The Hobbit

1. The Hobbit A review by Ben Guthrie

2. What is The Hobbit? • The hobbit is the prequel to the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. It involves an ordinary hobbit (small human creature, similar to elves) named Bilbo Baggins. When one day the wizard Gandalf comes to Bilbo offering a profitable quest (that is all he says, he gives no details). Bilbo flatly says no, preferring a normal, simple, life. But he comes back tomorrow with a band of 13 dwarves*, and takes Bilbo into their quest against his will. But little does he know, he has much more to do than just help the dwarves slay the dragon, Smaug, that had captured the dwarf capital and it’s endless treasure, but he finds the invisibility ring, the basis of Hobbit’s sequel. • *One including Thorin, the heir to the dwarf throne

3. Trolls • After sacks of food had washed off a donkey when it nearly drowned in the river, the dwarves and Bilbo (Gandalf disappeared) spot a fire, they think they could get some food. Choosing the stealthiest, Bilbo, being a hobbit, would check if the fire belonged to friend or foe. He found three trolls sitting around it, arguing about finding more food. Bilbo, feeling a little adventurous, tried to pickpocket one of the trolls, but was caught. Soon the dwarves came charging in, worried about Bilbo in the middle of the troll’s conversation on how to eat him. But the dwarves were captured too, and the argument started all over on how to cook them. But it lasted too long, and were turned to stone because of the sun. Gandalf came out of the trees, who had imitated the troll’s voices with magic to lengthen the argument, and keep them out until sunrise. He had used magic to scout ahead, and Rivendell, an elf town, was not far off. When they raided the troll’s cave to see what they could find, it was far more than they ever hoped. Plenty of swords had them all armed, plenty of gold which they buried to come back later for, and two more swords. The last two were not ordinary. They were excellently crafted, and were known for slaying goblins. Goblins utterly feared them, and panicked in their presence. It would be very useful later on.

4. Elves • Soon Bilbo and co. arrive in a small valley inhabited by elves. They welcome them with food and song, giving them a good rest. Elrond does examine the map that Thorin’s father had given Gandalf, along with a mysterious key. The map showed the Desolation of Smaug, the ruined Dwarf Capital. It had a secret passage on the map unknown before. It probably explained Thorin’s father and grandfather’s secret escape from Smaug. Also, Elrond found moon-letters, letters that could only be seen on a certain phase of the moon. It said the passageway would open on Durin’s Day, the dwarf new year. It was doubtful Smaug thought of the passageway; maybe he hadn’t discovered it. It would be vital for a surprise attack. After resting about another week, they headed of to the Misty Mountains.

5. Goblin Tunnels • A storm in the Misty Mountains took Bilbo and co. of guard, and had to take shelter in a damp cave. After waking up from a nightmare, Bilbo finds himself being carried off into a crack in the wall by… GOBLINS! He yells, trying to wake everyone else up, but only Gandalf was alerted. Gandalf uses magic to kill the goblins after him, just before the wall closes up and traps them in. The goblins took them down twisting, winding tunnels until a massive goblin stood before them, the Great Goblin. After poking and taunting them a bit, the goblins go off to sleep, and so to Bilbo and co. But Gandalf comes soon, with the swords, kills the Great Goblin, and rescues the dwarves and Bilbo. Being scared and weak with the adventure, the dwarves take turns carrying him. But fat Bombur drops Bilbo off his back after avoiding a goblin. Bilbo hits his head on a rock, and is lost to the goblins.* • *I could find no school-appropriate pictures for a goblin.

6. Gollum • Bilbo wakes up and finds himself in pitch darkness. Grabbing his sword, he realizes it has a faint glow. Using it to navigate the tunnels, he finds a ring and puts it in his pocket. Figured out what it is? He soon come to a small lake and finds a creature fishing in a boat. The creature, talking to himself, calls himself Gollum and my precousssss. Gollum, not being hungry and rather bored, challenges Bilbo to a riddle contest. If Gollum wins, he gets to keep Bilbo and eat him. If Bilbo wins, Bilbo goes free. The contest lasts a while, and Bilbo is beginning to lose his touch. But after asking himself, “What is in my pocket?” when he felt the ring, forgetting about it in the contest. Gollum, thinking that is Bilbo’s question, loses. But he tries to eat Bilbo anyway, and Bilbo accidentally slips on the ring. After realizing that he was invisible because of the ring, and Gollum crying out for his birthday present, he escapes the goblins easily. But he decides not to tell anyone of the ring, but Gandalf seems to suspect something.

7. Wargs • Since goblins were dizzy in the sunlight, Bilbo and co. got a head start. But the Wargs, savage wolves and the goblin’s partners, came after the dwarves. Gandalf had a contact some miles away, and that would be their next stop. The Wargs chased Bilbo and co. up a tree. Wargs couldn’t climb trees, but goblins could, or cut them down. While Bilbo was fretting, Gandalf made a plan. He lit pinecones on fire with magic and bombed the Wargs. But the goblins had come in, and one lit the tree on fire. But they were rescued by eagles. The king eagle thanked them for dealing with the troublesome Wargs, and let Bilbo and co. ride on them up to Gandalf’s contact.

8. Beorn • Gandalf warned them that his contact, Beorn, had a hot temper, and you had to be very respectful of him. On his farm, were he makes amazing honey and animals that understand English, he is a human. When he is in the forest or wild places, he is a bear. Gandalf believes he is a mountain spirit. They arrived, and Beorn lets them in for their excellent tale. He warns them to NEVER go outside at night. When it is night, he’s with his wild animal friends, and in bear form. The days on his farm get them well rested before their journey to Mirkwood. Soon, he lends them ponies that must be returned at the edge of Mirkwood, gives them food, and warns them of things. One of the things was to NEVER stray from the path, or you’re as good as dead. Also, they will come across a dark river, DON’T DRINK! It will send you to sleep and make you lose memory and sense of direction. After they said goodbye to Beorn and had arrived at the tip of Mirkwood, Gandalf said he must go. He had another quest to complete, and left Bilbo and co.

9. Trials of Mirkwood • Even though sign of dangerous things were just outside of the path, they never entered the path. It was about halfway through the forest that they came across the river. Using a boat that was there to cross, they were fine. Except for Bombur, who fell in, and apparently had drunk the water. Now they had to carry him since he was asleep, which was uncomfortable because he was rather fat. In a few days, he woke up after a dream of a magnificent feast. Soon, they found the feast was real, and went to beg for food. But the elves scattered when they came and took all their food with them. They found more feasts further up, but the same thing happened. After the 3rd time, Bilbo couldn’t sleep. It was a good thing too, because when the spiders came, he was the only one to be awake to fight.

10. Spiders of Mirkwood • Soon giant spiders came, disturbed by the commotion Bilbo and co. had caused. Due to the darkness, he was only able to save himself from the spiders. Using his invisibility ring, Bilbo tracked the spiders. They had wrapped the dwarfs in cocoons. As one spider crawled up to a dwarf, Bilbo threw a rock. The spider was knocked off it’s perch and stuck in one of it’s own webs. Since throwing stones was a childhood hobby of Bilbo’s, he was an excellent marksman. He got another spider stuck in the web, and cut the web with more stones. The spiders fell and died. The remaining spiders came after the direction Bilbo had thrown the rocks. Trying to lure the spiders away from the dwarves, he taunted them with an insulting rhyme. After keeping silent for a while when the spiders were a distance from the dwarves, he rescued them. With their weapons, they escaped the spiders. But Thorin was nowhere to be found.

11. City of the Elves • It was the next day when they figured out what happened to Thorin. The elf king had captured him, demanding to know his business and why he had disturbed his people and the spiders. Thorin doesn’t tell, because there had been a war between dwarfs and elves concerning a debut, and Thorin knew that the king might demand that they send him gold when they had slain Smaug. The other dwarves were also captured, and gave the same response. But Bilbo, being invisible, avoided capture. He spent 2 weeks stealing food, running messages for the captured dwarves, and attempting to devise an escape plan. Finally, he got one. As shipments of food were being shipped down the river from Esaurough, a feast was being held that day and the empty barrels were being shipped back. The guard was sleeping soundly after the feast, and Bilbo stole the keys to the dwarf's cells. He put all the dwarves in empty barrels. But he realized he hadn’t had himself a barrel, and had to ride on top of one. When they washed up on Esaurough, they were half-drowned. But they were at the last town until the The Desolation of Smaug.

12. Esarough and the Foothills of the Mountain • According to a prophecy, when dwarves would come to slay Smaug, Esaurough would prosper as it had when the dwarves lived in the mountain, with rivers running with gold. Esaurough was built on a small island that split the river (and rejoined around it). When the dwarves and Bilbo arrived, they were given the royal treatment. They were well stocked up on their supplies, and set off in about a week. The Desolation of Smaug had little food, but little trouble befell the dwarves. Soon, they came to the point where the secret passage should have been. But it was as sturdy as any stone. The dwarves waited around a week before Durin’s Day seemed to take place. The door exploded and Bilbo went down to scout Smaug and bring back what he could.

13. A Chat with Smaug • Bilbo, still invisible, woken Smaug after his nap. Smaug, thinking of riddles, was trying to guess just what and where was Bilbo. He gave hints of recent events in his life. Smaug began to ruin Bilbo’s trust of the dwarves by asking how could he carry one-fourteenth of the treasure home? Smaug told him that the dwarves were using him for their own gain and would give nothing to Bilbo. But Bilbo didn’t want to be near him any longer, and tried to escape with a gold chalice. Smaug noticed, and breathed fire down the secret passage Bilbo was escaping from. But he escaped, and gave his find to the dwarves. Bilbo voiced his worries about what Smaug had told him, but Thorin said since all of them would stay at the mountain, they hadn’t thought of that. But Smaug was furious. He thought that the dwarves had been sent from Esaurough, and flew down to attack it.

14. Smaug on a Rampage • Esarough was caught off guard in Smaug’s strike, and the town was quickly evacuating. The diamonds that coated Smaug’s vulnerable underside deflected all arrows from the guards, except for one small opening. Bard was the only guard that stood his ground against Smaug. With a silver arrow, made by dwarves and a family heirloom, he destroyed Smaug. The villagers were safe, but the town was destroyed. No one came to that island again, because many thought it was cursed. Bard was the leader of the town until they were settled again, and would be the official leader then. But since Smaug had been angered by the dwarves, the villagers wanted a payment of gold to help rebuild. That’s when things begin to get nasty.

15. Gathering Tensions • There were two factions asking payments from the dwarves: the elves, due to the old war, and the villagers of Esaurough. If battle broke out, Thorin had called for an army from a smaller dwarf city via raven messengers. Battle wasnot far off. Bilbo, attempting to make peace, gave the prize treasure of the dwarves, the Arkenstone, to Bard. Bilbo, wanting to choose his own 14th of the treasure, wanted the Arkenstone, and had kept it secret. He knew Thorin would give all the money Esaurough and the elves wanted for it. But Thorin was furious, and said that he shouldn’t buy what was already his. Bilbo, saying he was only trying to make peace, just made Thorin angry at him. Just as battle was about to break out, Gandalf apppeared in the middle of the two groups. He said that the Goblins and Wargs were mere hours away, in massive armies. They wanted to take the gold, now that Smaug was gone, and take revenge for the dwarves for killing the Great Goblin. The groups united, and stood to defend the mountain. The Battle of the Five Armies was about to begin.

16. The Battle of the Five Armies • Bilbo slipped on his invisiblity ring as the battle began. At first, it seemed as if the mountain was easily defended, and the goblin/warg army was being pushed back and destroyed. But on the back side of the mountain, away from the dwarf/Esaurough/elf army concentraition, golbins charged up, and took a foothold on the back side of the mountain. Now the dwarf/Esaurough/elf army was trapped. It seemed like they were losing. Fili, Kili, and Thorin had died, future leaders of the dwarf kingdom. Then Bilbo spotted the eagles who had assisted Bilbo and the dwarves earlier. They dropped boulders on the goblins, and the tide began to turn. But Bilbo, being invisible, was not seen by the eagles. When a rock was accidentally dropped on Bilbo’s head, he was knocked out cold. He did not see the end of the battle.

17. The Aftermath of the Battle • Bilbo woke up a few hours later and found the area in peace. Gandalf said that he should be fine, since he was wearing a helmet. Gandalf had just defeated a dark wizard, and he was the last evil foe in current times. They had won the battle. Not long after the eagles had come, Beorn had arrived in bear form and tore the goblin army to shreds. Thorin’s ghost visited Bilbo before he went to afterlife-world. He apologized to Bilbo for his anger, and understood his intentions. Bard gave him the Arkenstone, showing he meant peace. The leader of the dwarf army came to Thorin, and he became the next King Under the Mountain. Bilbo, followed by Gandalf and Beorn, made the journey home. His reward, since he could carry so little, was one chest of silver and one chest of gold. Luckily, he was not robbed. Not yet, anyway. When was finally home, he arrived right in the middle of all his stuff being auctioned off. He had been gone for a year, and everyone thought he was dead. Some of his stuff that had already been bought, he had to buy back with his reward money. Over time, it had been stolen, probably by the people who had hosted the auction. But the elf armor he had worn in the battle stayed put, and his nephews loved him to tell the story. All was happy for Bilbo.