There is a small brook to be forded and Bilbo proves efficient here. Unfortunately, Bombur, one of the awkward dwarves falls into the water and this water is poisoned. Bombur is recovered but he remains in a stupor for the duration of the chapter. It seems that there is a fire not far off the side of the road‹maybe there is food there? Alas, this is a mirage that occurs several times until finally, the group is separated and lost. It seems to be some magic at work. Bilbo is alone in the dark and after trying to find his friends, he gives up and goes to sleep. He is arrested in his sleep, attacked by a giant spider that was trying to poison him. Bilbo kills it with his sword and then he, himself, falls down and passes out. When he wakes up he finds his friends swaddled in spider net, suspended from tree branches and guarded by a troop of spiders. Bilbo's invisibility and sword help to get some of the dwarves free. Things improve when Gandalf returns to offer assistance, but in the end, Thorin is missing and he must be rescued from the king of the wood-elves. Analysis:

This chapter celebrates the forest as a site of magic, combining the archetypes of non-fantasy literature and the characters and activities that we expect in the genres of children's literature or perhaps, fables. We do want to draw distinctions between fantasy and mythology, here. The troop of giant spiders is much like an instance of fantasy. It does not resemble the Greek spiders (the myth of Arachne) and though the spider is a symbol of evil and subterfuge, the symbolic content of the spider-web is only an image here‹it is not developed. On the other hand, the magical "dinner-dreams" of the elves are well within the genres of literary fiction and mythology. We might compare this chapter to Christina Rossetti's famous poem "Goblin Market," because of the successful injection of magic on the sidelines of our real and contemporary society. And the didactic (educational, instructional, warning) tone of Gandalf in the previous chapter, is present in Rossetti's poem and this chapter as well. The idea of dreams is connected to the themes of consciousness and unconsciousness. We are glad that Bilbo is a light sleeper and he is a hero for it‹and this is not the first time. Isn't this a little unexpected though, a bit of a contrast to Bilbo's groggy complaints for more sleep-time and late-starts in the morning? His character is developing and deepening.