dwarves feel personal loyalty towards Bilbo, above and beyond a feeling of duty? Do any of them like him? Is there a lot of emotional content in the friendships of this novel? How might the friendships between Bilbo and the dwarves contrast with those portrayed in The Lord of the Rings, say, between Legolas and Gimli, or Frodo and Sam, or even Pippin and Merry?
Quote 5
They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug – which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt inclined to point out. Then as is the nature of folk that are thoroughly perplexed, they began to grumble at the hobbit, blaming him for what had at first so pleased them: for bring away a cup and stirring up Smaug's wrath so soon. (12.33)
One of the things that strike us as funny about the dwarves is that they seem so much more human – flawed and imperfect – than the few named human characters in the novel, Bard among them. Even though they don't really seem to mean their grumbling against Bilbo, they're so confused about what to do next with Smaug that they turn on him anyway.
Quote 6
Now a nasty suspicion began to grow in his mind – had the dwarves forgotten this important point [about transportation of Bilbo's gold back to Bag-End] too, or were they laughing in their sleeves at him all the time? That is the effect that dragon-talk has on the inexperienced. Bilbo of course ought to have been on his guard; but Smaug had rather an overwhelming personality. (12.68)
One of the reasons that Bilbo tries not to give his name to Smaug is for fear that the dragon will then use Bilbo's true name to enchant him. But Smaug's words still seem to have a dangerous magical quality to make Bilbo doubt himself and his companions. How trustworthy are Thorin & Co.? Do we see any indications (besides the twisted words of Smaug) that Bilbo might be right to be concerned? What does it say about the relationship between Bilbo and Thorin that Bilbo is capable of entertaining "a nasty suspicion" against the dwarves this late in the novel?
Quote 7
So Bilbo told them all he could remember, and he confessed that he had a nasty feeling that the dragon guessed too much from his riddles added to the camps and the ponies. [...]
"Well, well! It cannot be helped and it is difficult not to slip in talking to a dragon, or so I have always heard," said Balin anxious to comfort him. "I think you did very well, if you ask me – you found out one very useful thing at any rate, and got home alive, and that is more than most can say who have had words with the likes of Smaug." (12.86-7)
In getting cocky and taunting Smaug, Bilbo told the dragon more than he meant to about where he comes from (e.g., "Barrel-Rider" = from Lake-town). But now that Bilbo has actually made a mistake, Balin is "anxious to comfort him." So Balin, at least, seems to be pulling real friend duty with Bilbo. His loyalty to Bilbo doesn't seem to be dutiful.
Quote 8
Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages. He loosened his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on. (12.8)
What does Bilbo's pocket-handkerchief (or lack thereof) tell us about what kind of a hobbit he was back in Bag-End? What kind of a hobbit is he now, as he heads down to see Smaug and his treasure? How do you see Bilbo's character developing over the course of The Hobbit?
Quote 9
A sound, too, began to throb in his ears, a sort of bubbling like the noise of a large pot galloping on the fire, mixed with a rumble as of a gigantic tom-cat purring. This grew to the unmistakable gurgling noise of some vast animal snoring in its sleep down there in the red glow in front of him.
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. he fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait. (12.12)
Bilbo's decision to go into the dragon's lair alone is the bravest thing that he has ever done, he feels. Do you agree? Are there other moments in the novel that stand out to you as equally (or even more) brave? What is it about this particular moment that requires all of Bilbo's courage?
Quote 10
Naturally the dwarves accepted the offer eagerly. Already they had come to respect little Bilbo. Now he had become the real leader in their adventure. He had begun to have ideas and plans of his own. When midday came he got ready for another journey down into the Mountain. (12.40)
Bilbo's "offer" here is to go down and have a second look at the dragon, now that he has stolen this golden cup. The dwarves have now been walled into the Lonely Mountain because the dragon has blocked the side door with trees and rocks and things, so Bilbo agrees to go spy on the dragon once more. What do you think the dwarves are hoping Bilbo will achieve here? Isn't there strength in numbers – is this the most sensible plan you can think of for dealing with Smaug? How might the following events of the novel have changed if Bilbo had actually succeeded in catching Smaug asleep a second time? Do you think Bilbo would have it in him to kill Smaug himself, under any circumstances?
Quote 11
When Bilbo first gets a glimpse of the "gold beyond price and count," he suddenly feels "the lust, the glory of such treasure." How does Bilbo manage to move past the "enchantment and [...] desire of the dwarves"? Which other characters are less successful at getting past dragon-sickness? And what seems to be the cause of this bewitchment?
From that the talk turned to the great hoard itself and to the things that Thorin and Balin remembered. They wondered if they were still lying there unharmed in the hall below; the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each had a thrice-forged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for warriors long dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two-handed, hammered and carven with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels. (12.94)
Quote 12
While the dwarves clearly love gold for its own sake – it's pretty much their thing – Thorin (and Balin, in this passage) seems to use this particular gold as a symbol for the past. He doesn't just value it because it's valuable. He also wants to remember "the spears that were made for the armies of the great King Bladorthin" and "the great golden cup of Thror." These things are meaningful to Thorin because they represent "warriors long dead." For more on Thorin's association of wealth with the past, check out "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory."
"The Arkenstone! The Arkenstone!" murmured Thorin in the dark, half dreaming with his chin upon his knees. "It was like a globe with a thousand facets; it shone like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain upon the Moon!" (12.95)
Quote 13
The Elvenking realizes that Thorin has escaped and guesses that there will be "attempted burglary or something like it" at work. On what grounds could the Elvenking possibly block anyone bringing treasure through Mirkwood? We also like this quote because it shows something interesting about the narrative voice in The Hobbit. Because it often seems to imitate oral storytelling (check out our section on "Narrator Point of View " for more on this), the narrator is always throwing in these little notes of commentary and foreshadowing. In this passage, his promise that "we shall see in the end" how the Elvenking is a not quite right amps up the suspense and keeps us interested in the plot's development.
Bilbo had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before, but the splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure had never yet come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of dwarves; and he gazed motionless, almost forgetting the frightful guardian, at the gold beyond price and count. (12.15)