Skip to main content

tolkiens legendarium - Why would Bilbo agree to arbitration in the Khuzdul language?


In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the Dwarves present Bilbo a contract. It's presumably in Westron, but through the magic of Translation Convention, it appears on-screen in its entirety in English, which has allowed a lawyer to analyze it. It turns out to be a fairly solid contract, except for one thing:



Disputes arising between the Contract Parties shall be heard and judged by an arbitrator of the Company’s choosing and all pleas shall be pleaded, shrewed [sic], defended, answered, debated and judged in the Dwarvish Tongue



The "Dwarven tongue" is Khuzdul, an "Afro-Aulësiatic" language not provably related to more widely known languages of Middle-earth. It's at least as distant from Westron as Hebrew is from English (notwithstanding the false cognate quackery that is Edenics). Only a handful of non-Dwarves ever learn Khuzdul, as Dwarves use Westron in public. As Royal Canadian Bandit pointed out in a comment:




there are no non-dwarves who speak any Dwarvish, aside from a handful of words. In the LOTR books, Gandalf refers to it as "the secret dwarf-tongue they teach to none" while trying to work out the password to Moria. So poor Bilbo would get a hearing where his advocate, his opponent, and the judge were all dwarves speaking a language he couldn't understand.



Why would Bilbo in his right mind agree to arbitration in Khuzdul when the Dwarves are fluent in Westron? True, Westron's ancestor Adûnaic has some Khuzdul loans, but I can't see how Bilbo could follow the proceedings from just that. Or is there some difference in knowledge of languages between book-verse and movie-verse?



Answer



There's no answer given in the movie1, but there are a few equally plausible explanations:




  • He didn't read that far. When he reads the contract, Bilbo is more than mildly hung up on the liability clauses:



    Bilbo: Terms: Cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any. Seems fair. Eh, Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof including but not limited to lacerations... evisceration... incineration?



    Bofur: Oh, aye, he’ll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye.


    Bilbo: Huh.


    Balin: You all right, laddie?


    Bilbo: Uh, yeah... Feel a bit faint.


    An Unexpected Journey (2013)



    It's possible that, after talking himself into being okay with being burned alive by a dragon, he just skipped to the bottom and clicked "I Agree"




  • He didn't expect it to be an issue. This is something people do all the time when entering into contracts; they assume something won't be an issue, so they don't make a fuss about it. Is this particularly wise? No, not remotely. But it's possible





  • He wasn't in his right mind. Bilbo's decision to join the Dwarves is shown as being a very spur-of-the-moment decision, not particularly well thought-out. Even if he did read the arbitration clause, it's possible he (in his temporary madness) simply didn't process how big of a deal it was.




Personally, I think the most likely answer is that he didn't read that term of the contract, or at least didn't internalize it; we have evidence from later in the series that Bilbo may not have payed particularly close attention to the contract he signed. A major plot point in the film (and also in the book) is that Bilbo takes the Arkenstone as the entirety of his share of the treasure:



Thranduil: The Heart of the Mountain. The King's Jewel.


Bard: And worth a king's ransom. How is this yours to give?


Bilbo: I took it as my fourteenth share of the treasure.



The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)



But, as lawyer James Daily notes in a post on his blog analyzing the full text of the contract2, this is blatantly a violation of one of the terms of that agreement:



Burglar acknowledges and agrees that each item of the Company's valuables, goods, money or merchandise which he recovers from the Lonely Mountain [the 'Recovered Goods'] during the term of his engagement with the Company, shall remain the Property of the Company at all times, and in all respects, without limitation.


Furthermore, the company shall retain any and all Recovered Goods until such a time as a full and final reckoning can be made, from which the Total Profits can then be established. Then, and only then, will the Burglar's fourteenth share be calculated and decided.



So, despite his claims, the Arkenstone was never actually his to give.



1 The contract as written doesn't appear in the book



2 Based on a full-sized, officially-licensed replica


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion
Post a Comment
Read more