The Hobbit recap

Bilbo Baggins, a settled and unadventurous hobbit, is swept into an expedition with the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield to reclaim their ancestral treasure from the dragon Smaug. Along the way they survive trolls, goblins, and giant spiders; in the goblin-tunnels Bilbo finds a magic ring of invisibility, winning it from the creature Gollum after a riddle-game. He grows into a resourceful burglar, rescuing the dwarves from wood-elves by floating them downriver in barrels. At the Lonely Mountain he confronts Smaug and spots a weak point in the dragon's armor; Smaug then attacks Lake-town, where the archer Bard kills him. A quarrel over the treasure nearly sets dwarves, men, and elves against one another, but a goblin invasion forces them to unite in the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin dies reconciled with Bilbo, who returns home richer and wiser, quietly keeping the ring whose true nature no one yet suspects.

Bilbo Baggins, a comfortable and unadventurous hobbit of Bag End, is visited by the wizard Gandalf and then by thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. Over supper Thorin explains their errand: long ago the dragon Smaug drove his people from the Lonely Mountain and seized their wealth, and the dwarves mean to reclaim it. Gandalf produces a map of the mountain and a key to a hidden side-door, and the reluctant dwarves accept Bilbo as their burglar. The company rides east. In the wild they are caught by three trolls who plan to eat them, but Gandalf keeps the trolls arguing until sunrise turns them to stone. From the trolls' hoard Gandalf and Thorin take two old elvish swords, and Bilbo picks up a small knife that will later serve him as a sword. They come to Rivendell, the valley of the elf-lord Elrond, who welcomes them and studies Thorin's map. By moonlight he reads hidden moon-letters on it, revealing that the secret door can only be opened at one time of year, when the last light of Durin's Day falls on the keyhole. Rested and better informed, the travellers press on toward the mountains.

Crossing the Misty Mountains, the company shelters in a cave that proves to be a goblin entrance; the goblins seize them and drag them underground. Gandalf reappears, kills the Great Goblin, and leads an escape, but in the dark Bilbo is knocked out and left behind. Groping along, he finds a plain gold ring lying on the stone and pockets it, then meets Gollum, a slimy creature dwelling by an underground lake. The two play a riddle-game with Bilbo's life as the stake, and Bilbo wins on a doubtful last question, asking aloud what he has in his pocket. Gollum paddles off to fetch his ring, finds it gone, and hunts Bilbo in a fury; Bilbo, slipping it on by chance, discovers it makes him invisible. He follows the raging Gollum to a back exit and escapes into daylight, rejoining the dwarves. Their relief is short-lived: wargs and goblins corner the company and drive them up trees, then set the trees alight. Great eagles, friends of Gandalf, swoop down and carry the whole party to safety.

The eagles set the travellers down near the home of Beorn, a fierce man who can take the shape of a great bear. Beorn feeds and re-equips them, then guides them to the edge of Mirkwood, a vast, dark, enchanted forest, where Gandalf leaves the company on other business. Warned to keep to the path, the dwarves and Bilbo push into the gloom. They nearly starve, Bombur falls into an enchanted stream and sleeps for days, and, straying off the track toward the lights of elvish feasts, they are trapped by giant spiders. Bilbo, using the ring and his little sword, which he now names Sting, kills several spiders and frees the dwarves. But wood-elves capture the company and imprison them in their king's caverns, holding Thorin separately. Bilbo, invisible, haunts the halls until he devises an escape: he packs the dwarves into empty wine barrels the elves are floating down the river and rides out clinging to a barrel himself. Bruised and soaked, they drift downriver toward Lake-town, in the shadow of the Lonely Mountain at last.

The barrels wash up at Lake-town, a settlement of Men built out over the Long Lake. The dwarves climb free and Thorin declares himself the King under the Mountain returned; the townsfolk, remembering old songs and hoping for renewed wealth, feast and outfit them, though the town's Master privately doubts the venture. After a time the company travels up to the Lonely Mountain and, guided by the map, searches its western side for the hidden door. They find the narrow ledge and the smooth stone but cannot open it, and days pass in frustration. At last, on the evening of Durin's Day, a thrush knocks a snail against the rock, the last ray of the setting sun strikes the wall, and a keyhole appears. Thorin fits his key, and the secret door swings inward, opening the dark passage that leads down toward the dragon's hall.

Bilbo is sent down the tunnel to face the dragon. Wearing the ring, he creeps into the treasure-hall and finds Smaug asleep on a mountain of gold. He steals a great cup, and later returns to trade riddling talk with the wakened dragon, flattering him into showing off his armored belly, and notices a bare patch on his left breast where the jeweled crust has not formed. A thrush overhears this. Smaug, certain the theft was aided by the men of Lake-town, flies off in the night to burn the town in revenge. Meanwhile the dwarves enter the hall, and Bilbo secretly finds and pockets the Arkenstone, the greatest jewel of Thorin's house. At Lake-town, Smaug rains fire on the roofs, but the archer Bard rallies the defenders. As the dragon wheels overhead, the thrush tells Bard of the bare patch; Bard looses his last black arrow into the gap, and Smaug crashes dead into the lake, wrecking the town as he falls. The homeless people look to Bard and turn their anger on the fleeing Master.

With the dragon dead, word of the unguarded hoard spreads. Bard, now hailed by the survivors, and the Elvenking of Mirkwood march to the mountain, Bard asking a share of the treasure as compensation for the ruin of Lake-town and for old wealth of his people. But Thorin, his mind poisoned by the gold, refuses every claim and sends word to his kinsman Dain to bring an army of dwarves from the Iron Hills. To break the deadlock and prevent bloodshed, Bilbo slips out at night and hands the Arkenstone to Bard and the Elvenking, giving them a bargaining piece Thorin cannot ignore. When Thorin learns of it he is enraged and names Bilbo a traitor. Just as dwarves, men, and elves stand ready to fight one another, a vast host of goblins and wolves pours out of the mountains, and the rival armies unite against them in the Battle of Five Armies. The fighting is desperate until the eagles and Beorn, in bear-shape, arrive; Beorn breaks the goblin ranks and the enemy is destroyed.

The victory is costly. Thorin is mortally wounded in the battle, and his nephews Fili and Kili die defending him. Before he dies, Thorin sends for Bilbo and makes peace with him, taking back his angry words and admitting the hobbit's worth. Dain becomes the new King under the Mountain, the treasure is fairly shared, and Bard rebuilds a town and rewards the survivors. Bilbo accepts only a modest chest or two of gold and silver, wanting no more. With Gandalf he journeys home the long way, resting again at Rivendell. Reaching the Shire, he finds himself presumed dead and his belongings up for auction; he has to buy back much of his own property and is regarded ever after as slightly disreputable for his adventuring. He settles again at Bag End, keeps up his friendships with the dwarves and Gandalf, and says nothing to his neighbours about the magic ring, which he quietly keeps.

The book closes after the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin Oakenshield dies of his wounds, reconciled with Bilbo at the last, and his nephews Fili and Kili fall beside him; leadership of the mountain and its recovered wealth passes to Thorin's kinsman Dain. The alliance of dwarves, elves, and men that formed against the goblins holds afterward in friendship, the treasure is divided, and Bard rebuilds the ruined Lake-town and the old city of Dale. Bilbo, refusing all but a small share of the gold and silver, travels back to the Shire with Gandalf, resting again at Rivendell. He arrives to find he has been given up for dead and his home and belongings being auctioned off, and must reclaim them; his reputation among respectable hobbits never quite recovers, but he is content. He keeps the friendship of Gandalf and the surviving dwarves and settles back into a quiet life at Bag End. Crucially, he says nothing about the ring he found under the mountain, keeping it as a private curiosity. Neither he nor Gandalf yet understands what it truly is, a thread left hanging that will reopen years later when the ring's real nature and danger come to light.