20190823.0430

The Prince of Fantasists writes into Bilbo's mouth that the hobbit feels "like butter scraped over too much bread." It's a lovely simile, one fit for the food-loving perian and broadly accessible to readers, most of whom will have at least passing familiarity with the noted substances. Like most comparisons, however, the simile has more to unpack in it than comes across on a first reading, owing chiefly to its vehicle of butter.
For if it is the case that Bilbo is like butter--and it might be argued that he is in ways--then it must be wondered what cow yielded the milk from which he was churned and who did the churning. Easy answers within the milieu include Manwë and Ilúvatar, and Gandalf might well be thought to have had a hand in the cultivation, as well. Others include Bilbo's parents, and it may well be noted that the cow grazed upon the grass of the Great Smials, the quality of which comes out in the product of its milk. (The obvious out-of-milieu answer is, of course, Tolkien himself, or Tolkien's narrative persona, at least.)
As to the spreading, there is ultimately one answer: Sauron. It is the Ring that extends Bilbo's life, that lets him endure as long as he has by the time he makes the comment in the quote, and the Ring is an extension of Sauron, per the text. The argument could be made that the action of the simile--spreading too little over too much--is miserliness and parsimony, both of which are generally considered negative, therefore appropriate to attribute to the Dark Lord. So, too, does the image that arises of a knife pushing the butter along the bread; it portends violence, knives being knives, but it also foreshadows the ultimate defeat of Sauron, as the knives used to spread butter are generally dull, rounded, suitable for cutting only the softest of things. They are not of much use as weapons; their proposed violence is muted at best, apt for an evil destined to be beaten.
The simile both reveals some of the character of its speaker and offers a bit of subtle foreshadowing (though not a bit that comes as a surprise, given the expectations of genre in place at the time). Further interrogation might reveal yet more, of course, speaking perhaps to Tolkien's own ideologies or to some other commentary on the greater world. But even a brief look at the phrasing reveals that there is work to be done, reminding readers who are interested in taking that look that there is much to unpack in the simplest of notes and showing that entry into criticism is not so hard a thing as might be imagined.