The Hobbit

Summary

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again tells how Bilbo Baggins, a comfortable, respectable hobbit of Bag-End under the Hill, is drawn into an adventure he never wanted. The wizard Gandalf marks his door, and thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield arrive for an unexpected party. They plan to travel to the Lonely Mountain, Erebor, and recover the treasure of Thorin's grandfather Thror, King under the Mountain, from the dragon Smaug, who took it long ago and destroyed the town of Dale. Bilbo is hired as their burglar. On the road the company is nearly eaten by three trolls, rests with Elrond at Rivendell, where the moon-letters on Thror's map are read, and is captured by goblins in the Misty Mountains. Separated in the dark, Bilbo finds a ring on the tunnel floor, plays a riddle game with the creature Gollum, and escapes invisible. After a rescue by the Eagles from goblins and wolves, the company shelters with Beorn, a skin-changer who can take the shape of a bear, and then enters the dark forest of Mirkwood. There Bilbo, growing in courage and resource, frees the dwarves from giant spiders with his sword Sting and later from the dungeons of the Elvenking by floating them out in barrels. At Lake-town (Esgaroth) the townsfolk welcome Thorin as the heir of the old songs. Bilbo finds the secret door on Durin's Day, goes down the tunnel alone, steals a cup, and in a second visit trades riddling talk with Smaug and spots a bare patch on the dragon's jeweled breast. Enraged, Smaug attacks Lake-town, where the bowman Bard, told of the weak spot by an old thrush, kills him with his black arrow. The men of the lake and the Elvenking's army then come to the Mountain to claim a share of the treasure, and Thorin, gripped by love of the gold, refuses. Bilbo secretly gives Bard the Arkenstone, the heart of the hoard, to force a bargain; Thorin casts him out. War is averted only when goblins and wolves attack, and dwarves, elves, men, the Eagles and Beorn unite in the Battle of Five Armies. The mortally wounded Thorin makes peace with Bilbo before he dies. Bilbo returns home with a modest share of treasure to find his goods being auctioned, his reputation gone, and his happiness entire. Tolkien began the story around 1930 for his children; George Allen & Unwin published it in London on 21 September 1937 with his own illustrations and maps, and Houghton Mifflin issued it in the United States in 1938.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-3: An Unexpected Party to A Short Rest

  Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves enlist Bilbo; the company is captured by the trolls Bert, Tom and William and saved at dawn, then rests at Rivendell, where Elrond reads the moon-letters on Thror's map.

• Chapters 4-6: Over Hill and Under Hill to Out of the Frying-Pan

  Goblins seize the company in the Misty Mountains; Bilbo, lost alone, finds the ring and wins his way past Gollum in the riddle game; the Eagles rescue the company from the wolves and goblins.

• Chapters 7-9: Queer Lodgings to Barrels out of Bond

  Beorn shelters and equips the company; in Mirkwood they lose the path, are bound by spiders and imprisoned by the Wood-elves, and Bilbo frees them all in empty barrels down the river.

• Chapters 10-12: A Warm Welcome to Inside Information

  Lake-town hails Thorin; the company finds the secret door on Durin's Day, and Bilbo creeps down to Smaug's lair, takes a cup, and later talks with the dragon in riddles, learning of the unarmoured patch.

• Chapters 13-14: Not at Home and Fire and Water

  Smaug leaves the Mountain to burn Lake-town; Bard, guided by the thrush, shoots him down, and the burning dragon falls into the lake.

• Chapters 15-17: The Gathering of the Clouds to The Clouds Burst

  Thorin fortifies the Mountain and refuses the claims of men and elves; Bilbo gives the Arkenstone to Bard, is driven out, and the arrival of goblins and wolves turns the standoff into the Battle of Five Armies.

• Chapters 18-19: The Return Journey and The Last Stage

  Thorin dies reconciled with Bilbo; Bard and Dain divide the treasure justly; Bilbo journeys home with Gandalf, recovers his half-auctioned property, and settles into a contented and unrespectable life.

Characters

• Bilbo Baggins, protagonist

  Comfort-loving hobbit whose hidden Took courage grows as the company's burglar.

• Gandalf, wizard

  Grey wizard who chooses Bilbo for the quest and appears at critical moments.

• Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the dwarves

  Proud heir of Thror whose love of the treasure nearly brings war, and who repents as he dies.

• Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, Thorin's companions

  The twelve other dwarves of the company, among them kindly Balin and the young brothers Fili and Kili.

• Smaug, dragon

  Vain, cunning dragon lying on the plundered hoard of Erebor.

• Gollum, creature of the roots of the mountain

  Slimy, lonely riddler who has lost his precious ring to Bilbo.

• Bard, bowman of Lake-town

  Grim descendant of the lords of Dale who kills Smaug and bargains fairly for the treasure.

• Beorn, skin-changer

  Huge, gruff man who can become a bear and helps the company before and during the battle.

• Elrond, master of Rivendell

  Wise half-elven host who reads the moon-letters on Thror's map.

• The Elvenking, ruler of the Wood-elves

  King of Mirkwood who imprisons the dwarves and later marches to the Mountain.

• Dain, dwarf lord of the Iron Hills

  Thorin's cousin who brings an army and becomes King under the Mountain.

Lessons

• Courage in an ordinary person

  Bilbo begins as a hobbit who wants nothing but his armchair and his teacups, yet his bravest act is walking alone down the tunnel toward Smaug. Tolkien shows courage growing through small decisions, from the spiders of Mirkwood to the barrels, until it becomes part of who Bilbo is.

  • Where does Bilbo first act bravely without Gandalf's help?
  • Why does Tolkien say the bravest thing Bilbo ever did was turning back to go on down the tunnel?
  • What does Bilbo gain from the journey that is worth more than treasure?

• The sickness of hoarded gold

  Smaug lies on gold he cannot use, and Thorin, once inside the Mountain, comes close to becoming like him. The book contrasts that grasping with Bard's fairness, Dain's generosity, and Bilbo's willingness to give away the Arkenstone for peace.

  • How is Thorin changed after he enters the Mountain?
  • Was Bilbo right to give the Arkenstone to Bard, or was it a betrayal?
  • What does Thorin understand at the end that he did not understand before?

• Pity and mercy

  In the dark under the Misty Mountains Bilbo has the chance to kill Gollum and does not, moved by a sudden pity for the creature's misery. The scene, sharpened in Tolkien's 1951 revision, plants the idea of mercy at the very moment Bilbo gains his greatest advantage.

  • Why does Bilbo spare Gollum when he could escape more easily by killing him?
  • Is mercy a weakness or a strength in this story?

• Home and the road

  The subtitle There and Back Again names the shape of the book: Bilbo leaves home, is changed by the wide world, and comes back. He returns to find his spoons missing and his neighbours suspicious, but he is content, and the Shire looks different to him now.

  • How does Bilbo's idea of comfort change between Chapter 1 and Chapter 19?
  • Why does Tolkien bring Bilbo home rather than leaving him in the wide world?

Context

Tolkien wrote The Hobbit while Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, steeped in Old English and Old Norse literature. Its dwarf names and Gandalf's name come from the Old Norse Völuspá, the theft of a cup from a sleeping dragon echoes Beowulf, and the riddle contest recalls riddle games in Norse and Old English tradition. The story also draws on his larger private mythology of Elves and the Elder Days, which appears at the edges in Elrond, the elven swords from Gondolin and the Wood-elves. Written between the wars by a veteran of the Somme, it treats battle, greed and reconciliation with a seriousness under its comic surface.

Composition

Tolkien recalled writing the first sentence on a blank page of an examination script he was marking around 1930, and he told the story to his children before writing it down. The typescript circulated among friends, reached George Allen & Unwin, and was recommended by the publisher's ten-year-old son Rayner Unwin. It appeared on 21 September 1937 with Tolkien's black-and-white drawings, maps and dust jacket; the American edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1938) added colour plates. For the 1951 second edition Tolkien rewrote Chapter 5, Riddles in the Dark, so that Gollum's ring would fit The Lord of the Rings, and he made further revisions for the 1966 third edition.

Reception

The first printing sold out by Christmas 1937. C. S. Lewis praised it in The Times, the American edition won the New York Herald Tribune prize for the best juvenile fiction of 1938, and it was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Allen & Unwin's request for a sequel led to The Lord of the Rings. It has never gone out of print and has been translated into dozens of languages.

Comparisons

• on-fairy-stories

  Tolkien's lecture of 1939 explains the ideas behind The Hobbit: secondary worlds, recovery, escape and the eucatastrophe, the sudden joyous turn seen when the Eagles arrive at the Battle of Five Armies.

• the-lord-of-the-rings

  The sequel turns Bilbo's magic ring into the One Ring and darkens the world of the earlier book, which is why Tolkien revised the Gollum chapter in 1951.

• beowulf

  A thief's theft of a cup from a sleeping dragon wakes the beast to burn the land in both poems; Tolkien's famous Beowulf lecture of 1936 was written while The Hobbit was nearing publication.

• the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

  Two Oxford friends wrote children's fantasy from Christian conviction: Lewis by open allegory-like story, Tolkien by a world where providence works quietly through luck and pity.

• the-odyssey

  Both are journeys out and home again, with monsters, hospitality and disguises, and a homecoming that finds the house in the hands of others.

• treasure-island

  Both turn a map and a hoard of gold into a test of character, showing how treasure divides companions.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The tug in Bilbo between his Baggins side, which loves comfort, and his Took side, which longs for adventure, beginning at the unexpected party.
• Each time Bilbo solves a problem himself: the spiders in Chapter 8, the barrels in Chapter 9, the tunnel in Chapter 12, the Arkenstone in Chapter 16.
• How the treasure changes Thorin after Smaug's death, and what he says to Bilbo in Chapter 18.
• Gandalf's last words to Bilbo in Chapter 19 about whether his escapes were only luck.

Key terms and names

Burglar

The professional role the dwarves hire Bilbo to fill, which he grows into by stealing a cup, the Arkenstone, and finally his friends out of prison.

Arkenstone

The great white jewel of Thrain, the Heart of the Mountain, which Thorin desires above all the rest of the hoard.

Erebor

The Lonely Mountain, the dwarf kingdom taken by Smaug and the goal of the quest.

Mirkwood

The great dark forest where the company must not leave the path, and where Bilbo first proves himself.

Durin's Day

The last moon of autumn on which, according to the moon-letters, a keyhole will appear in the hidden door of the Mountain.

Sting

Bilbo's elvish short sword from the trolls' cave, named after he kills his first spider in the dark.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why do Thorin and the dwarves want to go to the Lonely Mountain, and why does Gandalf choose Bilbo to go with them?
2. Comprehension How does Bilbo rescue the dwarves from the Elvenking's halls in Chapter 9?
3. Comprehension Who kills Smaug, and how does he learn the dragon's weakness?
4. Interpretation Why does Tolkien call Bilbo's decision to keep walking down the tunnel toward Smaug the bravest thing he ever did, braver than anything after?
5. Interpretation Is Thorin a villain, a hero, or something in between? Use both his refusal to share and his deathbed words.
6. Interpretation Bilbo spares Gollum in Chapter 5 and gives up the Arkenstone in Chapter 16. What do these two choices have in common?
7. Big Question Gandalf hints that Bilbo's adventures were not managed by mere luck. Can a person be both free and guided by providence?
8. Big Question Why might a small and ordinary person be better suited than a great warrior to carry out an important task?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 6:19-21 (Scripture)

  Jesus warns against laying up treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt, for where the treasure is, there the heart will be also. Smaug's hoard, and what it does to Thorin's heart, makes the warning vivid.

• 1 Corinthians 1:27 (Scripture)

  God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. Gandalf's choice of a small hobbit over a warrior, and the help Bilbo gives to proud dwarves and kings, follows that pattern.

• Proverbs 16:9 (Scripture)

  A man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Gandalf's closing remark that Bilbo's escapes were not all mere luck points to a providence Tolkien leaves unnamed.

• J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories (1939; published 1947) (Great Conversation)

  Tolkien, a devout Catholic, argued that the joyful sudden turn of a fairy story, which he called eucatastrophe, is a far-off echo of the Gospel. The Eagles' coming at the Battle of Five Armies, which Bilbo greets with a cry, is the turn he meant.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Greatness is not measured by size, strength or wealth. The dragon and the dwarf king, who measure themselves by their treasure, are consumed by it; the small hobbit, who values food, cheer and friends, proves braver, wiser and more generous than they. Therefore the one who seems least fitted for the quest is the one who saves it, and the treasure finds its right use only when it is shared.

Rhetorical device: narratorial aside. Tolkien's storyteller speaks directly to the reader throughout, from the description of hobbits in Chapter 1 to the judgment on Bilbo's courage in the tunnel in Chapter 12, giving the book the voice of a tale told aloud.

Debate: Resolved: Bilbo's gift of the Arkenstone to Bard was an act of loyalty to Thorin, not a betrayal.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace Bilbo's growth from Chapter 1 to Chapter 19 through three turning points, and argue which one marks the moment he becomes a true member of the company.

Comparison with Beowulf: Both Beowulf and The Hobbit end with a dragon roused by a stolen cup and an old king who dies after the fight. Compare Beowulf's death with Thorin's and argue what each poet thinks treasure is for.

Medical Lens

Medicine is not a concern of the book, but a few strands interest a clinical reader. Hunger is a real hardship in Mirkwood, where the company runs out of food, Bombur falls into an enchanted sleep after touching the black stream, and the dwarves stumble toward the elves' feasting lights. The treasure's hold on Thorin is described as a bewitchment that grows the longer he stays with the hoard; it can be read as a fable of fixation and possessiveness, though Tolkien frames it morally and mythically, not medically. Thorin's death from battle wounds, and the deaths of Fili and Kili, give the book a single grave deathbed scene in which reconciliation matters more than cure. Bilbo's comic misery in the rain without a pocket-handkerchief early on, and the heavy cold he catches after the barrel ride, are a light thread of ordinary illness.

• Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders

  Food runs out in Mirkwood; Bombur falls into the enchanted stream and sleeps, dreaming of feasts.

  Starvation Nutrition
• Chapters 15-16

  Thorin, inside the Mountain, will not share the treasure and searches obsessively for the Arkenstone.

  Obsession Monomania
• Chapter 18: The Return Journey

  Thorin lies wounded in a tent after the battle and makes peace with Bilbo before dying.

  WAR Wounds Death Dying

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write the scene from Smaug's point of view in Chapter 12, as the dragon tries to work out who the invisible riddling visitor is.

• Poetry

  Compose a new riddle in the style of Bilbo and Gollum's contest, with an answer drawn from life in the Shire.

• Classroom

  Trace the company's route on the Map of Wilderland and mark the moment on each stage when Bilbo acts on his own.

• Essay

  Defend or condemn Bilbo's gift of the Arkenstone to Bard, using what Thorin says in Chapter 18.

Further Reading

• The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

• The Annotated Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson

• The History of the Hobbit, John D. Rateliff

• J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter

• The Road to Middle-earth, Tom Shippey