From Bag End Through Trolls, Riddles, and Mirkwood Trade
The adventure begins. Thorin offers his hand in Bag End — has Bilbo assented? The trolls argue over how to cook the dwarves, but their shifting proposals never congeal into a binding offer. In the dark beneath the Misty Mountains, Bilbo and Gollum stake their lives on a riddle-game whose terms are dangerously ambiguous. And in the markets of Mirkwood, merchants haggle over goods with forms that don’t quite match.
Module II covers the mechanics of contract formation: how bargains are struck (Chapter 3), what makes an offer (Chapter 4), how offers die (Chapter 5), and what counts as acceptance (Chapter 6). The objective theory runs through every topic — outward manifestation controls, not secret intent.
Module outcomes
By the end of this module, you can:
- Identify whether a communication is an offer or a preliminary negotiation under R2d § 24, distinguishing definite terms from invitations to deal.
- Apply the mirror-image rule at common law and the UCC § 2-207 battle-of-forms framework to determine whether an acceptance forms a contract and on whose terms.
- Analyze how an offer terminates: lapse, revocation, rejection, counter-offer, or death — and apply the firm-offer rule under UCC § 2-205 and the option contract under R2d § 87.
- Distinguish unilateral from bilateral contracts and apply R2d § 45 when an offeree has begun performance on a unilateral offer.
- Evaluate ambiguous facts under the objective theory: would a reasonable observer treat the manifestation as serious assent (Lucy v. Zehmer) or as jest, puff, or social commitment (Leonard v. PepsiCo)?
Chapters
3 Bargains Unexpected Party
4 Offers Troll Campfire
5 Termination of the Offer Riddles in the Dark
6 Acceptance Mirkwood Merchants