Aug 20, 2019
What if in the dwarven sign language, each clan has their own unique gesture that functions as both a greeting and a declaration of their family ties?
Bilbo does not know that and nobody told him.
All he knows is that each time he sees two dwarves greet each other, they do the same motion of touching their fist to their forearm raised across their chest. And Bilbo knows that after months on the quest and a winter in Erebor, it feels quite natural to mimic this behaviour (especially as it makes all the Company look so very happy).
Now imagine the Blue Mountain dwarves astonishment when, at a farmer’s market in the Shire, a Hobbit introduces himself to them as “Bilbo Baggings, dwarf of Erebor and member of Durin’s Folk”
