List of The Hobbit characters

This article describes all named characters appearing in The Hobbit. Creatures as collectives are not included. Characters are categorized by race. Spelling and point of view are given as from The Hobbit; details from sources outside The Hobbit are given only where important to understanding the character within the tale, and with the source explicitly noted.

Hobbits

• Bilbo Baggins of Bag End, the protagonist and titular hobbit of the story.
• Bungo Baggins, Bilbo's father.
• Belladonna Took, Bilbo's mother.
• The Old Took, Bilbo's maternal grandfather.
• Chubb, Chubb, and Burrowes, auctioneers managing the liquidation of Bilbo’s effects.
• The Sackville-Bagginses, “cousins” to Bilbo. They arranged an auction to dispose of Bilbo’s effects long after he disappeared. Bilbo returned during the auction, upsetting the plans the Sackville-Bagginses had for moving into his fine hobbit hole. Bilbo suspected them of making off with some of his silver spoons.
• Bullroarer Took, a historical figure mentioned as Bilbo's great great grand-uncle. He led the defence against the goblins of Mount Gram and is purported to have knocked the goblin leader Golfimbul's head off with a blow from his club, sending it flying into a rabbit hole and thereby inventing the sport of golf.

Wizards

• Gandalf, the mastermind behind the The Hobbit's quest.
• Radagast, a wizard mentioned as a "cousin" of Gandalf.

Dwarves

• Dain, second cousin to Thorin, came to the aid of Thorin's Company at the Battle of Five Armies with a company of several hundred dwarves.

Thorin's company

Thorin's company consisted of the following 13 dwarves; their quest in The Hobbit is the main impetus of the plot. Their quest was joined by Bilbo Baggins (a hobbit) and occasionally by the wizard Gandalf.

• Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the company and possessor of the longest beard. He wore a gold belt, and a sky blue hood with a large silver tassel. Thorin played the harp.
• Thorin's nephews (sons of his sister Dís as known from The Lord of the Rings):
  • Fili, who with his brother Kili was the youngest dwarf in the company and therefore useful for his keen eyesight. He wore a blue hood and grew a yellow beard.
  • Kili, who with his brother Fili was the youngest dwarf in the company and therefore useful for his keen eyesight. He wore a blue hood and grew a yellow beard.
• Four of Thorin's third-cousins - two pairs of brothers:
  • Balin. Older brother to Dwalin, he wore a red hood and had a white beard. Bilbo and Balin later became good friends.
  • Dwalin. Younger brother to Balin, he wore a dark green hood and a golden belt, had a blue beard tucked into the belt, and, like his brother Balin, he played viol. He was the first of the dwarves that Bilbo met.
  • Oin. Brother to Gloin, he wore a brown hood. He and Gloin were charged with starting the campfires.
  • Gloin. Brother to Oin, he wore a white hood. He and Oin were charged with starting the campfires. Gloin openly doubted Bilbo at the start of the quest.^[1]
• Three dwarves who were Thorin's remote kinsmen:
  • Dori. He wore a purple hood. Dori was tasked with carrying Bilbo in the goblin tunnels.
  • Nori. He wore a purple hood.
  • Ori. He wore a grey hood.
• Three dwarves "descended from the Dwarves of Moria but were not of Durin's line":^[2]
  • Bifur. Cousin to Bofur and Bombur, he wore a yellow hood and played clarinet.^[3]
  • Bofur. Cousin to Bifur and brother to Bombur, he wore a yellow hood and played clarinet.
  • Bombur, whose primary traits were his fatness and his sympathy for Bilbo's plights. He wore a pale green hood.

Elves

• Elrond, master of Rivendell, the Last Homely House East of the Sea. The Hobbit calls him an elf-friend rather than an elf, one "who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors." (The Lord of the Rings relates that Elrond was born half-elven but chose the path of the elves.)
• The Elvenking, king of the Mirkwood Elves. He held the dwarves captive. They were eventually freed by Bilbo. (In The Lord of the Rings, he is given the name Thranduil.)
• Galion, the butler of the Elvenking's halls, whose fondness for wine enables Bilbo and the dwarves to escape.

Men

• Bard the Bowman, an archer of Lake-town who slew Smaug.
• Beorn the "skin-changer", master of the Carrock, able to take the form of a bear. He fought against the goblins at the Battle of Five Armies along with the men, elves and dwarves. Beorn may not have been a man; Gandalf states in The Hobbit that he believes the story calling Beorn "...a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world" rather than the other common story, that "he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came". In The Lord of the Rings, they refer to his kind as Beornings.
• The Master of Lake-town, a grasping politician who met his end starving in the wilderness with the wealth he plundered from his own people after the destruction of Lake-town. He is not named explicitly but had the nickname "Money bags".

Trolls

• Tom, one of the three trolls who captured the members of the Company. The trolls argued over how to prepare their captives for eating, goaded on by the impersonating voice of Gandalf. They argued until dawn, when the sun's rays turned them to stone.
• Bert, one of the three trolls who captured the members of the Company.
• William (Bill Huggins), one of the three trolls who captured the members of the Company.

Singular characters

• Gollum, a creature left largely to mystery in The Hobbit. He lived alone deep under the Misty Mountains on an island in a dark, cold lake. He lost his magic ring, which Bilbo found, and engaged Bilbo in a riddle game in order to stall for time. Ultimately Bilbo escaped with the ring. In The Lord of the Rings it is revealed that Gollum is a degenerate hobbit of great age whose name was originally Sméagol.
• The Necromancer, a shadowy evil character mentioned in The Hobbit. In The Lord of the Rings, The Necromancer is seen to be Sauron.
• Smaug, a great dragon who made the Lonely Mountain his lair. After the Company roused him from his long quiescence, he destroyed Lake-town and was killed by Bard.

Birds

• The Lord of the Eagles, a giant eagle who, with the other eagles, bore the Company away from the burning treetops the goblins had trapped them in, and who aided the allies at the Battle of Five Armies.
• Carc, an intelligent raven who lived upon the Ravenhill beneath the Lonely Mountain in the days of King Thrór.
• Roäc, son of Carc; the leader of the great ravens of the Lonely Mountain.
• A thrush who watches over the party at the Lonely Mountain and furthers their interests.

Goblins

• The Great Goblin, whose kingdom lay under the Misty Mountains. Warriors of his realm waylaid the Company and took them prisoner. Gandalf slew the Great Goblin when he rescued the Company.
• Bolg, who succeeded the Great Goblin, led an army of goblins in the Battle of Five Armies.
• Golfimbul, leader of the goblins of Mount Gram. He was killed by Bullroarer Took at the Battle of Greenfields, already a historical event at the time of The Hobbit.

References

1. J. R. R. Tolkien (1937), The Hobbit, George Allen & Unwin, 4th edition (1978), ch.1 pp. 24-25; ISBN 0-04-823147-9.
2. J. R. R. Tolkien (1955), The Return of the King, George Allen & Unwin, 2nd edition (1966), Appendix A:III, p. 361 footnote; ISBN 0 04 823047 2.
3. Regarding the relationship of Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, see John Rateliff, Mr. Baggins, Houghton Mifflin, 2007, p. 322, note 34, ISBN 0-618-96847-4.