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1-Page Summary of The Hobbit
Overall Summary
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who lives in a comfortable home. One day, he encounters Gandalf the wizard, who was a friend of Bilbo’s adventure-seeking grandfather. Although Bilbo is uncomfortable with this revelation, he invites Gandalf to tea the next day. At that meeting, thirteen dwarves show up and ask for his help in reclaiming their ancestral home and treasure from an evil dragon named Smaug. They offer him one fourteenth of their treasure if he will serve as their burglar (spy). He doesn’t explicitly agree to this arrangement but finds it exciting nonetheless because of stories about the treasure they’re seeking
The next day, Gandalf tells Bilbo that he must meet the dwarves at a local tavern. Bilbo rushes there and finds himself traveling with Gandalf and the dwarves on their quest to the Lonely Mountain. Shortly thereafter, Gandalf goes missing, it starts to rain, and the dwarves see a light in the distance. Bilbo goes to investigate it while leaving his companions behind; he finds three trolls eating their supper. The trolls catch him but then let him go after they discover that he’s just an ordinary human being—a halfling. They capture thirteen dwarves instead of one dwarf who was left behind by mistake because he fell down a hill into mud puddle when running away from them after realizing what happened (he was supposed to be tied up). Then, Gandalf imitates troll voices which leads them fighting for so long that sun rises and turns them into stone statues as punishment for disturbing its sleep during daytime hours. The freed prisoners find two swords for themselves and free another prisoner: Frodo Baggins, whom they had met earlier before going on this adventure together with Bilbo. A large knife is found which will work as a sword for hobbit-sized person like Bilbo as well since all weapons were made by elves originally who are very tall people compared to humans or hobbits.
The group rests in Rivendell, where they’re taken care of by Elrond. They learn that they’ll be able to enter a secret passageway on the first day of the dwarf New Year. They travel through the Misty Mountains, and are all imprisoned by goblins except for Gandalf who escapes. Bilbo and the dwarves are taken before the Great Goblin, but Gandalf reappears and frees them from captivity. In their escape from goblins, Bilbo falls down a cavern and loses consciousness.
Bilbo awakens in a dark cave and finds an old ring on the ground. A creature named Gollum tricks Bilbo into playing a game of riddles with him, but Bilbo wins by guessing the answer to every single one of Gollum’s questions. As a result, Gollum gets angry and tries to kill Bilbo, who runs away from him. While running away from Gollum, he sees that his ring makes him invisible when he puts it on. He then follows Gollum outside of the mountain and escapes goblins by wearing his invisibility ring
The dwarves are impressed with Bilbo’s ability to trick the trolls, so they agree to continue traveling with him. However, they’re forced into hiding when some wargs (talking wolves) approach them; Gandalf summons eagles who take them to Carrock and Beorn.
Gandalf advises Bilbo and the dwarves to stay on the path when they enter Mirkwood forest. However, Bilbo is tempted by elves feasting in a clearing off of the path, and he leads his friends off of it. They are then captured by giant spiders who imprison them all except for Bilbo, who uses his ring to free himself and kill many spiders before freeing his friends from their cells with help from barrels that were being sent downriver as part of a trade deal between Lake-town (where Gandalf lives) and the elves.
