The Hobbit Passage Picker - Week #1 - Ella

 - “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.” ( Chapter 1, Page 3, Paragraph 1)

I chose this passage because it describes the setting of Bilbo’s house, which is described as being very comfortable, and Bilbo thinks of it and misses it often on his adventure with the dwarves. It’s important that the reader knows what Bilbo’s house is like, so that they can know how Bilbo is feeling and relate. It also shows the author’s style of writing and how he describes things. He says a simple sentence, “In a hole in the ground,” and then he elaborates more on it in the next sentence, “nasty, dirty, wet hole…”

 - “‘Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them,’ said Elrond, ‘not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season a the day when they were written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a midsummer’s eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago.’” (Chapter 3, Page 63, Paragraph 2)

I chose this passage because it shows an important part of the story. Elrond tells the dwarves about the moon-letters, and translates them. It tells the dwarves that the have to get to the mountain by Durin’s Day, where the “last light will shine upon the keyhole”. If Elrond didn’t show them the moon-letters, they never would have known that information, and they might not have made it to the mountain in time.

 - Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad hearted. They make no beautiful things, but the make many clever ones… It is not unlikely that they have invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once… (Chapter 4, Page 74, Paragraph 1)

I chose this passage because it tells the reader about the goblins, who capture the dwarves and Bilbo when they sleep in a cave on the mountain pass. It describes how the goblins act (cruel, wicked, bad hearted), what they do,  and how they might be seen by the dwarves and even the other people in the world.

  - Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake… He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. (Chapter 5, Page 85, Paragraph 1)


I chose this passage because portrays the character of Gollum, who causes some trouble for Bilbo in the goblins’ caves. It gives a strong mental image of this small, slimy creature, so the reader can know what Gollum might look like, how he might act, and even what Bilbo might feel or think about him.