Gandalf comes to The Hill every now and again and stirs things up by telling wild stories and bringing young hobbits on adventures.Bilbo is uncomfortable and flustered so he panics, asks Gandalf to come to tea the following Wednesday, and runs inside.Gandalf laughs and makes some kind of strange mark on Bilbo's door.Bilbo totally forgets that Gandalf is coming over for tea on Wednesday, so when the doorbell rings, he's surprised.He is even more surprised when thirteen dwarves show up on his doorstep: Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Dwalin, Balin, and Thorin Oakenshield, their leader.
Gandalf also turns up.So now Bilbo has an unexpected party of fourteen strangers on his hands: how will he feed them all?!The evening goes on and, eventually, it comes out that the mark Gandalf put on the door was an ad.Gandalf is the one who told all the dwarves to turn up at Bilbo's home for tea on Wednesday.The mark on the door means, "Burglar wants a good job, plenty of Excitement and reasonable Reward" (1.
98).The dwarves hesitate to believe that Bilbo would be a good addition to a treasure quest. But Gandalf insists that Bilbo is "as fierce as a dragon in a pinch" (1.93).He also promises: "There is a lot more in [Bilbo] than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself" (1.
104).Bilbo feels proud (and frightened) at Gandalf's recommendation, so he sticks around to find out what Gandalf and the dwarves want him to do.Thorin sings a song explaining the quest that they are soon to take on, and the destruction of the dwarf city. While he is singing, Bilbo opens up his Tookish side, imagining the amazing journey and for a second wishes that he could be on this adventure. Imedietly, Bilbo goes back to being his old plain self.
Thorin's grandfather Thror set up a huge, fine hall underneath the Lonely Mountain.Their family prospered, and they made lots of armor and jewelry and other fine things.All of this wealth attracted a dragon from the North, Smaug.When Smaug attacked the mountain under cover of night, these thirteen dwarves (along with Thorin's grandfather and father) barely escaped with their lives.They all vowed to return to the Lonely Mountain one day to take back the treasure from nasty old Smaug.Gandalf has a map showing a secret side door to the Lonely Mountain.
He also has the key.He got both of these items from Thorin's father, Thrain, who was dying in the dungeons of the Necromancer when Gandalf found him.With this map and key in hand, the dwarves want to go to the Lonely Mountain.Then they want Bilbo, their professional burglar, to steal the treasure from the dragon Smaug.It's now late at night and everyone goes to sleep.Bilbo is still on the fence about whether he's going to go on this adventure or not.
at a local inn at 11:00. And they're off to steal Smaug's treasure!As Bilbo and the dwarves ride off on their ponies, they hit a patch of bad weather.Bilbo heartily misses home. This adventure business is cold, wet, and uncomfortable!One night, the dwarves are feeling thoroughly bad-tempered and everyone is damp.
Gandalf has also mysteriously disappeared.They notice a light flickering in the forest, and they send their burglar out to investigate.Bilbo finds three giant trolls sitting and roasting meat over the fire.The trolls are named Bert, Tom, and William.Bilbo wants to show the dwarves that he's worth something, so he tries to pick William's pocket.But William has a magic wallet that speaks up when Bilbo attempts to steals it.
So the trolls capture Bilbo.They aren't hungry, though, so they don't eat him right away.They fall to arguing about what they should do with Bilbo.Of course, just then, two of the dwarves - Bifur and Bofur - come to the fire to check out what's going on.The trolls catch the two dwarves - and every dwarf who comes after them - in sacks.
Bilbo takes advantage of the ruckus to get clear of the trolls.So, by the end, all the dwarves are tied up in sacks and Bilbo is crouching in the forest shadows wondering what to do.The trolls are "arguing whether they should roast them slowly, or mince them fine and boil them, or just sit on them one by one and squash them into jelly" (2.75) - not an ideal situation for the dwarves, to be sure.As the trolls argue, a mysterious voice keeps egging them on.Sometimes it sounds like William and sometimes it sounds like Tom.
Who could it be?!The voice finally tells the trolls, "Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!" (2.101).It's Gandalf!He got back to the party just in time to keep the trolls arguing until the sun came up.So Gandalf frees the dwarves from their sacks and they all go to the trolls' cave.Inside the cave is lots of treasure, which they bury near the road for later.
Gandalf and Thorin pick up two beautiful swords, and Bilbo takes a knife of the same make.All the dwarves grab the trolls' bread and cheese and beer for the road.Gandalf tells the dwarves and Bilbo that they should head to Rivendell, the house of Elrond.
At last, a large mountain comes into view.Bilbo has never seen anything so big before, but it's only the first of the Misty Mountains.They have to get over or under this mountain range before coming close to the Lonely Mountain where Smaug is waiting.Before they reach the Misty Mountains, they rest briefly in Rivendell.Rivendell is a secret valley lined with pine forest and filled with elves.The dwarves aren't totally happy to be hanging with elves because the two groups don't get along that well.
But Bilbo and Gandalf have a grand old time.The head of the Last Homely House in Rivendell is Elrond, who is "as noble and as fair in face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves and as kind as summer" (3.28). So, he's pretty great, we guess.He's the one who tells Gandalf and Thorin that their swords are elvish ones dating back to the Goblin-wars.
Thorin's sword is named Orcrist, and Gandalf's sword is named Glamdring. Thorin shows Elrond his map of the Lonely Mountain.The moon happens to be shining on the map in just the right way to expose moon-letters, special secret runes that say, "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks [...] and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole" (3.39).Durin is Thorin's first ancestor, and his Day is the first day of the dwarves' new year.But there's a problem: no one can calculate exactly when Durin's Day falls anymore.Elrond gives Thorin his map back.The next morning, Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves all set off for the Misty Mountains.
