PART ONE
DISCOVER YOUR INNER TOOK
Chapter 1
THE ADVENTUROUS HOBBIT
Gregory Bassham
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
âConfucius
The Hobbit is a tale of adventure. It is also a story of personal growth. At the beginning of the tale, Bilbo is a conventional, unadventurous, comfort-loving hobbit. As the story progresses, he grows in courage, wisdom, and self-confidence. The Hobbit is similar in this respect to The Lord of the Rings. Both are tales, J. R. R. Tolkien informs us, of the ennoblement of the humble.1 Both are stories of ordinary personsâsmall in the eyes of the âwiseâ and powerfulâwho accomplish great things and achieve heroic stature by accepting challenges, enduring hardships, and drawing on unsuspected strengths of character and will.
Whatâs the connection between an adventurous spirit and personal growth? How can challenge and riskâa willingness to leave our own safe and comfy hobbit-holesâmake us stronger, happier, and more confident individuals? Letâs see what Bilbo and the great thinkers can teach us about growth and human potential.
A Hobbitâs Progress
Hobbits in general are not an adventurous folkâquite the opposite. Hobbits âlove peace and quiet and good tilled earthâ; have never been warlike or fought among themselves; take great delight in the simple pleasures of eating, drinking, smoking, and partying; rarely travel; and consider âqueerâ any hobbit who has adventures or does anything out of the ordinary.2
Bilbo is an unusual hobbit in this regard. His mother, the famous Belladonna Took, belonged to a clan, the Tooks, who were not only rich but also notorious for their love of adventure. One of Bilboâs uncles, Isengar, was rumored to have âgone to seaâ in his youth, and another uncle, Hildifons, âwent off on a journey and never returned.â3 Bilboâs remote ancestor, Bandobras âBullroarerâ Took, was famous in hobbit lore for knocking a goblin kingâs head off with a club. The head rolled down a rabbit hole, and thus Bullroarer simultaneously won the Battle of Green Fields and invented the game of golf.4
In contrast, the Bagginses, Bilboâs fatherâs side of the family, were thoroughly respectable hobbits who never did anything unexpected or adventurous. The conflict between these two parts of Bilboâs makeup is frequently played out in The Hobbit.
Gandalf noticed Bilboâs adventurous Tookish side when he visited the Shire in 2941, twenty years before the events described in The Hobbit. The young Bilbo impressed Gandalf with his âeagerness and his bright eyes, and his love of tales, and his questions about the wide world.â5 When Gandalf returned to the Shire two decades later, he found that Bilbo âwas getting rather greedy and fat,â but he was pleased to hear that Bilbo was still regarded as âqueerâ for doing odd things like going off for days by himself and talking with dwarves.6 When Bilbo says good morning to Gandalf and dismisses adventures as ânasty disturbing uncomfortable thingsâ that âmake you late for dinner,â Gandalf realizes that the Baggins side of Bilboâs personality is winning out.7
Bilboâs inner Took is rekindled, however, by the dwarvesâ treasure song and Gloinâs slighting reference to him as âthat little fellow bobbing and puffing on the mat.â8 Bilbo reluctantly agrees to join the dwarvesâ quest and finds himself in an adventure that proves to also be a quest for his own true self. Quite early in his perilous journey, Bilbo realizes that âadventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.â9 He is constantly fearful and dependent and often thinks regretfully of his cozy hobbit-hole with the kettle just beginning to sing.
On several occasions he is saved by sheer luck. Gradually, however, his confidence and courage grow. Alone and unaided, he is able to outwit Gollum, escape from the goblinsâ cave, and free his companions from both the Mirkwood spiders and the Elvenkingâs fortress. When the Company arrives at the Lonely Mountain, it is Bilbo who discovers how to open the secret door, and only he has the courage to walk down the dark tunnel to face the terror of the dragon. âAlready,â we are told, âhe was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago.â10
His decision to continue walking down the tunnel when he hears the dragonâs rumblings âwas the bravest thing he ever did.â11 When Bilbo returns with a beautiful two-handled cup he stole from the dragonâs hoard, he is acknowledged as âthe real leaderâ in the dwarvesâ quest.12 Later, when Bilbo risks his life and unselfishly gives up the Arkenstone in an effort to prevent a fratricidal war over dragon-gold, the Elvenking praises him as âmore worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in itâ and later lauds him as âBilbo the Magnificent.â13
After the Battle of Five Armies, the dying Thorin Oakenshield recognizes Bilboâs growth in moral stature, remarking that there âis more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure.â14 And when Bilbo recites a bittersweet homecoming poem upon his return to the Shire, Gandalf exclaims, âMy dear Bilbo! Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were.â15
In short, The Hobbit is an adventure tale in which an ordinary and distinctly nonheroic person is morally ennobled by confronting and overcoming challenges and dangers. But how is such a transformation possible? Letâs consider what some of the worldâs great philosophers have said about the linkage between challenge and personal growth.
Bilboâs Growth in Wisdom
Men shall learn wisdom, by affliction schooled.
âAeschylus
Humans can grow in various respects: physically, emotionally, spiritually, artistically, and so forth. Merry and Pippin grew physicallyâthey became several inches tallerâafter drinking the Ent-draughts in Fangorn Forest. But in Bilboâs case weâre talking about moral and intellectual growth. In traditional philosophical terms, Bilbo grows in both wisdom and virtue as a result of his adventures. The term âphilosophyâ derives from Greek roots meaning âthe love of wisdom.â So to help us get our bearings, letâs start by asking: What is wisdom?
Not all philosophical and religious traditions conceive of wisdom in the same way. A Zen Buddhistâs definition of wisdom wonât be the same as that offered by a Hindu or a Southern Baptist. But we neednât be stymied by specific theoretical disagreements. Nearly all philosophical and religious traditions agree that wisdom, whatever it is precisely, consists of deep insight about living.16 A wise person understands whatâs important in life, keeps lesser things in proper perspective, and understands whatâs needed in order to live well and to cope with the problems of life.17 Wisdom comes in degrees. Gandalf is wiser than Elrond, and Elrond is wiser than Bard. But however, exactly, we define wisdom, itâs clear that Bilbo is wiser at the end of The Hobbit than he was at the beginning. How did this occur?
Philosophers have noted two important ways in which challenging experiences can make us wiser: they can deepen our self-understanding and they can broaden our experiences. With Bilbo, we can see both factors at work.
The first step toward becoming wise, Socrates (ca. 470â399 BCE) said, is to realize how little you know. âKnow thyselfâ was his mantra. Socrates saw that people tend to have inflated views of themselves. They tend to be overconfident and imagine that they know more than they do or that they are better in some way than they really are. People who think theyâre already wise and good wonât be motivated to pursue wisdom and goodness. So the first and most important step toward becoming wise, Socrates declared, is to engage in fearless self-examination.
We should constantly be asking ourselves the following: Do I really know this, or do I only think I do? Could I be wrong? Could I be guilty of wishful thinking? Am I living the life I want to live? Am I walking the walk I talk? What are my true talents and abilities? How can I live most meaningfully and authentically? Only in this way can we root out our self-deceptions, discove...