[BibChr]

About my second or third reading, I began noticing how the style gradually changes, as if transitioning from the light, for-children tone of The Hobbit, to the darker, more classic tone adopted for the bulk of LOTR.

The oddest single element signalling that we're close to The Hobbit's style (not in this chapter) is where Tolkien tells us what a fox is thinking! ("Hobbits! At this hour! Well, I'll be dipped!" -- or words to that effect.)

Dan

[HairOfTheDog]

What about the "dirty trick" aspect of the beginning... Once Bilbo gets through the decision to give up the ring, in essence Gandalf says "This ring is evil and it is destroying you, give it young Frodo here, whom you love" and Bilbo readily agrees...

Granted, Gandalf does not yet know what the ring truly is, and even after the incredible struggle to give up the ring, clearly Bilbo still does not recognize the magnitude of its danger. But Frodo was not given a choice in the matter, and neither Gandalf or Bilbo appear to feel any guilt about inflicting him with it.