The Hobbit

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1937

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-13

Chapters 14-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Importance of Friendship and Companionship

At the start of the novel, the 15 members who make most of the journey—Gandalf, Bilbo, Thorin, and the other 12 dwarves—are not exactly “fast friends.” In fact, the group are relative strangers with currents of resentment and distrust, as Bilbo wrestles with feeling manipulated into joining the mission, and the dwarves are skeptical of Bilbo’s usefulness.

The group swiftly develop bonds of mutual affection and love as they overcome numerous obstacles and, on several occasions, face the prospect of death. Even when Thorin and Bilbo have a severe falling out over Bilbo’s theft of the Arkenstone, their bond proves ultimately unbreakable as Thorin exhausts the last of his strength to mend the bonds with his diminutive companion: ”Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you” (237).

Even more prominent than deliberate and explicit friendship is the reality of simple companionship; even when the individual relationships among the group are strained or pushed to their limit by impatience, confusion, or pride, their companionship is a constant to which they can refer. In fact, this is how the group is first referred to in Thorin’s note to Bilbo: “Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo greeting!” (28).

From the goblin tunnels to the elvish dungeons, from the webs of the giant spiders to the gleaming pit of Smaug’s lair, Bilbo, Thorin, and the other 12 dwarves fight for one another and strive to keep their company intact. At the very end, even when it is just Bilbo and Gandalf, they are still described as companions, “except that the company was smaller, and more silent” (245). In all their wanderings, the gift of friendship and companionship are the bedrock for all other events.

Duty as a Governing Moral and a Guiding Force

Though many events affect the company’s journey, their final endeavor—the reason they set out from the shire—comes from Thorin’s duty to his kinsmen and to his ancient, ancestral home. Many years before the tale related within the pages of The Hobbit, Thorin’s grandfather Thror, king under the mountain, was driven out of the mountain by Smaug. The whole kingdom was laid waste as Smaug invaded the Lonely Mountain and killed multitudes of Thorin’s kinsmen as well as the inhabitants of the mountain and surrounding regions. All these years later, Thorin has planned to take revenge and reclaim what is rightfully his: “[W]e have never forgotten our stolen treasure […] we still mean to get it back, and to bring our curses home to Smaug” (24). Faithful to the duty of keeping the memory of the Lonely Mountain in his heart, Thorin finally discovers the means and the moment of opportunity for taking back the mountain kingdom.

Thorin is not the only member of the company, nor of the novel, who demonstrates a deep loyalty to family, to sworn allies, and to virtue and goodness. Bilbo, who often feels the call of his shire home, nevertheless perseveres through even the most arduous of circumstances because of his obligations to the dwarves as his friends. When he escapes the webs of the giant Mirkwood spiders, he pushes away his fear and seeks out his companions. At Thorin’s bidding, his kinsman Dain brings a horde of dwarf warriors to his aid, marching straight through the night to bring help and counsel. Even Bard and the Elvenking show their loyalty to justice and goodness as they call off their attack against the dwarves at the sight of the goblins and Wargs; they choose instead to fight alongside the Dwarves in the face of a great evil—”Upon one side were the Goblins and the Wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves” (231)—and in so doing, they serve a cause higher than their own acquisition of treasure or defending their own pride.

The Sustaining Love of Home and Family

In harmony with the company’s devotion to duty, as well as their mutual bond as fellow journeymen, both Bilbo and the dwarves demonstrate a profound love of home and family. The dwarves venture out to restore Thorin and the dwarves to the kingdom under the mountain as is their ancestral right and inheritance. At almost every key step in the journey, there are references to Thorin’s father and grandfather: the revelation of the map of the mountain; their meeting with Beorn; their departure from Esgaroth; the dwarves’ repossession of the mountain in the absence of Smaug; the meeting between Bard and Thorin at the front gate.

The Lonely Mountain retains so much memory because of its essence as the family home: “Long ago in my grandfather Thror’s time our family was driven out of the far North, and came back with all their wealth and their tools to this Mountain on the map. It had been discovered by my far ancestor, Thrain the Old” (22). The mountain holds deep memories, and it is essential that Thorin and the company return to the place and regain what was stolen by the great dragon.

Bilbo as well spends many bleak moments thinking of the shire and his home in the hill. From the very first day, Bilbo’s mind returns to the warmth of his home in the face of impending dangers: “‘I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!’ It was not the last time that he wished that!” (30). Even after finding the ring, Bilbo can’t help his mind from wandering and wishing he was back under the hill in his hobbit hole, “frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home” (61). Though Bilbo has no immediate family of which to speak, his home anchors him in the world, giving him a location to which he can mentally fix himself and orient his wandering, anxious mind. In the moments of sheer terror as he faces the deadly prospect of the dragon, Bilbo voices his hope and courage, and at the same time wishes that it did not have to be so: “Getting rid of dragons is not at all in my line, but I will do my best to think about it. Personally I have no hopes at all, and wish I was safe back at home” (181).