Which fictional hobbit is the main character of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?

Bilbo Baggins is the main character of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Bilbo is a hobbit from Bag End in Hobbiton whose quiet life changes when the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves arrive. He joins Thorin Oakenshield’s expedition to the Lonely Mountain, where the group hopes to reclaim a treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo begins the journey as an unlikely adventurer and gradually becomes resourceful and courageous.

Bilbo is not the principal protagonist of The Lord of the Rings; that role is centered on his nephew Frodo Baggins. Bilbo does, however, play an important part in that later story because he gives Frodo the powerful Ring and helps begin its history in the Shire.

The Hobbit was first published in 1937. Tolkien originally wrote it as a children’s fantasy, but its setting and mythology connected it to the larger legendarium that later became central to The Lord of the Rings.