--- title: "The Hobbit, Chapter 15 and 16" subtitle: Book review author: Seth Kenlon publish_date: 2025-07-28 00:01 date: 2025-07-28 00:01 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: landscape-castle-waterfall-fantasy-1920x1080.jpg show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: culture tag: [ meta, settings ] --- I'm reading **The Hobbit** again, as I [roleplay as a Tolkien scholar](http://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_roleplay-as-a-tolkien-scholar) in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 15: **The gathering of the clouds** and Chapter 16: **A thief in the night**. This review contains spoilers. ## What happens Now that Smaug has been defeated, the dwarves are busy sorting their treasure. Thorin particularly is searching for the Arkenstone, and announces that he'll punish anyone who may find it and fail to report it. Bard leads an army of men and wood elves to Thorin's reclaimed fortress. They aren't invited in, so from a position that looks suspiciously like asiege, he notes that Laketown has suffered heavy losses fighting Thorin's enemy and that a share of the treasure would be help rebuild and recover. Thorin tells him that he doesn't care to be threatened, and he flatly refuses to parlay unless the elves are sent away. This promptly comples the Lakemen to formally declare a siege. And that's then things get really interesting. Bilbo Baggins, of course, had found the Arkenstone early in his scouting missions into Smaug's lair. Knowing full well that Thorin has declared anyone who finds it and fails to report it an enemy, Bilbo decides to double down by sneaking out of the fortress at night, and delivering the Arkenstone directly into the hands of Bard. He slips back into the fortress as if nothing has happened. ## Magic I've talked about the latent magic revealed by the very existence of talking birds in the [review of the previous chapter](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/culture_tolkien-1-the-hobbit-14). In this chapter, further details are revealed when the little thrush returns to the mountain to report on what happened to Smaug. Nobody can understand the thrush, but this inspires Thorin to recall a time when ravens of the mountains used to converse with the dwarves. He remembers Carc as the chief of the ravens, long ago, but supposes that all the ravens of old have probably died off by now. Overhearing their musings, the thrush flies off and later returns with Roäc, son of Carc, who translates the thrush's report into the common tongue for the dwarves to hear. Pretty mind-blowing stuff, frankly. This confirms a world, just over 150 years ago, when animals actively communed with at least dwarvenkind (and probably more, given Bard's inheritance). The other suggestion of magic is revealed in Tolkien's reflections on Thorin's behaviour regarding the treasure. In an off-hand comment, Tolkien apparently attributes at least some of Thorin's obsession to the fact that it's treasure that's had a dragon slumbering upon it for 150 years. I'm writing this review in 2025, and the world has yet to witness any dragons but there's plenty of irrational greed happening. I think it's fair to say that Tolkien may have been a little naïve, or very charitable, about what inspires people to hoard resources. Or maybe he was using the concept of a dragon as a metaphor personifying irrational greed. Either way, I don't think we need magic to explain away humanity's (or dwarvenkind's, in this case) self-righteousness. ## Score I'm tracking Bilbo's reputation with the dwarves, and the dwarves' reputation with Bilbo, as the book progresses. This one is a tough call. In this chapter, Bilbo steals away from the dwarves and gives away the single prize Thorin wants the most. From the perspective of the dwarves, at least in this chapter, it's likely an act of treason. Then again, Bilbo isn't a dwarf, and while his employment contract is rather poorly worded, there's nothing to indicate that his employment continues after the treasure has been reclaimed. I think Bilbo's ploy to give the Arkenstone to the "enemy" is one of the boldest moves he makes in the entire book. It's hard to understand his motive, because Tolkien doesn't explain it to us. On one hand, you might think he's just being chaotic. What happens if you grant the objective of one army to the other army? Then again, the Arkenstone is said to be almost priceless, so maybe he's just being helpful. Bard's army arrived at the fortress seeking treasure to help Laketown rebuild, so maybe that bill is paid by gifting him the Arkenstone. It turns out that the Arkenstone is insufficient, but we don't know whether Bilbo would have known that because Thorin made it sound like it was invaluable. Gandalf shows up in the Lakemen's encampment, and congratulates Bilbo on what he's just done. It's hard to argue with a wizard, so I'll reward Bilbo 1 point, even if doing so does make me an enemy to dwarves. * Bilbo: 8 * Dwarves: 4 ## Chapter 15 and 16 As a kid, I was always confused by the politics in these two chapters, and as an adult I realise that it's intended exactly that way. There aren't easy answers, although I do believe there's a right answer. From Thorin's perspective, the Lakemen showing up as an army must have felt pretty threatening and not just a little suspicious. There's a big difference between being asked for spare change on the street by somebody collecting coins in a cup and being "asked" by somebody wielding a knife. Are the Lakemen asking for treasure? Or are they claiming that treasure might encourage them to go home without attempting to destroy the dwarven fortress? I honestly can't say. Bard seems like an honourable man, but we actually barely know him. There's also the matter of the elves. Their position is pretty indefensible, and I'm a fan of elves. They imprisoned the dwarves, and basically suffered no losses, so I don't know what claim they have. I guess we could suppose that the elves suffered losses we can't understand, when the dwarves continually barged into their forest ceremonies. From Bard's perspective, I think it's perfectly reasonable to approach the former lair of a dragon with caution. You could send in a scouting party, I guess, but if there is danger then an army's going to have to follow anyway. You may as well cut to the chase and send in the army, because even if it's safe, it's going to take a lot of people to haul all the treasure back to Laketown. And anyway, no matter how you look at the situation, Bard killed Smaug. Had this been a coordinated effort, the plan went almost perfectly. The dwarves compelled the dragon to leave its home turf, and the Lakemen were the snare. It couldn't have gone better (aside from the destruction of Laketown). It's really _really_ obvious that the Lakemen deserve a portion of the treasure. Maybe Laketown could have asked more nicely than they did, but sometimes in life you have to swallow your pride in the interest of doing the right thing. Whether he felt threatened or not, Thorin should have delivered some of the treasure to Laketown. Then again, he didn't say he refused, he just wouldn't say anything as long as the elves were there. You can go around in circles about it all day. I think there are definitely failings here, and I do think primarily the failing is on Thorin's shoulders. But it's also a failing of relationships and emotions and pride. There were better ways to go about this, and you can blame circumstance and misunderstanding, but ultimately there's failure to seek resolution. The dwarves, the elves, and the humans don't want to find a solution, they each want to be "right". Who's actually going to win this battle? Maybe we'll find out in **Chapter 17: The clouds burst**.