Mountains are symbols of stability and strength when they are under you, but when they loom over you they become the visual images of your obstacles. And of course, the mountains are obstacles, but they provoke psychological effects well before they are navigationally relevant. Nature can get animated in Tolkien's literature and the fear that "danger was not far away on either side" is strengthened by the possibility of natural elements becoming characters that play the villains' roles. Just as a map reveals the future by charting a course to a destination, the names of these locales foreshadow the misery ahead. The "Misty Mountains" are softened by the alliteration (there are worse mountains) but "misty" suggests blindness and this is not desirable. Names and sounds are important in The Hobbit and Tolkien put great care into the phonics of Middle Earth (He was, after all, a master linguist, classicist and philologist). The dragon, "Smaug," pre-dates our word "smog" but considering the visual similarity between the two (smoke and smoky pollution) it seems likely that Tolkien has extracted his name from the same source as our word. It is important that the elves' song erupts towards the end of the chapter because it produces a positive literary tone by making a euphonious and harmonic musical tone. Finally, we can look at the clear contrast between the mood of Rivendell and the foreshadowed despondency in the chapter's final lines. It is worth noting that Elrond and Rivendell re-appear in the Lord of the Rings trilogy but here, they seem to occupy a sort of static Paradise, not unlike the Elysian fields of Greek mythology. As a way-station, the house offers temporary rest but the very fact of midsummer, in archetypal terms, offers us as much life and light as the earth will bear. Midsummer in Rivendell is as strong a symbolic heaven/Paradise as we will find in Tolkien's work. The foul names of the swords, if they foreshadow anything, assure us that battles and goblins are forthcoming. Chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill

Elrond and Gandalf help Bilbo and the dwarves navigate their way into the mountains and this is difficult because there are many deceitful routes and paths that only end in destruction. Especially during the cold nights when there is pitch-black silence, Bilbo remembers his hobbit-hole and he thinks about the activities that are in progress. The "high hope of a midsummer morning" drops and sinks as the group travels on the incline, higher and higher. Eventually the younger members of the group are sent to find a cave where the group can sleep for the evening.