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Andy Styx Dr. Bussell ENG 360 11/10/2013 Predestination and Choice in The Hobbit A famous idiom based off of a poem by Robert Burns states "the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry", and one can relate this phrase to the journey of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and the dwarves in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, given the expectation and results of their journey to defeat Smaug. As the best laid plans of Gandalf, Thorin, and even Bilbo unfold, events change and diverge from the intended path, characters make unexpected choices, and the results of the journey are completely different from what any of the characters intended, often due to "lucky" coincidence. However, these expressions of luck or chance occurrence underscore the ideas of predestination, fate, and chance, and what these factors mean in the world of Middleearth and the physical world of the reader. I look to explore the idea that the journey in The Hobbit is not necessarily a mindless course towards completion, but rather like the modern proverb "Life is a journey, not a destination", the experience these characters gain effects the world in significant ways, on the way to fulfilling any predestined or prophesied outcome. Allusions to predestination are littered throughout Tolkien's work, but in The Hobbit, especially independent of The Lord of the Rings, they are strictly tied to Gandalf and his setting of plans in motion. Did Gandalf have access to prior knowledge or premonition in the events leading up to Smaug's defeat? Noted in Kathleen Dubs' essay "Providence, Fate, and Chance", the discussion of providence (essentially predestination) and Fate discusses the difference of the two, and highlights just what Gandalf's confidence in choosing Bilbo to assist the dwarves

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journey could have been based on, and how the subsequent "chance" events that led to the positive outcomes of the journey really are just "something other than what was intended" (Dubs 136). This concept flows throughout The Hobbit, as each of the events that occurs is part of the larger plan of predestined outcomes, that "Bilbo's adventure is being orchestrated by some power beyond the wizardry of Gandalf the Grey or the wisdom of Elrond or Rivendell" (Olsen 67). However, Gandalf's discussion with Gimli in "The Quest for Erebor", complicates the idea of predestination or a greater force at play, noting that when he stated: "Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker, and you therefore were meant to bear it. And I might have added: and I was meant to guide you both to those points" (Annotated Hobbit 369) He was bound by Middle-earth. As Frodo notes to Gandalf, Bilbo might have refused to leave home, and so might I" (Annotated Hobbit 369) - and this is something that counters the idea that Gandalf or any greater design may have guided the course of the journey. While there are many instances of good fortune that advances the story along, it is often the choices of the characters, in conjunction with the opportunity provided by this chance, that pushes the characters towards completion. Starting with Gandalf and his selection of Bilbo as the "fellow conspirator" of the dwarves, Gandalf had a larger purpose besides helping the dwarves and fulfilling Bilbo's repressed desire for adventure, that of the realm as a whole, something found in the short story "The Quest of Erebor". However, his plan to implement Bilbo into the dwarves' journey was not assured success, even with Gandalf's threat to Thorin that "if this hobbit goes with you, you will succeed, if not, you will fail" (Unfinished Tales 339). Gandalf's method of notifying the dwarves

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of Bilbo's status as the burglar for their party even takes on a ridiculous quality to the orchestrator himself, noted in Corey Olsen's Exploring JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit as Gandalf "laughs 'long but quietly' before writing [the notice on his door]" (Olsen 28) - he recognizes that Bilbo seeking excitement and adventure is ridiculous. However, his assessment is based on latent qualities in Bilbo - that of his race and ancestry - that if placed in the right environment could flourish. While Gandalf did not have prior knowledge of success, or even the chance encounters that would enable their journey to success, he did have an idea of the qualities needed to succeed, and with the overly successful outcome of the journey, his motions took on a prescient and nearly omniscient nature. Keep in mind that Gandalf, even in the context of The Hobbit, is still a wizard, which places him "apart in a separate category, distinct from Men" (Rateliff 50), and while not quite Gandalf the Grey seen in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf of The Hobbit is "perhaps the more resourceful of the two [characters]" (Rateliff 51). However, Placed in the frame of The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf's transformation also changes the perception the reader has of events, especially with the thematic predestination introduced with the one ring. However, this type of omniscience or predestination was likely not a direct theme of the book, especially since the predestined theme Tolkien revised within The Hobbit was written in retrospect. Furthermore, even outside of the predestination context of Lord of the Rings, there is a larger scope at play in the world of The Hobbit, which Gandalf notes to Thorin, putting greater emphasis on his choice to select Bilbo as the burglar, the dwarves' acceptance of Bilbo in their journey, and Bilbo's execution of his tasks. As Gandalf notes to Thorin:

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"If I had not other purposes, I should not be helping you at all. Great as your affairs may seem to you, they are only a small strand in the great web. I am concerned with many strands. But that should make my advice more weighty, not less (Annotated Hobbit 375) As we see in the result of the journey, the actions of the dwarven party, with the assistance of Bilbo affect a larger part of middle-earth than just recovering the dwarven treasure from Smaug - something Gandalf intended, but didn't absolutely know. By defeating Smaug, the desolation of the dragon was cleared and those that held the lands - the Dwarves of the Iron Hills and the Men of Dale - provided much needed strength in the "weak point" of the North that could have served as an attack point for Sauron (Annotated Hobbit 370). However, that could just be very articulate planning on Gandalf's part, akin to an expert chess player knowing his opponent and board. Another instance where predestination seemingly took effect, but the actions of a character provided the drive to execute is in Bilbo's discovery of the ring. Finding the ring was unexpected, and falls within Kathleen Dubs' explanation of chance - it wasn't intended for Bilbo to find the ring, as they were off-path, he was separated from the dwarves by Goblins. What Bilbo did with the ring provided an opportunity for him to grow and change within the unfolding of events around him, and even affect the small pocket of the world he resided in at that time. In the frame of The Hobbit, Bilbo's actions, in reaction to unexpected events, provide much of the "good luck" that could have been negative or even ended the journey of the characters. Much of the journey of Bilbo and the dwarves is filled with "long strings of wildly improbable events" (Olsen 67) that fall within the prior explanation of chance - these events are

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rare, but are only chance due to the awareness of those participating in the journey. The swords that Olsen states the odds of the group finding are "like going on vacation to India and finding in a village marketplace a sword that belonged to Alexander the Great" (Olsen 64) are physically in that location due to sequences of event unknown to the group, Gandalf, and even the narrator. In this definition, we see Fate/Predestination positioned as an amazing set of coincidences, more so because we are not made aware of the larger design of Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Bilbo's choices are a reaction to this larger design, just as Gandalf's choice of Bilbo reflects that larger web of threads that runs behind the main narrative of The Hobbit. Expanding our scope to The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo's decision to save Gollum, based on "A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror" (Annotated Hobbit 133) resonates in the larger world, affecting another journey, much in the way prior events affected Bilbo's journey; Gandalf finding Thrain in Dol Guldur, and retrieving the key provided the convincing stroke for Gandalf in convincing Thorin of his master plan, as once Thorin saw them "he really made up his mind to follow [Gandalf's] plan, as far as a secret expedition went at any rate" (Unfinished Tales 338). These events follow the concept of fate as examined in Dubs' essay - the sequential "unfolding of events as it is worked out in time, as we perceive it in the temporal world" (Dubs 135), and how we perceive it as a reader through the lenses of the narrator and Tolkien's written word itself. As noted in Dubs' essay, Elrond states that Frodo's task was "unforeseen, unknown even to the wise, yet a task ordered by a recognized providence" (Dubs 139) but still dependent on the hobbit's acceptance of the task, which echoes Bilbo's journey in The Hobbit. This balance of predestination along with free will or choice exhibited by Bilbo shows how even though there is a "great web" of strands that comprise the world, even a timid hobbit can affect large swaths of history.

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While larger events were unfolding between Gandalf, the Necromancer and the White Council, the journey of a hobbit and dwarves managed to change the tide of Middle Earth on both large and small scales. This expression of free will, even under the restraints of destiny that exist within Tolkien's fictional middle-earth, characters limited by the imagination of one man, Tolkien, show a parallel to the reader and allow for an example of the successful application of free will in a larger world that is not viewed as a whole from the individual perspective. The journey of Bilbo echoes the procession to adulthood, appropriate for a book geared towards children, but also a good reminder for adults regarding the importance of stepping outside the familiar. While determining if the events of The Hobbit are the result of a greater scheme or not may be difficult given the evidence of the text alone, we can see how the choices of the characters, set off by Gandalf's choice of Bilbo, made significant changes in the world of Middle-earth. Prompted by amazing coincidences that seemingly rely on pure chance or great luck, upon further investigation we can see that these coincidences are part of a larger design of a world spun from many threads that all affect one another, but still are affected and reliant on the actions of individuals. This balance provides the reader with a greater perspective into the ideas of predestination, fate, and chance, and how they interact on large and small scales.

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Works Cited
Dubs, Kathleen. "Providence, Fate, and Chance: Boethian Philosophy in The Lord of the Rings.". Twentieth Century Literature. Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 34-42. Olsen, Corey. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print. Rateliff, John D, and J R. R. Tolkien. The History of the Hobbit. London: HarperCollins, 2006. Print. Tolkien, J R. R, and Douglas A. Anderson. The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print. Tolkien, J R. R. Unfinished Tales. New York, N.Y: Ballantine Books, 1980. Print.