1066 Tolkien, J. R. R.
Bard and the other humans opposing the dwarves
in order to claim a share of the treasure. Bard and
the elves have legitimate claims. The idea of steal-
ing back from the dragon the gold he took from the
dwarves was simple enough as a starting point, but
it ignored the more complex reality that the dragon
also plundered the human and elvish communities.
Mixed in with the dwarves’ treasure is wealth stolen
from others. Furthermore, Smaug blames humans
for the dwarves’ thievery and destroys Lake Town,
depriving a community of their homes before being
slain by Bard. The citizens of Lake Town not only
help outfit the dwarves for their expedition against
Smaug but also pay a huge price for that help. Tho-
rin’s refusal to share the treasure makes him a kind
of metaphorical dragon himself.
The climax of the novel involves a struggle
not between good and evil but between different
self-interested factions seeking control of wealth.
The greater danger in the novel, in fact, is rampant
consumerism: The heroes come closer to being
destroyed by their pursuit of wealth then they do by
anything else. Consequently, on one level, The Hob-
bit is a commentary on capitalism and the dangers
of commodification.
Dominick Grace
HeroISm in The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is indebted to earlier
literary forms; it invokes the typical characteristics
of epic and quest heroes. However, Tolkien fore-
grounds some traits at the expense of others and
ultimately advances an unconventional notion of
heroism. Questions about what constitutes heroism
are therefore thematically central to the novel.
Tolkien rejects one of the prevalent heroic mod-
els immediately. Though acquiring a dragon’s gold
hoard would seem to be the task of a warrior hero,
given the physical threat the dragon represents,
Gandalf notes that neither a warrior nor a hero
could be found to undertake the quest, so he adopts
a different model. Bilbo Baggins is chosen as the
burglar precisely because he is not a typical hero or
warrior. He is small, rather than large; he is weak,
rather than strong; he is timid, rather than brave;
he is concerned with the comforts and pleasures of
life, not combat and hardship. In short, he lacks the
characteristics associated with the typical hero. Her-
oism here is not associated with military prowess or
the ability to fight. Though Tolkien does provide
Bard, a typical warrior, to dispatch the dragon, Bard
plays a minor role in the novel, despite being the
descendant of a noble line and ending up reclaiming
a lost kingdom, in typical hero fashion.
Bilbo does acquire some of the typical objects
and characteristics associated with martial hero-
ism. For instance, he acquires a sword after the
encounter with the trolls, a weapon he names
Sting when he kills a giant spider in combat. Here
Bilbo engages in conventional martial heroism,
and this action is important to his development. It
is marked by Tolkien as a moment in which Bilbo
develops a new sense of self. However, strength and
skill in combat are a small part of what constitutes
the heroic in Bilbo. More characteristic are luck
and intelligence or cunning, traits that liken him
to the folktale hero or to a figure such as Odys-
seus, who is renowned more for brain than brawn.
A combination of wit and luck allow Bilbo to
overcome Gollum and acquire the ring; his intel-
ligence and wit are more important than his sword
in the combat with the spiders; and his mental
skills, rather than his prowess, allow him to rescue
the dwarves from the wood elves and to discover
the dragon’s weak spot, information that is vital to
Bard’s slaying of Smaug.
Though intelligence and luck are not uncommon
heroic characteristics, albeit of the folk rather than
the martial hero, Tolkien’s focus on them shifts the
emphasis of The Hobbit away from the valorization
of power. Bilbo’s status as hero becomes decidedly
unconventional, however, when Tolkien subverts the
heroic model. By the end of the novel, easy distinc-
tions between good and evil characters can no longer
be drawn, so the heroic model of virtue resisting vice
is undermined. Indeed, though the dwarves have
been the focal characters, when they face the army
of humans and elves, the reader’s sympathies are at
best split and probably reside as much with their
foes as they do with the dwarves. Central here is
Bilbo’s apparent shift in allegiance and performance
of actions untypical of a hero. Bilbo’s acts at the
climax include stealing from his allies (in an ironic
inversion of his original function as a burglar) and