THE HOBBIT Chapter 15 (THE FINAL CHAPTER)
“The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can...”
- Hobbit walking song
CHAPTER 15
The Return Journey
When Bilbo woke up, he was completely alone. There was no one near him. The day was bright, but it was cold. "I wonder what has happened?" he said to himself. “At least I am not one of the fallen heroes. But there is probably still enough time for that!”
He looked around and he saw a camp in the distance. He walked slowly towards it. His head was still hurting. He found the tent where the captains of the armies were meeting. There were guards outside the entrance, and Bilbo said, “Hello! I am here to see Bard.” The guards were surprised! “Who said that?” they asked, “Who is there?” Then Bilbo realized he was still wearing his ring. He took it off, and to their greater surprise, they could now see Bilbo, right in front of them!
Gandalf came out of the tent when he heard Bilbo’s little voice. “Bilbo Baggins!” he cried in happiness. “Well, I am surprised! Alive after all - I am glad! I was not sure if you had survived. The battle was a terrible one. We were almost destroyed. But news of the battle can wait. Come quickly. He wants to see you.”
Gandalf brought Bilbo into the tent, and there was Thorin, laying in a bed. He was wounded with many wounds. There were holes in his armor and his helmet was dented. Thorin looked up as Bilbo came next to him. “Good-bye, good thief,” he said. “I will go now to the halls of waiting, to sit next to my fathers, until the world begins again. Where I am going I do not need any gold or silver. I leave all that behind. So I would like to take back the things I said and did to you at the gates.”
Bilbo knelt on one knee, and was filled with sadness. “Good-bye, King Under the Mountain!” he said. “I wish our journey did not end this way. There is no gold in all of Middle Earth that can fix it. But I am happy that I traveled with you. It is more than any Baggins deserves.” “No!” said Thorin. “There is more good in you than you know. You have courage and intelligence. If more of us preferred food and comfort over gold and jewels, the world would be a happier place. But sad or happy, I must leave it now. Good-bye!”
Bilbo left the tent and found a quiet place to sit. He cried for a long time. He was tired of his journey. He just wanted to begin the long trip back to his comfortable Hobbit home, far away in the west. Gandalf found him, and explained to him all that had happened.
The Eagles suspected that the goblins were forming a vast army in the mountains. And so the Eagles had come together in large numbers, too. Their leader was the great Eagle of the Misty Mountains. They had followed the goblins from above and arrived at the battle just in time!
Dain was now King Under the Mountain. And the goblin army was completely and totally destroyed. There was peace in all the land for many years after the great battle. Thorin was buried deep under the Mountain, and Bard placed the Arkenstone on his chest. “Here it will rest until the Mountain falls!” he said.
Now all the gold was divided as was agreed. Bard received his portion to help the reconstruction of Laketown. And of the thirteen Dwarves, only ten still lived to receive their portions. Fili and Kili died protecting Thorin with their own bodies. He was their mother’s older brother. The other Dwarves stayed with Dain in the Mountain.
And Bilbo received his portion of the gold - one-fourteenth, to be exact. It was more wealth than he could possibly imagine. “I am not sure how I will take this home with me,” he said to Gandalf, when they were preparing to leave on the return journey. Bilbo said good-bye to the Dwarves, and offered to make them tea and cakes if they ever visited him in the Shire again. Bilbo looked one more time at the Mountain, and said out loud, “Good-bye, Thorin, King Under the Mountain!” And then he and Gandalf began their long journey back to the Shire.
They traveled with the Elves as they marched back to the Forest. But they did not go through the Forest. Bilbo refused to go back inside! They traveled to the north of the Forest. But before they parted ways with the Elvenking, Bilbo offered him a beautiful necklace of pearls and diamonds that was part of his portion of the treasure. “Why are you giving this to me?” asked the Elf king. “To repay you for all the food I ate and wine I drank while I was in your cavern,” replied Bilbo. The Elf king laughed happily at the gift.
It was a long road around the Forest, but it was much safer now that the goblins were crushed. Finally, as spring began, they arrived at the same pass in the Misty Mountains where they were captured by the goblins. They reached the top of the pass during the morning. The day was bright. Bilbo looked back to the east, and there, far in the distance, he could see Lonely Mountain. He turned and looked far to the west. He could see the green lands where his Hobbit hole waited for him.
They came down the mountains safely and stopped for a long time in Rivendell. There they rested and told Elrond the story of Smaug and the great Battle. And there Gandalf recounted the story of his adventure: Gandalf had gone to the south of Mirkwood Forest, and together with the help of other powerful wizards, they had expelled the Necromancer of Dol Guldur. Bilbo was fascinated. He rested and listened to the singing of the Elves, and before they left, Elrond named him “Elf-friend”!
They said their good-byes and continued on their journey. And before long, Bilbo recognized the forest they were traveling through. “I recognize this place, Gandalf! This is the spot where we were attacked by the trolls!” “Yes, my dear Hobbit! This is the very same place!” And off the path, Bilbo could see the stone statues of Tom, Burt and Bill. They recovered the gold they had hidden long ago, and put it on their ponies. The ponies were not happy about this!
The weather was beautiful as they entered the lands around the Shire. Spring was turning to summer, and Bilbo began to feel the heat. He dried the sweat from his face with a clean red handkerchief. Not a single handkerchief of Bilbo’s had survived the journey. Elrond had given him this one before he left Rivendell.
Soon, they came to the top of a rise in the land, and there, in the distance, Bilbo could see his own Hill. Suddenly, Bilbo said, “The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can.” Gandalf looked at him. "My dear Bilbo!" he said. "Something is the matter with you! You are not the Hobbit that you were."
They crossed the bridge and walked down the comfortable path right back to Bilbo’s own front door. “My goodness! What is going on here!” he cried. There was a great commotion, and Hobbits of all kinds, respectable and unrespectable, were going in and out of his Hobbit hole. He had arrived back home in the middle of an auction!
The Hobbits of the Shire had decided that Bilbo had gone away on his journey and had died. And since he was not coming back, they would sell all of his belongings, and his Hobbit hole! He had arrived home just in time to prevent this great tragedy! He went into his bedroom, and there were his cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses. They were measuring his room to see if their furniture would fit!
It took a long time to resolve the legal complications. Many Hobbits had bought items that belonged to Bilbo. And he believed that the Sackville-Bagginses had stolen his silverware. Bilbo had to use some of his treasure to buy back his own things! Finally, Bilbo was able to relax and enjoy his comfortable Hobbit home once again.
One evening, many years later, Bilbo was sitting in his study, writing his memoirs. He decided to call his story “There and Back Again, a Hobbit’s Holiday”. Suddenly, there was a ring at his door. It was Gandalf, and a Dwarf. The Dwarf was Balin. “Come in! Come in!” said Bilbo. Soon they were talking about their journey and laughing. Balin noticed that Bilbo had placed his sword Sting over the fireplace. Bilbo asked about things at the Mountain.
Bard had rebuilt the town of Dale. Men from all over the region came to live there again. The desolation was now filled with birds and trees and green fields and pastures. There was profitable trade going up and down the River Running. There was friendship between Dwarf, Man and Elf.
The old Master of Laketown had come to a bad end. Bard had given him much gold to help the Lakepeople, but in his greed, he took most of the gold and ran away. He died of starvation, and his companions all deserted him.
“The new Master is intelligent,” said Balin, “and very popular. He gets most of the credit for the prosperity of Laketown. They are making songs that say that because of him the rivers run with gold.” “So the prophecies from the old songs are true!” said Bilbo.
"Of course!" said Gandalf. “Don’t you believe the prophecies? Or do you doubt them because you were responsible for them coming true? You don’t believe that all your adventures and escapes were just pure luck? You are a very good Hobbit, Mr. Baggins, and I like you very much. But you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!” “Thank goodness!” said Bilbo laughing, and blew an enormous smoke ring into the air.
