Bilbo's Battles

     While reading the Hobbit again, for I’ve read it several times, I noticed some things I hadn’t thought about before. When the Battle of Five Armies comes Bilbo really isn’t involved and he gets knocked out by an enemy soldier early on. I never really thought of why Tolkien wrote his main character to be unconscious during the only major battle in the story. 

     Then I realized that the hardest battle for Bilbo was facing himself. Tolkien didn’t need to write a big battle for Bilbo’s sake but for the dwarves who longed for battle in any situation. Bilbo didn’t need to face physical battles, even though he did, like the spiders and even Smaug. His battles were in his mind, because he had to fight wanting to go home constantly. I like that Tolkien wrote a hero that didn’t have to fight a physical battle which typically heroes need to do. This similarly happens to Frodo in the Lord of the Ring. He had to carry the ring and also fight with himself the entire way there just as Bilbo did.