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The Hobbit Chapter Summaries

These are the chapter summaries for The Hobbit.
The Lord of the Rings series, specifically the Fellowship of the Ring, will be my next victim.

Half of the chapter summaries, eleven chapters are now up.

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party

At the beginning of this chapter you are presented with a description of Hobbits, Hobbit holes, and, the unsuspecting adventurer, Bilbo. Then Gandalf appears and talks to Bilbo one early morning many years ago. Bilbo, flabergasted to see Gandalf and desperately trying to get out of the adventure that Gandalf suggested, invites him to the tea the next afternoon. Bilbo, of course, promptly forgest, and the next day when he is about to sit down ofr tead there is a ring on his bell. The Hobbit believing that it is Gandalf rushes about to put everything in order and to answer the door. However, it is not Gandalf. It is a dwarf. This same incident happens four times. Each time he expects Gandalf, and each time he gets more dwarves. Comments like "Let us join the throng" (Kili) and "I see they have begun to arrive already" (Balin) made Bilbo decidedly uncomfortable. Finally, Gandalf arrives with the last 4 dwarves. They stay the night singing to Bilbo stories of adventures and teasing the rather nervous hobbit about ruining his eating service. They explain to Bilbo their mission, and, after some weedling from Gandalf, they decide to hire Bilbo as the burglar for their adventure.

Chapter 2: Roast Mutton

Bilbo wakes up late the next morning and must run to catch up with the dwarves. He makes it but without a hat, pocket-hankerchief, walking stick, or any money to his name. Thus their journey begins. They travel for many days. One day it started to rain and all, dwarves and hobbit, were generally miserable. When they stopped for the night they noticed that Gandalf was missing, but, really, not a thing could be done about it. In the distance the party spies a fire, and, in hopes of finding food and warmth, send Bilbo off to investigate. Bilbo finds 3 trolls at the fire and decides to pick one of their pockets. He is discovered, and then the trolls have a fight over what to do with him. He escapes, but then the dwarves come to look for him, and they are captured, too. Ultimately, Gandalf reappears, and rescues them from the Trolls, and the find gold and several good weapons int eh trolls' cave.

Chapter 3: A Short Rest

They continue their journey and reach the Valley or Rivendell and Elrond's house without further event. They rest for several days. During their time here they learn that the sword Thorin found in the Troll cave is "Orcrist" or "Goblin Clearver" and that the sword Gandalf found is "Glamdring" or "Foe-hammer". They also learn more about the map that Thorin has, and they learn clues about getting into the Lonely Mountain.

Chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill

They now leave for the mountains. One night it begins to storm, so they find a dry cave to spend the night in. Unfortunately, this cave is the front door of the Goblins. In the night they are all captured by the Goblines except Gandalf. The Dwarves and the Hobbit are taken inside to speak to the Goblin king, and, before everything got out of hand, Fandalf rescued them. They ran through the tunnels to find an exit, but the Goblins sneak up behind them and attack them. Dori, who is carrying Bilbo, is tripped by a Goblin. Dori drops Bilbo, and the hobbit is knocked sensless.

Chapter 5: Riddles in the Dark

Bilbo comes back to his senses alone in the pitch dark. He does not know where he is or where the Dwarves are. He goes off in one direction on his hands and kness, and he encounters a small medal ring which he pays no attention to at the time. With the glow from his dagger, Bilbo heads off in one direction he reaches a pool of water at the very heart of the mountain. This is where a creature named Gollum live. Gollum challenges Bilbo to a game of riddles which Bilbo wins and thus avoids being eaten. Biblbo's last question, "What have I got in my pocket, makes Gollum suspicious of Bilbo when he can not find the ring he calls his "precious". Bilbo, of course, hasn't a clue to what's going on in Gollum's head, but he is now curious as to what is in his pocket. He reaches into his pocket to pull it out, but by now he can see Gollum and the creature looks none to happy. Bilbo makes a dash for the exit with the ring slipping on his finger involuntarily. On his way out, Bilbo trips and falls, but Gollum passes right over him which puzzles the hobbit seeing how he knows that Gollum has excellent vision in the dark. He finally guesses at the rings power, and then follows Gollum closely. Gollum leads Bilbo right to the exit. Bilbo first escapes past Gollum with the rings's aid, and then he gets past the Goblin guards close to the door. Once more he is outside of the mountain.

Chapter 6: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

Bilbo relocates the Dwarves who had managed to escape the Goblins with Gandalf's help. He tells them his story, but he leaves out the part about the ring. The party continues their trek. So as to get distance between themselves and the Goblins who would come out at night to search for them. Later, that night, they hear wolves, and they manage to get into the trees right before the wolves catch them. In a near clearing jundreds of these wargs, as the wolves are called are holding a meeting. They are talking about how some Goblins who were supposed to meet them were not yet there. Gandalf, who is the only one who can understand wolf speech becomes worried. Goblins can climb trees even though Wargs couldn't. Gandalf start throwing fire balls, which causes quite a bit of a comotion. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Eagels had become curious at all the howling. He swooped in, and sees the predicament the company is in. He also sees that the Goblins are approaching from near by and that the wargs had caught on fire from Gandalf's fireballs were lighting up the entire forest. The Goblins arrive and decide to catch the trees that the dwarves are in on fire. Right before the trees or consumed the Lord of the Eagles wings in with several of his followers and scoops up the wizard and the Dwarves. The Lord of the Eagles takes the company to a safe have where he promises that in the morning he will help them along on their trip as much as he might. There they spend the night.

Chapter 7: Queer Lodgings

The very next morning, the eagles dro the trabelers off on a rocky precipice. Gandalf informs the group that they are far of their original route, but that also they are near the house of one called Beorn who might be willing to give them lodging for the night and supplies for their trip. Going two at a time except for Bombour who is very fat even after having gone hungry for several days they reach Beorn's house. Gandalf relates to Beorn the story of the companies trip to the point were they now where. That night Beorn double checked there story, and, finding the story true, he offered them his assitance in advice and supplies for thier journey through Mirkwood to get to there destination: The Lonely Mountain. The morning after Beorn came back with the verification of their story, the company set out for Mirkwood. After several days of travel the group reaches the edge of Mirkwood Forest. Here Gandalf informs them that he will be leaving them for a time to attend to other business. So, after much moaning and groaning the company eneters Mirkwood.

Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders

The journey into Mirkwood begins. The Dwarves and the hobbit wander on and on down the seemingly endless path in the forest. After many days of travel throught the forest the travelers reach the midway point: The Enchanted River. Bilbo, with his sharp eyes, spots a boat on the far side of the river, and they manage to hook the boat after severaal tries. Everyone gets across safely except for Bombur sho falls into the water when a passing Hart suprises hinm. The water was enchanted as the name indicated had enchanted water, and, as Beorn had warned them, Bombour fell deeply into sleep after he waws pulled from the water. Nothing anyone in the group did could wake him from the slumber. So the travelers journeyed on, but this time they were carrying the enormous load of Bombour on their backs. They continued to travel. One day they send Bilbo up into a tree to look for the edge of the forest because their food supplies were running desperately low. Bilbo could not see the edge of the forest even though it was close because they were in a slight depression between two hills. Bilbo climbed down from the tree discouraged with what he thought was the news: that the woods seemed to never end, but, fortunately, on this day Bombour awoke. The fact that Bombour did not have to be dragged along greatly brighten their spirits, but only so much because there was very little food left. The company, knowing they could not go back, continued on. One night they spot lights off the trail and hear laughing and singing. Disregarding Beorn's warning about staying on the path because of their hunger, they stray into the trees. As soon as they stepped into the ring of light, the lights went out, and they had to regroup. This happens several times until they get seperated Twelve of the dwarves were captured by spiders, and Thorin was taken to the halls of the Elven king who lived near the edge of Mirkwood. Bilbo, meanwhile, saves himself from one spider and rescues the dwarves from certain doom at the hands of the spiders. The dwarves and the hobbit are horribly lost, and they havn't a clue as to where Thorin is.

Chapter 9: Barrels Out of Bond

After the fight with the spiders, teh now respected Mr. Baggins and the dwarves are captured by the same elves tho have Thorin. They are taken to the Elven stronghold, but not a single dwarf would answer any of the questions that the elf king put to them. Bilbo, meanwhile, ahd slipped on his ring and was once more was lurking in the shadows. For a while Bilbo was beside himself with moanings, groanings, and worryingjust as hobbits will do, bu eventually, he pulled himself together. He managed to find all of the dwarves cell which were seperate from each other. Bilbo even managed to learn that Thorin was also held in a dungeon. He gave each of the dwarves the good news of finding thorin, and he passed on Thorin's message to not give up hope until he thought there was none. In his search for the dwarves' cells, Bilbo alson found another door into the fortress besides the front gates which closed by magic. It was a water gate through which the elves sent and recieved goods for gest, ets. One night the butler and the Capitan both got extremely drunk. Bilbo saw his chance; so he retrived the keys off the Capitan's belt and freed the dwarves. His plan was to pack each of the dwarves in one of the barrels that he over heared was to be sent out that night. The dwarves didn't like the idea, but they only had so many choices as to how they would escape. So Baggins packed the dwarves away, and none to soon because as soon as he finished the elves came down to push the barrels off. This, of course, was when Bilbo realized that he didn't have a barrel for himself. Bilbo just decided that he must hang on to another barrel for the trip down river, and that's exactly what he did although he did have a hard time of it. Eventually the barrels made landfall, and some elves roped them together in a raft and started the trip to Lake-town.

Chapter 10: A Warm Welcome

In the evening of the second day after leaving the halls of the Elven king, They reach Lake-town. Bilbo manages to get all of the dwarves out of the barrels with a little help from Fili, Kili, and Thorin. About half of the company had been partially waterlogged during the journey down river so Thorin, Fili, Kili, and Bilbo went into Lake-town for food, etc. When Thorin announces that he is the descendant of the last king of the Lonely Mountain, he cause quite a stir. The town has many legends about the return of the King Under the Mountain including one that talked about the rivers running with gold upon his return. So everyone pampers and spoils the dwarves and the hobbit for about a fortnigh whereupon Thorin decides it is time to leave. Thus the final leg of the journey to the Lonely Mountain begins.

Chapter 11: On the Doorstep

Mr. Baggins and thirteen dwarves finally make it the the Lonely Mountain. They send a scouthing party ahead to the front gate to check things out. Of course, they are generally discouraged to hear that there is steam issuing from the main entrance and nasty, cruel crows flying about. Bilbo, however eventually motivates them enough to start looking for the secret entrance shown on Thorin's map. For many days the look for the door, but they don't find it. One day Bilbo, Fili, and Kili locate the door, and they move part of the camp up on to the ledge where the door is located. Unfortunately, now, they don't now how to open the secret door, and they can't pull it off no matter how hard they try. Then, quite unexpectedly, the riddle on the map starts to unfold, and they manage ot unlock and open the secret entrance.

Chapter 12: Inside Information

Look back for this one in one week.

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