Also known as: The Burglar, Barrel-Rider, Ring-Winner, Friend Of Elves
The hobbit who began it all. Bilbo was the son of Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took, a thoroughly respectable hobbit who was chosen by Gandalf to serve as the burglar for Thorin Oakenshield's quest to reclaim Erebor. During that adventure, Bilbo found the One Ring in Gollum's cave, won the Riddle-game, helped the Dwarves escape from Thranduil's dungeons, discovered Smaug's weakness, and was instrumental in averting war between the free peoples before the Battle of Five Armies. He acquired the mithril coat and the Elven blade Sting. Bilbo kept the Ring for sixty years, during which it unnaturally preserved his youth. At his one-hundred-and-eleventh birthday party, he vanished using the Ring and left it to Frodo, retiring to Rivendell where he wrote poetry, studied Elvish, and composed his memoirs, "There and Back Again." He eventually sailed to the Undying Lands with Frodo, the oldest hobbit who ever lived.