CH. 14 Narrator

[Desi Baggins]

Why would the narrator tell the reader Bard was alive and ruin the surprise of his return? What did you think of this type of story telling?

[Andorinha]

"There was a hiss, a gushing whirl, and then silence. And that was the end of Smaug and Esgaroth, but not of Bard." (The Hobbit, BB PB, 1980 ed, p.238)


Up until the Dragon's attack on Lake Town, have any of the "good guys" yet been killed? So far the tally of "Bilbo's assaults" upon the wilderland communities, have included three trolls petrified, a largish number of goblins and wargs done-in, a dozen or so great spiders despatched, and now a dragon... But none of the "named characters" who are leagued against the forces of "evil" have yet died.*

Bard, an important (named character) in this adventure is the first among Men, Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves, and Wizard to be (apparently) finished. Perhaps, as this was originally designed as a children's story, Tolkien did not want to abruptly introduce the spectre of death (for the good guys), and so he added a note of reassurance just at the point where one might expect Bard to have been killed. Does this also set up a situation of enhanced reader-expectation? We are told Bard is not dead, so when, where, how will he next appear as a survivor?

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* I assume there were people killed in Laketown, but they are what we would refer to, as incidental victims -- they are nameless, never really established as full characters in their own right, "mere extras?" After a 20 minute flick-spin through the 64 channels of USA TV on my cable, there were three murders, four battle scenes, three "monsters" ripping human flesh into tatters, and two police chases that ended in firey crashes... Tolkien's Hobbit is actually quite pacific in comparison, and in almost every case of bloodshed, the good guys come through relatively unscathed. Only the final battle alters this scenario, with death being more impartially doled out so that Elves, Men, and Dwarves are now included in the toll.

[Stormrider]

Bard is the HERO so his status is one the Reader would be most concerned about. The statement Andorinha quoted above, gives us a sigh of relief and we can relax a bit until we get more details. It is like watching the news about a dreadful accident and we want to know the people in the accident survived even if we don't know the complete status of their survival (critical, stable, cuts and scrapes).