The book begins with Bilbo Baggins enjoying a pipe afterbreakfast. Th is is one of his favorite pleasures and he feels quitecontent in doing so. He is middle-aged, and resides in a clean warmburrow in the ground. One morning Gandalf, a wizard stops by to chat with Bilbo.
Heinforms Bilbo that he is looking for someone to go on an adventure withhim. Although Bilbo is tempted he declines, but not before invitingGandalf for tea the next morning. The next day Bilbo hears his doorbell and he recalls invitingGandalf for tea, but instead of the wizard at the door, there is agroup of dwarves. .
. thirteen in all. Thorin son of the dwarf king starts to outline a plan on how toregain the tr easure stolen by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo is shocked torealize these plans involve him! He then realizes that Gandalf hastricked him by inscribing on his doo r that he was a burglar seeking ajob with lots of excitement.
With all this talk of quests and gloryBilbo decides to join the party after all. Gandalf reveals a key and a map of their journey which ends at theLon ely Mountain. It is there that the treasure of Thorin’s ancestorsare kept-guar ded by Smaug. The quest begins and the party meets at the Green Dragon Inn. Fromthere they venture into the Lone-lands. As heavy rains begin to fall,Bilbo notice s that Gandalf is missing.
When it starts to pour theystop to investigate a light. There Bilbo finds three trolls grumblingabout food. Bilbo decides to live up to title of burglar and attempts to pickone of the trolls pocket. However they quickly capture him. The dwarfssee what’s going on and try to save poor Bilbo.
. . yet all of themexcept Thorin is caught. Thorin formulates a plan of freeing them butfails. Gandalf returns and occupies the trolls till dawn, then the turninto stone. They group take the two swords and a knife the trolls werecarrying.
The travelers come across the Secret Valley. There they stop atElrond ‘s Last Homely House. Elrond tells them the only way to use thekey that Thorin possesses is to wait where the thrush knocks and thesetting sun will shine up on the keyhole. The next morning the group heads toward the Misty Mountains. Astorm has caused them to seek shelter in a cave.
The cave howeverturns out to be an entrance to the goblin kingdom. Once again thegroup is captured. Only Gandalf is free, and he slays the Goblin King,and once again free the party from impend ing doom. During the escape Bilbo is knocked unconscious and is left behind. He awakes to find himself power which makes it’s wearer invisible – thering which Bilbo found. Bilbo slips the ring upon his finger and disappears.
He followsGollum stealthily toward the entrance to the outside world. He thenbounds over Gollu m’s head to freedom. Outside he is reunited with hisdwarf friends. Later they encounter Wargs (large savage wolves).
The Wargs chase the party into the trees. High in the branchesGandalf uses a spell to turn the pine cones a fire, in order to drivethe wolves away. However the plan backfires and the very trees theytook refuge in are now ablaze!Luckily for them the king of the eagles spotted them. He and hiseagles swooped out of the sky and whisked our adventures to safety. The eagles dropped them off near Mirkwood Forest. This is where theycome across Beorn, a bear like man who can indeed change into a bear.
He puts them up for the night and outfits them with supplies for th eirtrip into Mirkwood. He also warns them not to stray from the path inthe fo rest. When they are ready to enter the forest, Gandalf announces he willnot be accompanying them in this part of the journey. The group feelslost without him but yet they press on.
They come across a black river. It is here that Bombur, one ofthe Dwarves falls in and is thrust into a sleep from which he cannotawake. Food is scarce now and the hungry travelers are lured off thepath by visions of elves feasting in the forest. To their surprizeevery time they announce their presence to the elves. . .
they elvesvanish!Once again Bilbo finds himself seperated from the group. He stopsfor a short nap and awakes to find himself tied down by a giant spider. He uses his sword to cut himself free. He then attacks the spider andkills it. Feeling proud of his deed, he decides to name his sword”Sting”. Bilbo finds his friends deep within the forest.
They too werecaptured by spiders, but did not have the good fortune of escaping. Bilbo puts on his m agic ring and implements a plan to rescue hiscompanions. It is a success and t he party (once again) gets out of anawful predicament. The celebration of escaping the spiders is short lived since thedwarf s are yet again captured. . .
this time by the Wood Elves. Bilbohowever dons his ring and escapes capture. He followed the elves tothere home in the forest. There he formulated a plan to free his friends.
He opens theircells and seal them in barrels. He then floated the barrel up theriver to Lake-town and free dom. In Lake-town they get more supplies and venture to the LonelyMountain. On the mountain they heard a thrush drop a snail to therocks. Recalling what Beorn told them about the thrush and sunlight,they quickly found the hidden b ack entrance to Smaug’s lair.
/ Bilbo puts on his ring and goes to confront the dragon. It is therehe notices that in Smaug’s underbelly there is a place that is not coveredby his iron like scales. After conversing with the dragon Bilbo returns tothe party. Smaug however is thoroughly angry about his little invisiblevisitor and heads to destroy Lake-town.
When the dragon attacks, a thrush told Bard (the captain of thearchers) that Smaug has a weak spot in his breast. Bard used his blackarrow to slay the beast. Then the towns people made him king of Lake-town. With smaug dead the men and elves go to claim his hordedtreasure. Dwarf troops under Thorin’s kinsman Dain also appear.
Therebickering was soon changed to alliance when the Wargs and Goblinsapproached. . . and so began The Battle of the Five Armies. During thebattle Thorin is hurt and Bilbo gets knocked unconscious by fallingrocks.
The eagles as well as Beorn, in bear form join the fray. TheWargs and goblins were vanquished. Bilbo later returned to his burrowunder the hill with a chest of trea sure, a ring of power, and heartfull of adventure. BOOK REVIEWI liked this book alot.
The author uses characters that appearonly in fairy tales, yet gives them a personality that shows maturity. I especialy liked the way Bilbo changed from a tea drinking home makerto a swash buckling adv enturer. I would highly recommend this book for children of all ages aswell as adults. It has a certain appeal that makes the reader want tocontinue reading the book all day. I am certainly going to read the other books about the Hobbits byJ.
R. R. Tolkien.
