10. Bilbo's Pity

'What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'
     'Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand.  Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.  And he was been well rewarded, Frodo.  Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so.  With Pity' (FotR 68-69).

Pity is so underrated.  And when most people feel "pity," I tend to think it's the sort where they feel superior to some object of their pity, rather than the sort that Bilbo feels, a sense that my freedom from the suffering I see in another is but a blessing, and often a temporary one at that: "There go I, but for the grace of God."  Bilbo's pity is not one of superiority but of equality: he sees Gollum in himself and himself in Gollum.  (It's the same pity that Frodo will learn to have Gollum later on).  True pity, it would seem, is born of one's own humility.

Here's the moment from The Hobbit that Gandalf and Frodo are discussing:

[Bilbo] must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. [Gollum] meant to kill him. No, not a fair    fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried to yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. he trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.  (119)

(And this is why Bilbo's violent, ninja-hobbit outburst at the end of the first Hobbit film was so offensive... not to mention inconsistent with his character in both movie and book).

"Tolkien 365" is a (hopefully) daily reflection on a quote from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, beginning with The Lord of the Rings and branching into his other writings as opportunity and inspiration allow.  Comments are especially welcome.  Page references are from the hardcover American Second Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin.