Skip to main content

tolkiens legendarium - How did Bilbo Baggins find the One Ring exactly?


In the Fellowship of the Ring movie, it explains how Bilbo got the Ring:



Its time had now come. It abandoned Gollum. But then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable. A hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire.




Bilbo finding the Ring, from the LotR films


In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie, Bilbo and a goblin fall after they fight. Bilbo wakes up under the mushrooms, the goblin is unconscious. Bilbo sees Gollum. He tries to drag the goblin to his own place for eating. The goblin struggles and Gollum starts to hit it until it dies. In this fight, the One Ring falls from Gollum's pocket. Gollum starts to drag the now unconscious goblin. Bilbo waits until he leaves, he stands up, picks his sword under the mushrooms and then see the Ring. He takes it and puts it in his pocket.


Bilbo finding the Ring, from the first Hobbit film


From The Hobbit: Book and Film Differences blog:



The Book: Bilbo awakens in total darkness; it's so dark he literally cannot tell the difference between having his eyes open or closed. He gropes around on all fours, and his hand accidentally brushes against a small ring of cold metal. He puts it in his pocket without thinking and continues on his way. He sits down for a moment. He feels for his pipe, then for his tobacco, but cannot find a match. That's the last straw for Bilbo Baggins' hopes, and he despairs for a moment. He draws his sword, and noticing that it "shone pale and dim before his eyes," found enough hope to continue. Using his sword as a source of light, he trots along.



Also there is a video from youtube which explain my question.


In my opinion, these three stories are quite different. I don't expect they all should be exact the same but I didn't expect they will be quite different.



Is there any reason makes this situation different each other in films and movies?



Answer



I don't think those three stories are particularly different. They all share the same core: Bilbo gets lost in the caves beneath the Misty Mountains, where he finds the Ring, after it was dropped by Gollum (or, more precisely, where it dropped itself away from Gollum). This is the essence - the ring wanted to leave Gollum and be picked up by someone else to take it away, and it was.


The rest is incidental - does it really matter if Bilbo groped around in the dark and found it, or saw it on the ground and found it? Does it matter if we saw the Ring fall from Gollum's pocket or only seen the end result of it? Not really. The essence remains the same.


As for the reasons for the differences - groping around blindly in the dark can make for a good narrative in a book, but is quite boring to see on screen. It's not surprising that Peter Jackson decided to liven it up with some action. And as for the bit in The Lord Of The Rings - well, it's merely an overview, not a detailed scene. Bilbo found it. End of story.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh

fan fiction - Does the Interdict of Merlin appear in original Harry Potter canon?

In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky a concept called the ' Interdict of Merlin ' appears: (all emphasis added) Chapter 23: His hand on the doorknob, Harry Potter already inside and waiting, wearing his cowled cloak. "The ancient first-year spells," Harry Potter said. "What did you find?" "They're no more powerful than the spells we use now." Harry Potter's fist struck a desk, hard. "Damn it. All right. My own experiment was a failure, Draco. There's something called the Interdict of Merlin -" Draco hit himself on the forehead, realizing. "- which stops anyone from getting knowledge of powerful spells out of books, even if you find and read a powerful wizard's notes they won't make sense to you, it has to go from one living mind to another. I couldn't find any powerful spells that we had the instructions for but couldn't cast. But if you can't get them out of old books,

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir