![]() ![]() It set about an adventure that would change the landscape of Middle Earth. Simple enough on the face of it, but what a ring he inherited. ![]() While he might not have changed anything, it was less than heroic to sit it out. He neither stopped the friendly sides from coming to blows, nor joined when the orcs arrived. While Smaug is truly the one responsible, Bilbo kicked a hornets’ nest and Laketown got the sting.Ĭon: In the Battle of the Five Armies, he was an onlooker. This is excusable when dealing with dragons, but he lies to Gandalf about the ring (on more than one occasion) and to Thorin about the stone, and generally about his suitability as a burglar.Ĭon: He is indirectly responsible for the carnage in Laketown. ![]() He crosses words with the cantankerous old dragon, but gets the better in the end.Ĭon: He lies. He hid for weeks in the elven palace, remaining undetected and formulating the escape plan, then pulling it off. Pro: The jailbreak and subsequent barrel-based escape from the elves. He named a sword as a result, and that’s a pretty good line item for a heroic resume. Ring or no ring, it was a brave moment for a small warrior. Pro: Buying time for Gandalf to return and save the dwarfs from becoming a troll dinner. A musing out loud turned into a dirty trick, but it worked. Finding the ring on the ground was luck, but the riddle contest was a battle of wits where Bilbo prevailed. Pro: Defeats Gollum and makes off with the ring of invisibility (little did we know at the time). Chased out of his hobbit hole in search of adventure, he finds all he had hoped for and much that he hadn’t. Not an auspicious beginning for a hero, but not all endings match their beginnings. Thorin Oakenshield hired him on as a burglar, at the suggestion of one Gandalf the Grey. Yet two of the land’s great heroes were born therein, uncle and nehpew, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.īut which of them should own the honor of being the greatest hero the Shire ever produced? Let’s look at the case for each. Middle Earth has a curious habit of producing heroes from the most unlikely of sources: the Shire. ![]()
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