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Timeline Event

Gandalf turns the Trolls into stone

Event Type: Military/Strategic

Age: 3rd Age - The Stewards

Date: May 30, 2941

Description:

An event in the Quest of Erebor; see that entry for an overview.
The Three Trolls are Turned to Stone.
The Three Trolls are Turned to Stone, by JRR Tolkien.
And so the argument began all over again, and went on hotter than ever, until at last they decided to sit on the sacks one by one and squash them, and boil them next time.

'Who shall we sit on first?' said the voice.

'Better sit on the last fellow first,' said Bert, whose eye had been damaged by Thorin. He thought Tom was talking.

'Don't talk to yerself!' said Tom. 'But if you wants to sit on the last one, sit on him. Which is he?'

'The one with the yellow stockings,' said Bert.

'Nonsense, the one with the grey stockings,' said a voice like William's.

'I made sure it was yellow,' said Bert.

'Yellow it was,' said William.

'Then what did yer say it was grey for?' said Bert.

'I never did. Tom said it.'

'That I never did!' said Tom. 'It was you.'

'Two to one, so shut yer mouth!' said Bert.

'Who are you a-talkin' to?' said William.

'Now stop it!' said Tom and Bert together. 'The night's gettin' on, and dawn comes early. Let's get on with it!'

'Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!' said a voice that sounded like William's. But it wasn't. For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for trolls... must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again....

'Excellent!' said Gandalf, as he stepped from behind a tree, and helped Bilbo to climb down out of a thorn-bush. Then Bilbo understood. It was the wizard's voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling, until the light came and made an end of them.

The next thing was to untie the sacks and let out the dwarves. They... had not at all enjoyed lying there listening to the trolls making plans for roasting them and squashing them and mincing them.

The Hobbit, Ch 2, Roast Mutton


Notes
The year is canon, but the date is an estimate from Fonstadt.

The Atlas of Middle-earth, Revised Edition, by Karen Wynn Fonstad, Section 5, The Hobbit: Introduction

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 20Jul06, 1Oct11

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