From Comfort to Despair: the Cozy Lairs of J.R.R. Tolkien

In reading The Hobbit, one would think Tolkien to be a man of great comfort, as comfort is celebrated by most of the characters. When individuals read this extraordinary book, they would most likely do so while in a comfortable position, enhancing the book’s entertainment value. This could range from reclining on a cozy waterbed to sitting up straight in a fur-like chair. As readers delve into the book, they can perceive the comfort reflected in Bilbo. However, what was Tolkien’s home like? We know he loved books, and he loved pipes – but do we have any information about his couches or his various dining areas (perhaps plush sofas near the window, or even a tidy little settee in a cozy nook)?

The answer isn’t immediately apparent from just reading the novel, but in delving into the book and exploring all its minute details of the estates of the mystical creatures, we arrive at a true sense of Tolkien’s adoration of comfort. 

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In the heart of the forest, amidst towering trees, lies the troll’s lair. Here, three immensely huge trolls are sprawled around a large fire of beech logs, emitting a strong “toothsome” smell that even the dwarves, who were snooping around, could not ignore.

“They were toasting mutton on long spits of wood, and licking the gravy off their fingers.” Are you getting hungry yet? Imagine if you’ve been hiking all day! The trolls never leave their lair due to their vulnerability to the sunlight beams which is also the reason why the lair is built. So would the trolls ever leave their refuge for any reason? Now, unless you’ve read the book (which you should have already with a catharsis, because this essay is not for the uninitiated) you would be more than clueless to know that the company of thirteen hardy dwarves (with beards that demand nutrients) and one hairy-toed hobbit (a pipe-smoking, food-craving midget) are in need of rations. They need to chow, and chow soon! 

The hobbit and the crew, desperate for food, land near the troll’s lair. This, their only hope for food in the wretched forest attracts them, and also will give them (they hope) a full belly to rest for the rest of the night as long treacherous days are ahead of them. Bilbo’s ambition to pickpocket one of the trolls fails miserably and “William turned around at once and grabbed Bilbo by the neck.”  

As Tom, Bert, and William chat with each other, the dwarves are just mesmerized by the fire in between the three. After traveling for a while, they are frigid and would do anything for a little simmer of fire to hit their dwarvish skin. Also the aroma of the lavish food hits the dwarves and they can’t help but to look in awe at the fire. The “toasting mutton on a long spit of wood” is a sight that would make the dwarves’ tummies growl even more. I can also imagine the crackling of the fire causes the bone-tired dwarves and hobbit to yearn for a warm environment with which to relax, of course, after feasting.

The Misty Mountains are a mountain range with many steep valleys where one misstep could lead to your death. Throughout the valleys there were many loose rocks as they got “toss[ed] down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below”.

There are mysterious creatures “guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides” – cloud men, throwing clouds at each other, a strange reference never mentioned in Tolkien again (he wrote The Hobbit in 1937 and the trilogy followed in the 1940s, and some of what he dreamed up in The Hobbit seems to lie in a world of its own). Within the heart of the Misty Mountains lies another lair, a complex one with passages crossing and tangling in various directions, almost labyrinth-like. This is also known as the goblin’s stronghold, where the goblins reside. We observe that the goblins can navigate the lair very well as they chase down the dwarves. Additionally, we see the goblins chasing the crew outside of the cave with a pack of wolves called wargs.

As the dwarves traverse throughout the goblins’ lair, they encounter many very worn out bridges which they get pummeled by goblins. The scent also could be smelt as rotten: I can’t imagine a human living more than 30 minutes without having the urge to throw up.

We can assume that once inside the lair, it can be very loud at times as hundreds of goblins are living next to each other where they relax and curse, in greasy smelly nooks, next to “passages […] crossed and tangled in all directions.”

Now, where is the Company? As I pick up the story, are they captured yet? NO! The dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo, seeking a place to rest for the night, find a very tight crevasse, in which “there was just room to get the ponies through with a squeeze,” so one could say that the dwarves find a lair of their own while exploring the lair of the goblins. I must conclude that the goblins are willing to leave their lair to pursue the actions they desire. I find it impressive that though the Company just stops in for one night, the Goblins using their goblin senses, they can sense their upper room is infiltrated – these Gobs got Game!

In the caves “deep down here by the dark waters”, in the depths of the Misty Mountains, lies Gollum. More specifically he “lived on a slimy island of rock in the middle of [a subterranean] lake” where he would inspect his prey just like a leopard ready to pounce. Everyone now and then though, he would row “about quite quietly on the lake; for the lake it was wide and deep and deadly cold”. For that, people wonder why. Is it because he is best in the absence of light? When he poses riddles, he will eat those who lose. When someone loses, their first instinct is to run, but they can’t escape in the dark. With Gollum’s absurdly strong eyesight, he can track them and eat them. “He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it… he just throttled them from behind. Sometimes he took a fancy for fish from the lake.” So we see that this skin-and-bone darkness dweller has a voracious appetite!

His prey: if they win, how will they make it out of the cave? They won’t (unless they’re Bilbo), so they get lost, and in the end, Gollum will eat them. Considering all of this, he decides to singularly live on a small deserted island on a small lake beneath the towering Misty Mountains.  

We all love to sleep in our lairs. With the emptiness of the cave, one must consider, how does he wake up in the pitch black? Well, he likely has a breaking point where he simply can’t stand the amount of sleep anymore. To answer the question, he simply wakes up when he reaches his breaking point of sleep. Another factor could be his malnourished body. How does he manage to sleep if he can’t even eat? How does he even eat? He could simply leave the cave to find food, but it’s not that simple. He’s been in the cave for over 400 years; he’s not getting out. We can dismiss that idea. Like I said before, he eats people whom he beats in riddle battles. How often do visitors come into the cave? There could be 5–6 weeks where he just won’t eat anything. Eating a body may fill up his stomach, but it won’t sustain him for a lifetime. Maybe with the inconsistency of his diet, he might have gotten used to the fact that he won’t eat for long periods of time.

Adding another factor to this, during the free time I mentioned, what would he do then? Well, as we’ve been discussing, he likes to have riddle battles. In the meantime, while waiting for his next victim, he probably plots for his next riddle battle by thinking of more riddles.  In the instance with Bilbo, “riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains.” But when he has no one to run riddles by, what could he possibly do? Did I forget to mention… THE RING!? This “precious” is what keeps him thriving in this horrendous scenery. This ring is what he is obsessing about constantly when having nothing to do. All he can think about is what he could do with this ring and all the power he could possess.

Moving on from the cave lies a bear beast behind “a belt of tall and very ancient oaks, and beyond these to a high thorn hedge.” There is also a large handmade oak cabin made by the the bear: with his “thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs” you can believe he made this old cabin with his “large axe.”

He is not one to be messed around with. It is none other than Beorn himself. If you were to do so though, you would be chopped into pieces. You can imagine him as some sort of buff murderer, as the woods are where they lie and he is constantly holding an ax.

We can see that Beorn is well organized mainly in his house, but why? Since company comes only once in a blue moon, he is home by himself daily, so he has all the time in the world. At that time, he most likely organizes his home. Some unique additions to this exquisite home would be the “rows and rows of hives with bell-shaped tops,” along with “unshaped logs: barns, stables, sheds and a long wooden house”, some side projects that he did in his free time. When they find Beorn, he is hard at work, gathering “many lopped branches” from the trees he had cut down and piling them near a tree trunk.  

Bilbo approaches Beorn’s house dreading the fact that “he is a bear, or that he can become a bear,” while asking various questions. Gandalf assures him that it’ll be all just fine and he is “very polite” and will introduce the crew “two by two”. The dwarves finally arrive at the big ‘ol log cabin. On Gandalf’s “call or whistle [they will] begin to come after-you will see the way I go-but only in pairs.” Soon Thorin and Dori came round the house by the garden path and stood bowing low” for none other than the great Beorn.

Doesn’t this seem oddly familiar? Recall that, previously at nearly the beginning of the book, there was “KNOCK KNOCK” at Bilbo’s house by one of the company members. Dwarves would pile in, two by two, with the lead of Gandalf. At Beorn’s house dwarves pile in, two by two, with the lead of Gandalf. There is this parallel that Bilbo has with Beorn and it might just be a leap but does this bring deeper meaning behind Beorn? That maybe one day he would be leading the next company?

Near the house of the big bear is the puzzling Mirkwood where lies Attercop, home to spiders. Its “spider webs, one behind and over and tangled with another” give off this freaky Halloween feeling that gets put into the souls of the dwarves. You can even see the “fat spiders r[unning] along a rope till it came to a dozen bundles hanging in a row from a high branch.” Their “great tangled strands in the branches” make it impossible to move freely, creating a suffocating atmosphere. Just imagine yourself walking through the woods that you’ve never crossed before, and it’s nearly pitch black out. Then you see in the distance something you’ve never seen before, and this something is white so it stands out, spaghetti-like, and you see huge black-colored objects just moving along the spaghetti hanging from the trees.

And of course the Company (save our hero, the burglar Bilbo) ends up in the spaghetti. Caught, they are wrapped around in the spider’s silk, which makes them comfy. “The unhappy dwarves were dangling in the air with their toes just off the ground.” If the silk wasn’t comfortable, they would try their best to get out, but instead, they chose Bilbo to come save the day. I mean, even with the smell of the Attercop, the dwarves still chose to stay in the silk, signifying comfort. Just like you in the comfort of your chair reading this. Well, if it weren’t for Bilbo, they would have slowly gotten poisoned and perished in the grounds of Attercop.

Another group of individuals that lie in the forest are the Wood Elves. Their lair gives off even more spooky vibes as “blaze[s] of lights began not far away—hundreds of torches and many fires must have been lit suddenly and by magic.” This entrance is literally straight out of a movie, in all ways (it’s not like the book is a movie, but we’ll just move on).

Just imagine walking in the forest late at night, and then you stumble upon a pathway and step on one of the stones. You’re met with an overwhelming number of torches that light up for no reason at all. I already know the first thing you’ll think of is Temple Run, and you’ll be running away from some sort of monkey or goblin, but in this case, wood elves.

With the image of elves working for Santa or a fairy-like character, Tolkien gives them human-like features. The Wood Elves, though, don’t seem as pristine and refined—some are drinking a whole lot of wine, which suggests the empty barrels the dwarves depart in.

 “There was a great commotion as the elves began running to and fro, some hurrying to the king and others gathering the barrels and rolling them away.” They are seen worshiping a king, just like we humans used to do back in the day, with “a chair of carven wood upon which sat a great Elvenking”. That just gives the elves a more realistic sort of character than their playful character that people first think of.

The dwarves then get caught roaming around “my realm without leave,” and the Elvenking sternly tells them, “You have found your way into my halls, and you are not welcome.” Their consequence is being put in jail or prison.

Following the departure of Bilbo, we land in Laketown (formal name, Esgaroth). When first hearing this name, you think of a town in, under, or on water. Then you second-guess yourself and bring yourself back to reality and think it’s some random lakeside town in The Hobbit, but you’ll be wrong. This town literally lies on water.

More specifically, the old town was built on “wood [and] ran out to huge piles made of forest trees” though the town was not composed of “elves but of men”. The people of the town were petrified of the big red dragon, Smaug, as they were stationed right next to his lair.

Soon after, the fellow dwarves and their de facto leader, Bilbo, stopped by the town. It was an enthusiastic arrival as “there was much shouting as well as the music of harps and fiddles mixed up with it”. Their “harps and flutes and fiddles were playing, and they sang many songs,” making it a truly grand welcome. The town even “doctored and fed and housed and pampered” Bilbo and his dwarves. They “brought him butter and honey and bread and cakes, and plenty of bacon and eggs,” ensuring they were well cared for. There was nothing wrong in the town; everything seemed great but… only if it lasted forever. Smaug awakened from his slumber due to the dwarves’ curiosity, and the town was then shredded down to ash. Smoke was all over the place, leaving the town inhabitable for years to come.

To get to Smaug’s Lair, the infamous stronghold, one must pass “gray and silent cliffs [leading] to the feet of Ravenhill”; along the circumference was a “lake, flowing swiftly and noisily; its bank was bare and rocky, tall and steep”. The “Front Gate stood wide open and the dark rock gaped like a mouth,” welcoming only death and destruction. You would imagine, for a dragon’s lair, a huge cave and fortress with Smaug laying on a throne. Now there is a little twist, for there is a huge cave, but instead of sitting on a throne, Smaug lays on piles and piles of gold that build up to towers. And if you open the door to the cave, you will see gold pouring out of the door and covering your feet. The place is where everyone feared, of course, everyone but Bilbo and his company. They were the bravest souls to take on this adventure.

The lair was established in the Lonely Mountains and was only accessible during Durin’s Day. The inside contained “countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.” The dragon is just silently laying there on these jewels taking his typical nap. Outside of the lair though, lay much nature, such as a “wide valley shadowed by the mountain’s arms” and the “gray ruins of ancient houses, towers and walls” surrounding the blood-curdling lair. The remains of “remnants of ancient dwarf-kingdoms” stood as a grim reminder of Smaug’s wrath. The steep cliffs surrounding the lair created “a narrow ledge over a sheer drop,” making escape nearly impossible.  

All of this is comfort, ranging from Smaug sitting on the piles of rock-solid gold to the silkiness of the Attercop’s webs, to the soft cushion of your chair reading this essay. It’s crystal clear that these different strongholds hold different creatures, to what they think comfort is to them, representing and shaping how that specific group acts and is formed, to the individual, entirely based on their environment. If it means living in a cave all by himself or living in a town above water, it doesn’t matter: as long as they’re comfortable in that area, it’ll be fine. Just like you enjoying your life in your luxurious house.