The Hobbit
Chapter 6: Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire
A very uncomfortable thought was growing inside him. He wondered whether he ought not, now he had the magic ring, to go back into the horrible, horrible tunnels and look for his friends. (90)
Bilbo was always supposed to be the burglar, a sneak who steals, not a warrior or Hero, but the fact that he has the ring makes him thing that he could perhaps be a Hero. Luckily, he doesn't have to be against a whole troop of goblins but gets his first test against one large spider.
The dwarves were grumbling, and Gandalf was saying that they could not possibly go on with their journey leaving Mr. Baggins in the hands of the goblins, without trying to find out if he was alive or dead, and without trying to rescue him. (91)
Gandalf was the Hero type and could be expected to go rescue Bilbo. After all, he rescued the whole Company from the Goblins under the Misty Mountains. But the dwarves are not hero-material.
"And here's the burglar!" said Bilbo stepping
down into the middle of them, and slipping off the ring.
Bless me, how they jumped! Then they shouted with
surprise and delight. Gandalf was as astonished as any of them, but
probably more pleased than all the others. He called to Balin and told him
what he thought of a look-out man who let people walk right into them like that
without warning. It is a fact that Bilbo's reputation went up a very great
deal with the dwarves after this. (92)
Bilbo reappears unexpectedly the way Gandalf had twice before. It is important that the dwarves respect Bilbo because he will be taking Gandalf's place as leader and rescuer of the dwarves when Gandalf leaves them in Mirkwood.
"Mr. Baggins has more about him than you guess." He gave Bilbo a queer look from under his bushy eyebrows, as he said this, and the hobbit wondered if he guessed at the part of his tale that he had left out. (93-4)
It is good that Gandalf is suspicious or he wouldn't have tried to figure out what ring Bilbo had.
"Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!" he said it became a proverb, though we now way 'out of the frying-pan into the fire' in the same sort of uncomfortable situations. (98)
A linguist like Tolkien would naturally be interested in how proverbs came about. He often talks about how poems or stories get truncated or deteriorate over the years.
He spoke to them in the dreadful language of the Wargs. Gandalf understood it. Bilbo did not, but it sounded terrible to him, and as if all their talk was about cruel and wicked things, as it was. (100)
Again, the linguist in Tolkien created separate languages for each of the different peoples or groups, including the Wargs. An animal which has awareness (not just instinct) for evil and which has some human characteristics like language is more fearful than a wild animal acting on instinct.
Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all birds; they were proud and strong and noble-hearted. (103)
The eagles are heroic and in fact their arrival at the Battle of Five Armies seems to turn the tide in favor of the good guys, but they are not solely good characters, having the ability to be cowardly or cruel.
Fifteen birds in five firtrees
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!
But, funny little birds, they had no wings!
O what shall we do with the funny little things?
Roast 'tm alive, or stew them in a pot;
fry them, boil them and eat them hot?" (105)
Once again a group is debating how to kill the dwarves and eat them, like the Trolls did. But this time Gandalf is caught also and cannot rescue them. So this time Tolkien uses the eagles as the beings who rescue the Company. This device is used again at the end of The Hobbit in the Battle of Five Armies and again twice in the LOTR: Gandalf is rescued from Saruman by the eagles and Frodo and Sam on Mount Doom.
Burn, burn tree and fern!
Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch
To light the night for our delight,
Ya hey!
Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast 'em!
till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;
till hair smells and skins crack
fat melts, and bones black
in cinders lie
beneath the sky!
So dwarves shall die!
and light the night for our delight.
Ya hey!
Ya-harri-hey!
Ya hoy! (105-6)
Like the other songs by the goblins, here they use very simple words, but graphic descriptions.
