So Close Yet so Far

The barrels in which the company traveled were floating down the river, out of the forest Mirkwood. Bilbo looks towards the north and sees the Lonely Mointain, their final destination. The current takes them into Lake Town. Lake Town is a town built by men on the Long Lakesouth of the Lonely Mountain. The men in the shore, near Lake Town bring the barrels to shore. While the men are gone, Bilbo frees his companions from the barrels, all survived but they are not in good shape. The company crosses the bridge to lake town and Thorin declares to the master of Lake Town that he is the rightful heir to the throne under the mountain and that he has come to reclaim what is his. For many years, there have been stories of the return of the king under the mountain and how his return will bring wealth and prosperity to that area. The company is welcomed and treated with many luxuries. After two weeks, the company is strong again and ready to reach the final stage of their quest. Even though they did not have a plan to deal with Smaug, Thorin could not wait any longer. They set off towards the Lonely Mountain with boats, ponies and supplies aquired from Lake Town. There were not much living things at the foothills of the mountain, given that it had all been burned by Smaug. Bilbo and three dwarves are sent to investigate the main entrance on the south of the mountain but, as expected, it seemed to dangerous since it was the entrance Smaug used. The company decides to look for the secrets passage described on their map and after hours of searching Bilbo finds a narrow passage that leads up the cliff to a small patch of grass, which in its far end had a smooth solid rock wall. Even though that was usually how dwarve secret doors were hidden, the company could not find a way to open it. They had forgotten the message that Elrond read in the moon letters. After a long while of trying, the company start to grow discouraged. One day, when Bilbo was sitting outside the door thinking, a thrush lands nearby and starts knocking a snail against a stone. Suddenly Bilbo remembers the message on the map and gathers all the dwarves at the door as they watch the sun slowly set. When the sun was almost below the horizon, a single ray of light fell on a portion of the door. The rock on that portion falls revealing a keyhole. Thorin quickly takes out his key and as he turns it, they push and the door opens before them. Bilbo as the burglar is sent inside to inspect. Bilbo puts on his ring and proceeds down the passage. When he reaches the bottom he sees the magnificent dragon Smaug sleeping on top of piles of dwarfish treasure. Smaug is the color of red and gold and has an almost unpierceable hide. Bilbo is terrified but decides to take one golden cup from the treasure. He immediately rushes up the passage and shows the cup to the dwarves. Soon Smaug is enraged when he notices that the cup was missing. Smaug was flying around the mountain spewing flames when he noticed the ponies at the foot of the mountain. He chases and eats them. The company hides inside the secret passage and eventually Smaug returns to his lair and falls asleep. Bilbo goes down the passage again, only to find that Smaug was faking his sleep and waiting for the thief. Smaug could not see Bilbo but he could smell him and to Bilbo's surprise he greets him when he approaches the lair. Smaug interrogates him and to avoid getting him angry he answers his questions but only in riddles, which amuses Smaug. Bilbo tricks Smaug through flattery to show him his underbelly which was covered in an armor of treasure, but not completely revealing the dragons weak spot. Bilbo rushes up the passage barely escaping the dragon's fire, and tells the dwarves what he had learned. A thrush sits nearby seemingly listening to their conversation. The company hears a roar and decides to shut the door just before rocks crumbled on top of it. The company finds itself trapped inside the mountain. Smaug learns through Bilbo's riddles that the company is involved with the men of Lake Town and decides to take vengeance. The company takes shelter in the passage until they could not bare it any longer. They slowly go down into Smaug's lair and find it empty. The dwarfs delightedly run to inspect the treasure. While the Dwarves took all the treasure they could carry, the hobbit took only a few things but one of which was the Arkenstone. The Arkenstone was the greates gem of the dwarfish treasure and even though Bilbo knew that Thorin was looking for it he decided to keep it. Bilbo also finds a coat of mail made out of mithril which is very strong, light and more valuable than silver or gold. After the dwarves were satisfied for the moment Thorin leaded them to the main gate. The company still did not know how to deal with Smaug so they decided to follow the river down the mountain until they found an old guard post cavern where they took shelter. As the company rested in the guard post, Smaug was heading to Lake Town to get vengeance. The people of Lake Town see the dragon coming and prepare the archers and water to extinguish the dragon's flames. The preparations are of little help and Smaug lights the roofs of Lake Town on fire. The arrows are harmless to Smaug and the people were starting to loose hope. The last man to stay in the city was Bard the captain of the archers, and he readies his last arrow. When he was about to shoot, a thrush landed on his shoulder and speaks in a language that he could understand. The thrush tells Bard to aim for the dragon's weak spot on his left breast. Bard sees the open patch in the dragon's armor and shoots his arrow. The arrow penetrates the dragon's heart and he falls dead destroying the rest of Lake Town. Bard dives safely into the water and joins the people of Lake Town at the shore. Some of the men blamed the dwarves, others presumed them dead but they remember of the treasure in the mountain and how it could rebuild their town. The news of Smaug's death spread quickly and the Elvenking's marches with an army of elves towards the mountain, stopping at Lake Town to lend aid. The men and elves merge into a single army marching towards the Lonely Mountain expecting to find the treasure unattended.

“The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it, as they did in the case of the trolls at the beginning of their adventures before they had any particular reasons for being grateful to him. There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don’t expect too much.”

This quote is interesting since the narrator makes a sort of apology to the readers about the dwarves' behavior. The dwarves had sent Bilbo into Smaug's lair alone, after all they had gone through. This could be taken as cowardly behavior from the part of the dwarves but after all, that had been Bilbo's job from the beginning. Still the narrator suggest that the dwarves cowardice isn't their fault but a trait of the dwarfish race being prone to selfishness and cowardice. They are greedy and deceptive by nature. And that not much should be expected from them. Tolkiens explanation is an example of how important race is to develop characters and determine identities in Middle Earth. Usually no characters break out of their preset boundaries, meaning that stereotypes in Middle Earth are usually accurate, unlike in the real world, where stereotypes could be accurate as well as inaccurate, but are usually seen as offensive.

 “I did not come for presents. I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them.”
“Do you now?” said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it”

Dragons have always been used throughout history as representation of evil. Smaug is no exception. Smaug in this book is depicted as somewhat of a narcissist who believes that he is greater than everyone else. Smaug does not have a logical reason to why he has a trophy, since he can't buy anything but he probably believes that he is the best person to have it and won't tolerate any single part of his trophy being taken. In Middle Earth, there are beings that do good, like Gandalf, but Smaug and all dragon's are just there to cause terror, sorrow and desolation. Smaug wants everyone to know how powerful he is and loves when people compliment him or even more when they are afraid of him.

In this chapter the company meets their biggest challenge, which is also the challenge they were most unprepared for. They had no idea how to deal with Smaug and it was just luck (for them) that he decided to attack Lake Town. They have already taken what was rightfully theirs but they now have to keep and protect it which is a different thing. Now everyone knows that Smaug is there and the treasure is widely famous, meaning that different groups will also take interest in the treasure. Their quest is not yet complete and they are still in grave danger and even though they have reached their ultimate destination safely one of the hardest challenges in their adventure is yet to come.