IpseDixit wrote:- The legend of Bilbo's gold excited both curiosity and hope; for legendary gold (mysteriously obtained, if not positively ill-gotten), is, as everyone knows, anyone's for the finding - unless the search is interrupted.
I don't understand what "is anyone's for the finding" means.
Cf. the common expression "it's yours for the taking" meaning "it's there to be taken by you".
IpseDixit wrote:- He lived alone, as Bilbo had done; but he had a good many friends, especially among the younger hobbits (mostly descendants of the Old Took) who had as children been fond of Bilbo [...].
I don't understand "who had as children been fond of Bilbo".
It means that when the younger hobbits were children, they were fond of Bilbo.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons