The Hobbit

How it opens

Bilbo Baggins is a well-to-do hobbit who lives in a comfortable hole under The Hill and wants no part of adventures. One Wednesday thirteen dwarves crowd into his home for a meeting the wizard Gandalf has arranged, and Gandalf tells them he has chosen Bilbo as the burglar for their expedition. Their leader, Thorin Oakenshield, tells how the dragon Smaug drove his people from their Mountain and took its treasure, and Gandalf hands him a map made by his grandfather Thror and a small key. The next morning Bilbo hurries after them to the Green Dragon Inn, and on the road east three trolls catch the dwarves in sacks, and Gandalf keeps the trolls quarrelling until daylight turns them to stone.

Who you meet early

• Bilbo BagginsA hobbit of the Shire, proud of his respectable Baggins blood and quietly stirred by the wandering streak he gets from the Tooks.
• GandalfGandalf is a wandering wizard and a maker of fireworks, an old man who comes to hobbit country only rarely.
• Thorin IIThorin Oakenshield is a dwarf king in exile in The Hobbit, grandson of Thrór, King under the Mountain.
• BalinBalin is a dwarf of Durin's folk in The Hobbit, the second to arrive at Bilbo's unexpected party.
• DwalinDwalin is a blue-bearded dwarf in a dark-green hood, brother to Balin and the first of the thirteen dwarves to turn up uninvited at Bilbo Baggins's door.
• BomburBombur was a Dwarf of the Blue Mountains, brother to Bofur and cousin to Bifur, and the fattest member of the company that set out with Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins for the Lonely Mountain.

Where it sits

The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, outside its 3 main books. The main series begins with The Fellowship of the Ring.

The opening on this page is written only from chapters 1 and 2 of The Hobbit. Character notes are the wiki’s public introductions, the same ones it shows before you set any progress.