Editing The Hobbit (section)

=== Characters ===
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{{Main|List of The Hobbit characters|l1=List of ''The Hobbit'' characters}}

[[Bilbo Baggins]], the protagonist, is a respectable, reserved and well-to-do [[hobbit]]—a race resembling short humans with furry, leathery feet who live in underground houses and are mainly farmers and gardeners.<ref>''The Hobbit'', ch. 1 "An Unexpected Party". "his woolly toes (neatly brushed)"</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in Bed: Modernism's Fairy Tales |first=Ann |last=Martin |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8020-9086-7 |quote=... —prefigure the bourgeois preoccupations of J. R. R. Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins in ''The Hobbit''. |page=38}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction Analysis |volume=8 volume set |year=1996 |publisher=Beacham Publishers |isbn=978-0-933833-42-5 |editor-first=Kirk H. |editor-last=Beetz |page=1924 |quote=At the beginning of ''The Hobbit'' ... Bilbo Baggins seems little more than a conservative but good-natured innocent. |url=https://archive.org/details/beachamsencyclop00beet |url-access=limited }}</ref> [[Gandalf]], an itinerant [[Wizard (Middle-earth)|wizard]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Wizard and the Warrior: Leading with Passion and Power |first1=Lee G. |last1=Bolman |first2=Terrence E. |last2=Deal |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-0-7879-7413-8 |year=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wizardwarriorlea00bolm/page/88 88] |quote=But their chief role was to offer sage advice: Merlin as a tutor and counselor to King Arthur; Gandalf through stories and wisdom in his itinerant travels throughout the countryside. |url=https://archive.org/details/wizardwarriorlea00bolm/page/88 }}</ref> introduces Bilbo to a company of [[List of The Hobbit characters#Thorin's company|thirteen dwarves]]. [[Thorin Oakenshield]] is the proud, pompous<ref>{{cite book |title=Tolkien and the Silmarils |first=Randel |last=Helms |author-link=Randel Helms |location=Boston |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-395-29469-7 |year=1981 |page=86 |quote=As apt a description of Thorin Oakenshield as of the dwarf-lord of Nogrod; but yet when we see Thorin in person, ... there is a notable addition, a comic pomposity altogether suitable to what Tolkien intends in ''The Hobbit''... }}</ref><ref name=Pienciak>{{cite book |last=Pienciak |first=Anne |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings |publisher=[[Barron's Educational Series]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8120-3523-0 |chapter=The Characters |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienshobbi0000pien/page/14 14–30] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jrrtolkienshobbi0000pien/page/14 }}</ref> head of the company of dwarves and heir to the destroyed dwarvish kingdom under the [[Lonely Mountain]]. [[Smaug]] is a [[Dragon (Middle-earth)|dragon]] who long ago pillaged the dwarvish kingdom of Thorin's grandfather and sleeps upon the vast treasure.

The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the [[Characters in The Hobbit#Thorin's Company|twelve other dwarves of the company]]; two types of [[Elf (Middle-earth)|elves]]: both [[Puck (mythology)|puckish]] and more serious [[Aos Sí|warrior types]];<ref name="Anderson 2003 page=120">{{harvnb|Tolkien|2003|page=120}}</ref> [[Man (Middle-earth)|Men]]; man-eating [[Troll (Middle-earth)|trolls]]; boulder-throwing giants; evil cave-dwelling [[Orc (Middle-earth)|goblins]]; forest-dwelling giant spiders who can speak; immense and heroic [[Eagle (Middle-earth)|eagles]] who also speak; evil wolves, or [[Warg (Middle-earth)|Wargs]], who are allied with the goblins; [[Elrond]] the sage; [[Gollum]], a strange creature inhabiting an underground lake; [[Beorn]], a man who can assume bear form; and [[Bard the Bowman]], a grim but honourable archer of [[Esgaroth|Lake-town]].<ref name=Pienciak/><ref>{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Stevens |first2=Carol |last2=Stevens |chapter=The Hobbit |year=2008 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien |editor-first=Harold |editor-last=Bloom |editor-link=Harold Bloom |publisher=[[Chelsea House]] |pages=17–26 |isbn=978-1-60413-146-8 }}</ref>