The Hobbit

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a story for children written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. Tolkien wrote the story in the late 1920s initially to amuse his three sons. It was first published on September 21, 1937 to wide critical acclaim.

The Hobbit is set in a time "between the dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Men", and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the titular "Hobbit") to win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. His journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings and into darker, deeper territory, meeting various denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and utilizing both his wits and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.


While The Hobbit stands in its own right as a complete, self-contained story, it is also the precursor to Tolkien's second, longer novel The Lord of the Rings. The publisher requested a sequel due to the success of The Hobbit', though The Lord of the Rings was not to be finished and published until 17 years after the original. The Hobbit has been republished and adapted many times since its first edition.
Characters:
-> Bilbo Baggins, the titular protagonist, a respectable, comfort-loving, middle-aged hobbit.

-> Gandalf, an itinerant wizard who introduces Bilbo to a company of thirteen dwarves, then disappears and reappears at key points in the story.

-> Thorin Oakenshield, bombastic head of the company of dwarves and heir to a dwarven kingdom under the Lonely Mountain.

-> Smaug, a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarven kingdom of Thorin's grandfather.


The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of the company; elves; men (humans); trolls; goblins; giant spiders; eagles; Wargs (evil wolves); Elrond the sage; Gollum, a mysterious creature inhabiting an underground lake; Beorn, a man who can assume bear-form; and Bard the Bowman, a heroic archer of Lake-town.

Synopsis:

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin's band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the Dragon Smaug. When the music ends Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.


The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell. There Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Though Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblin tunnels. Groping along lost, he finds a ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles with deadly stakes. With the help of the ring (which confers invisibility), Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, raising his reputation. The goblins and Wargs give chase and the company is saved by eagles before resting in the house of the shape-shifter Beorn.
The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. There Bilbo first saves the dwarves from Giant Spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travelers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfill prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition travels to the Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A noble thrush who overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability reports it to Bard the Bowman, who slays the Dragon.


When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the prized Arkenstone gem and steals it. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the Mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the north, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable


Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men, and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin, mortally wounded, lives long enough to part from Bilbo as a friend. The treasure is divided fairly, but, having no need or desire for it, Bilbo refuses most of his contracted share. Nevertheless, he returns home with enough to make himself a very wealthy hobbit.

Major themes:

The central character, Bilbo, is a modern anachronism exploring an essentially antique world. Bilbo is able to negotiate and interact within this antique world because language and tradition make connections between the two worlds. For example, Gollum's riddles are taken from old historical sources, whilst those of Bilbo come from modern nursery books. It is the form of the riddle-game, familiar to both, which allows Gollum and Bilbo to understand each other, rather than the content of the riddles themselves. This idea of a superficial contrast between characters' individual linguistic style, tone and sphere of interest, leading to an understanding of the deeper unity between the ancient and modern is a constant recurring theme throughout The Hobbit.

The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of the First World War, where the hero is plucked from his rural home, and thrown into a far off war where traditional types of heroism are shown to be futile and as such explores the theme of heroism. The theme of war portrayed in literature as an anti-pastoral is also seen in The Hobbit where the "Desolation of Smaug" both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for the "Battle of the Five Armies" after, is described as a barren, damaged landscape.


Greed plays a central role in the novel, with many of the episodes stemming from one or more of the characters simple desire for food (be it trolls eating dwarves, or dwarves eating Wood-elf fare) or a desire for beautiful objects, such as gold and jewels.

courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit