Bilbo+&+Smaug

= Bilbo and Smaug  =

Bilbo is a tiny hobbit chosen for an enormous mission. He feels he is undeserving and that he should never have been chosen for this in the first place. Along the journey he continually thinks of his nice home inside of the hill. Then at the end of chapter five he has a misterious dream about his home in which he is searching for something that he has lost. While discussing this phenomenon in class someone suggested that maybe it is the ring which he is searching for. That he has lost it like Golem and needs to get it back. Another person said that perhaps Bilbo is searching for his original self. That he has changed a lot on the journey and is trying to find his old self. Bilbo Baggins is your normal, everyday hobbit. He is short and has no beard. He has the appetite of an elephant and eats throughout the day. He is rather fat and loves to sit by his fire and just be lazy. He is neat and tidy and never lets his hobbit hole get out of order. He never has done anything out of the usual in terms of adventure. His Took side of his lineage is not nearly as respected as his Baggins's side. He scarcely takes from his Took side at all. Only when the dwarves start singing about exploration do we see a hint of his Took side. But he lacks a very important elemnet of that side of his family tree: courage. He is extremely wossy. Bilbo's afraid of just about anything. He wasn't excited about the journey as some would be. He feared that the worst would happen. As the group embarks on their journey, we see that Bilbo has no confidence. But as we progress throughtout the chapters, every so often we see that his courage has grown quite a bit since starting their journey. In the beginning, he would have dropped dead at the sight of of the giant spiders, but after traveling with the dwarves and aquiring the ring, he is a new man. he became a one man army and saved the lives all the dwarves single-handedly. And, as if once wasn't enough, he devises a plan to break all of the dwarves out of the wood-elves' prison and escape the wood-elves' lair and make it to long lake, where the dwarves finally start to respect Bilbo. He is on top of the world, but then he sees the mountain where Smaug looms and all the joy he had was lost. When the thrush is cracking snails later, Bilbo remembers the prophesy that was recited in the beginning and discovers the secret door that was foretold. So Bilbo and the dwarves venture into the mountain where Smaug looms. The gang elects Bilbo to go deeper into the mountain. He was quite nervous, but felt it was his job to go, being the burglar. He musters up every bit of courage he has in his little hobbit heart and steals a goblet from Smaug. The Great Worm awakens and begins to attack the mountain in attempt to kill the dwarves. He flies off to Laketown in order to destroy the town because he feels they have stolen his golden cup. After Smaug's departure, Bilbo and company are able to explore the treasure room and the rest of the mountain. This is where things go wrong, While alone with the treasure, Bilbo discovers Thorin's pride and joy: the arkenstone. The large gem is so enticing that he grabs it and hides it in his deepest pocket. He doesn't speak of it again until one night when he speaks with Bard about getting out of the besieged mountain. He gives the jewel to Bard, thinking it will bring peace. He returns to the mountain and thinks all is well. So when Bard brings up the arkentstone and how his party is in control of it, Thorin is furious. He shouts to the group, asking who had gave it to them. Bilbo, now hiding behind a rock, admits to it in a most frightened way. Thorin, knowing his cousin was coming to aid him, promises them a fourteenth of the treasue, thinking he and his cousin can defeat Bard and take everything back. Bilbo is now being treated as a traitor. But after the goblins, wargs, and bats come, all is forgotten. Being the coward he is, he slip his ring on and vanished, getting out of danger. Later in the battle, he starts saying how the eagles were coming, but a stone comes and he knocked out unconsious. **SMAUG-** When the dwarves finally reach the mountain, they meet the dragon Smaug. Many of the townspeople of Laketown don't believe that there is a dragon actually living there, but they will soon find out all about him. The first time Bilbo goes down to into the mountain, he sees the vast amount of treasure and Smaug sleeping on top of it all. Later, Bilbo gets in a deep conversation with Smaug in which he uses riddles to explain who he is. Dragons are very difficult to speak with because they are constantly making you feel uneasy. But the only thing to do is try your best to either forget about what he said or to respond to him in the most sophisticated way possible. Smaug is a very greedy dragon. Throughout the years, he has been fought against and has never lost. His riches continue to pile up, and, as we have read, now is what he lays on as a bed. He has nothing more to with all the gold and jewels than to just lay there and stare at them, But when Bilbo takes just one item, thinking that since the dragon is sleeping, he will never know. But as soon as he lifts the golden goblet, Smaug awakens and uses his fiery breath on Bilbo, who nearly looses his life once again. For even though Smaug may not use his wealth, he knows all of it to the ounce. When Bilbo returns to see if he can take another item, Smaug, a wise dragon, play opossum and as soon as Bilbo breathes on the gold, the great dragon awakens and sends a burst of flames after Bilbo, whose feet hairs are singed from Smaug's fiery breath. Once Bilbo musters up courage to return to Smaug's lare, he begins to talk to the lizard. Smaug is fascinated by Bilbo's riddling talk and cannot resist talking to the hobbit. Smaug is so prideful of himself that when Bilbo says that he has heard that dragons have soft underbellies, he rolls over to reveal a weak spot conviently located over his heart. Some days later, Smaug goes off to terrorize the village of Laketown because he thinks that whoever or whatever stole his goblet must have came from Laketown. While there, Smaug encounters Bard, who was told of the beast's weak spot by the thrush, who overheard Bilbo speaking about it after talking to the dwarves. Bard takes his sacred black arrow and fires a shot straight through Smaug's stomach and into his heart. Smaug falls to the lake where a cloud of steam rises from the water and his carcus sinks to the bottom of Long Lake, a place where no soul ever ventures.