The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Chapter 14 Quotes

The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Chapter 14 Quotes

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Quote 1

Roaring [Smaug] swept back over the town. A hail of dark arrows leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales and jewels, and their shafts fell back kindled by his breath burning and hissing into the lake. No fireworks you ever imagined equaled the sights that night. At the twanging of the bows and the shrilling of the trumpets the dragon's wrath blazed to its height, till he was blind and mad with it. No one had dared to give battle to him for many an age; nor would they have dared now, if it had not been for the grim-voiced man (Bard was his name), who ran to and fro cheering on the archers and urging the Master to order them to fight to the last arrow. (14.14)

The men of Lake-town have been so cowed by Smaug that "[n]o one had dared to give battle to him for many an age." Only Bard is able to lead the men of Lake-town against Smaug. Do we get any sense of Bard as a character? What are his traits beyond bravery and grimness? How does Bard's courage differ from Bilbo's or Thorin's?