Bilbo Baggins: A True Friendship

A Good Friend “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” These words were said by Thomas Aquinas, an Italian philosopher. Bilbo Baggins, from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, would make a great friend. He is clever, loyal, and he shows a wonderful sense of morality. Bilbo Baggins would make a great friend because he is clever. Throughout the book, Bilbo makes up riddles and rhymes on the spot to help save himself and his friends. There is a point in the novel when Bilbo has to distract giant spiders so they don’t eat his friends. He does this by singing out “Old fat spider spinning in a tree! Old fat spider can’t see me! Attercop! Attercop! Won’t you stop, Stop your spinning and look for me?” (Tolkien 259). By yelling out, he both infuriates the spiders and let's his friends know that he is near. He also yells out “Attercop”, which is similar to the Old English word attorcoppa, meaning “poison head”. In addition, Bilbo is thrown into a contest of riddles with another astonishingly clever creature. He manages to stump the creature for a long time by saying “A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid” (Tolkien 133).

In a fight with Gollum, Bilbo ponders whether to kill him. He thinks “He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It meant to kill him. No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword.” (Tolkien 149). Bilbo chooses not to kill Gollum, even though Gollum would have killed him. Later in the novel, Bilbo’s dwarf friends finally reclaim their home city. However, Smaug plundered much of the Lake Peoples’ gold. Tolkien writes “How came you by [the Arkenstone]?” shouted Thorin in gathering rage. “I gave it to them!” squeaked Bilbo,” (page 444). Bilbo takes the Arkenstone as his rightful fourteenth share and gives it to the Lake People because the feels bad that his companions won’t give any gold back that Smaug