LMB Book Club, The Hobbit Ch. 13: Not at Home

[Lennidhren]

Topics forthcoming; I'm too tired tonight to prepare them again.

No poem in this chapter, so perhaps we can do Artemisia's Smaug song? I will have to see if I logged last week's book club chat & find the link, or if Arte sees this in time she can perhaps post it for us. :-)

Sunday = kin meeting so we will look for a Friday or Saturday time slot for book club to meet. (And my nephew's 3rd birthday party is Saturday afternoon so I am not certain about the Sat. morning time slot either...)

[Locney Esgal]

I'm voting for the evening slot, sense I'd likely not be able to come otherwise.

[gaiagil]

I voted for Saturday Morning, but I'm good with Saturday evening as well.

Gaiagil

[Lindorieh]

I cannot come Saturday evening, but I could make it the other times.

Lindorieh

[Locney Esgal]

I'm not sure if you can change votes, but I voted evening, and I've managed to free up my morning, at the expence of my evening! So, at least at the time of this post, count the votes as 3 for morning, one for eve.

[Lennidhren]

OK, looks like Saturday morning will be the meeting. I'm not entirely sure how early we're heading to the nephew's birthday party but hopefully 11am will still be early enough for a full book club meeting before I have to go...

[Lennidhren]

Rather an uneventful chapter, this...

(1) Thorin's memories of the dwarven palace contrast greatly with the ruined dragon-haunt that it has become. How does the atmosphere of such a place (and the contrast with Thorin's fond recollections) contribute to the story?

(2) The Arkenstone: Greatest of dwarven jewels - symbol of greed - source of contention, as is hinted when Bilbo purloins it in this chapter. Not unlike the more famous jewels of Tolkien's legendarium, the Silmarils! You can read of these jewels in ch. 7 of the Silmarillion, "Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor" but that is only the start of the story, of course; the unrest those jewels prompted forms the central theme of the rest of the Quenta Silmarillion...How does the Arkenstone compare to Feanor's famous gems?

(3) While the rest of the dwarves are stuffing their pockets with gold and Bilbo is hiding the Arkenstone, Fili and Kili are drawn to magical harps of gold. Magical harps, really? Anyway, here's a faint continuing of the ongoing theme of music in the book.

(4) We are introduced to cram, the waybread of the Lake-men. More familiar from LOTR is of course the Elvish waybread, lembas. Food, like music, is somewhat of an ongoing theme in The Hobbit...This is quite different, though, from the feast Bilbo serves up to the dwarves back at Bag End. How do foods contribute to themes of the story?

And that's all I've got...stretching a bit to come up with four for this chapter. :-)