The Hobbit Summaries:
Chapter 1: In Chapter 1 of The Hobbit the characters are introduced and the story begins. Bilbo Baggins seems to be the main character, Bilbo is a hobbit who lives in a cozy, comfy hole like many other hobbits. Bilbo lives a quiet, peaceful life until a wizard named Gandalf and his dwarves come and tell Bilbo he is destined to join their journey. Bilbo doesn’t think he is cut out for this journey and neither do the dwarves, but Gandalf does. While Bilbo accompanies to the dwarves and Gandalf’s every need, they explain the journey. Thorin, who could be classified as the most important dwarf explains most of the journey. The journey is to reclaim the treasure that Thorin’s family once had but is now protected by Smaug an enormous dragon who stole it. Bilbo Baggins feels very uneasy about attending this journey and at the end of the chapter does not even know if he will participate. The setting of this chapter is “The Hill”, where many Hobbit holes are. Symbols used in this chapter were; the maps that the dwarves/Gandalf have symbolize direction of their journey. Also, some of the songs that the dwarves sing symbolize hints and feelings. A developing theme I see is “anyone can be a hero,” because I think Bilbo will end up going.

Chapter 2: In the second chapter, the journey begins! Bilbo wakes up and assumes that Gandalf and the dwarves have left without him since none of them are present. Shortly after, Gandalf comes in and shows Bilbo a note that says he needed to meet the dwarves at 11 to begin. Bilbo meets up with the dwarves and they begin, they sing songs, chat and Bilbo thinks adventures maybe aren’t so bad. Later on, it starts getting rainy and everyone’s mood turns glum. The dwarves and Bilbo start looking for shelter and a dry place, after they realize that Gandalf has left! The dwarves spot a light and nominate Bilbo to figure out what it is. Bilbo quickly figures out the light was a fire that 3 trolls had started. All alone, Bilbo starts to panic and tries to take a purse from the troll’s pocket. Bilbo fails at doing so, but the trolls decide not to eat Bilbo because he’s so small. Bilbo had not come back to the dwarves so they began looking for him, soon the dwarves found him and they were captured. The trolls planned on eating the dwarves until Gandalf came to the rescue, he distracted them until a light came and turned them to stone. Ending this chapter, Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves took things from the dwarf’s shelter that they could potentially need. Gandalf informs everyone that their journey ahead is very difficult. The only new characters introduced were Bert, Tom and William (the trolls). The setting of this chapter was the dwarf’s shelter. Symbolism I noticed was the trolls symbolized an obstacle for the group to overcome. A developing theme I see is “with every journey there is obstacle and difficulty”.

Chapter 3: In Chapter 3 of the book the journey continues. The dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo are a little glum at the beginning of the chapter because they were tired and hungry. The weather was good though, and their journey was not even close to being over because they had just entered the Misty Mountains. Meanwhile on their journey, they run into elves (lots of them) who were singing in the secret valley of Rivendell. These elves lead the group to the last homely house where a chief elf named Elron ran the house. Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves stayed here for 14+ days and grew stronger/happier with their stay! They left with lots of packed food and continued their journey over the Misty Mountains. The same characters were used, but Elrond was introduced. The setting of this chapter was on the way through the Misty Mountains and at the last homely house. Elrond I thought symbolized guidance, because he helped the group. Developing to the overall theme is “Journeys have their ups and downs”.

Chapter 4: In this chapter the adventure begins, but with more danger and difficulty than before. The mountain that the group was traveling along at the beginning began to frustrate them because it was straight up, and they could see the land they’d traveled on below. Bilbo and everyone else besides Gandalf made frustrated comments. Soon, a terrible thunderstorm began and was extremely rough. They tried to take shelter underneath a rock, but they weren’t protected or covered well so they moved to a cave. After they fell asleep, Goblins came through a crack in the cave and captured everyone but Gandalf. The goblins were known for being torturous and eating off of larger things. The Great Goblin questioned Thorin about the journey, but got fed up when he saw Thorin’s sword that at one time was used to kill many goblins. Right when the Goblins were about to kill all of them, the lights went out and sparks killed many of the goblins. Of course it was Gandalf that saved all of them once again. Without any supplies, food, or horses they continued. The goblins were following them and even knew the path better. The goblins eventually caught up then got scared off by the 2 swords the group had. The chapter ended by Dori (one of the dwarf’s) getting grabbed by a goblin and Bilbo rolling off into the darkness. Characters in this chapter were the same ones, plus the goblins and the Great Goblin. The setting of this chapter was in the cave, and traveling along the mountain. Symbols I noticed within the chapter, along with other dangers, the goblins were an obstacle. A developing theme I see is “Every problem requires a hero”, and the hero again was Gandalf. A question I had was “How did all of the goblins not die from the sparks?”

Chapter 5: In this chapter of The Hobbit, Bilbo wakes up from blacking out, and he wakes up in a dark place. Bilbo soon figures out that he is in a black tunnel after walking around for a while. While trying to get out, Bilbo comes upon some water with a creature in it, Gollum. Gollum is a small, slimy creature who talks to himself. Gollum lives in the water but does not associate with the Goblins at the other side of the tunnel. Gollum considered eating/harming Bilbo but he did not know if he was hungry enough. Instead, they gave each other riddles and if Bilbo didn’t answer correctly he got eaten. If Gollum did not answer correctly then he could show Bilbo the way out. Ended up, Gollum did not guess correctly because Bilbo asked what was in his pocket. What Gollum didn’t know was Bilbo had his birthday present ring that made you invisible. Gollum chased Bilbo through the tunnel, but really Bilbo was behind Gollum. Bilbo had the ring so in the end he used it to be invisible to get past the large Goblin guards. So Bilbo escaped and knew he could get away now. Characters used in this chapter were Bilbo, Gollum and the goblins. The setting of this chapter was in the dark tunnel. I thought the ring symbolized support and power. A developing theme I see is “Sometimes you have to be your own hero,” because Bilbo had to save himself.

Chapters 6 and 7: In these two chapters, many things happened. At the beginning of these chapters, Bilbo had escaped from the goblins dark tunnel and he was on his own. After a while Bilbo surprised the dwarves and Gandalf when he found them. Shortly after, even though they were all hungry they continued their journey. After traveling for a while they came upon a spot in the mountains that they thought was good to rest at. They were wrong… A huge pack of wolves swiftly came to them, and to avoid getting killed the group hid in tall trees. Out of panic, Gandalf set pines on fire and threw them at the wolves since they were scared of fire. The chief wolf was infuriated and decided to get goblins to help. Luckily, eagles spotted the mischief and rescued the group to fly them to safety. The eagles thankfully got them before they burned in the fire, the eagles let them sleep, eat and then flew them over the Misty Mountains the next day, While traveling Gandalf made the group aware that he knew of a person who lived in these parts, a skin changer named Beorn. After a while they all arrived at Beorn’s property with lots of animals and wood buildings. It took a long time for Beorn to meet all the dwarves, but after a while he did meet them all while listening to Gandalf’s story of the journey. They all stayed with Beorn for a couple days and grew stronger. They got food, supplies, and animals to ride for their joruney. Beorn gave them advice to travel through the mirkwood forest to get to the other side. Eventually they set off on the borrowed ponies and horses. Gandalf told the hobbit and the dwarves that he had buisness to tend to and left them for Bilbo to look after. They sent the ponies back and entered the Mirkwood forest. The setting of these chapters were the misty mountains, and Beorn’s house. Characters used were; Gandalf, the dwarves, Bilbo, wolves, eagles, and Beorn. Symbolism I noticed, along with Elron, Beorn symbolized guidance. A theme I see is “it’s okay to depend on others in tough situations”.

Chapters 8, 9 and 10: This section had lots of complications and difficulties that the group had to face. The section started by them entering the Mirkwood forest. The Mirkwood forest was extremely dark, day and night. The forest had close to no food or water sources. After traveling for some time the group had no food left and they became very desperate. They all kept seeing lights and torches, thinking they saw huge food feasts. Once they would travel towards the lights to try to instigate the lights would go out. One time when Bilbo went to look, after he could not find any of the dwarves and it was no use to look for them. Bilbo dozed off and soon realized he was being attacked and webbed by spiders. Bilbo began to panick and took out his sword to cut the webs. After he was free he put on his ring to become invisible and found all the dwarves hanging high up in webs. Bilbo began trying to help the dwarves escape by killing the spiders with his sword or throwing stones. After a battle, Bilbo managed to fight off the spiders in time to cut the dwarves free. Bilbo freed all the dwarves, but they all soon realized Thorin was no where to be seen. As soon as they escaped from there, another tragedy struck when wood elves captured the dwarves. Bilbo avoided being taken as prisoner by putting his ring on to become invisible where the elves couldn’t see him. The head of the elves pressured everyone to give him information but none of them would, so he put them into custody of individual cells. The group stayed there for weeks, and eventually figured out Thorin was there too. The dwarves were depending on Bilbo to come up with an idea to help them escape. Finally Bilbo had listened into conversations and figued out a plan for escape. While the guards and head elf were passed out drunk, Bilbo got the kes and unlocked all the dwarves from their cells. Bilbo packed them into barrels that usually carried canned goods over to a river. Bilbo hung on to a barrel the whole way there, and was extremely uncomfortable. When they reached land the lonely mountain was in sight ad close now. When all the dwarves were unloaded they were sore and grumpy, but cheered up when they got to laketown. At laketown they were welcomed warmly, groomed, fed, bathed and cheered. They got this welcome because the ancestry of Thrain was there, Thorin. After they got strong they continued their journey into the lonely mountain to defeat Smaug. They took boats and had horses waiting for them when they reached their destination. Characters used in this section were Bilbo, the dwarves, the elves, spiders, the master of laketown and guards. The settings of this section were; Mirkwood forest, the elves cave and laketown. Symbols used in this section was; Bilbo symbolized a hero because he led them all to safety, and the elves & spiders were obstacles as well. A theme I see developing is “heroism comes when being depended on”, because Bilbo was the indpendent hero here.

Chapters 11, 12 and 13: In this section of the Hobbit the group faces their worst fears. At the beginning of chapter 11 the boats arrive at a part of the Lonely Mountain. The first thing the group does is finds a spot to keep their ponies and supplies. The next task they try to achieve is finding the secret door, which is not very easy until Bilbo finds the door. Bilbo calls the rest of the group over to look at the problem, there is no key hole. The group gets again upset but soon enough rock starts to break and reaveals the key hole. Thorin pulls out the key that Grandlaf gave him and inserted the key to open the door. Behind the door was a tunnel that the group nomintates Bilbo to investigate. Bilbo slides on his ring and then goes into the tunnel to find Smaug the powerful dragon sleeping. While Smaug was sleeping, Bilbo took a valuable cup that was by Smaug where some of the treasure was. Quickly Bilbo went back to the group to show them what he got. The dwarves started to get worried what Smaug would do once he figured out he’d been robbed. Later on, Smaug had became furious, he burned trees and ate the groups ponies. The group was terrified for what was to come. Again, Bilbo entered the tunnel to where Smaug was. Bilbo noticed Smaug seemed fast asleep but eventually came to the conclusion he had been faking it! Luckily Bilbo had on his ring but Smaug and Bilbo started to have a conversation. Bilbo told him his groups intentions for their jourmey and Smaug only seemed amused, telling Bilbo that he couldn’t be defeated. Somehow Bilbo escaped from Smaug and gathered the others. They stayed behind a door until they heard no signs of Smaug, which was a while. When Thorin said he couldn’t take it anymore behind the door, they decided to go out. They didn’t hear Smaug so the group looked around at the treasure and came down to the palace overlooking Dale. Thorin commented that everything would look better once it was cleaned and renovated, which would only be possible when Smaug was dead. The chapter ended by the group settling in a rock chamber, sleeping, with NO signs of Smaug. Characters used in this chapter were; Bilbo, the dwarves and Smaug. The settings were; behind the secret door/the tunnel, the palace and the rock chamber. Symbolism used was; Smaug symbolizes evil. A developing theme I see is “Evil must be defeated with teamwork and heroism.”

Chapter 14, 15 and 16: This section began by not telling the events and occurances of Bilbo and the dwarves, but of the people of Laketown. Bilbo and his group were very worried that Smaug would attack the people of Laketown for helping them, and that’s what Smaug did. Smaug entered while the people were somewhat prepared with arrows, but Smaug still did a huge amount of damage. He burned houses and buildings to the ground, as well as only 2/3 of the towns people escaped on boats. The men used every last arrow on Smaug which seemed to not bother him, until a man named Bard used a special black arrow. Bard shot it at Smaugs chest, right under his left breast and killed him! The news had spread to everywhere and eventually got to Bilbo and the dwarves from a raven. Everyone was very happy, especially Thorin who led the group to the palace-like building behind the front gate. The group stayed there for a while, and a few different packs of people came to the gate. Armed men, Bard and the elvenking, all got their offers denied to have a share of the treasure. Thorin felt it was all his and made no agreements to anyone. A huge group of dwarves were coming at Thorins request, and Bilbo was worried this would stir up battle. In reaction, Bilbo left at night and gave Bard and the elvenking the arkenstone. The arkenstone was an extremely valuable stone that he gave them in return for peace. Bard and the elvenking were very thankful for this. Bilbo headed back to his friends, and spoke to Gandalf briefly finding out that news was to come. Characters used in this section were; Bilbo, the dwaraves, Bard, Smaug, the elves, the ravens and the laketown people. The overall setting was laketown, and close to Dale. In this section the arkentstone symbolized greed and peace. A developing theme I see is “All journeys have excitement, conflict, and success.” A comment I have is that I hope there is peace because of the arkenstone in the end, to make Bilbo’s time worth while.

Chapter 17,18 and 19: In this section of the book, the journey ends. In the beginning of it Thorin figures out that Bilbo gave the arkenstone to Bard. Thorin disowns Bilbo and is very angry about it, so he sends Bilbo with Bard. At their camp Bilbo stays there until shortly after they figure out that goblins and wolves are coming, ready to battle everyone! Because of this Bard lets the huge group of dwarves in with no problem since they have bigger conflicts to deal with. When the goblins do come, the “battle of the 5 armies” begins. The elves attack first because of their strong hatred to goblins, and then shortly after the dwarves all join in too. The battle continued and Thorin came, at first Thorin was very invincible but by the end of the battle he died of his wounds. Fili and Kili also died of protecting Thorin. Many people from each army died, but in the end the goblins and wolves got wiped out. When the battle ended with the help of Beorn and the eagles, the elves, men and dwarves had won. Bilbo and Gandalf preprred for their journey back home, took some treasure and started their way back behind the elves. On the way back they stopped at Beorn’s house and Elrond’s to eat sleep and get replenished. After a long journey they returned home, and Bilbo was thought to be dead. Everyone started auctioning his things but he eventually got them back. Everyone lived happily, and Bard rebuilt Dale. The characters used in this section were; Bilbo, the dwarves, Gandalf, the eagles, the goblins, bard, laketown men, and the wolves. The setting of this section was in Dale, and throughout the pathways towards home, and at Bilbo’s. The symbols in this story were already used, and reused. The overall theme of the book the Hobbit is “Struggles against evil in various situations can be overcame by unexpected heroism.” This was the theme because Bilbo went from being an ordinary person with little potential to a hero.