The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Chapter 6 Quotes

The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again Chapter 6 Quotes

How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote 1

[Bilbo] still wandered on, out of the little high valley, over its bulge, and down the slopes beyond; but all the while a very uncomfortable thought was growing inside him. He wondered whether he ought not, now he had a magic ring, to go back into the horrible, horrible tunnels and look for his friends. He had just made up his mind that it was his duty, and that he must turn back – and very miserable he felt about it – when he heard voices. (6.3)

After Bilbo emerges from the Misty Mountains, he has "a very uncomfortable thought" that he should go back and check on Thorin & Co. to make sure they get away from the goblins OK. Is this the first time we see Bilbo feel a real sense of duty to the dwarves? When do they start to act like a real group with Bilbo included?

Gandalf

Quote 2

Gandalf answered angrily: "I brought him, and I don't bring things that are of no use. Either you help me to look for him, or I go and leave you here to get out of the mess as best you can yourselves. If we can only find him again, you will thank me before all is over." (6.9)

Here, Gandalf's insisting that the dwarves go back into the goblin tunnels to help him find Bilbo. Gandalf is incredibly loyal to Bilbo from the start; in fact, his loyalty to Bilbo is what makes Bilbo decide to join the dwarves in the first place. Do we get any indication about what Gandalf sees in Bilbo that convinces him that the dwarves "will thank [him] before all is over"? What is Gandalf's history with the hobbits and with Bilbo's family in particular?

Quote 3

So ended the adventures of the Misty Mountains. Soon Bilbo's stomach was feeling full and comfortable again, and he felt he could sleep contentedly, though really he would have liked a loaf and butter better than bits of meat toasted on sticks. He slept curled up on the hard rock more soundly than ever he had done on his feather-bed in his own little hole at home. But all night he dreamed of his own house and wandered in his sleep into all his different rooms looking for something that he could not find nor remember what it looked like. (6.97)

Sometimes, The Hobbit seems to be teaching us that the point of an adventure is to teach you the value of what you left behind: Bilbo sleeps on rock "more soundly than ever he had done on his feather-bed." Could Tolkien be channeling his wartime experiences in these passages? As a soldier in World War I in the trenches of the Somme, we're sure that Tolkien spent a lot of time dreaming "of his own house." But what might Bilbo's dream of a lost object represent? Why might Tolkien be including this detail about the dream here?