Chapter 1

This chapter is one filled with intriguing side notes:

• the statement that there is a whole host of stories of Gandalf showing up to whisk hobbits (including hobbit-lasses) away on adventures, and that the narrator knows only a small part of them
• the assertion that of course Bilbo's mother did not go on any adventures AFTER she became married to Bungo Baggins, which does not quite state that she did prior to that, but pretty strongly implies it
• the description of Bilbo's mother and two aunts as "remarkable", which again suggests that they did something worth remarking on

Nonetheless, we hear only this tale about Gandalf whisking Bilbo away for an adventure, and these tantalizing hints at earlier stories are left to the imagination (or perhaps to future generations of writers). It is interesting to read this chapter now, having read the description presented elsewhere of the conversation that took place between Gandalf and Thorin after Bilbo had gone to bed. Thorin was thoroughly convinced that Bilbo was worse than useless, and suspicious of Gandalf wanting to bring him along, and basically only relenting as a favor to Gandalf (presumably in order to get Gandalf to come along with them).

Another thing that is obvious to me now, at age 50 (about what Bilbo was at the beginning of the story), that was not obvious to me when I first read the book: the author was only a little younger than that when he wrote the story, and while he had served in the Great War, he had basically settled down to a safe, comfortable, domestic life by this time (he originally invented the story for his children). The idea that a wizard may show up to have you, yes even "face more like a grocer than a burglar" you, and order you off on a fantastic adventure, says more to 50-year old Ross than it did when I was young, and assuming that adults more or less did what they wanted. I doubt that JRRT actually wanted anyone to force him into a life of adventure, really, but then the inner argument between Bilbo's Took and Baggins sides models that pretty well, too.