Wk 1 - Ch 1 Why Bilbo?

[Stormrider]

Why did Gandalf feel that a hobbit would be a good choice as the ‘burglar’ for the Dwarves mission?

Why did he choose Bilbo out of all the other hobbits in the Shire?

[Desi Baggins]

Not many people even remember what Hobbits are so a Hobbit would not be recognized easily which is a good trait for a burgler. Also they can be very quiet.

Why pick Bilbo....The best Hobbits to choose from would be from the Took family tree. I looked at that family tree and I looked at the Hobbits that were about Bilbo's age and he was the only one not married. I guess Gandalf decided that if he was sending someone on a dangerous adventure that they might not return from, it should be someone with no family to care for.

[Stormrider]

There actually is a reason that Gandalf chose Bilbo over all the other hobbits. In Unfinished Tales in the chapter Quest for Erebor it states:

"Somehow I had been attracted by Bilbo long before, as a child, and a young hobbit: he had not quite come of age when I had last seen him. He stayed in my mind ever since, with his eagerness and his bright eyes, and his love of tales, and his questions about the wide world outside the Shire. As soon as I entered the Shire I heard news of him. He was getting talked about, it seemed. Both his parents had died early for Shire-folk, at about eighty; and he had never married. He was already growing a bit queer, they said, and went off for days by himself. He could be seen talking to strangers, even Dwarves.

' "Even Dwarves!" Suddenly in my mind these three things came together: the great Dragon with his lust, and his keen hearing and scent; the sturdy heavy-booted Dwarves with their old burning grudge; and the quick, soft-footed Hobbit, sick at heart (I guessed) for a sight of the wide world. "

It continues on saying that Gandalf stopped by the Shire to see Bilbo then but he was not at home. Other hobbits said he was off again looking for Elves. So Gandalf thought he would risk soliciting the aid of Bilbo to help the Dwarves out!

Then it says that it was a mistake not to have seen Bilbo because he had grown fat and his dreams of adventure had "dwindled down to a sort of private dream" and the Dwarves were very angry with Gandalf's selection of Bilbo. Only the map and the key saved the situation.

Gandalf also made a comment when trying to convince Thorin to take Bilbo with them "If this hobbit goes with you, you will succeed. If not, you will fail. A foresight is on me, and I am warning you." (bold my emphasis).

Did Gandalf have any other foresights?

[Stormrider]

There is more in The Quest for Erebor chapter with much more detail and information. It is in the form of another version of the tale when Frodo and Gimli spoke to Gandalf in Minas Tirith asking him how he had chosen Bilbo to go with Thorin and Company.

Gimli mentions that he would like to visit the Shire again because the fall of Smaug and the end of Barad-dûr were "strangly woven together." He then asks Gandalf if he "wove the web" by leading Thorin to Bilbo.

Gandalf says that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring and Frodo was meant to bear it. Then he adds that he could also have added "and I was meant to guide you both to those points."

Gandalf also talks about how the Shire folk had some hard times in their history and that they found courage and managed to survive and care for each other. But once times got better they had begun to forget their own beginnings and legends.

Gandalf says that Bilbo was chosen and Gandalf was the one to choose him for the following reasons:

1. he wanted a dash of Took, but not too much
2. and a solid foundation found in a Baggins
3. Bilbo was unattached making himself free when the chance for some adventure came upon him
4. there were two uncles on his Took side who had gone off on adventures
5. Smaug knew the sound of the Dwarves heavy trodding feet and hobbits are very quiet and stealthy
6. Smaug did not know the smell of hobbit but he knew the smell and taste of Dwarf
7. he felt that Bilbo was "neat-handed, clever, shrewd, and far from rash
8. Sauron might use Smaug in his quest for his Ring and Gandalf wanted Smaug taken out

This is just a smattering of the information in this chapter. If you have Unfinished Tales try to take some time out and read this chapter!

[Stormrider]

Well, I like that UT has all this information on why Bilbo was selected. Of course, when JRRT told The Hobbit to his children and wrote the story, the rest of the LOTR tale had not been started. The information in the UT chapters is after the fact and shows how the selection of Bilbo and his being meant to find the Ring were tied to the rest of the adventure! But I still liked finding all of this information.

[Stormrider]

So if we disregard UT and LOTR and just concentrate on The Hobbit being the only tale, it really gets me wondering "Why Bilbo?"! DesiBaggins said that she looked at the family trees, but I don't imagine those would have been devoped much until JRRT started tying the tales together later.

So "Why Bilbo?" He started to seem as though he was enjoying Gandalf's company and the memories that were stirred from his childhood. But as soon as Gandalf mentioned an adventure, Bilbo slams the door and goes inside.

I tend to think that Gandalf may have wanted a smaller person in case the Dwarves were still too large to get into any small openings should they have to in The Lonely Mountain. Desi mentions hobbits are quiet and that is a logical point.

But Gandalf must have been very surprised when he saw that Bilbo had gotten fat and soft over the years despite his Took lineage (I think that was mentioned in the first chapter somewhere). Bilbo seemed so rattled and flustered with the arrival of the dwarves that he could not have made a very good impression on the dwarves that he had been selected as their burglar. Well, yes, Thorin was angry with Gandalf, wasn't he!

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

If we disregard UT, there are some clues in the first chapters of The Hobbit.

Gandalf knew the Dwarves wanted an extra party member to avoid the unlucky thirteen. Someone small and stealthy would make a good treasure-hunter so that points to Hobbits. The Tooks are mentioned as having a more adventurous streak than other Hobbits so they'd be more likely to go. Gandalf seemed to have some familiarity and friendship with Belladonna Took, Bilbo's mother. So that narrows it down to a specific Hobbit to suit his purposes.

[Andorinha]

RE Stormrider's: "DesiBaggins said that she looked at the family trees, but I don't imagine those would have been developed much until JRRT started tying the tales together later."

Hmmm, interesting point, what do we know of the genealogies at the time The Hobbit was being written? Just from the opening text we can see that Tolkien was already placing Bilbo in a specific lineage, one that goes back two generations as both Bilbo's mother and his maternal grandfather are mentioned. Apparently, it is for this Tookish connection that Bilbo is selected, processed, and sent off on a Dwarvish venture. Gandalf to Bilbo: "Indeed for your old grandfather Took's sake, and for the sake of poor Belladonna, I will give you what you asked for." Having received Gandalf's "pardon," Bilbo is then selected, as burglar in chief...

I guess, Tolkien already, by the 1937 publication date, had a good idea of Bilbo's lineage, even if the cousins, and uncles-gone-to-sea were added later to the LOTR genealogy tables. And "blood will tell," Bilbo via his Mum and Grandad, has the right stuff, genetically speaking, and despite his staid Baggins-side, he is deemed by Gandalf to be sufficiently Tookish for a grand adventure.

Sigh, since Gandalf seems to have thought so much of the Old Took, and even more of the "famous" Belladonna, it is a real pity we do not have the tales of their adventures. Seems the real action in the Shire came a generation or two before Bilbo!

[Stormrider]

I agree, you are right, Andorinha, on the Took family having been established in the first chapter for Bilbo's memorable hobbit family background. I wonder how much was of substance -- with real stories about Belladonna and the Old Took either in his mind or penciled onto some scrap of paper somewhere!

Do you think there is something stashed away in Marquette or the Bodelian library that Christopher hasn't found to put in his books? Wouldn't that be a treat? But, I highly doubt it. If any of the other scholars who have poured over those archives had come across any of those tidbits, it would be a discussion in someone's books and we would have also discussed it at Tolkien's Ring!