"J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (reprint)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure,
found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have
lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained-well, you will see whether he
gained anything in the end.
The mother of our particular hobbit ... what is a hobbit? I suppose
hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy
of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people,
about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no
beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday
sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid
folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants
which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be at in the stomach;
they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes,
because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair
like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown
fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after
dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know
enough to go on with. As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit - of Bilbo
Baggins, that is - was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three
remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across
The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often
said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have
taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was
still something not entirely hobbit-like about them, - and once in a while
members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly
disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the
Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly
richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became
Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most luxurious
hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either
under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained
to the end of their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son,
although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid
and comfortable father, got something a bit queer in his makeup from the
Took side, something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance
never arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old
or so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I
have just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down
immovably.
By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world,
when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still
numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after
breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to
his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had
heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard
very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort I of
remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place
wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. He had not been down
that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took
died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. He