The Wild Was Still The Wild - Bilbo's Journey Home

Some years ago, I read the Hobbit with my then 7 year old nephew. I recently
found out that he's read it by himself (for a third time since watching the
LOTR movies) and is full of questions. Most of these I've been able to
answer using my own layman's knowledge and through the scholarly efforts of
this group.

Very recently though, he pointed to the end of the Hobbit, where Tolkien
writes that Bilbo, Gandalf and Beorn travel home between the north of
Mirkwood and the Iron Mountains: We've been discussing what kind of problems
the three might encounter and I was wondering if anyone else has ever
considered this. Here's what our limited knowledge came up with:

1. No dragons. They weren't far from the Withered Heath, but apart from
diluting one of the main aspects of the book, we're told that they were
"never in great danger again."

2. Possibly a few spiders. Though the Map of Mirkwood isn't a cartographer's
map, the webs are dotted around the inside of the forest, rather than the
perimeter. The mountains trail south a bit though and there could well be
spiders in the Grey Mountains, but we didn't see the party getting too
close, because of the potential for foul weather.

3. Stragglers from the Battle of the Five Armies. Leftover goblins/orcs are
mentioned in the actual passage, so it's reasonable to assume a few wolves
might be about too. The presence of Beorn would be an enormous deterrent of
course and morale after the battle would mitigate the chances of their being
attacked.

4. We've looked at Karen Wynn Fonstad's maps. These have that dual
difficulty of being expertly informed and yet non-canonical. I always
thought that evil things in the Grey and Iron Mountains could be descended
from the population of Utumno, albeit much weakened by now. Fonstad seems to
think Utumno is further west, near to the Ered Luin and I'm not sufficiently
informed to debate this. The spiders indicate that Shelob passed this way
when escaping Beleriand, so other foul creatures may have taken the same
path.

5. There could be any number of things roaming about in the Elder Days when
Melkor was busy corrupting life and twisting it's many shapes. Orome may
have been helpful cleaning up after him, but clearly didn't do so
exhaustively. This is a major gap in my learning / memory, though I don't
recall the Silmarillion going into great detail. Likewise, there may be
residents who left Angmar after it's ruin and settled here. I'm no expert on
the tale of years.

That's as much as I (we) could come up with. Does anyone else know of any
canonical information, or otherwise have any clever - albeit specualtive
ideas? If I'm wrong about anything, I'm happy to be corrected, but I'd
appreciate knowing how I was mistaken.

Shinobi.

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:03:42 GMT from Shinobi
<shinobi.nine.TakeThisOut@dropthis.virgin.net>:
> he pointed to the end of the Hobbit, where Tolkien
> writes that Bilbo, Gandalf and Beorn travel home between the north of
> Mirkwood and the Iron Mountains: We've been discussing what kind of problems
> the three might encounter and I was wondering if anyone else has ever
> considered this.

I think Tolkien represented this as being a *safe* route. Here's the
quote I think you're referring to:

"[Bilbo] had many hardships and adventures before he got back. The
Wild was still the Wild, and there were many other things in it in
those days besides goblins; but he was well guided and well
guarded -- the wizard was with him, and Beorn for much of the way --
and he was never in great danger again."

Since Bilbo "was never in great danger again", I think "hardships and
adventures" refers to more mundane things like the northern winter
and wild animals.

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