Bilbo Baggins is the hobbit who started it all - the reluctant burglar who joined Thorin's company to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug, and who found a simple gold ring in a cave beneath the Misty Mountains that turned out to be the most dangerous object in Middle-earth. In The Hobbit, Bilbo's journey from comfortable homebody to resourceful adventurer established the template for Tolkien's exploration of ordinary courage. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo is old and weary, having kept the Ring for sixty years without fully understanding its nature. His decision to give up the Ring - an act of will that Gandalf recognises as remarkable - sets the entire quest in motion. Bilbo is both Frodo's predecessor and his foil: proof that the Ring can be carried and relinquished, but also a warning of the toll it takes.