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.
