The Hobbit: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The narrator begins by describing the hole in the ground beneath a hill, in which a particular hobbit lives. The hole is highly comfortable: it has bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and dining rooms for entertaining the hobbit’s many visitors. The best rooms in the house have a view of the garden outside the hobbit’s home. Locals refer to the area as The Hill, located in hobbit-town.

The hobbit’s name is Baggins, and he belongs to a well-to-do family of hobbits that never gets involved in adventure. The narrator notes that The Hobbit is the story of how Baggins became involved in an adventure and lost some of his neighbors’ respect. The narrator will leave it up to the reader to decide whether Baggins gained anything from his adventure.

The narrator turns to describing hobbits. Hobbits are small creatures that resemble dwarves, except without beards. They have no magical powers except for their ability to hide, especially from humans, who are loud and clumsy. Hobbits love to laugh and eat, and they wear bright clothing.

Bilbo Baggins, the Baggins about whom The Hobbit is written, is the child of the hobbit Belladonna Took, who was herself the daughter of the famous Old Took. The Tooks were rumored to be distantly related to fairies, and they were said to go on adventures occasionally. Belladonna Took never went on adventures; instead, she married Bungo Baggins, who used Belladonna’s mother’s money to build the hobbit-hole where Bilbo lives. At the time when the story begins, Bilbo is fully grown—about fifty years old—and looks and behaves exactly like his father, though he seems to have inherited some qualities from his Took ancestors.

One morning, Bilbo is sitting outside his home smoking, when Gandalf passes by. Gandalf, an old man who wears a grey cloak and carries a staff, is famous among hobbits. He was friends with Old Took, but hasn’t been by The Hill since Took’s death. Bilbo, doesn’t recognize Gandalf, but greets him; Gandalf tells Bilbo that he is looking for someone to accompany him on an adventure. Bilbo refuses, saying that hobbits don’t take part in adventures, and pretends to ignore Gandalf. Gandalf then introduces himself to Bilbo, who is impressed, having heard stories about how Gandalf would bring quiet young people on adventures.

Gandalf tells Bilbo that he will give him what he has asked for; when Bilbo says that he hasn’t asked for anything, Gandalf says that, in fact, he’s asked for it twice. Bilbo, rattled and a little afraid, invites Gandalf to tea tomorrow, and immediately goes inside his home, thinking that Gandalf is a powerful wizard, and that he’ll have to be careful. Gandalf is amused by Bilbo’s behavior, and marks Bilbo’s door with a strange sign before he leaves.

The next day, Bilbo has almost forgotten about tea. So he’s surprised to hear a knock at his door and find a dwarf, who introduces himself as Dwalin, standing outside his home. Bilbo is flustered, but invites Dwalin inside for tea. A little later, he hears another knock on the door, and finds anther dwarf, Balin—Dwalin’s brother. Again, he invites Balin in. In this manner, he lets a total of thirteen dwarves into his house: Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Nori, Bofur, Bombur, who’s very fat, and Thorin Oakenshield, who is haughty. Gandalf arrives along with the last four dwarves. All thirteen dwarves, except for Thorin, who’s too important to join in, ask for food and sing songs about ruining Bilbo’s home, though they actually treat it with great care.

The dwarves play music and sing of the dwarves of the past, who lived in a great hall beneath a mountain, where they mined gold and jewels. A dragon attacked the dwarves and drove them from their home, and now they must quest to reclaim their home and their treasure. As Bilbo hears this song, he’s momentarily filled with a desire to go on adventures, but this desire disappears soon after the music ends.

Thorin rises from his seat and praises Bilbo, who he calls the dwarves’ co-conspirator, for his hospitality. He alludes to a great adventure on which Bilbo is to accompany the dwarves, and comments that Bilbo may never return. Bilbo is so shocked by this that he screams and faints. When Bilbo is revived, he overhears the dwarves wondering whether Bilbo, who they call a “little fellow” is capable of adventures. Bilbo indignantly says that he is capable of anything, an outburst that he is later to regret. The dwarves inform him that there was a sign on his door claiming that he is a burglar looking for employment; Gandalf reveals that it was he who wrote this sign, but that the dwarves should accept Bilbo as their co-conspirator.

Gandalf produces a map, which he tells Thorin belonged to Thror, Thorin’s grandfather. The map shows a hall beneath a mountain, marked with the symbol of a red dragon. Gandalf explains that there is a secret passageway into the mountain, which is too small for a dragon to use itself. He had attempted to recruit warriors for the dwarves’ expedition, but found that warriors were too busy fighting, and for this reason chose a burglar, Bilbo. He also gives Thorin the key to the secret passageway.

Bilbo, who loves maps, asks for an explanation of the dwarves’ quest. Thorin explains that the fourteen dwarves in Bilbo’s house were the dwarves in their song. His grandfather, Thror, was King under the Mountain—King of a vast Dwarf city under the Lonely Mountain—and his subjects’ skill as miners and craftsmen brought trade, wealth, and prosperity to the surrounding area, and led also to the establishment of a large town for men, the Dale, which served as a hub of trade. A dragon, Smaug, heard about the dwarves’ wealth, and drove them from their home, keeping the treasure for itself.

Bilbo suggests that the dwarves go to the Mountain and try to reclaim their treasure, and offers to fix them breakfast before they leave. Thorin implies that Bilbo will be going with them, and, without waiting for an answer, asks Bilbo to fix him eggs for breakfast. The other dwarves ask for similar food and go to bed. As Bilbo falls asleep, he hears Thorin humming the dwarves’ song. He has vivid, unusual dreams that night, and wakes up late.