I didn't get to share my free write in class so I wanted to share some of my favorite points from it here.
The topic I wrote on was the first one in which we talked about why Tolkien made Bilbo initially timid.
Often throughout The Hobbit, we are reminded of the two heritages of which Bilbo is a part, his Took side, and his Baggins side. To me this indicates an internal conflict between his desire to see new places and his need, as a Baggins, to stay at home where it is safe. This makes Bilbo more relatable because I have had that same internal conflict. I want to travel and explore, be the hero but when I think about the logistics of such an adventure I pale at the idea of the danger that inevitably comes along with the adventure.
I think Tolkien himself was a hobbit type of person but he also likes to imagine far off lands where dragons and magic are real things and where good always wins against evil. I can imagine him being very similar to Bilbo. Maybe Bilbo acts as his doorway into this fantastical land, into an adventure, while he can sit safely at home.
I also wanted to talk about how the dwarves song on page 16 of The Hobbit seemed to awaken the Tookish side of Bilbo. The music seemed to carry him off over hills and mountains while he remained sitting in his parlor in Hobbiton. Music seems to have a magical quality in this book as it rouses an unsuspecting Bilbo to the dwarves' cause, distracts spiders, and creates a beat to efficiently clean up the dishes in Bilbo's home.
- Celeborn
It's true that Bilbo has some internal conflict within himself and I think it's very insightful to point out how music seems to correlate with Bilbo's Took-ish behaviors/decisions. Although it's not technically music but it is somewhat related, Bilbo's riddles that he comes up with in Chapter 5 also seem to ignite his more adventurous, risky Took side. It is through his riddling that he's able to verbally spar with Gollum and save himself from a fearful fate in Gollum's cave. It seems like the concept of poetry, which songs and riddles are closely related to, retain magic, as you said, and often have unexpected effects on characters who use or witness them.
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