“The Hobbit” is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which Gandalf recruits Bilbo (Frodo’s uncle, also a Hobbit) to help him and a host of Dwarves to retake the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.
Not necessarily a quest to save “Middle Earth” (so much as it was a quest for the Dwarve’s greed), though it may be argued that Smaug was a dormant threat that could have, at any moment, laid waste to nearby cities.
That may have been written in after the fact, but the War of the Ring had not yet been conceptualized when Tolkien was writing The Hobbit. It was a standalone story for his kids
Yeah, I don’t think Smaug posed a significant threat to Middle Earth as a whole. They even highlight this in the FotR film by adding a line where Gandalf brushes off the entire quest as “the incident with the dragon”:
“If you’re referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out of the door.”
Funny, I have a different interpretation to “the incident with the dragon”, that Gandalf is intentionally underplaying the consequence of his “little nudge out of the door”.
Sure the original intent of the quest was mostly one of curiosity and greed, but it resulted in the Battle of the Five Armies. Which of course is much less of a huge deal in the book as it was in the movies (The Battle of Five Paragraphs more like), but still has significant implications for those involved.
Gandalf saying he was “barely involved” is also being quite generous to Gandalf’s involvement, as he a. picked Bilbo himself, b. provided the map and key needed for the quest’s completion, and c. served as a primary guide for the majority of the quest.
“The Hobbit” is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which Gandalf recruits Bilbo (Frodo’s uncle, also a Hobbit) to help him and a host of Dwarves to retake the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.
Not necessarily a quest to save “Middle Earth” (so much as it was a quest for the Dwarve’s greed), though it may be argued that Smaug was a dormant threat that could have, at any moment, laid waste to nearby cities.
I’m pretty sure the idea behind backing the dwarves to kill Smaug was to deny Sauron a potential asset when the war started.
That may have been written in after the fact, but the War of the Ring had not yet been conceptualized when Tolkien was writing The Hobbit. It was a standalone story for his kids
Yeah, I don’t think Smaug posed a significant threat to Middle Earth as a whole. They even highlight this in the FotR film by adding a line where Gandalf brushes off the entire quest as “the incident with the dragon”:
Funny, I have a different interpretation to “the incident with the dragon”, that Gandalf is intentionally underplaying the consequence of his “little nudge out of the door”.
Sure the original intent of the quest was mostly one of curiosity and greed, but it resulted in the Battle of the Five Armies. Which of course is much less of a huge deal in the book as it was in the movies (The Battle of Five Paragraphs more like), but still has significant implications for those involved.
Gandalf saying he was “barely involved” is also being quite generous to Gandalf’s involvement, as he a. picked Bilbo himself, b. provided the map and key needed for the quest’s completion, and c. served as a primary guide for the majority of the quest.