Bilbo Baggins is the hobbit whose birthday begins J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The novel opens with preparations for Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party at Hobbiton.
Bilbo is the central character of The Hobbit, where he travels with Thorin Oakenshield’s company and encounters Gollum. In The Lord of the Rings, he is older and transfers the Ring to his heir, Frodo, before leaving the Shire.
The birthday-party opening introduces the peaceful Shire before the larger danger becomes clear. A common mix-up is to identify Frodo as the birthday celebrant, because Frodo shares the same birthday and the narrative soon shifts its attention to him. Bilbo’s birthday is 22 September, the same date as Frodo’s, although their ages are different.