Alright! Welcome back everyone, we have finally made it to The Hobbit: part 2, or Desolation of Smaug territory. We find Mr. Baggins and his friends in the house of a man named Beorn who can turn himself into a bear as he chooses. They spend about a week at his house recuperating from their encounter with the Goblins. Additionally, the Goblins are very angry at them for killing their king so it's in their better interest to camp out for a few days. Bilbo seems to drift in and out of sleep, giving the whole part a slightly iridescent, dreamlike quality. However, this portion of the book contains one of my most favorite lines so far, possibly in any book ever. I actually had to stop and read this line over about three times just because it's so great.
At night Beorn goes out exploring and tells the group about a meeting of black bears in the courtyard of his house. As Bilbo drifts off to sleep after hearing this news, this gem appears: "he dropped asleep, still puzzling his little head about Beorn, till he dreamed a dream of hundreds of black bears dancing slow heavy dances round and round in the moonlight in the courtyard." Doesn't it just give you chills?? I mostly love this line just because of the intense amount of imagery Tolkien manages to squeeze into roughly 23 words. We get that iridescent-y filter of the dream state, the dark blue sky, the milky moonlight flooding onto the stone courtyard surrounded by dark green grass. Then, of course, we have the large black bears. Now, I don't know how a bear would dance but the fact that Tolkien paid that much attention to detail is astounding to me. Not only because he just threw in this meaningless detail of bears offhand but that he took the time and care to describe it with such detail. Because that seems to be how bears would dance, too.
This line actually blew my mind as a writer. Just the level of detail put into this story is astounding, these bears aren't even relevant to the story as far as I know and yet they seem so important in this specific line.
In summary: Tolkien, I can't with you. I need to go lie down and rethink my life decisions.
Thanks for reading!
I'll agree with you on Tolkien's descriptions. They do have a lovely quality to them, despite how short many of them are. I think that all writers should at least read the Hobbit just to see how good details work. Boring details can ruin a good idea, after all.
ReplyDeleteAh, if you like details like this, Patricia C, Wrede's books also have good descriptions. They're a bit longer, but I feel that they have the same weight to them as Tolkien's.
First of all, i really liked how you started the blog with a greeting and the ending with a thank you. I do not think most people would have done something like that. And It feels like you are actually talking to us through your writing.. And i also liked how you pulled out a line of the story that you really liked and explained why you liked it and explained it more in depth. I have a few questions. Who is Biblo? Is he a goblin or a human? And why is he drifting in and out of sleep? Is he just sleepy or is it something else that is making him fall asleep? And your favorite line shows imagery. As i read that part i could just see the bears dancing and how funny it would look. Cause bears never dance.
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