Tuesday, 18 October 2941 T. A.: Snails on the Doorstep

The thrush that was going to be Eru's agent in driving the plot
(Illustration by Horus Engels for the first German edition, 1957)

On this day, in 2941 T. A., The whole company but two took the effort to climb up to the Doorstep and establish their by now third base camp there. For the time being this was a dead end, though, for the Secret Door was magic enough to defy any conventional tool - clearly, Dwarves were able to construct devices that no other Dwarves could hack.

Bilbo meanwhile set back and counted. Snails on a stone, a favourite diet of thrushes around Erebor. For now he was as much at a loss to pinpoint Durin's Day as was his maker, J. R.R. Tolkien, as we shall see in our next entry.