The Hobbit - Meeting Someone New

[Valandil]

I've just recently noticed how gradually JRRT introduces us to all manner of creatures in The Hobbit. Now - in chapter 1, we meet a Hobbit, a Wizard and just over a dozen Dwarves. But this all happens pretty much one at a time. First - introduces us to Bilbo and tells us what a Hobbit is. Then, he introduces us to Gandalf and tells us something about him before he starts interacting with Bilbo. Then, we meet the Dwarves... largely one or two at a time (especially at first) - sort of like Gandalf has them come into Beorn's presence.

JRRT clearly doesn't want to overwhelm us with too many strange, new creatures all at once.

But then look what happens. One at a time, he introduces yet one more new "person" or group of "people" in each chapter. Something like:

1. Hobbits, Wizard, Dwarves,
2. Trolls
3. Elrond / Elves of Rivendell
4. Goblins
5. Gollum
6. Eagles (well... also Wargs, right?)
7. Beorn
8. Spiders of Mirkwood
9. Elves of Mirkwood
10. Men of Long Lake / Laketown
11. (anybody new this chapter... the Thrush?)
12. Smaug

I just find this interesting, how he leads us to them one at a time.

[Alcuin]

Ok. I’ve waited over 48 hours to let everyone else comment. Now like a little boy on a long car ride after a big soda, I can’t wait any longer.

First of all, this is a really neat insight! Thanks, Valandil! Tolkien is a master story-teller, telling his own children a story. He doesn’t overload them with lots of characters all at once: they are introduced few at a time, just as Gandalf initially sends the Dwarves to Bag End to meet Bilbo one at a time, then two or three at once. We meet Gandalf, the Dwarves, and (especially!) Thorin Oakenshield. We learn about their problem with the dragon and their determination to return to their home. Each new character or group of characters is sketched and developed so that the reader (or hearer, if the story is read aloud) can get to know and assess the newcomers. (At first, all the Dwarves but Thorin and Balin, who befriends Bilbo (offsetting Thorin’s animosity, which neither Bilbo nor children clearly see), can be considered as an interchangeable bunch without particular personalities: those finer differences become clearer later, though Thorin and Balin remain the two most important to both Bilbo and the reader.)

One addition to your list, Valandil: we meet the old raven Roäc son of Carc in Chapter 15, “The Gathering of the Clouds”, where we also learn of but do not meet Dáin of the Iron Hills. And in Chapter 17, “The Clouds Burst”, just as Dáin and his forces arrive, we also encounter the army of Bolg of the North, son of Azog, and the onset of the Battle of Five Armies. In the final chapter, we experience with Bilbo the expedient work of Messrs. Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes, though we do not make their acquaintance.

There are nineteen chapters in The Hobbit. In the chapters in which no new characters are introduced,

1. Bilbo takes the Arkenstone,
2. delivers it to enemies Thorin has foolishly made for himself in an unsuccessful attempt to broker peace,
3. argues with Thorin about it, and
4. finally reconciles with the Dwarf-king just before he dies.

Looking at The Hobbit tonight through new lens, the story moves from little adventure to little adventure, introducing and exploring new characters along the way, until it reaches this final dramatic set-piece of climactic confrontation between Bilbo as an emissary of peace against Thorin as a ruler of power and wealth and war, in a fairly complex setting that manages to seem natural because we already know all the players. In the end, the ruler of power and wealth and war acknowledges the superior virtues of the simple joys of life.

[Mari]

What you're saying makes sense. I felt quite overwhelmed at some points with all the new people/info though, expecially in the later chapters, for example Mirkwood. Might also be because I'm terrible with names and Tolkien names generally aren't names I can easily relate to.

[Valandil]

Thank you both!

Alcuin - yes, there were a few other new characters added later. But what jumped out at me - well, once I spotted it - was all those consecutive chapters which successively add new characters.

Very interesting observation that the four "non-new character chapters" all involve the Arkenstone, and the resultant conflict between Bilbo and Thorin.