Two Echoes of 'The Hobbit' in 'The Lord of the Rings'

I've noticed two passages from the opening chapter of The Hobbit that seem to be echoed in The Lord of the Rings, albeit significantly reworked and repurposed.  Here are some initial thoughts, which I may refine further.

I. Dismissal of the Unwelcome Visitor

A. Good Morning!

In the opening chapter of The Hobbit, Bilbo's initial friendly greeting to a passing stranger (eventually revealed to be Gandalf) prompts an oddly literal-minded interrogation into what exactly Bilbo means by "good morning."  A carefree Bilbo good-humoredly agrees to all the suggested meanings and more.  But as the stranger introduces a more disturbing topic – the prospect of sending Bilbo on an adventure – our hero resorts back to the same polite formula once more, this time as a clear dismissal: 

“Good morning!” he said at last.  “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you!  You might try over The Hill or across The Water.”  By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.

“What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!” said Gandalf.  “Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good till I move off.”

“Not at all, not at all, my dear sir!  Let me see, I don’t think I know your name?”

“Yes, yes, my dear sir – and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins.  And you do know my name, though you don’t remember that I belong to it.  I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!”  (The Annotated Hobbit 33, footnote omitted)

As I described it in my essay on etiquette humor in The Hobbit:

Bilbo tries to dismiss Gandalf and end the conversation by saying “Good morning!” and “thank you!” in quick succession (H 6). As Shippey notes, this “insincere politeness [...] is socially coded to mean its opposite” (9), but when Gandalf points out what Bilbo is doing, Bilbo denies it. Obviously, it would be impolite for Bilbo to acknowledge in so many words that Gandalf’s presence is unwelcome, and as a result he is too embarrassed to admit that Gandalf’s interpretation is correct. Thus, Bilbo’s own concern for the appearance of proper behaviour traps him into a conversation that he finds more and more alarming, until the only way that he sees to escape is to invite Gandalf to tea.  (Smith 118)

In other words, Bilbo's attempt to signal to Gandalf in a socially acceptable manner that he is unwelcome and should buzz off not only fails, but completely backfires as it gives Gandalf an excuse to return (with friends!) and railroad him into a most alarming adventure.

Bilbo's utter ineffectiveness in dismissing Gandalf is naturally played for comedy in The Hobbit.  But much of the humor, and its significance for setting the plot in motion, stems from Gandalf's deep familiarity with the social conventions that constrain Bilbo, and his working or flouting them, at will, to his own advantage.

B. Good Night and Good-Day to You! 

Once again in The Lord of the Rings, we see hobbits signaling to passing strangers that they are unwelcome with words of greeting socially coded to indicate dismissal.  Except this time, the strangers in question just happen to be Black Riders (most likely Khamûl in both instances) on a mission from Mordor.

In Book One, Chapter 3, Frodo overhears "voices, just round the corner by the end of Bagshot Row."  He recognizes one as the Gaffer's, while the other one is almost inaudible but "strange, and somehow unpleasant."  The Gaffer "seemed put out" by the stranger's questioning, but Frodo can only hear the answer portion of the dialogue:

‘No, Mr. Baggins has gone away.  Went this morning, and my Sam went with him: anyway all his stuff went.  Yes, sold out and gone, I tell’ee.  Why?  Why’s none of my business, or yours.  Where to?  That ain’t no secret.  He’s moved to Bucklebury or some such place, away down yonder.  Yes it is – a tidy way.  I’ve never been so far myself; they’re queer folks in Buckland.   No, I can’t give no message.  Good night to you!’ (LotR 69)

Throughout the conversation, the Gaffer seems to be providing the socially minimal appearance of "helpfulness" that at best only thinly veils his annoyance at the stranger's nosiness.  Even his explanation that Frodo has gone "to Bucklebury or some such place" at first sounds like an old man's vagueness about matters of little import to him.  But this seems to be a bit of deliberate misdirection while avoiding the lie direct, as the Gaffer later flatly tells Sam "I've sent him on to Bucklebury" (LotR 75).  Crickhollow is another few miles to the north and east of Bucklebury, and more isolated.

The Gaffer's final comment – "Good night to you!" – is a dismissal.  Whether or not the Black Rider is familiar with the convention, the tone and delivery surely makes clear to the Black Rider that his questions are unwelcome and the evening "won't be good till [he] moves off."  Unlike Gandalf, the Black Rider then leaves without demur, as "Footsteps went away down the Hill."  A crotchety old hobbit has successfully baffled a Black Rider.

In the very next chapter (I.4), Farmer Maggot recounts his own encounter with a Black Rider who was trespassing on his property.  In this instance, the initial greeting is clearly a dismissal.  Indeed, it cannot be mistaken for a polite welcome, as the hobbit immediately tells the stranger to exit his property and get back to the public road:

‘“Good-day to you!” I says, going out to him. “This lane don’t lead anywhere, and wherever you may be going, your quickest way will be back to the road.”  I didn’t like the looks of him; and when Grip came out, he took one sniff and let out a yelp as if he had been stung: he put down his tail and bolted off howling.  The black fellow sat quite still.

‘“I come from yonder,” he said, slow and stiff-like, pointing back west, over my fields, if you please.  “Have you seen Baggins?” he asked in a queer voice, and bent down towards me.  I could not see any face, for his hood fell down so low; and I felt a sort of shiver down my back.  But I did not see why he should come riding over my land so bold.

‘“Be off!” I said.  “There are no Bagginses here.  You’re in the wrong part of the Shire.  You had better go back west to Hobbiton – but you can go by road this time.”

‘“Baggins has left,” he answered in a whisper.  “He is coming.  He is not far away.  I wish to find him.  If he passes will you tell me?  I will come back with gold.”

‘“No you won’t,” I said. “You’ll go back where you belong, double quick.  I give you one minute before I call all my dogs.”

‘He gave a sort of hiss.  It might have been laughing, and it might not.  Then he spurred his great horse right at me, and I jumped out of the way only just in time.  I called the dogs, but he swung off, and rode through the gate and up the lane towards the causeway like a bolt of thunder.  What do you think of that?’  (LotR 94)

Here, of course, the Black Rider does not immediately depart on being good-nighted.  Farmer Maggot has to dismiss him three times (a traditional approach when dealing with creatures of Faërie), the third time rejecting a proffered bribe and threatening to sic the dogs on him.

The hiss at the end is wonderfully ambiguous in this passage – is the Black Rider hissing with annoyance at this belligerent, uncooperative hobbit, apparently foolishly unaware of the danger he's courting?  And/or hissing with amusement at the threat of calling "all my dogs" when the first dog slunk off in fear?  Although when we recall that he hissed at the Gaffer, too – "Hissed at me, he did" (LotR 75) – I'm inclined to think it's frustration or annoyance more than anything else. 

So, in both these hobbit-Rider encounters, the hobbits ultimately prevail, apparently by sheer spunk, while far mightier folk (e.g. the armies of Gondor) have quailed.[FN*]  Of course, it helps that the Riders apparently are not permitted to exercise their full powers while seeking information in the Shire.  

But it would seem that Khamûl perhaps also lacks the deep familarity with social conventions and hobbit psychology that allowed Gandalf to win a war of words against Bilbo.  He therefore lives (if that is the right word) to be good-nighted and good-dayed by an elderly gardener and a country farmer, as if he were selling buttons at the door.

II. Startled By a Wizard's Light Trick 

This is one I noticed in February 2018.  In both The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf suddenly strikes a light and one of his interlocutors, startled, falls to the floor.

Bilbo is shaken by the prospect of an adventure from which he might not return.  He shrieks, startling the dwarves and causing them to knock over a table.  Gandalf strikes a light to bring order to the chaos: 

Gandalf struck a blue light on the end of his magic staff, and in its firework glare the poor little hobbit could be seen kneeling on the hearth-rug, shaking like a jelly that was melting. Then he fell flat on the floor, and kept on calling out “struck by lightning, struck by lightning!” over and over again; and that was all they could get out of him for a long time.  So they took him and laid him out of the way on the drawing-room sofa with a drink at his elbow, and they went back to their dark business.   (The Annotated Hobbit 47) 

Since Bilbo starts from a kneeling position when he falls flat on the floor, it seems most plausible that he falls forward, onto his face.  His cowardice, his comically over-exaggerated reaction to the wizard's practical light-trick, sidelines him from the action (amusingly termed the dwarves' "dark business") for a while.

Then this scene in Book Three, Chapter 6 of The Lord of the Rings seems to hearken back to it, although the context is quite different, as Gandalf is making a display of his power to command everyone's attention.  Especially Théoden's, since after an initial exchange of greetings between them, it is Wormtongue alone who has spoken, as if undertaking the burden of conversation with Gandalf on Théoden's behalf.  Gandalf soon has had enough of this.  Drawing himself up, he says:

‘[...] I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls.’ 

He raised his staff.  There was a roll of thunder.  The sunlight was blotted out from the eastern windows; the whole hall became suddenly dark as night.  The fire faded to sullen embers.  Only Gandalf could be seen, standing white and tall before the blackened hearth. 

In the gloom they heard the hiss of Wormtongue’s voice: “Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff?  That fool, Háma, has betrayed us!”  There was a flash as if lightning had cloven the roof.  Then all was silent.  Wormtongue sprawled on his face.  (LotR 514)

So what Gandalf does here in Théoden's hall is considerably more elaborate than merely turning on a wizardly light for the company to see by.  Here, he is working multiple light and sound effects to sideline Wormtongue:  First, he implies that lightning will soon fall, setting the mood and preparing his audience.  Second, he creates the sound of thunder and darkens both the sky (as if generating an eclipse) and the hall (the fire fades to embers).  Third, there is a great flash, as if lightning has broken through the roof.  All this is done in order that Théoden might "hearken to" Gandalf directly, rather than allowing Wormtongue to serve as intermediary and buffer (id.).

Seeming to wield the powers of a storm and/or an eclipse are, I believe, traditional calling-cards of a magician.  I'm virtually certain these effects are a powerful illusion and Wormtongue was not, in fact, struck by lightning.  So why is he sprawled on his face at the end of this passage?  I think it shows Wormtongue's lack of courage.  He was, until now, "sitting upon the steps of the dais" (LotR 513).  Either he has risen in an attempt to flee, and stumbled and fallen in terror, or he has thrown himself forward on to the floor to be absolutely sure that he will not be high enough to draw a feared lightning bolt.  Since Wormtongue "remained lying on the floor" as Éowyn helps Théoden stand (LotR 515), it seems likely that Wormtongue has managed to knock himself out either way.[FN**]  

Wormtongue's cowardice is different from Bilbo's, of course; it is a realisticly depicted cowardly response to a wizard's apparent unleashing of a lightning storm indoors.  It not only confirms our already low opinion of Wormtongue, but it helps communicate the same view to Théoden (and all the others present who were somehow able to face the terror of an uncanny storm without falling or throwing themselves on the floor).  Plus, Wormtongue appears to be out cold.  It thus has the effect of completely sidelining the serving-man, so that Gandalf can speak with the king.  Wormtongue does not appear again for several pages, after Théoden has started to recover himself and his strength and to take better counsel; and even then, Wormtongue  comes out following Háma and "cringing between two other men" (LotR 519).

The cowardice revealed in Bilbo, by contrast, is played for pure comedy.  In The Hobbit, Gandalf has not simulated a lightning storm, so Bilbo's fear that he was "struck by lightning" is, in essence, a wildly over-exaggerated reaction to someone turning on a light unexpectedly.  He, too, is temporarily sidelined – though he will surprise himself when he recovers.  And curiously, it does not undercut our affection for our hero, as we recognize that he is a most unassuming and unadventurous hobbit ... who is being prepared for far greater things than he can imagine.

Footnotes

FN* Boromir at the Council of Elrond: "We were outnumbered, for Mordor has allied itself with the Easterlings and the cruel Haradrim; but it was not by numbers that we were defeated. A power was there that we have not felt before.  Some said that it could be seen, like a great black horseman, a dark shadow under the moon. Wherever he came a madness filled our foes, but fear fell on our boldest, so that horse and man gave way and fled."  (LotR 245, paragraph break omitted)

FN** It's theoretically possible that Wormtongue merely fainted without attempting to flee or throw himself out of danger, but I don't find that likely.  He was on probably the third step of the dais, at Théoden's feet, so unless he was already leaning very far forward, it seems implausible that he would have ended up "sprawled on his face" after fainting from a seated position.  There is also precedent for Tolkien's characters to throw themselves down when frightened.  In the dell on Weathertop, for example, "Terror overcame Pippin and Merry, and they threw themselves flat on the ground" (LotR 195).  

References

Anderson, Douglas A. The Annotated Hobbit. Revised and expanded edition. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

Shippey, Tom A. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Smith, Laura Lee. “‘This is of course the way to talk with dragons’: Etiquette-Based Humour in The Hobbit,” in Laughter in Middle-earth: Humour in and around the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Thomas Honegger and Maureen F. Mann. Zurich and Jena: Walking Tree Publishers, 2016.  107-132. 

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. 50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2005.