1. The Hobbit is one of the biggest-selling books of all time.

An estimated 100 million

people have read Tolkien’s classic children’s novel since it was first published in 1937.
The story of its origins, and Tolkien’s supposed invention of the word ‘hobbit’ (of which
more below), are well-known. But how should we ‘read’ The Hobbit? What does the
story mean?
2. Time And Place Written Roughly between 1929 and 1936 in Oxford,
England; since the story was first told orally to Tolkien’s children, there is
some doubt as to the exact dates of its composition.
Narrator The anonymous narrator is playful and humorous. He tends to speak in a
comic voice with frequent asides and humorous descriptions of the characters.
Bilbo, for instance, is often called Mr. Baggins or “the poor little fellow.”
POV The novel is narrated in the third person, almost exclusively from Bilbo’s point
of view. The narration is omniscient, which means that the narrator not only relates
Bilbo’s thoughts and feelings but also comments on them.
George Allen & Unwin published the first edition of The Hobbit on 21 September 1937 with a print
run of 1,500 copies, which sold out by December because of enthusiastic reviews. This first printing
was illustrated in black and white by Tolkien.Allen & Unwin decided to incorporate the colour
illustrations into their second printing, released at the end of 1937. Despite the book's popularity,
paper rationing due to World War II and not ending until 1949 meant that the Allen & Unwin edition
of the book was often unavailable during this period.
Subsequent editions in English were published in 1951, 1966, 1978 and 1995. In addition, The
Hobbit has been translated into over sixty languages, with more than one published version for some
languages.

3. Bilbo Baggins lives a quiet, peaceful life in his comfortable hole at Bag End. Bilbo lives
in a hole because he is a hobbit—Bilbo is quite content at Bag End, near the 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 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 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 adventure

Bilbo Baggins
The hero of the story.. But Bilbo possesses a great deal of untapped inner
strength, and when the wizard Gandalf persuades Bilbo to join a group of
dwarves on a quest to reclaim their gold from a marauding dragon, Bilbo
ends up playing a crucial role as the company’s burglar. Bilbo’s adventures
awaken his courage and initiative and prove his relentless ability to do what
needs to be done.

Gandalf
A wise old wizard who always seems to know more than he reveals. Gandalf
has a vast command of magic and tends to show up at just the moment he is
needed most. Though he helps the dwarves in their quest (not least by
making Bilbo go along with them), he does not seem to have any interest in
their gold. He always has another purpose or plan in mind, but he rarely
reveals his private thoughts.

Thorin Oakenshield
A dwarf who leads his fellow dwarves on a trip to the Lonely Mountain to
reclaim their treasure from Smaug. Smaug’s bounty is Thorin’s inheritance,
as it belonged to Thror, Thorin’s grandfather, the great King under the
Mountain. Thorin is a proud, purposeful, and sturdy warrior, if a bit stubborn
at times. As the novel progresses, his inability to formulate successful plans,
his greed, and his reliance on Bilbo to save him at every turn make Thorin a
somewhat unappealing figure, but he is partly redeemed by the remorse he
shows before he dies.

Gollum
A strange, small, slimy creature who lives deep in the caves of Moria beneath
the Misty Mountains. There, Gollum broods over his “precious,” a magic ring,
until he accidentally loses it and Bilbo finds it. We never learn exactly what
kind of creature he is. Apparently, his true shape has been too deformed by
years of living in darkness to be recognizable.

Smaug
The great dragon who lives in the Lonely Mountain. Years ago, Smaug heard
of the treasure that the dwarves had amassed in the mountain under Thror’s
reign, and he drove them away to claim the gold for himself. His flaming
breath can scorch a city, his huge wings can carry him great distances, and
his armorlike hide is almost impenetrable. Smaug can speak and possesses a
dark, sardonic sense of humor.

Bard
The grim human who is the honorable captain of the guard in Lake Town, a
human city built on Long Lake just south of the Lonely Mountain. With the
help of information discovered by Bilbo and related by a thrush, Bard finds
Smaug’s weak spot and kills him.

Bilbo’s Heroism
The Hobbit’s main theme is Bilbo’s development into a hero, which more
broadly represents the development of a common person into a hero.
Bilbo’s development might allegorically represent the heroism of England in
World War I. But given Tolkien’s stated distaste for allegory—his main
motivation for writing was storytelling, not the exploration of a literary theme
—it is questionable whether Bilbo’s story should be taken to refer to anyone
except Bilbo himself.

Race

The differences among Tolkien’s imaginary races are a major focus of the
novel, particularly in its second half. Elves, dwarves, trolls, and goblins differ
from one another physically, psychologically, and morally. All goblins are
evil, for example, and all elves are good.. The good races are portrayed as
being in harmony with nature, while the evil races are depicted as being at
odds with it—. Some critics have suggested that the different races in The
Hobbit were meant to represent different European nationalities, but
Tolkien’s distaste for allegory makes this seem highly unlikely.

Contrasting Worldviews
Tolkien was a scholar of ancient languages at Oxford. A major source of
inspiration for The Hobbit’s plot was the body of ancient epic literature that
Tolkien studied, particularly Scandinavian
The Nature and Geography of Middle-Earth
Since The Hobbit takes place in a world of the author’s own creation—
complete with its own history, language, geography, and mythology—much
of the narrative is devoted to incidental descriptions of the places, people,
and things that Bilbo encounters.

Swords
Bilbo’s decision to name his short sword Sting after killing the spider is a
major turning point in his quest—it symbolizes his bravery and initiative, and
presages his transformation into a hero.
Hobbits
Though the thematic importance of hobbits is highly debatable, Tolkien
himself acknowledged that the nature of hobbits was based on the rural,
middle-class English people among whom he lived