A City on a Bridge: Dale or London

A city on bridge: London or Dale In chapter ten, after Bilbo and the dwarves escape from the wood elves, the travel down the river to Dale. Dale is the place where Humans live in this story, and I think dale has a significant role to play in the narrative. This is the first time Humans are introduced so far in the story, and the Tolkien gives an interesting description of their character. While I was reading this, I had a thought, that Dale might represent something in modern day life and illustrate an aspect of the society of Tolkien’s time. The first description of the the town of Dale is found on page 204 (of my addition) and is as follows; “A great bridge made of wood ran out to where on huge piles of forest trees was built a busy wooden town, not of elves but of Men, who still dared to dwell here under the shadow of the distant dragon-mountain” ( Tolkien 204). There are two elements I would like to pull from this passage. In the first half when it describes a town built on a bridge, I immediately think of London (or the London bridge) and I would argue that Tolkien is representing London here in the Hobbit as the town of Dale. In the second half of the passage, it mentions that Men still “dare” to live under the mountain. This word stuck out to me, and seemed to imply something about the nature of Man in the story. Is Tolkien saying, they are more brave, foolish or arrogant then other creatures? Taking this a step further was I have said that Dale represents London, can their be an allegory here between the character of Men in the story to the state of society in Tolkeins time? On the next page, Tolkien gives more description to the nature of the town itself and how it operates. He says that the Men stay under the mountain and live from the trade that comes down the river. However he says that they were much more prosperous before the dragon was around, which implies that they are in a sort of economical depression. Though some sing songs and look back to the time of prosperity, most even acknowledge that it exsisted. “But men remembered little of all that, though some still sang old songs of the dwarf-kings of the Mountain…” (Tolkien 205). Further more, they don’t seem to be bothered much by the dragon at all. “But this pleasant legend did not much effect their daily business” (Tolkien 205). What I interpreted from these passages is that they are all caught up in their day to day business that they don’t seem to care to acknowledge whats going on the outside world. I would argue that Tolkien is eluding here to the way the average person acts in modern society; where they care little about what’s going on outside of their immediate day-to-day lives. Further more, I believe Smauge represents something more than just greed and gold-lust, but could possibly represent, maybe World War II, maybe the depression going on in America, or even the Government. As the men of Dale seem to pay little attention to Smaug, as he provides no immediate threat, the average person living in modern London pays little attention, to war or politics unless it provides an immediate threat to day-to-day living. 1. Does Dale represent London 2. Does Smaug represent something other than greed (war, politics, economic depression)? 3. What makes men different from the dwarfs and the elvs?