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Bilbo Baggins
(redirection from Bilbo)

Contents of this Page
Brief Information   
Some Background   

Brief Information    

Bilbo Baggins. A Hobbit, born in 1290 ShR. He is the son of Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took. The Took family represented the Shire's warrior breed - the hobbits who would ride to the Shire's defense as knights on errantries. The Baggins family represented the Shire's administrative breed - the ones who liked to hoard bags of gold in their basements.

Bilbo was considered a well respected Hobbit in the Hobbiton area, solid and predictable.

Then one day he was visited by Gandalf, and this started a chain of events that led poor Bilbo out of the Shire and into the Wilderlands in the company of the Exiled Dwarf Lord Thorin Oakenshield, who was returning to his Kingdom.

While Bilbo traveled with the Dwarves, he slowly overcame his timid nature and gain in self-confidence. At the point in his adventures that he needed the most help he found himself alone in the dark goblin caves in the heart of the MistyMountains. Bilbo in his first confrontation meets Gollum and through the use on his wits and a large helping of luck, not only survives the encounter he comes away with the greatest prize -- the OneRing -- To Bilbo the ring just made him invisible (which is a handy tool for a would-be burglar to have) but the OneRing was also sought by Sauron the Lord of the Ring.

Bilbo, soon after the departure of Gandalf on the western border of Mirkwood, had almost become the defacto leader of the quest. Bilbo was instrumental in the crossing of the EnchantedRiver and alone saved the dwarves from the Spiders of Mirkwood and rescued the dwarves from the SilvanElves of the WoodlandRealm and solved the secret of the Side-door and confronted Smaug on his hoard of gold.

(more to come)


Some Background    

Gandalf met him as a child during a funeral (?) for the patriarch {The Old Took}?. Gandalf probably saw in him more depth than the average Hobbit, and also more of the best of the Hobbit race - dependable, humane, wise enough in a pinch, and clever with his fingers. Gandalf probably thought that such qualities would go to waste in the "pampered son" role the Took nobility invested him in.

Then, when Gandalf met Thorin Oakenshield many years later in Bree, he was worried about the "Necromancer" and his allies in the North. One of them lived on top of a heap of Thorin's gold.

As the Dwarves chattered very seriously about harebrained ideas to assault Erebor, Gandalf could not get the idea of Hobbits - the ones who never assaulted anything that couldn't be eaten - out of his mind.

When he suggested they bring Hobbits, the Dwarves complained those simpletons ate off of clay bowls, and Gandalf retorted he knew a Hobbit who was ready for the job despite eating off of crystal and silver plates.

The Dwarves, unaware of anybody with fine dinnerware who did not buy or steal it from dwarves, retorted "well, what is he, a burglar?"

Of the four adventurous Hobbits who joined the Fellowship, Bilbo somehow represents all of them, and less. He was hardly aggressive and witty like Merry; he was much older and wiser than Pippin, he was more educated (and more educatable) than Samwise, and he was less altruistic and stoic than Frodo.

See also: Enter Bilbo Baggins, an essay by Janet-Eledhwen


FolderCharacters FolderHobbits FolderCompendium ToDo: Edit and restructure (Any help appreciated)

 
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