Джон Толкин - The Hobbit / Хоббит. 10 класс

“A sword which came out of Gondolin!”

“Well,” said Gollum, and became quite polite, “perhaps you like riddles. Let’s play.”

“Very well,” agreed Bilbo. “You ask first,” he said, because he had not had time to think of a riddle.

So Gollum hissed:

“What has roots as nobody sees,Is taller than trees,Up, up it goes,And yet never grows?”

“Easy!” said Bilbo. “It’s a mountain, I suppose.”

“Was it so easy? Let’s have a real competition! If I ask, and you don’t answer, I will eat you. If you ask me, and I don’t answer, then I will do what you want, okay? I will show you the way out, yes!”

“All right!” said Bilbo.

“Thirty white horses on a red hill,First they champ,Then they stamp,Then they stand still.”

It was rather an old riddle, and Gollum knew the answer:

“Teeth! Teeth!” Then he asked another riddle:

“This thing all things devours:Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;Gnaws iron, bites steel;Grinds hard stones to meal;Slays king, ruins town,And beats high mountain down.”

Poor Bilbo sat in the dark thinking of all the horrible names of all the giants and ogres he had ever heard, but not one of them had done all these things. He had a feeling that the answer was quite different and that he should know it, but he could not think of it. He began to get frightened, and that is bad for thinking. He wanted to shout out: “Give me more time! Give me time!” But all that came out was:

“Time! Time!”

Bilbo was saved by chance, because that was the correct answer.

Gollum was disappointed once more; and now he was getting angry, and also tired of the game. It had made him very hungry indeed. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo.

“Now ask me a question,” said Gollum. But Bilbo simply could not think of any question because he was really nervous. Bilbo pinched himself and slapped himself; he gripped on his little sword; he even felt in his pocket with his other hand. There he found the ring he had picked up in the passage and forgotten about.

“What have I got in my pocket?” he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was terribly upset.

“Not fair![32] Not fair!” he hissed.

Bilbo just didn’t know what to ask so he repeated louder, “What have I got in my pocket?”

“Give me three guesses, three guesses” hissed Gollum.

“Very well! Guess!” said Bilbo.

“Hands!” said Gollum.

“Wrong,” said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. “Guess again!”

Gollum thought of all the things he kept in his own pockets: fish-bones, goblins’ teeth, wet shells, a bit of bat-wing, and other nasty things. He tried to think what other people kept in their pockets.

“Knife!” he said at last.

“Wrong!” said Bilbo. “Last guess!”

Now Gollum hissed and rocked himself backwards and forwards; but still he did not dare to waste his last guess.

“Come on!” said Bilbo. “I am waiting!” He tried to sound bold and cheerful. “Time’s up!” he said.

“String!” shrieked Gollum.

“Wrong,” cried Bilbo very much relieved; and he jumped at once to his feet, put his back to the nearest wall, and held out his little sword. He knew, of course, that the riddle-game was sacred. But he felt he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise.

But Gollum did not attack him. He could see the sword in Bilbo’s hand. He sat still, shivering and whispering. At last Bilbo could wait no longer.

“Well?” he said. “What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way.”

“Certainly, but first I must go and get some things to help me,” answered Gollum.

“Well, hurry up!” said Bilbo.

He thought that Gollum was not going to come back. But he was wrong. Gollum wanted to come back. He was angry now and hungry. And he was a wicked creature, and already he had a plan. In his hiding-place Gollum kept one very beautiful thing. He had a gold ring. He wanted it because it was a magic ring, and if you put that ring on your finger, you were invisible. Gollum hid it in a hole in the rock on his island. And sometimes he put it on, when he was very, very hungry, and tired of fish. Then he moved silently along dark passages looking for stray goblins to catch and eat them.

“I will be quite safe,” Gollum whispered to himself. “He won’t see me, and his little sword will be useless.” That was Gollum’s plan.

Bilbo waited a little; for he had no idea how to find his way out alone. Suddenly he heard a scream. Gollum was cursing in the darkness. He was on his island, trying to find his ring.

“What’s the matter?” Bilbo called. “What have you lost?”

“You mustn’t ask me,” shrieked Gollum. “Not your business, no! It’s lost!”

“Well, so am I,” cried Bilbo, “Come and let me out, and then look for your thing!”

Suddenly out of the gloom came a loud hiss. “What have you got in your pockets? Tell me now.”

“But I asked you first. What have you lost? Tell me that!” said Bilbo.

“What have you got in your pockets?” hissed Gollum again. Suspicion grew in Gollum’s mind, so he was in his boat again, paddling quickly back to the shore. He was in rage and Bilbo’s sword couldn’t stop him now. When the hobbit saw Gollum, he realized that Gollum was going to kill him. So he turned and ran back up the dark passage down which he had come, keeping close to the wall and feeling it with his left hand. “What have you got in your pockets?” he heard the hiss loud behind him.

“What have I got?” he said to himself and put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his forefinger.

The hiss was close behind him. He turned now and saw Gollum’s eyes like small green lamps. Suddenly Bilbo fell down on the floor with his little sword under him.

In a moment Gollum was on him. But before Bilbo could do anything, Gollum passed by, taking no notice of him. Why? Bilbo slowly got up; he didn’t know where to go. Perhaps if he followed Gollum, he could finally escape. So Bilbo decided to walk after Gollum quietly.

“Curse it! Curse it! Curse it!” hissed Gollum. “Curse the Baggins! What has he got in his pockets? Oh I guess he’s found my ring.” Bilbo was listening carefully.

Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to weep. Bilbo stopped. After a while Gollum began to talk to himself.

“The Baggins has got my ring; if he puts it on his finger, he will be invisible. But he doesn’t know that. He is going to the back door now. Anyway, the goblins will catch him then. He can’t get out that way.”

And then Gollum got up and walked quickly. Bilbo hurried after him. Now he knew that the ring made him invisible! Soon they came to places where side-passages opened, this way and that. Gollum began at once to count them.

“Seven right, yes. Six left, yes!” he whispered. “This is it. This is the way to the back-door. Here’s the passage!” He looked in, and stopped. “But I can’t go in. Goblins are there. I smell them. I must wait here, wait a bit and see.”

So Gollum had brought Bilbo to the way out after all, but Bilbo could not get in! There was Gollum sitting right in the opening.[33]

Bilbo was desperate. He must get away. He trembled. And then quite suddenly he leaped straight over Gollum’s head.

He did not turn to see what Gollum was doing. There was a hissing and cursing almost at his heels at first, then it stopped. All at once there came a terrible scream:

“Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! I hate you, I hate you for ever!” Gollum did not dare go further. He had lost.

Then there was a silence. Bilbo carefully walked.

Soon the passage went up, and after a while the passage turned a corner, and dipped down again, and there he saw a pale light. Then Bilbo began to run. He turned the last corner and came suddenly right into an open space, near a big stone door.

Bilbo blinked, and then suddenly he saw goblins with swords sitting in front of the door. They saw him sooner than he saw them. Yes, they saw him. The ring was not on his finger! With cries of delight the goblins rushed upon him. In despair Bilbo put his hands into his pockets and found the ring! It slipped on his finger. Suddenly the goblins stopped. They could not see him. “Where is it?” they cried.

Goblins cursed and ran; they fell over one another and got very angry.

Bilbo was terribly frightened. “I must get to the door, I must get to the door!” he said to himself. He tried to squeeze through the crack. He squeezed and squeezed, and he got stuck![34] It was awful. Suddenly one of the goblins shouted: “There is a shadow by the door. Something is outside!”

Bilbo’s heart jumped into his mouth. He tried hard to get out. Buttons burst off in all directions[35] and he was through, and leapt down the steps like a goat.

Of course they came down after him. But they don’t like the sun. They could not find Bilbo with the ring on, so soon they went back to guard the door. Bilbo had escaped.

Chapter 6

Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire[36]

Bilbo had escaped the goblins, but he did not know where he was. He had lost his hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons and his friends. He wandered on and on, till the sun began to set in the west, behind the mountains. Bilbo looked back. Then he looked forward and could see before him only plains. So he realized that he was on the other side of the Misty Mountains. But he wanted to find Gandalf and the dwarves. He decided to go back into the horrible, horrible tunnels and look for his friends.

Just then he heard voices. He stopped and listened.

He crept nearer, and suddenly he saw Gandalf and the dwarves. They were discussing all that had happened to them in the tunnels, and what they had to do now.

“And here we are – without the burglar!” said Dori.

“And here’s the burglar!” said Bilbo stepping down into the middle of them, and slipping off the ring.

They jumped and shouted with surprise and delight. Bilbo’s reputation went up a lot with the dwarves after this. Now they were sure that he was really a first-class burglar. Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he said nothing about the ring. Then they wanted to know all about his adventures after they had lost him, and he sat down and told them everything – except the ring.

Soon the wizard said, “We must go on at once,” he said. “Goblins will be after us when night comes. They can smell our footsteps. We must go far before dusk.”

“But I am so hungry,” said Bilbo.

“We must just tighten our belts[37] and go on – or goblins will have us for supper.”

They went on and on. They found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope of fallen stones. When they began to go down this, stones rolled away from their feet. Before long the whole slope above them and below them moved. Only trees below stopped them and they were saved.

“Must we go any further?” asked Bilbo, when it was so dark that he could only just see Thorin’s beard, and so quiet that he could hear the dwarves’ breathing like a loud noise. “My toes are all bruised, and my legs ache, and my stomach is like an empty sack.”

“A bit further,” said Gandalf.

At last they came to an open place where no trees grew. The moon was shining brightly. But it was not a nice place.

Suddenly they heard a long howl. Then another howl answered it. Wolves were howling at the moon, wolves were gathering together!

“What shall we do?!” Bilbo cried. “Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!”[38] he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say ‘out of the frying-pan into the fire’ in such uncomfortable situations.

“Climb up the trees quick!” cried Gandalf; and they ran to the trees at the edge of the glade. And they went up as high as they could.

But Bilbo could not get into any tree.

“Wolves will eat him if we don’t do something,” said Thorin, because howls all around them were getting nearer and nearer. “Dori!” he called, for Dori was lowest down in the easiest tree, “be quick, and help Mr Baggins!”

So Dori actually climbed out of the tree and let Bilbo move quickly up and stand on his back. Just at that moment the wolves ran into the clearing.

This glade in the ring of trees was evidently a meeting-place of the wolves. More and more were coming in. They left guards at the foot of the trees in which the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf were. In the middle of the circle was a great grey wolf. He spoke to other wolves in the dreadful language of the Wargs, the wicked wolves. Gandalf understood it.

I will tell you what Gandalf heard, though Bilbo did not understand it. The Wargs and the goblins often helped one another. Goblins sometimes went on raids, to get food or slaves. Then the Wargs helped them. Sometimes they rode on wolves. That night the Wargs had come to meet the goblins and the goblins were late.

From time to time some bold men returned to the area from the South. They cut down trees and built houses in the valleys and along the river-shores. Those men were brave and well-armed, and even the Wargs were afraid to attack them if there were many together, or in daylight.[39] But now they had planned with the goblins’ help to attack the village which was nearest the mountains, and they wanted to do that in the night. They were going to kill all the people except the few whom the goblins wanted to take as prisoners to their caves.

Now the Wargs thought that the dwarves were friends of the woodmen, and came to spy on them. So the Wargs were not going away until morning. They were waiting for goblin soldiers who could climb trees and kill the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf.

But then Gandalf gathered the huge pinecones from the branches of his tree, set them on bright blue fire and threw down at the wolves. Their coats caught fire at once, and they leaped in the air, and then rushed round in anger and fright.

The dwarves and Bilbo shouted and cheered.

“What’s this noise?” said the Lord of the Eagles. He was sitting on the rock at the eastern edge of the mountains. “I hear wolves’ voices!”

Eagles were proud and strong and noble-hearted. They did not love goblins, or fear them. When they noticed them, they usually swooped on them and drove them back to their caves. Goblins hated eagles and feared them.

Tonight the Lord of the Eagles wanted to know what was happening; so he and many other eagles flew away from the mountains and came down to the ring of the wolves and the meeting-place of the goblins.

There, all round the clearing of the Wargs, fire was leaping. But the wolf-guards did not leave the trees. Then suddenly goblins came running up. They put out all the flames except the fire closest to the trees where the dwarves were. Soon they had a ring of smoke and flame all round the dwarves. Smoke was in Bilbo’s eyes. Soon the flames were under Gandalf’s tree. In a moment it spread to the others.

Just at that moment the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above, seized Gandalf in his claws, and was gone. Then other birds flew to the tree-tops and seized the dwarves. Poor little Bilbo just managed to catch hold of Dori’s legs,[40] and they went together above the trees. Some eagles stayed behind and attacked the goblins and the wolves.