Adumbration

I have been re-reading the novel in preparation for release of the film treatment of The Hobbit.  I can't say how many times I have already read the story - in excess of 10, almost certainly.  

Once again I am struck by how different the narrative feels as compared with Lord of the Rings - so much more conversational, aimed at a younger person, and including features that don't quite seem to fit in the same universe as Middle Earth - the stone giants that throw the boulders during the storm in the pass in the Misty Mountains, for example.   

One detail I wonder how the film will handle is that of the finding of the One Ring.  We know that Bilbo originally told a different story about how he came by the ring, ostensibly to solidify his claim to possess it.  Bilbo's original story was that Gollum promised him the ring, should he win the riddle game - it is a story I have never read directly, being recorded only in the first few editions of There and Back Again.  

However, based on later editions of The Hobbit, Bilbo's own account from the conference in Rivendell, and mentions from the Red book of Westmarch, the story Bilbo later reported as true was that finding the ring was only a lucky break; in return for winning the riddle game, Gollum had promised to show him the way out of the Goblin tunnels under the mountains.  

The film narrative can certainly present the later story in the flow of events; the question is what he will tell Thorin, Gandalf, and the rest about how he came by the ring.