Oh, friends! I am discovering some rather wonderful things about Sudden and Suddenly. Oh, gosh. Keep your eyes here for updates over the next two weeks! Here’s the gist: I was working on a project with some students and re-reading The Hobbit, as you do, and I noticed “gosh in many of these bits of text relevant to my idea, the word Suddenly appears! And not one week later, Professor James Tauber in his Digital Humanities course comes out with (imagine Aussie accent) “…and we know that the word Suddenly appears much more in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings than it does in The Silmarillion and in the Tolkien Influencer Corpus.” Sparrow is on the job!

• 1.070 so sudden and sweet
• 1.072 And suddenly first one
• 1.083 Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt up –
• 1.084 Suddenly he found that the music
• 1.096 He suddenly felt he would
• 1.138 they all said turning suddenly towards him,
• 2.040 Suddenly the red light shone out very bright
• 3.008 that opened suddenly at their feet,
• 3.010 so suddenly that Gandalf’s horse nearly slipped down the slope.
• 4.004 and sudden light.
• 4.037 Suddenly a sword flashed
• 4.051 Quite suddenly Dori,
• 5.002 till suddenly his hand met
• 5.006 on goblins that came upon them suddenly.
• 5.010 Suddenly without any warning
• 5.014 Suddenly up came Gollum
• 5.016 and he suddenly saw the pale eyes sticking out at him.
• 5.045 But suddenly Gollum remembered
• 5.056 Give me time!’ But all that came out with a sudden squeal was:
• 5.089 as he slipped suddenly from Bilbo’s side,
• 5.090 Suddenly he heard a screech.
• 5.097 Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss.
• 5.106 but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag
• 5.112 Suddenly Gollum sat down
• 5.128 A sudden understanding,
• 5.128 And then quite suddenly
• 5.135 and came suddenly right into an open space,
• 5.136 and then suddenly he saw the goblins:
• 5.147 Suddenly one of the goblins inside shouted:
• 6.005 and suddenly he saw peering between two big boulders
• 6.010 if a goblin had suddenly grabbed your legs from behind
• 6.012 All of a sudden you gave one of your blinding flashes,
• 6.035 who was suddenly aware that
• 6.048 they came suddenly to an opening where no trees grew.
• 6.049 All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill,
• 6.058 All of a sudden
• 6.063 and devouring people waked suddenly from their sleep.
• 6.071 Then suddenly goblins came running up yelling.
• 6.080 The sudden splendour flashed from his wand like lightning,
• 6.084 The flames about the trees sprang suddenly up
• 6.084 There was a sudden flurry
• 6.088 when it is suddenly picked out of the pan on a fork
• 7.104 Suddenly up stood Gandalf.
• 7.124 asked Bilbo suddenly.
• 8.021 and suddenly they all fell over on their backs.
• 8.029 Out of the gloom came suddenly the shape of a flying deer.
• 8.033 Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer,
• 8.047 He woke up suddenly
• 8.052 All the same he suddenly refused
• 8.063 they pushed Bilbo suddenly from behind.
• 8.070 and many fires must have been lit suddenly
• 8.081 Suddenly he saw,
• 8.112 Suddenly Bilbo noticed
• 8.118 He suddenly slipped on his ring,
• 8.119 and singing suddenly stopped.
• 8.121 when suddenly Bilbo reappeared,
• 8.123 the spiders suddenly gave it up,
• 8.128 All of a sudden Dwalin opened an eye,
• 9.001 when suddenly out sprang the light
• 9.003 Suddenly the torches stopped,
• 9.046 and became mighty merry all of a sudden.
• 9.051 that Bilbo suddenly discovered
• 9.055 Then suddenly the trapdoors fell to with a boom
• 9.056 and the suddenly stooping roof
• 9.059 he would not suddenly
• 9.061 The dark river opened suddenly wide,
• 10.001 Suddenly the cliff fell away.
• 10.038 and spoke confidently of the sudden death of the dragon
• 11.028 Perhaps the wizard will suddenly come back today,’
• 11.031 Suddenly Bilbo understood.
• 11.032 Then suddenly when their hope was lowest
• 11.032 gave a sudden trill.
• 11.032 A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the ground.
• 12.019 when suddenly a vast rumbling woke
• 12.021 suddenly lose something that they have long had
• 12.044 when he caught a sudden thin
• 12.071 and imagined that the hobbit had come to a sudden
• 13.020 Suddenly Bilbo’s arm went towards it
• 13.032 he grows suddenly bold,
• 13.044 when suddenly the roof sprang high
• 13.046 and the grey light grew suddenly more full.
• 13.052 Suddenly Bilbo realized
• 13.055 The river loops suddenly east
• 14.003 Suddenly it flickered back to view;
• 14.008 Then suddenly a great light appeared
• 14.010 Then warning trumpets were suddenly sounded,
• 14.019 Suddenly out of the dark
• 14.024 white in the sudden dark under the moon.
• 14.035 and he fell suddenly silent.
• 15.003 Suddenly Bilbo pointed:
• 15.029 There came a night when suddenly
• 17.039 Suddenly without a signal
• 17.040 Still more suddenly a darkness came on
• 17.041 who appeared suddenly,
• 17.044 and came thus at last on a sudden from the North
• 17.044 but it is plain that he had not expected this sudden assault.
• 17.055 Suddenly there was a great shout,
• 17.062 Seeing the sudden gleam
• 18.005 Suddenly he was aware of a man climbing up
• 19.028 and he stopped suddenly