News
of the Window on America Center
21.06.2008
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Hobbit
Characters:
Bilbo Baggins – a hobbit
Gandalf – a wizard [has a staff, a pipe, pointed blue hat with brims, long grey cloak, silver scarf, immense black boots, long white beard, bushy eyebrows]
Dwarves:
Thorin Oakenshield – [has a harp, sky-blue hood with a long silver tassel]
Dwalin ['dweilin] – [blue beard, golden belt, dark-green hood; viola]
Balin ['beilin] – [white beard, scarlet hood; viola]
Kili, Fili - [blue hoods, silver belts, yellow beards; bags and spades; fiddles]
Dori ['douri], Nori ['nouri] - [purple hoods, golden and silver belts; flutes]
Ori ['ouri] – [grey hood, flute]
Oin – brown hood
Gloin – white hood
Bifur ['baifuq] – yellow hood, clarinet
Bofur ['boufuq] – yellow hood, clarinet
Bombur ['bombuq] – pale green hood, drum
Scene 1.
Hobbit-hole. Dining-room.
Bilbo is laying the table for having tea humming.
There comes a tremendous ring on the front-door bell.
Bilbo: Oh, my! It’s him! Gandalf! How could I forget!
He rushes to bring the boiling kettle, puts out another cut and saucer, some cakes – and runs to the door.
He opens the door.
Bilbo: I am sorry to keep you waiting! (He raises his eyes – and falls silent, as he sees not Gandalf, but a dwarf unknown to him).
The dwarf pushes inside. He takes off his hood and hangs it on the peg, bows to Bilbo low.
Dwarf: Dwalin at your service!
Bilbo: Bilbo Baggins at yours! (Short silence) I am just about to take tea. Pray come and have some with me.
Dwalin bows and follows Bilbo to the table, sits down. Bilbo pours the cups of tea for the guest and for himself. Each of them take a cake and bite raising their cups to their mouths.
There comes another loud ring of the bell.
Bilbo: (jumping up) Excuse me! (runs to the door).
He opens the door.
Bilbo: So you have got here at last! (he stops speaking as understands that at the threshold a stranger stands).
Old dwarf steps inside quickly, goes to the wall and hangs his hood on the peg.
Dwarf: (turning to Bilbo) I see they have begun to arrive already! Balin at your service! (bows with the hand on his breast)
Bilbo: Thank you! (A pause) Come along in, and have some tea!
Balin: A little bear is better, if it is all the same for you, my good sir. But I don’t mind some cake – seed-cake, if you have any.
Bilbo: Lots! (runs to bring beer and cakes)
Balin goes into the room and sits down to the table.
Balin: (to Dwalin) Nice to see you, brother!
Dwalin: I am glad too!
Bilbo runs in with a beer-mug and a plate of cakes and puts all these on the table.
The doorbell rings, and once more.
Bilbo: Gandalf for certain this time! (runs out to the hall and opens the door)
Two more dwarves with a bag and a spade stand at the door and enter the hall
Bilbo: What can I do for you, my dwarves?
1 Dwarf: (taking off his hood and bowing) Kili at your service!
2 Dwarf: (doing the same) And Fili!
Bilbo: (bowing too) At yours and your family’s!
Kili: Dwalin and Balin here already, I see. Let us join the throng! (Dwarves go into the room and greet the two dwarves)
Bilbo: Throng! I don’t like the sound of that! I really must to sit down and collect my wits!
He goes into the room and sits down in the corner.
Dwarves at the table talk about mines, and gold, and troubles with goblins, etc.
Bilbo stretches his hand to take a cup ... – ... and the doorbell rings!
Bilbo: (blinking) Someone at the door!
Fili: Some four – I should say by sound. Besides, we saw them coming after us in the distance.
Bilbo slowly comes to the door and opens it.
There FIVE dwarves – and coming in a column, each one taking off his hood, and bowing, and saying his name.
Dori: Dori, to your service.
Nori: Nori, to your service.
Ori: Ori, to your service.
Oin: Oin, to your service.
Gloin: And Gloin! It’s me!
Bilbo: Would you share our meal? Some tea?
All go to the living room. Dwarves greet the company and sits down to the table.
Dori: May be, you have some ale!.
Nori: And porter!.
Ori: And coffee, please!
Oin: And cakes, if there’s any!
Gloin: And for me too!
Dwarves talk, and Bilbo runs out and returns with a loaded tray, puts it on the table.
A loud knock on the door. More. More. Banging with a stick.
Bilbo angrily rushes into the hall and flings the door open. The massive door knocks down four more dwarves standing outside. Besides, there stands Gandalf with a staff in his hand.
Gandalf: Carefully! Carefully! (Dwarves get up to their feet). What’s wrong with you, Bilbo! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and especially Thorin.
Bifur:
Bofur: } (together) At your service!
Bomber:
Thorin is very haughty and says nothing.
Bilbo: Oh, I am so sorry! Oh, excuse me! Thousand excuses! Oh, my!
Thorin: (stiffly) Pray don’t mention it.
All go into the room and sit at the table, greet others.
Gandalf: Now we are all here! Merry company! Do you have food for the late-comers? What’s that? Tea! No, thank you! Bring me some red wine!
Thorin: And for me!
Bifur: And jam and apple-pie!
Bofur: And cheese!
Bombur: And pork-pie and salad!
The rest: And more cakes!!!
Gandalf: And the cold chicken, and pickles, and a few eggs, be a good fellow!
Bilbo: Oh, may be somebody will lend me a hand?
Kili and Fili jump up, and all three run out of the living-room to the kitchen. Soon they return with trays full of food and drinks and place them on the table, and unload the trays. Now guests sit at the table and eat heartily, and Bilbo sits on a stool at the fireplace and nibbles at a biscuit.
After everybody was sated they pushed their chairs back.
Bilbo: (stands up and makes a move to collect plates and glasses) Hope you will all stay to supper?
Thorin: Of course! And after. We shan’t get through the business till late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!
12 dwarves (not Thorin and not Gandalf) jumped to their feet, made piles of plates and glasses and began running with them to the kitchen say the following poem in turns (one line for every dwarf):
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates -
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
Pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when you've finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So, carefully! carefully! with the plates!
Bilbo is very anxious, runs after and between them saying “Let me do it!” and “Oh, be careful!”
The dwarves took everything to the kitchen – and broke nothing. Then, in a line, they returned to the living-room. Thorin and Gandalf sit at the fireplace with their boots on the fender smoking their pipes. The dwarves one by one take chairs from the table and put them in 2 semi-circles before the fireplace.
Thorin: Now for some music! Bring out the instruments!
Kili and Fili go to the hall and bring their fiddles.
Dori, Nori and Ori take out flutes from inside their coats.
Bombur brought a drum from the hall.
Bifur and Bofur produced clarinets from their pockets.
Dwalin and Balin went out to the hall too and came their violas Thorin’s harp. It is wrapped in a green cloth.
Everybody makes themselves comfortable.
Bilbo sits in the corner.
Thorin makes a jester – and music starts.
Far over the Misty Mountains cold,
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek our pale enchanted gold.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells,
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.
For ancient king and elvish lord
There many a gleaming golden hoard
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught,
To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
On silver necklaces they strung
The flowering stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, on twisted wire
They meshed the light of moon and sun.
Far over the Misty Mountains cold,
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To claim our long-forgotten gold.
Goblets they carved there for themselves,
And harps of gold, where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by men or elves.
The pines were roaring on the heights,
The wind was moaning in the night,
The fire was red, it flaming spread,
The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale,
And men looked up with faces pale.
The dragon's ire, more fierce than fire,
Laid low their towers and houses frail.
The mountain smoked beneath the moon.
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled the hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.
Far over the Misty Mountains grim,
To dungeons deep and caverns dim,
We must away, ere break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!
The wind was on the withered heath,
But in the forest stirred no leaf:
There shadows lay be night or day,
And dark things silent crept beneath.
The wind came down from mountains cold,
And like a tide it roared and rolled.
The branches groaned, the forest moaned,
And leaves were laid upon the mould.
The wind went on from West to East;
All movement in the forest ceased.
But shrill and harsh across the marsh,
Its whistling voices were released.
The grasses hissed, their tassels bent,
The reeds were rattling--on it went.
O'er shaken pool under heavens cool,
Where racing clouds were torn and rent.
It passed the Lonely Mountain bare,
And swept above the dragon's lair:
There black and dark lay boulders stark,
And flying smoke was in the air.
It left the world and took its flight
Over the wide seas of the night.
The moon set sale upon the gale,
And stars were fanned to leaping light.
Under the Mountain dark and tall,
The King has come unto his hall!
His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread,
And ever so his foes shall fall!
The sword is sharp, the spear is long,
The arrow swift, the Gate is strong.
The heart is bold that looks on gold;
The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.
On silver necklaces they strung’
The light of stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, from twisted wire
The melody of harps they wrung.
The mountain throne once more is freed!
O! Wandering folk, the summons heed!
Come haste! Come haste! Across the waste!
The king of friend and kin has need.
Now call we over the mountains cold,
'Come back unto the caverns old!'
Here at the gates the king awaits,
His hands are rich with gems and gold.
The king has come unto his hall
Under the Mountain dark and tall.
The Worm of Dread is slain and dead,
And ever so our foes shall fall!
Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away, ere break of day
Far over the wood and mountain tall.
To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell
In glades beneath the misty fell.
Through moor and waste we ride in haste,
And whither then we cannot tell.
With foes ahead, behind us dread,
Beneath the sky shall be our bed,
Until at last our toil be passed,
Our journey done, our errand sped.
We must away! We must away!
We ride before the break of day!
The sounds of music die down.
Bilbo gets up restless. The dwarves look at him – all of them.
Bilbo: What about a little light?
Thorin: We like the dark. Dark for dark business!
Bilbo: Of course! (He tries to sit down on his stool, misses it, falls on the floor and knocks over the stool. (Remains sitting on the floor)
Gandalf: Hush! Let Thorin speak!
Thorin: Gandalf, dwarves and Mr. Baggins! We met together in the house of our friend and fellow conspirator, this excellent hobbit – may the hair on his toes never fall out! – to discuss our plans, means and devices. Before the break of day we shall start on our long journey. From this journey some of us – or all of us – may never return. It is a solemn moment! Our object is well known to us all. But the estimable Mr. Baggins may require a brief explanation of the situation.
Bilbo listens to Thorin and gets more and more restless and frightened. At the last words he jumps up and cries out loudly.
The dwarves spring up to their feet too.
Gandalf strikes a magic light – and everybody see Bilbo kneeling on the rug shrinking.
Bilbo: (repeats over and over) Struck by lightning! Struck by lightning!
The dwarves help Bilbo to his feet, lead him to a small sofa and leave him there.
Gandalf: Excitable little fellow! Gets funny fits. But he is one of the best in his trade. As fierce as a dragon in a pinch!
Gloin: Hm! Will he do, do you think? It is very well for Gandalf to talk about him being fierce. But under the Mountain, close to our gold – and to the Dragon – his shriek will wake up the lizard and all his relatives – and kill us all.
Bilbo sat up on the sofa, came up to the door and listens to the conversation.
Oin: For me, his shriek sounded more like fright than excitement! If not for the sign on the door, I should think we came to the wrong house. He looks more like grocer than a burglar!
Bilbo steps into the room.
Bilbo: Pardon me! I have overheard your words. I don’t understand what you are talking about, especially about burglars. But I am sure that you think I am no good. I am sure you have come to the wrong house. But treat it as the right one! I’ll show you! Tell me what you want done, and I’ll try it – if I have to walk from here to the East of East and fight with wild Wereworms in the Last Desert.
Ori: But Mr. Baggins, I assure you that there is a mark on your door: Burglar wants a good job, plenty of excitement and reasonable Reward.
Nori: You can call yourself Expert, treasure-hunter, burglar – it does not matter. It’s all the same.
Dori: Gandalf told us that there was a man of the sort in these parts looking for a job, and that he had arranged a meeting with him here.
Gandalf: Of course there is a mark! I put it myself! You, dear dwarves, asked me to find the fourteenth member for your expedition, and I chose Mr. Baggins. If you don’t like him, you can stop at thirteen – and have all the bad luck of this number.
(Glares angrily at the whole company – nobody dares to argue) I have chosen Mr. Baggins, and if I say he is a burglar, a burglar he is, or will be. There is a lot more in him than you guess, or he has any idea of himself. Now, Bilbo, my boy, fetch the lamp!
Bilbo brings a lamp and puts on the table.
Gandalf spreads a map on the table. All of them sits down around the table.
Gandalf: This was made by Thror, your grandfather, Thorin. It is a plan of the Mountain.
Thorin: Do we need it? I remember the Mountain well.
Gandalf: There is one point that you haven’t noticed. You see that rune on the West side? It marks secret entrance, a hidden passage to the Lower Halls.
Thorin: Do you think it is still secret? Old Smaug has lived there long enough to study all the caves.
Gandalf: I think it is, as the passage is too narrow for the beast. The runes say “Five feet high, and three may walk abreast”. Smaug could not creep into a hole that size when he was young.
Bilbo: Still it seems to me a big hole. How could it stay secret from outside or inside?
Gandalf: In lots of ways.
Thorin: Exactly! One of them being dwarves’ magic, which makes the closed door to look like the side of the Mountain.
Gandalf: Also with the map went a key, a small and curious key. Here it is! Keep it safe!
Thorin: Indeed I will! (From under his jacket he takes out a thin chain and fastens the key upon it). Now things begin to look more hopeful. So, our plan is to go East, quietly and carefully, as far as the Long Lake. After that the trouble would begin…
Gandalf: Long time before that. The roads East are not safe.
Thorin: On the other side of the Long Lake there is the Front Gate leading into the Mountain. Through it Smaug comes out.
Gandalf: That would be no good to meet him face to face. That is why I settled on burglary when I remembered the side door – and our chosen and selected burglar, Mr. Baggins. So let’s make some plans!
Thorin: Very well! I suppose our burglar expert can give us some ideas.
Bilbo: First I should like to know more about things – about gold, and dragon, and who the gold belong to – and so on.
Thorin: Long ago my family came from far North and settled under the Lonely Mountain. They mined and tunneled, and found a good deal of gold and great many jewels too. They grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the Mountain. Those were good days for us, and we made beautiful things and magical toys, and armour…
Undoubtedly that was what brought the dragon. Dragons steal gold and jewels from men, elves and dwarves, and they guard treasures as long as they live. In the North there were many dragons, and among them there was a most greedy, strong and wicked one called Smaug. One day he flew South, and reached the Mountain. Some of us heard a noise like hurricane – and went outside (I was one luckily – it saved my life that day). The dragon destroyed the merry city of Dale on the bank of the Long Lake, then crept in through the Front Gate… After that there were no dwarves alive in side, and he took all our wealth for himself.
I don’t know what goes on there now. But we mean to get back our treasures.
Gandalf: The dragon is more than big task for you!
Bilbo: Hear! Hear!
All dwarves: Hear what?
Bilbo: Hear what I’ve got to say!
Thorin: What’s that?
Bilbo: I should say you ought to go East and have a look around. After all, there is the side-door, and dragons must sleep sometimes. If you sit on the doorstep long enough you will think of something.
And I think we have talked long enough for one night. What about bed, and an early start? I’ll give you a good breakfast before you go!
Thrin: Before WE go I suppose you mean. Aren’t you the burglar? Sitting on the doorstep is YOUR job, as well as getting inside the door. But I agree about bed and breakfast.
All dwarves go to the sofas and armchairs and make themselves comfortable for sleep.
Bilbo makes a circle and sees no vacant bed. He sighs and lays on the rug before the fireplace.