A common word, used aplenty – and that’s very satsifying in a book full of liminal moments. Whether it is a coming-of-age story for Bilbo is not mine to say – I know that it is for me.

• 01.002 It had a perfectly round door
• 01.002 The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel:
• 01.002 and many little round doors opened out of it,
• 01.006 and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast
• 01.010 ‘And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors,
• 01.010 Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door,
• 01.016 as if I was selling buttons at the door!’
• 01.021 and scuttled inside his round green door,
• 01.023 was still standing outside the door,
• 01.025 and ran to the door.
• 01.026 As soon as the door was opened,
• 01.030 and off he went to the door.
• 01.031 and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open,
• 01.038 as soon as the door began to open –
• 01.044 ‘Someone at the door!’
• 01.046 and he had to run to the door.
• 01.047 but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door.
• 01.048 He pulled open the door with a jerk,
• 01.048 He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door;
• 01.049 and then open the door like a pop-gun!
• 01.056 called the other dwarves through the door.
• 01.059 and Dwalin at the door of the kitchen,
• 01.065 Splash the wine on every door!
• 01.095 and a drink he crept nervously to the door of the parlour.
• 01.095 if it had not been for the sign on the door,
• 01.097 I have no signs on my door –
• 01.098 And I assure you there is a mark on this door –
• 01.109 “Five feet high the door
• 01.110 ‘How could such a large door be kept secret from everybody outside,
• 01.111 I should guess there is a closed door
• 01.141 not to speak of getting inside the door?
• 02.002 and the front door was open,
• 02.021 who was standing at the inn door looking out for him.
• 02.111 a big door of stone leading to a cave.
• 02.113 Then the stone door swung back
• 03.030 and found its doors flung wide.
• 03.040 beside the plain runes which say ‘five feet high the door
• 04.003 They had thought of coming to the secret door
• 04.013 Oin and Gloin wanted to light a fire at the door
• 05.135 where a great door,
• 05.135 a stone door,
• 05.136 with drawn swords sitting just inside the door,
• 05.142 ‘Look out for the door,’
• 05.145 ‘I must get to the door,
• 05.145 I must get to the door!’
• 05.145 got up, and ran for the door.
• 05.146 His buttons had got wedged on the edge of the door
• 05.146 and shone bright on the outside of the door –
• 05.147 ‘There is a shadow by the door.
• 05.149 and cursing to guard the door.
• 06.012 out of the lower door,
• 06.022 in the door,
• 07.044 said the man leading the way through a dark door
• 07.045 and came through another smaller door into a sort of veranda
• 07.097 The great door had creaked
• 07.107 and a noise as of some great animal scuffling at the door.
• 08.132 Before his huge doors of stone
• 08.144 in one of the inmost caves with strong wooden doors,
• 09.003 to the king’s doors.
• 09.006 ‘There is no escape from my magic doors
• 09.010 but not to be allowed to pass the doors of their little prisons,
• 09.011 in the doors,
• 09.014 and he came to the door
• 09.027 First he unlocked Balin’s door,
• 09.029 Then off he went from door to door,
• 09.029 Then off he went from door to door,
• 09.035 They passed a door through which the chief guard
• 09.036 to pass through all those locked doors
• 09.037 through the doors
• 09.054 was being rolled to the doors!
• 09.061 in haste from the king’s great doors.
• 10.018 in through the door.
• 10.028 They passed its doors
• 10.029 in a loud voice from the door,
• 10.034 from the doors of the hall
• 11.006 the western spurs of the Mountain for the hidden door,
• 11.013 on the western slopes for the secret door.
• 11.013 must stand the secret door.
• 11.014 yet they did not doubt that they had found the door at last.
• 11.019 The others who were busy with the secret of the door
• 11.019 the door was hidden.
• 11.019 that had shut this door;
• 11.038 A door five feet high
• 12.001 before the door
• 12.007 when the hobbit crept through the enchanted door
• 12.008 the faint outline of the door,
• 12.010 till all sign of the door behind had faded away.
• 12.012 as the door above.
• 12.019 The door behind them was pulled nearly to,
• 12.021 he sped from his deep lair through its great door,
• 12.023 ‘The door! The tunnel!
• 12.029 His hot breath shrivelled the grass before the door,
• 12.031 until dawn came pale through the crack of the door.
• 12.032 but the door withstood his searching eye,
• 12.042 The light from the door,
• 12.042 as he drew near the lower door.
• 12.093 and shut the door.’
• 12.094 though they delayed shutting the door –
• 12.094 not far down from the half-open door
• 12.098 He sat nearest to the door
• 12.099 ‘Shut the door!’
• 12.099 Shut the door before it is too late!’
• 12.100 and getting up he kicked away the stone that wedged the door.
• 12.101 What would have happened if the door had still been open
• 13.002 ‘Let us try the door!’
• 13.002 and groped back to where the door had been.
• 13.002 would ever open that door again.
• 13.017 Quickly Bilbo trotted to the door
• 13.017 So they sat near the door
• 13.023 until he came to the great doors at the further side,
• 13.041 they passed through the gaping doors,
• 13.044 Before them light came dimly through great doors,
• 13.046 As they came through yet more doors
• 13.050 ‘I never expected to be looking out of this door.
• 13.057 since the dragon smashed the magic door,
• 13.066 in which there was an opening like a door.
• 13.066 From that door there was a wide view East
• 13.067 and that door behind leads
• 13.071 but the others sat near the outer door
• 14.001 when he smashed the door
• 15.026 the small secret door)
• 15.050 While an armed host lies before our doors,
• 16.042 rose from a tent door where he was sitting
• 18.051 to the doors of Beorn’s house;
• 19.034 and came right back to Bilbo’s own door.
• 19.035 were thick round the door,
• 19.041 when there was a ring at the door.