More from The History of The Hobbit
Well, most of us are familiar with the fact that Frodo was subject to prescient dreams, and that even Pippin and Merry had them at Bombadil's house, while Pippin had flashes of foresight on at least three canonical occasions, and Frodo was downright prophetic at the end of LotR.
This has led to a fanon that the Tooks were subject to "the Sight", or that some psychic gift was passed along in the Took line.
But what about Bilbo? Until I read this, I had completely forgotten that Bilbo had a couple of prescient dreams in The Hobbit! And one was crucial to the plot: when he dreamed of the goblins coming through the crack in the cave wall and was thus able to warn Gandalf of their attack!
Here's what is said of Bilbo's dream:
"Of the prophetic dreams it is a curious fact that unlike Frodo's dreams in The Lord of the Rings, which deal with distant events, the dreams in The Hobbit tend to relate to things which are either happening at the same time as they are being dreamed or follow in very short order. On the whole, dreams play a less important part in The Hobbit than in many of Tolkien's other works, but their very presence marks the recurrence of a favorite Tolkienian motif and thus helps link the story to other works that share this element."
This has led to a fanon that the Tooks were subject to "the Sight", or that some psychic gift was passed along in the Took line.
But what about Bilbo? Until I read this, I had completely forgotten that Bilbo had a couple of prescient dreams in The Hobbit! And one was crucial to the plot: when he dreamed of the goblins coming through the crack in the cave wall and was thus able to warn Gandalf of their attack!
Here's what is said of Bilbo's dream:
"Of the prophetic dreams it is a curious fact that unlike Frodo's dreams in The Lord of the Rings, which deal with distant events, the dreams in The Hobbit tend to relate to things which are either happening at the same time as they are being dreamed or follow in very short order. On the whole, dreams play a less important part in The Hobbit than in many of Tolkien's other works, but their very presence marks the recurrence of a favorite Tolkienian motif and thus helps link the story to other works that share this element."