THE HOBBIT ANALYSIS

Bilbo Baggins lives a quiet, peaceful life in his comfortable hole at Bag End. Bilbo lives
in a hole because he is a hobbit—one of a race of small, plump people about half the
size of humans, with furry toes and a great love of good food and drink. Bilbo is quite
content at Bag End, near the bustling hobbit village of Hobbiton, but one day his comfort
is shattered by the arrival of the old wizard Gandalf, who persuades Bilbo to set out on
an adventure with a group of thirteen militant dwarves. The dwarves are embarking on a
great quest to reclaim their treasure from the marauding dragon Smaug, and Bilbo is to
act as their “burglar.” The dwarves are very skeptical about Gandalf’s choice for a
burglar, and Bilbo is terrified to leave his comfortable life to seek adventure. But Gandalf
assures both Bilbo and the dwarves that there is more to the little hobbit than meets the
eye.
Shortly after the group sets out, three hungry trolls capture all of them except for
Gandalf. Gandalf tricks the trolls into remaining outside when the sun comes up, and
the sunlight turns the nocturnal trolls to stone. The group finds a great cache of
weapons in the trolls’ camp. Gandalf and the dwarf lord Thorin take magic swords, and
Bilbo takes a small sword of his own.
The group rests at the elfish stronghold of Rivendell, where they receive advice from the
great elf lord Elrond, then sets out to cross the Misty Mountains. When they find shelter
in a cave during a snowstorm, a group of goblins who live in the caverns beneath the
mountain take them prisoner. Gandalf leads the dwarves to a passage out of the
mountain, but they accidentally leave behind Bilbo.
Wandering through the tunnels, Bilbo finds a strange golden ring lying on the ground.
He takes the ring and puts it in his pocket. Soon he encounters Gollum, a hissing,
whining creature who lives in a pool in the caverns and hunts fish and goblins. Gollum
wants to eat Bilbo, and the two have a contest of riddles to determine Bilbo’s fate. Bilbo
wins by asking the dubious riddle, “What have I got in my pocket?”
Gollum wants to eat Bilbo anyway, and he disappears to fetch his magic ring, which
turns its wearer invisible. The ring, however, is the same one Bilbo has already found,
and Bilbo uses it to escape from Gollum and flee the goblins. He finds a tunnel leading
up out of the mountain and discovers that the dwarves and Gandalf have already
escaped. Evil wolves known as Wargs pursue them, but Bilbo and his comrades are
helped to safety by a group of great eagles and by Beorn, a creature who can change
shape from a man into a bear.
The company enters the dark forest of Mirkwood, and, making matters worse, Gandalf
abandons them to see to some other urgent business. In the forest, the dwarves are
caught in the webs of some giant spiders, and Bilbo must rescue them with his sword
and magic ring. After slaying his first spider, Bilbo names his sword Sting. Shortly after
escaping the spiders, the unlucky dwarves are captured by a group of wood elves who
live near the river that runs through Mirkwood. Bilbo uses his ring to help the company
escape and slips the dwarves away from the elves by hiding them inside barrels, which
he then floats down the river. The dwarves arrive at Lake Town, a human settlement
near the Lonely Mountain, under which the great dragon sleeps with Thorin’s treasure.
After sneaking into the mountain, Bilbo talks to the sly dragon Smaug, who unwittingly
reveals that his armorlike scales have a weak spot near his heart. When Bilbo steals a
golden cup from the dragon’s hoard, Smaug is furious and flies out of the mountain to
burn Lake Town in his rage. Bard, a heroic archer, has learned the secret about
Smaug’s weakness from a thrush, and he fires an arrow into the dragon’s heart, killing
him. Before Smaug dies, however, he burns Lake Town to the ground.
The humans of Lake Town and the elves of Mirkwood march to the Lonely Mountain to
seek a share of the treasure as compensation for their losses and aid, but Thorin
greedily refuses, and the humans and elves besiege the mountain, trapping the
dwarves and the hobbit inside. Bilbo sneaks out to join the humans in an attempt to
bring peace. When Thorin learns what Bilbo has done, he is livid, but Gandalf suddenly
reappears and saves Bilbo from the dwarf lord’s wrath.
At this moment, an army of goblins and Wargs marches on the mountain, and the
humans, elves, and dwarves are forced to band together to defeat them. The goblins
nearly win, but the arrival of Beorn and the eagles helps the good armies win the battle.
After the battle, Bilbo and Gandalf return to Hobbiton, where Bilbo continues to live. He
is no longer accepted by respectable hobbit society, but he does not care. Bilbo now
prefers to talk to elves and wizards, and he is deeply content to be back among the
familiar comforts of home after his grand and harrowing adventures.