A Long Strange Journey

The Elvenking of Mirkwood

The day after the battle with the spiders Bilbo and the Dwarves made one last despairing effort to find away out before they died of hunger and thirst. Hannah, whose condition had worsened overnight, could not be roused by any measure, and they were beginning to fear for her life. They got up and staggered on while carrying her in the direction which eight out of the thirteen of them guessed to be the one in which the path lay; but they never found out if they were right. Such day as there ever was in the forest was fading once more into the blackness of night, and Hannah still showed no sign of waking, when suddenly out sprang the light of many torches all round them, like hundreds of red stars. Out leaped Wood-elves with their bows and spears and called the Dwarves to halt.

"Do not think I will not kill you, Dwarf," said the elf-prince they had seen at the feast with his bow aimed at Dwalin. "It would be my  pleasure." He then gave an order for all the Dwarves to be searched.

"B'ey! Give it back! That's private!" protested Glóin when the elf-prince removed two small portraits he was carrying from his person.

"Who is this?" asked the prince curiously. "Your brother?"

"That is my wife!" huffed Glóin indignantly.

"And what is this horrid creature? A goblin-mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli!"

Despite Glóin's complaints against these thoughtless insults to his family, there was no thought of a fight. Even if the Dwarves had not been in such a state that they were actually glad to be captured, their small knives, the only weapons they had, would have been of no use against the arrows of the Elves that could hit a bird's eye in the dark. So they simply stopped dead and sat down and waited—all except Hannah, who was still unconscious and was ordered to be carried by one of the Elves, and  Bilbo, who popped on his ring and slipped quickly to one side. That is why, when the Elves bound the Dwarves in a long line, one behind the other, and counted them, they never found or counted the hobbit.

Nor did they hear or feel him trotting along well behind their torch-light as they led off their prisoners into the forest. Each Dwarf was  blindfolded, but that did not make much difference, for even Bilbo with the full use of his eyes could not see where they were going, and neither he nor the others knew where they had started from anyway. Bilbo had all he could do to keep up with the torches, for the Elves were making the Dwarves go as fast as ever they could, sick and weary as they were. The king had ordered them to make haste. Suddenly the torches stopped, and the hobbit had just time to catch them up before they began to cross the bridge. This was the bridge that led across the river to the king's doors. The water flowed dark and swift and strong beneath; and at the far end were gates before the mouth of a huge cave that ran into the side of a steep slope covered with trees. There the great beeches came right down to the bank, till their feet were in the stream.

Across this bridge the Elves thrust their prisoners, but Bilbo hesitated in the rear. He did not at all like the look of the cavern-mouth and he only made up his mind not to desert his friends just in time to scuttle over at the heels of the last Elves, before the great gates of the king closed behind them with a clang.

Inside the passages were lit with red torch-light, and the elf-guards sang as they marched along the twisting, crossing, and echoing paths. These were not like those of the goblin-cities: they were smaller, less deep underground and filled with cleaner air. In a great hall with pillars hewn out of living stone sat the Elvenking on a throne carven wood. On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for the autumn was come again. In the spring he  wore a crown of woodland flowers. In his hand he held a carven staff of oak.

The prisoners were brought before him; and though he looked grimly at them, he quickly had Hannah taken away to receive proper care  upon seeing the terrible state the child was in, and told his men to unbind the Dwarves, for they were ragged and weary. "Besides they need no ropes in here," said he. "There is no escape from my magic doors for those who are once brought inside."