Theme Of Leadership In The Hobbit

The contrast between different types of leadership appears in the chapter Flies and Spiders in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The chapter starts off with the group no longer having Gandalf lead them through the perils that lie in the Mirkwood. Thorin helps lead the group past a deadly river that cannot be touched and helps them until he is captured by elves. Bilbo battle spiders and saves the dwarves on multiple occasions in Thorin’s absence. In this chapter you see a new dynamic in Throrin and Company. No longer having Gandalf Thorin picked up the mantle of leadership and lead by command. Bilbo then assumed the role of leadership in Thorins absence and lead by putting others first, putting himself on the line. As the story advances, there are

these two contrasting types of. Ultimately in the end Bilbo’s way of leadership proved to be better.
When entering the Mirkwood Gandalf left the group leaving Thorin to lead the group through the woods. Thorin leads the group by command through Mirkwood usually delegating who should do what in the group. As the group is trying to find their way across the river on pages 132-133 Thorin takes command of the situation. Once the group had a solid plan Thorin delegates the order of travel “Who shall cross First said Bilbo” “I shall” said Thorin, “and you will come with me and Fili and Balin. That’s as many as the boat will hold at a time.” (133) Thorin goes on naming the order of who will go and when. In this passage you can see Thorin is the one who is delegating the path of the group. Furthermore, he has the only voice, the other dwarves just listen and follow his direction. This is showing they also see him as a leader in the group. Throughout their journey Thorin continues to lead this way he is the one who decides the what happens and who does what. As they travel you see that he is always the one telling everyone what must be done but he’s not the one to do it “Is there no end to this accursed forest?” said Thorin. “Somebody must climb a tree and see if he can get his head above the roof and have a look around.” (137) Right here you can see he is telling someone in the group to climb a tree to help them get out. From the wording you can tell he is not the one whos going to be climbing the tree. This just really shows that his idea of leadership is that, not necessary for him to do anything but tell others to do without question and keep control of the group. At this point in time there is nothing wrong with this. He leads like a king would and that is ultimately his style of leadership for the group.
As the chapter continues Thorin goes missing unbeknown to the rest of the group he was captured by elves.

With his absence Bilbo is the one who ends up assuming the role of leader, however he leads by putting himself on the line. The best examples are when the Bilbo battles the spiders helping save the dwarves. “The next spider stone went whizzing through a big web snapping its chords, and taking off the spider sitting in the middle of it, whack, dead.” (146) Bilbo saved Bombur from being eaten by the spiders he risked his life to save him. This speaks enormity to Bilbo as a leader, he was the only one left in the group no captured and he could have just left them. Instead he picks himself up and puts his life on the line to save the dwarves from the spiders. Bilbo himself on the line to lead this group, particularly when planning their finally escape. “I shall Draw the spiders off, if I can; and you must keep together and make in the opposite direction.” (151) This scene shows Bilbo has the capability to delegate and tell others what to do. Furthermore, he is an outsider to the dwarves yet he still has their respect and attention from them. Although he tells the dwarves what to do Bilbo is the one being put in harm’s way. His way of leadership is putting the group before himself and every action he does is to help them. He never once forces someone in the company into

trouble.
Once Bilbo was able to rescue the dwarves from the elves we run into a situation where Bilbo wants to lead and Thorin is trying to lead as well.

Throughout the rest of the book we can see these contrasting types of leadership. We see situations like this on pages 192-193. During this passage the dwarves are trying to find at the secret door to Erabor. We see Thorin telling everyone what to do, but he’s pretty much given up, whereas Bilbo is waiting and trying to figure out how get through the secret passage. Bilbo waited and finally figured out how to get in the door once the time was right and saved them from having to go in the front gate. Following this scene, we see Thorin telling Bilbo it is time to enter the cavern to go into the mountain. Here we see Thorins style of leadership once more of telling, but not really doing. The biggest contrast in their two styles comes when Bilbo takes his 1/14 share of the treasure and gives it to the elves and Bard. “This is the Arkenstone of Thrain,” said Bilbo, “I give it to you. It will aid in your bargaining.” (248) Bilbo sees where this fight is going and in an attempt to be proactive he saw giving away the Arkenstone as the way to avoid the fight. Although the dwarves may not have seen that as the ideal option Bilbo being a leader saw it as the only way to save their lives. Thorin on the other hand felt this as to be a major attack and betrayal , “You miserable hobbit! You Undersized-Burglar!” “I will Through you into the

rocks!” Here we see Thorin’s reaction to Bilbo giving away the Arkenstone. He obviously did not have the same feeling Bilbo had about avoiding the fight at this point we can see that the material objects are more important than the members of the group. This follows his idea that he leads by command and what he says goes, and you don’t go against his word. This is their biggest conflict in ideas of leadership and this is what leads to Bilbo being removed from the group.
When Bilbo is removed from the group you realize whose way of leadership is the preferable way to lead, ultimately it is Bilbo’s. When Bilbo is almost tossed from the walls of Erabor. “You are making a very Splendid figure as King under the Mountain” said Gandalf (252) Gandalf here tells Thorin he’s not acting as a leader although it doesn’t get through to Thorin at this point in the story. This small comment may have meant nothing if an elf said it, but since it was Gandalf it carries a lot of weight behind it. Even in this instance you get the idea that even some of the other dwarves disagree with Thorin’s actions. Furthermore, it just shows fact that his leadership style is begging to fail. As the story progresses into the battle of five armies Thorin does get some redemption from his earlier actions. “Suddenly there was a great shout, and from the gate came a trumpet call. They all had forgotten Thorin! Out leapt the King under the Mountain, and his companions.”(258) Here we get a small redemption for Thorin realizing he has to do to be a good leader. He puts his life on the line and rallies the troops for one last push against the Goblin hoards that are onslaught the mountains. He changes how he has acted the whole story and now leads by example and putting his life on the line along with his fellow dwarves. It is with death that Thorin realizes his mistakes “There is more in you of good and some know, child of the kindly west. If more valued food and cheer and songs above hoarded gold , it would be a merrier world.” This point right here just vindicates that Bilbo was the one who had the right idea. He is not necessarily saying he was wrong, but he is saying the actions of Bilbo are what will make a better world. This just supports the overall idea that Bilbo way of leadership is the more superior to Thorins.
When asked the question what would the book be like without this chapter Flies and Spiders, it would be significantly different. The concept of having both Thorin, being the leader and Bilbo, becoming one in this chapter plays a major role with the rest of the book. These two contrasting ideas as shown played a role all the way up to the end of the story. The book would be at a loss if this idea was not introduced additionally this idea sets up most of the story. The direction it was going would have been different if we did not get these two types of leadership from Thorin and Bilbo. J.R.R Tolkien even closes out the story with Thorins death and this overarching idea finally coming to a close. When you read back Flies and spiders is when all of this gets introduced into the book showing that the chapter as a whole carries this significance to the story’s development.