Barrels Out of Bond

The Barrels Out of Bond is the pivotal escape sequence in which Bilbo Baggins, using his ring and quick wits, frees the twelve imprisoned dwarves from the Elvenking's halls and smuggles them out of Mirkwood hidden inside empty wine barrels, floating down the Forest River toward Lake-town. This action marks the climax of Bilbo's maturation as a burglar and leader, transforming him from a reluctant tagalong into the decisive figure who saves the quest.

Discovery of the Water-Gate and the Plan

After weeks of lurking invisibly in the Elvenking's palace, Bilbo discovered a crucial secret: a stream flowed under the lowest regions of the palace and joined the Forest River east of the main entrance. Where this underground watercourse emerged from the hillside there was a water-gate, protected by a portcullis that could be dropped to the riverbed. The portcullis was often open for traffic. At one point where the tunnel passed under the caves, the roof had been cut away and covered with great oaken trapdoors that opened upward into the king's cellars. There stood barrels and barrels, for the Wood-elves imported wine from far away, from their kinsfolk in the South or from the vineyards of Men. When the barrels were empty, the elves cast them through the trapdoors, opened the water-gate, and out the barrels floated on the stream, bobbing along until they were carried by the current to a place far down the river near the eastern edge of Mirkwood, where they were collected and floated back to Lake-town. For some time Bilbo sat and thought about this water-gate, and at last he had the desperate beginnings of a plan.

The Drugging of the Guards and the Unlocking of the Cells

The opportunity came when Bilbo overheard the king's butler, Galion, inviting the chief of the guards to taste new wine that had just arrived. The wine was the heady vintage of Dorwinion, meant only for the king's feasts, not for the butler's great flagons. Soon both elves fell fast asleep, the chief guard nodding first, then the butler. In crept the hobbit. Very soon the chief guard had no keys, and Bilbo was trotting as fast as he could along the passages toward the cells. The great bunch seemed very heavy to his arms, and his heart was often in his mouth, in spite of his ring, for he could not prevent the keys from making a loud clink and clank. First he unlocked Balin's door, then went from door to door until his following had grown to twelve. At last after much blundering they came to Thorin's dungeon, far down in a deep place and fortunately not far from the cellars. Thorin, when he heard Bilbo's whisper, declared that Gandalf had spoken true and that they were all forever at his service.

The Packing of the Dwarves into Barrels

Bilbo explained his idea: the dwarves would hide inside empty barrels and be pushed through the trapdoors into the river. The dwarves did not like it at all, muttering that they would be bruised and battered to pieces and drowned too. But Bilbo gave them no choice: he offered to lock them back in their cells if they preferred. In the end they had to do as he suggested. They found thirteen barrels with room enough for a dwarf in each. Bilbo did his best to find straw and other stuff to pack them in as cosily as could be managed in a short time. Thorin gave a lot of trouble, turning and twisting in his tub and grumbling like a large dog in a small kennel, while Balin made a great fuss about his air-holes. At last twelve dwarves were stowed. Only a minute or two after Balin's lid had been fitted on, a number of elves came laughing and talking into the cellars. They found Galion asleep with his head on a jug and woke him roughly. After drinking once round, they began rolling the barrels to the opening, singing as they worked: "Roll—roll—roll—roll, roll-roll-rolling down the hole! Heave ho! Splash plump! Down they go, down they bump!"

Bilbo's Desperate Leap and the River Journey

It was at this moment that Bilbo suddenly discovered the weak point in his plan: he was not in a barrel himself, nor was there anyone to pack him in. The very last barrel was being rolled to the doors. In despair and not knowing what else to do, poor little Bilbo caught hold of it and was pushed over the edge with it. Down into the water he fell, splash! into the cold dark water with the barrel on top of him. He came up again spluttering and clinging to the wood like a rat, but for all his efforts he could not scramble on top. Every time he tried, the barrel rolled round and ducked him under again. The trapdoors fell to with a boom, and he was in the dark tunnel floating in icy water, all alone. Soon a grey patch came in the darkness ahead. He heard the creak of the water-gate being hauled up, and found himself in the midst of a bobbing and bumping mass of casks and tubs all pressing together to pass under the arch. Out they went under the overhanging branches of the trees on either bank. Bilbo managed to keep his head above the water, shivering with cold, until the eddying current carried several barrels close ashore at one point. There he scrambled up the side of his barrel like a drowned rat and lay on the top spread out to keep the balance as best he could. In this way at last Mr. Baggins came to a place where the trees on either hand grew thinner, and the dark river opened suddenly wide. There the hurrying water of the Forest River swept all the company of casks and tubs away to the north bank, where most of the barrels ran aground on a shingly shore. People on the look-out poled and pushed all the barrels together, roped them, and left them till the morning. Bilbo slipped from his barrel and waded ashore, then sneaked along to some huts near the water's edge, where he stole a loaf, a leather bottle of wine, and a pie. The next morning, as the raft-elves prepared to steer the barrels down the stream to Lake-town, Bilbo scrambled onto the mass of casks just in time, and off they went, sailing away down toward the Lake. They had escaped the dungeons of the king and were through the wood.