The sound of effortful heavy breathing.  Bilbo with his short little legs puffs along the passage – and even the draught of air in Chapter 13 which could have blown out his light only threatened to puff it out.  Definitely funny and low.

• 01.038 he thought as he puffed along the passage.
• 01.095 and puffing on the mat,
• 02.020 Very puffed he was,
• 07.087 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
• 08.055 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
• 08.125 puffing and panting
• 12.027 puffing and blowing while the ropes creaked
• 13.008 and they made a deal of puffing
• 13.023 but it almost puffed out his light.

In the middle of the Great Goblin’s great chamber, poof! Gandalf works some of his pyrotechnic magic to effect a rescue.  I’m certain that this moment of special sound effects was designed to break tension by causing at least one young listener to shriek with audience-fear and delight at being startled.  It relieves the scene of danger with a moment of fun.

• 04.035 and the great fire went off poof!

Bilbo complains after a high-flavoured journey through amazing treasures and tunnels – and the OED calls this an imitative word.  We include it in our list of onomatopoeic words and give it a “low” tag.

• 13.050 But, ow! this wind is cold!’

“ow, int.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Let’s test another question: are all onomatopoeic words funny, and therefore low?  At the top of the alphabet, we have the sound sheep make.  They are Beorn’s sheep, altogether remarkable, and a big piece of fairy tale in the middle of a small epic.  Definitely part of a funny scene, and we score it “low”.

[07.093] Then baa – baa – baa!  was heard, and in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle-tables.

• 07.093 Then baa – baa – baa!