Question

Prompt: Write a narrative of one to two paragraphs retelling a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring. Describe Bilbo’s disappearance at the end of his speech from the perspective of a guest at the party.

Use the drop-down menus to answer the questions about the writing prompt.

Product: What are you writing?


Topic: What are you writing about?


Purpose: Why are you writing?

Answer 1

Product: A short narrative/retelling

Topic: Bilbo’s disappearance at the end of his speech (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Purpose: To retell the scene from a guest’s perspective and capture the shock and wonder

I had been laughing with my neighbour about one of Bilbo’s little jokes when his voice rose and stilled the crowd like a bell. He talked and talked—fond and sharp and more like poetry than anything we heard in the Green Dragon—and the lamps swung as if listening. Then, with a sudden change, he stood very straight, raised a white hand in farewell, and said something that sounded like goodbye. For a breath there was only the clinking of mugs; then, as if a soft wind had swallowed the space where he had been standing, there was nothing but an empty patch of light on the grass and his hat lying where he must have stood. A dozen voices started at once—laughter that choked into a gasp, a child's cry—while an odd little smell of smoke and old tobacco lingered where he had been. I remember looking around for a trick, for some hidden door in the hedges, and catching Frodo’s pale face lit by the lamps, all the disbelief of the Shire written plain. Somewhere beyond the astonishment someone began to clap, unsure whether it was for the farewell or for the miracle itself, and the party staggered on, altered, as if a new, secret road had been opened in front of us.