A Holiday for Bilbo

amysrevenge

Well-Known Member
(Aside: "He" is the appropriate pronoun for me - I realize it isn't obvious from the handle. Moreso from the avatar)

One thing that sticks out to me is Bilbo insisting to Gandalf, both before the party and after, that what he really needs is a "holiday".

What he intends to do is in no real sense a holiday. He very much intends to leave permanently.

And what is he on holiday from, anyway? The hustle and bustle of not having a job,and not having a family?

What he is doing is much more adventure than holiday.
 
Adding to this idea.

The notion that Bilbo considers an adventure to be a holiday is one that I really like - it's so very different from 50 year old Bilbo, where at best the adventure was an ordeal to be endured. He loved the maps and the people and the friends, but the adventure bits themselves, even after he became competent at navigating them, never really struck me as something he enjoyed enough to consider them a "holiday".
 
I keep coming back to this in my mind as I think about the bits of Chapter 1 we haven't discussed yet.

I think it's the word "holiday" really. It's such an odd way to describe it, and he uses it over and over again.
 
(Listening ahead on the audiobook) And then in Rivendell Frodo is complaining that his adventure so far hasn't been that much of a holiday. He ain't seen nuthin' yet...
 
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