LOTR Ficlet: The Road Goes Ever On

[martasfic]

Title: The Road Goes Ever On
Summary: After the long-expected party, Bilbo finds himself being swept away once more.
Word Count: 200 + Notes
Characters: Bilbo, Dwarves
Timeline: 3001 T.A. (1401 S.R.) - just after long-expected party
Rating: General, nothing objectionable
Beta: just_ann_now
Notes: written for pandemonium_213, who asked for an exploration of the Russell quote in the notes

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Bilbo looked back over his shoulder at the Party Field far below. The faint music of horn and flute danced on the wind, tickling his ears; he longed to turn back, to tell those foolish Brandybucks and Bolgers and all the rest that it had been only a joke. But no; such gaiety was now beyond his grasp. Had been for some time, if he was honest.

And to think I may outlive the Old Took yet – but it shan’t be long enough. He winced at the irony: there were more unexplored paths now, more unsung songs than when he was forty, though he was nearly thrice as old. He cursed that Tookish blood that made him run off into the blue; now he dreamed of dwarves, and eagles, and mountains no less, but found little rest. There wasn’t near enough time to visit all the folk he longed to see.

He sighed to himself. He might be part Took, but he was still as practical as any Baggins; he couldn’t change what already was, much though he wished he could. Hitching his pack higher on his back, Bilbo ran off down the road to catch up with the dwarves.

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Notes

”A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.” (Bertrand Russel)

“Certainly it reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he went away. He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,’ he used to say. ‘You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.’” (J.R.R. Tolkien, “Three is Company,” The Fellowship of the Ring)

the Blue: In case anyone missed the reference (because it’s only mentioned once or twice in passing), “the Blue” seems to be a hobbit expression for the wilderness beyond the Shire. Bilbo says of Gandalf in The Hobbit that the wizard “was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures.” And again, in “The Shadow of the Past” chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, the hobbits at the Green Dragon think that Bilbo has run off into the blue.

Comments

[dkpalaska.livejournal.com]

First, thank you for the hand-holding over how to leave comments here. :)

Then: Lovely ficlet! It feels very Bilboish to me, and I really like how you took off on the proffered quote.

But no; such gaiety was now beyond his grasp. Had been for some time, if he was honest. I think that sums up the Ring's effects on him quite well.

Oh, ye gods, so true: ...there were more unexplored paths now, more unsung songs than when he was forty, though he was nearly thrice as old. It's bittersweet when you start to realize just how much you don't know, that there's more out there than you may have dreamed but that you'll never have the time for it all. Perhaps the only aspect of Elven immortality that I come close to envying...

He might be part Took, but he was still as practical as any Baggins. Which may be a great part of why I like Bilbo so much.

I do love the reference to "the Blue", too. It conjures up this bluish haze that can come on the far horizon; how easy to imagine becoming lost in it.