Name:
Guided Reading Questions
Directions: Below are several questions to guide your reading of The Hobbit’s first chapter.
Follow the page numbers. Some page numbers include definitions for odd words. You are not
required to “do” anything with these apart from reading their definitions in order to understand
what they’re being used for.
When you have finished reading and answering the following questions, submit your document
to turnitin.com under the assignment “The Hobbit: Chapter 1 Questions.” If you do not finish
before class ends today, you are expected to submit your responses before class on Tuesday,
10/28.
Page 10
1. Why might the author name the dwarves, like Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur with such
similar sounds?
2. What feelings do you get about Thorin based on his demeanor?
Page 11
Larders - pantry
Flummoxed - confused
1. "By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and
plates and spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the
face, and annoyed.” What’s the point of the author leaving in all of those “and”s? What
does it give the reader a better sense of?
2. How many dwarves are in Bilbo’s house?
3. “The dwarves ate and ate, and talked and talked, and time got on.” What effect do the
repetitive “and”s have?
Page 12
1. “the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fright; ‘please be careful!’ and ‘please,
don’t trouble! I can manage.’” What do you associate with the words “squeaking with
fright,”?
2. What kind of connotation do those words carry?
3. What does Bilbo’s response to dwarves offering to help with the dishes reveal about
Bilbo?
Page 13
1. When the dwarves first begin to sing and play music, the tone is heavy or lighthearted?
How does Thorin’s music change the tone of the scene?
2. Does this go along with Thorin’s overall demeanor?
Page 15
“As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by
magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then
something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and
hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a
walking-stick.”
1. What’s being stirred in Bilbo?
Page 16
Bilbo’s looking out into the distance, daydreaming, and he “Suddenly [sees] a flame leapt up…
and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He
shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.”
1. Does this daydreaming foreshadow anything?
Audacious - daring, adventurous
Page 17
1. “worst of all fellow conspirator.” Why would Bilbo be “flummoxed” about being called
an audacious conspirator?
2. What connotation do you normally associate with a conspirator?
3. “So they took him and laid him out of the way on the drawing-room sofa with a drink at
his elbow, and they went back to their dark business.” How does Bilbo compare with the
dwarves at this time?
4. Gandalf says of Bilbo, “[He] gets funny queer fits, but he is one of the best, one of the
best - as fierce as a dragon in a pinch.” Does this seem accurate of Bilbo at this time?
Page 18
Mood: the feeling created in the reader as they read
1. “in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.” Do
you think this is true? How does this contribute to the mood of the novel?
2. “The Took side had won… Many a time afterwards the Baggins part regretted what he
did now, and he said to himself: ‘Bilbo, you were a fool; you walked right in and put your
foot in it.’” What does this foreshadow Bilbo doing?
Page 19
1. “There is a great deal more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea
of himself.” Does Gandalf believe in Bilbo? Is there any evidence for the reader to
believe in Bilbo?
Page 20-21
1. What does Bilbo’s map reveal about himself? It says he has a love for maps, but his
country maps differ from the dwarves map.
2. “That would be no good,’ said the wizard, ‘not without a mighty Warrior, even a Hero. I
tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in the
neighborhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found...’” Why choose Bilbo? What
is the archetypal hero normally like? Are they extraordinary on their own?
Page 22
1. The text says Thorin has a “mock-politeness” with Bilbo when asking for his advice.
Does Thorin really believe Bilbo will offer him any noteworthy advice?
2. Obstinately - stubbornly
3. Would we be getting the same information about Bilbo’s feelings if we didn’t have this
narrator?
4. What kind of narrator is this? Friendly? Dramatic? Stern? Playful?
Page 23
Reverence - honor and respect
Page 24
1. When Thorin gives the background story, he says, “it was only too common in those
days.” What does he mean?
Page 26
1. Gandalf briefly describes finding someone in a dungeon of the Necromancer. The
dwarves respond, saying,“ Whatever were you doing there?’ asked Thorin with a
shudder, and all the dwarves shivered.” What does their response tell you about the state
of this place?
Page 27
1. “The Tookishness was wearing off, and he was not now quite so sure that he was going
on any journey in the morning.” Does Bilbo want to go on this adventure anymore?