Sting Symbol Analysis

Bilbo finds a dagger in the trolls’ lair, which is small for the trolls, but large enough to serve as a sword for him. Later, when Bilbo is rescuing his friends from the spiders in Mirkwood forest, he renames this sword Sting. It’s no coincidence that Bilbo gives his weapon a name at the same time that he’s discovering his own aptitude for adventure, deception, and fighting. In effect, Bilbo “renames” himself in the second half of The Hobbit — he goes from thinking of himself as a well-to-do, adventure-phobic hobbit to a bold, daring adventurer (when he talks to Smaug, he even gives himself new names). Thus, Sting symbolizes Bilbo’s changing nature, and proves that ordinary things —a dagger or a hobbit — are full of surprises.