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There was nothing else to be done; and the goblins did not like it. They came scurrying
round the corner in full cry, and found Goblin-cleaver, and Foe-hammer shining cold and
bright right in their astonished eyes. The ones in front dropped their torches and gave one yell
before they were killed. The ones behind yelled still more, and leaped back knocking over
those that were running after them. Biter and Beater! they shrieked; and soon they were all
in confusion, and most of them were hustling back the way they had come.
It was quite a long while before any of them dared to turn that corner. By that time the
dwarves had gone on again, a long, long, way on into the dark tunnels of the goblins realm.
When the goblins discovered that, they put out their torches and they slipped on soft shoes,
and they chose out their very quickest runners with the sharpest ears and eyes. These ran
forward, as swift as weasels in the dark, and with hardly any more noise than bats.
That is why neither Bilbo, nor the dwarves, nor even Gandalf heard them coming. Nor did
they see them. But they were seen by the goblins that ran silently up behind, for Gandalf was
letting his wand give out a faint light to help the dwarves as they went along.
Quite suddenly Dori, now at the back again carrying Bilbo, was grabbed from behind in the
dark. He shouted and fell; and the hobbit rolled off his shoulders into the blackness, bumped
his head on hard rock, and remembered nothing more.
The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again
Chapter V
RIDDLES IN THE DARK
When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them
shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! He could hear nothing, see
nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor.
Very slowly he got up and groped about on all fours, till he touched the wall of the tunnel;
but neither up nor down it could he find anything: nothing at all, no sign of goblins, no sign of
dwarves. His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had
been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a
good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of
the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his
pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.
He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete
miserableness, for a long while. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kit-
chen at home for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that
only made him miserabler.
He could not think what to do; nor could he think what had happened; or why he had been
left behind; or why, if he had been left behind, the goblins had not caught him; or even why
his head was so sore. The truth was he had been lying quiet, out of sight and out of mind, in a
very dark corner for a long while.
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he
felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he
felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. Just
as well for him, as he agreed when he came to his senses. Goodness knows what the striking
of matches and the smell of tobacco would have brought on him out of dark holes in that hor-
rible place. Still at the moment he felt very crushed. But in slapping all his pockets and feeling
all round himself for matches his hand came on the hilt of his little sword the little dagger
that he got from the trolls, and that he had quite forgotten; nor fortunately had the goblins no-
ticed it, as he wore it inside his breeches.
Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes. So it is an elvish blade, too,
he thought; and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough.
But somehow he was comforted. It was rather splendid to be wearing a blade made in
Gondolin for the goblin-wars of which so many songs had sung; and also he had noticed that
such weapons made a great impression on goblins that came upon them suddenly.
Go back? he thought. No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing
to do! On we go! So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and
one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.
Now certainly Bilbo was in what is called a tight place. But you must remember it was not
quite so tight for him as it would have been for me or for you. Hobbits are not quite like ordin-
ary people; and after all if their holes are nice cheery places and properly aired, quite different
from the tunnels of the goblins, still they are more used to tunnelling than we are, and they do
not easily lose their sense of direction underground not when their heads have recovered
from being bumped. Also they can move very quietly, and hide easily, and recover wonder-
fully from falls and bruises, and they have a fund of wisdom and wise sayings that men have
mostly never heard or have forgotten long ago.
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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