Bert, Tom and William Huggins were three trolls whom Thorin's company met in the Lone-lands on the road to Rivendell.1
Bilbo, sent to look at their fire, tried to pick William's pocket, and the purse squeaked. The trolls caught him, then caught the Dwarves one by one as they came looking for him and stuffed them into sacks. Gandalf saved them all without being seen: hidden in the trees, he imitated the trolls' voices so that they argued over how to cook their prisoners until dawn came and the sunlight turned them to stone.1
Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!
In the trolls' cave the company found a hoard. Gandalf and Thorin took two swords that Elrond later recognised as blades of Gondolin, Glamdring and Orcrist, and Bilbo took a knife that he afterwards named Sting. They buried the gold, and Bilbo and Gandalf dug it up again on their way home.1,2,3,4
Seventy-seven years later Frodo's party passed the same three stone figures in the Trollshaws, and Sam, recovering his nerve, recited a comic song about a troll.5
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Published story The Hobbit, ch. 2, “Roast Mutton”
- Published story The Hobbit, ch. 3, “A Short Rest”
- Published story The Hobbit, ch. 8, “Flies and Spiders”
- Published story The Hobbit, ch. 19, “The Last Stage”
- Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 12, “Flight to the Ford”