In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes.
In The Lord of the Rings, the mountain is called by the Sindarin name Erebor. The Lonely Mountain is the destination of the protagonists, including the titular Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and is the scene of the novel's climax.
Artist's depiction
New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu stood in for the Lonely Mountain in Peter Jackson's film adaptations of The Hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, and the fictional narrator of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. The Hobbit is selected by the wizard Gandalf to help Thorin and his party of Dwarves to reclaim their ancestral home and treasure, which has been seized by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo sets out in The Hobbit timid and comfort-loving, and through his adventures grows to become a useful and resourceful member of the quest.
J. R. R. Tolkien's illustration of Bilbo in his comfortable hobbit-hole, Bag End
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins's desire to acquire 'Bag End', Bilbo's hobbit-hole, has been compared to Vita Sackville-West's frustrated desire to inherit Knole House (pictured).
Bilbo's character and adventures match many details of William Morris's expedition in Iceland. Cartoon of Morris riding a pony by his travelling companion Edward Burne-Jones (1870)
The illustrations of Bilbo in the 1976 Russian translation of The Hobbit were based on the actor Yevgeny Leonov (shown here on a postage stamp).
