PRESENTATION OUTLINE
THE HOBBIT BY: J.R.R. ToLkIEN
Status-quo (NORMAL LIFE)
" In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." pg. 15
Bilbo lived in a Hobbit hole under a hill living his peaceful everyday life, being respectable and such as all hobbits should
Call to Adventure
" Very pretty!" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging , and it's very difficult to find anyone." pg. 18
Bilbo was then called upon by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey to share an adventure
Refusal to the call
" Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea--any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good bye!" pg. 19
Not pleased, Bilbo rejects, at all with, first of all, all the messy, uninvited, dwarves in his house, the notion of going on a "nasty disturbing uncomfortable things," adventure
Meeting the Mentor
" Of course there is a mark," said Gandalf. " I put it there myself. For very good reasons. You asked me to find the fourteenth man for your expedition, and I chose Mr.Baggins. Just let anyone say I chose the wrong man or the wrong house, and you can stop at thirteen and have all the bad luck that you like, or go back to digging coal." He scowled so angrily at Gloin that the dwarf huddled back in his chair; and when Bilbo tried to open his mouth to ask a question, he turned and frowned at him and stuck out his bushy eyebrows, till Bilbo shut his mouth tight with the snap. " That's right," said Gandalf. "Let's have no more argument. I have chosen Mr. Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you. If I say he's a burglar, a burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. There is a lot more in him then you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself. You may (possibly) all live to thank me yet. Now Bilbo, my boy, fetch the lamp, and let's have a little light on this!" pg. 32
Gandalf is to be Bilbos mentor and friend on this unexpected journey
Crossing the threshold
"Thorin and company to Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for."Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at 11 a.m. sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual. " We have the honour to remain "Yours deeply "Thorin & Co." "That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run," said Gandalf. "But--" said Bilbo. "No time for it," said the wizard. "But--" said Bilbo again. "No time for that either! Off you go!" To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed up, pushing his keys into Gandalf's hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a whole mile more. Very puffed he was when he got to Bywater just on the stroke of eleven, and found he had come without a pocket handkerchief! "Bravo!" said Balin who was standing at the inn door looking out for him.
Bilbo, deciding to go against all his Hobbit instincts, finding the dwarves have left early and feeling he shouldn't miss this for the world, go's after them with the paper signed putting him in the company of Thorin Okensheild.
Tests, allies and enemies
Suddenly the red light shone bright through the tree-trunks not far ahead. "Now it's the burglar's turn," they said, meaning Bilbo. "You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if all is perfectly safe and canny," said Thorin to the hobbit. "Now scuttle off, and come back quick, if all is well. If not, come back if you can! If you can't, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a screech owl, and we will do what we can." Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he could not hoot even once like any kind of owl anymore then fly like a bat. But at any rate hobbits can move quietly, absolutely quietly. They take pride in it, and Bilbo had sniffed more than once at what he called "all this dwarfish racket,"as they went along, though I don't suppose you or I would notice anything at all on a windy night, not if the whole cavalcade had passed two feet off. As for Bilbo walking primly towards the red light, I don't suppose even a weasel would have stirred a whisker at it. So, naturally, he got right up to the fire for fire it was without disturbing anyone. And this is what he saw. Three very large persons sitting round a very large fire of beech-logs. They were toasting mutton on long sticks of wood, and licking the gravy off their fingers. There was a fine toothsome smell. Also there was a barrel of good drink at hand, and there were drinking out of jugs. But they were trolls. Obviously trolls. Even Bilbo, in spite of his sheltered life, could see that: from the Great heavy faces of them, and their size, and what shape of their legs, not to mention their language, which was not drawing-room fashion at all, at all.
" Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it doesn't look like mutton again tomorrer," said one of the trolls. pg. 46
During Bilbo's adventures he acquires many allies and enemies along the way going through several trials as he does so
Approach(MEETING SMAUG FIRST TIME)
" Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to spare!" But Bilbo was not quite so unlearned in Dragon-lore as all that, and if Smaug hoped to get him to come nearer so easily he was disappointed. " No thank you, O Smaug the Tremendous!" he replied. "I did not come for presents. I only wish to have a look at you and see if you truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them." " Do you now?" said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it. "Truly songs and tails fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the cheifest and Greatest of Calamities," replied Bilbo. " You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon. "you seem familiar with my name, but I don't remember smelling you before. Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask?" "You may indeed! I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen." " So I can well believe," said Smaug, "but that is hardly your usual name." "I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number." "Lovely titles!" sneered the dragon. " But lucky numbers don't always come off." " I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them a,I've again from water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me." "These don't sound so creditable," scoffed Smaug. " I am the friend of bears and the guest of Eagles,I am Ringwonner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider," went on Bilbo beginning to be pleased with his riddling. " That's better!" said Smaug. " But don't let your imagination run away with you!"
Bilbo first encounters Smaug the dragon in his keep, the castle and home of Thorin Okensheild
Ordeal (CONFRENTATION WITH SMAUG 2)
Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever a Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an unaccountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the Dragon-spell. But plucking up courage he spoke again. " You don't know everything, O Smaug the Mighty," said he. " Not gold alone brought us hither" " Ha! Ha! You admit the 'us'" laughed Smaug. " Why not say 'us fourteen' and be done with it. Mr. Lucky Number? I am pleased to hear that you had other businesses here besides my gold. I that case you may, perhaps, not altogether waste your time. " I don't know if it has occurred to you that,even if you could steal my gold bit by bit--a matter of a hundred years or so--you could not getting very far? Not,ugh use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you ever thought of the catch? A fourteenth share, I suppose, or something like that, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? What about armed guards and trolls?" And Smaug laughed aloud. pg 214-215
Bilbo must yet again revisit the dragon and fight to get away with his life
Reward (The Arkenstone as 1/14th. of the treasure as 'reward)
"The light grew smaller as he wandered away into the vast hall; then it began to rise dancing into the air. Bilbo was climbing the great mound of treasure. Soon he stood upon the top, and still went on. Then they saw him halt and stoop for a moment; but they did not know the reason. It was the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain. So Bilbo guessed from Thorin's description; but indeed there could not be two suchgems, even so marvelous a hoard, even in all the world. Ever as he climbed, the same white gleam had shone before him and draw his feet towards it. Slowly it grew to a little globe of pallid light. Now as he came near, it was tinged with a flickering sparkle of many colors at the surface, reflected and splintered from the wavering light of his torch. At last he looked down upon it, and his breath caught. The great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner light, and yet, cut and fashioned by the dwarves, who had dug it from the heart of the mountain long ago, it took all light that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow. Suddenly Bilbo's arm went towards it drawn by its enchantment. His small hand would not close about it, for it was a large and heavy gem; but he lifted it, shut his eyes, and put it in his deepest pocket. pg 225-226
In Bilbo's attempt to get away from the great and powerful Smaug his happens upon the Arkenstone, the heart of the mountain, Thorin's most prized possession
The road back(BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES)
It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbo's experiences, and the one which at the time he hated most--which is to say that it was the one he was most proud of, and most fond of recalling long afterwards, although he was quite unimportant in it. Actually I must say he put on his ring early in the business,and vanished from sight, if not from all danger. pg. 267
Bilbo is put through his final test, The Battle of the Five Armies
Resurrection (BARGAN WITH ELVAN KING, THRANDUIL)
" Why do you tell us this? Are betraying your friends, or are you threatening us?" asked Bard grimly. " My dear Bard!" squeaked Bilbo. " Don't be so hasty! I never met such suspicious folk! I am merely trying to avoid to avoid trouble for all concerned. Now I will make you an offer!" " Let us hear it!" they said" "You may see it!" said he. " It is this!" And he drew forth the Arkenstone, and threw away the wrapping. The Elvenking himself, whose eyes were used to things of wonder and beauty, stood up in amazement. Even Bard gazed marveling at it in silence. It was as if a globe has been filled with moonlight and hung before them in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars. " This is the Arkenstone of Thrain," said Bilbo, " the Heart of the Mountain; and it is also the heart of Thorin. He values it above a river of gold. I give it to you. It will aid you in your bargaining." Then Bilbo, not without a shudder, not without a glance of longing, handed the marvelous stone to Bard, and he held it in his hand, as though dazed. " But how is it yours to give?" he asked at last with an effort. " O well!" said the hobbit uncomfortably. " It isn't exactly; but, well, I am willing to let it stand against all my claim, don't you know. I may be a burglar---or so they say: personally I never really felt like one---but I am an honest one, I hope, more or less. Anyway I am going back now, and the dwarves can do what they like to me. I hope you will find it useful." Pg. 257
Bilbo goes against the Dwarves in order to try to reclaim some peace and not have a full out war by bringing the Arkenstone to the Elvenking Thranduil and Bard(the Dragon Slayer) wishing that would use it and find it helpful in getting Thorin to see reason through his greed and lust for treasure by bargaining with him using the stone.
Return with Elixir(GOING HOME AFTER 13 MONTHS)
Gandalf looked at him "My dear Bilbo!" he said. " Something I she matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were." And so they crossed the bridge and passed the mill by the river and came right back to Bilbo's own door. " Bless me! What's going on?" he cried. There was a great commotion, and people of all sorts, respectable and unrespectable, were thick around the door, and many were going in and out---not even wiping their feet on the mat, as Bilbo noticed with annoyance. If he was surprised, they were more surprised still. He had arrived in the middle of an auction! There was a large notice in black and red hung on the gate, stating that on June the Twenty-second Messrs. Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes would sell by auction the effects of the late Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton. Sale to commence at ten O'clock sharp. It was now nearly lunchtime, and most of the things had already been sold, for various prices from next to nothing to old songs ( as is not unusual at auctions). Bilbo's cousins the Sackville-Bagginses were, in fact, busy measuring his rooms to see if their own furniture would fit. IN short Bilbo was "Presumed Dead," and not everybody was happy to find the presumption wrong. Pg.284
Bilbo returned to his home after being gone for 13 months to find that all of the other hobbits ,thinking him dead, were auctioning off his belongings.
