Journal #8

Bilbo and the dwarves begin to travel through Mirkwood, and it is dark and scary. It begins to be hard to tell day from night because the woods are so thick. They make it to the stream that Beorn had warned them about, to not touch it. Bombur (one of the dwarves) falls in and he is put into a sleep that lasts him for days. Later on, they see a clearing with Wood Elves sitting around a fire, when they go up to the clearing, the fire goes out and this leads to Bilbo passing out. He wakes up being confronted by a spider, and he kills it. Bilbo then uses his ring to lead the other spiders away and save all the dwarves, all but Thorin, the Head Dwarf, who was taken by the wood elves. Thorin will not reveal any information to the Wood Elves who are uneasy with new people. They throw him into the dungeon. The rest of the dwarves are captured, but not Bilbo, because he has the ring. He uses it to sneak past everyone and take some keys. Using the keys he unlocks all of his companions. To escape they float in barrels in a river. These barrels are used to float goods that the elves trade with the men of the town this river connects to, which is called Lake Town.

Floating Down The River

Journal #7

Bilbo manages to find his companions, who were worried about him and did not know whether to leave without him or not. He tells them a story of how he escaped without the ring, because he did not want anyone to know of the ring that he found. The group hears some Wargs, which are animals that are basically like wolfs, and they climb up into the trees to avoid them. The wargs go and tell the goblins, who come and set fire to the trees that they are hiding in. Soon a giant eagle flies in and saves everyone, the reader then learns that this is the Lord Of Eagles, who are all friends of Gandalfs. He saw the fires from his great roost and came in to save them. Gandalf takes everyone to his friend Beron, who is a bear-man. Beron provides food, shelter, and even lets them borrow ponies. He tells them to take the elf path through Mirkwood, which will throw off the goblins that still want to attack and kill all the dwarves, hobbit, and the wizard (Gandalf). There is no safe path through Mirkwood, but the north path is safer. When they get there, Gandalf has to leave and warns them to stick to the path and not to go off of it, and then he leaves.

The Lord Of Eagles after he saved everybody. 

Mirkwood

Journal #6

After they all escape, some goblins chase after the dwarves and hobbit. Bilbo does not run himself, instead he rides on a dwarf's back, slowing him down. One goblin catches up to the slowest dwarf and makes Bilbo fall off, and Bilbo blacks out. When he wakes up he is in a dark room and cannot see, but finds a ring while feeling around for an exit. Bilbo keeps the ring and puts it in his pocket. He then comes across Gollum, who everyone knows as the weird little creature that says "My Precious". After solving riddles with Gollum, he finds out the ring is very powerful, and makes whoever wears it invisible to their enemies, and uses it to help escape the Mountain, Gollum, and the Goblins.

Gollum and Bilbo in the dark cave on the Misty Mountains

Journal #5

When they finally head up the Misty Mountains, they take the route that they all feel is the best, and the safest. While they are on the mountain, a huge storm comes and they need to take shelter, so they all get inside a cave. During the night, when they are all safe and sound in the cave, Bilbo wakes up, seeing their ponies getting dragged into a big crack that had opened up. Bilbo yells and not long after, many goblins come out and grab everybody. Gandalf had not been taken because he reacted to Bilbo's shout and had time to escape. They are all taken to the Great Goblin, who tries to eat Throin because of the sword he had, which was called the Goblin Cleaver, which he took from the Trolls cave. Gandalf comes to the rescue again with a big fire, and attacks the Great Goblin with his sword, this opens up a chance for everyone else to run and some goblins follow.

Gandalf Facing The Great Gobin

Journal #4

The next morning, they travel to a city of elves which is called Rivendale. Rivendale is one of the last safe places to stay on their journey to the mountain. This town is at the feet of some mountains that are called the Misty Mountains, and these mountains are going to have to be passed by the group. The group is treated well and gets lots of rest here in Rivendale. They meet an elf named Elrond, and he is the Great Chief Elf. Elrond is very wise and tells them about some of their weapons, he also helps read the map with the Lonely Mountain on it. There are some words on it to help them find the secret entrance, but these words are only visible in a certain type of moonlight. 

 A Picture of the Map and Moon-Letter Inscription

Hobbit Maps

Journal #3

In the morning, all the dwarves and Gandalf wake up before Bilbo does, and they wait for him at a place called the Green Dragon. Gandalf rushes Bilbo off to meet all of them, and Bilbo is a little upset he did not get to eat more breakfast or have more time to prepare. Once he meets them, they take off on their adventure. During the earlier hours, Gandalf disappears and nobody knows where he went. On their first day, Bilbo gets his first task, which is to go and investigate a fire ahead. The fire is made and tended by 3 trolls who catch Bilbo, this leads to the dwarves coming which leads to them all being tied up by the trolls. They start a big argument with each other, and a voice, which they all think is each others voice, but it is actually Gandalf. They argue until sunlight, and die because sunlight turns trolls to stone. The crew is freed by Gandalf and they take some weapons out of the troll's cave, and are on their way.

Bilbo Investigating The Fire

Journal #2

The Dwarves and Gandalf start to discuss why they are all here, for an adventure. Thorin, the head Dwarf, had a grandfather that mined a mountain, inside the mountain there were lots of jewels and gold. Once his grandfather had all of this stuff, the word got out, and Smaug (A Dragon) came and invaded, now he has been guarding the treasure ever since. They want to go back and claim what is theirs. Normally, Bilbo would not want any part in going on an adventure to fight a dragon, but some part inside him craves adventure and he agrees to go and help them with their quest.

Smaug