“Bilbo was desperate…. He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It meant to kill him. No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword…. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second…. And then quite suddenly …. as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped…. over Gollum’s head and escaped.”
Tolkien
The Hobbit
1.) Note that Bilbo in this description is a passive agent. The sudden understanding and a pity wells up with him unbidden. A new strength and resolve lift him. It is as if Tolkien is telegraphing divine agency in this language. Strength, resolve, understanding and pity — each of them are penned as the active agents. There is a power outside of Bilbo which is governing. Bilbo’s actions flow out of the gifts given.
2.) Note Bilbo’s “glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment.” Tolkien’s Christian faith subtly comes through again. Bilbo see’s Gollum much the same way that we might see a prisoner in a Soviet Gulag. Tolkien gives us a picture of man fallen and un-redeemed, ‘tied and bound by the chain of our sin.’
3.) Note Bilbo’s pity and horror. When Bilbo sees Gollum he experiences pity and horror because he understands, “there but for the grace of God go I.” Bilbo sees himself in Gollum and compassion wells up within him. Speaking only for myself, too often the feeling of disgust and outrage attend seeing the sinner in his misery. Tolkien reminds us that pity and horror are also proper responses. Pity because that could have easily been us. Horror because of the power of sin to un-make us.
4.) In this brief passage from “The Hobbit” the theological table is set for for the climax of the later Trilogy. Pity and horror kept Gollum alive throughout the whole story. Pity and horror that often seemed misplaced in favor of Gollum. And yet, that earlier pity and horror shown Gollum throughout the quest saved Middle Earth. If not for that “misplaced pity and horror” extended to Gollum at every turn the ring would have never been destroyed.
Jude 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Inspired by Fleming Rutledge
The Battle For Middle Earth – p. 27-28
