Ele é coagido para a aventura de Gandalf, que percebe que ele precisa de um hobbit e vê o potencial de aventura em Bilbo.
Nos romances, Bilbo é muito contra a aventura para começar. De Capítulo 1 :
“Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good
morning! But please come to tea—any time you like! Why not tomorrow?
Come tomorrow! Good bye!” With that the hobbit turned and scuttled
inside his round green door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not
to seem rude. Wizards after all are wizards.
“What on earth did I ask him to tea for!” he said to himself, as he
went to the pantry. He had only just had breakfast, but he thought a
cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his
fright.
Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and
laughing long but quietly. After a while he stepped up, and with the
spike on his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit’s beautiful
green front-door. Then he strode away, just about the time when Bilbo
was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had
escaped adventures very well.
Depois, em Capítulo 2 :
“What message?” said poor Mr. Baggins all in a fluster.
“Great Elephants!” said Gandalf, “you are not at all yourself this
morning—you have never dusted the mantelpiece!”
“What’s that got to do with it? I have had enough to do with washing
up for fourteen!”
“If you had dusted the mantelpiece, you would have found this just
under the clock,” said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note (written, of
course, on his own note-paper).
This is what he read:
“Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality
our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance
our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not
exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all travelling
expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by
us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not
otherwise arranged for.
“Thinking it unnecessary to disturb your esteemed repose, we have
proceeded in advance to make requisite preparations, and shall await
your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at 11 a.m.
sharp. Trusting that you will be punctual,
“ We have the honour to remain “ Yours deeply “ Thorin & Co.”
“That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run,” said
Gandalf.
“But—,” said Bilbo.
“No time for it,” said the wizard.
“But—,” said Bilbo again.
“No time for that either! Off you go!”
To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself
outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that
he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast
half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s
hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the
lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or
more.
Então ele é essencialmente coagido na aventura de Gandalf.
Ele sai do senso de dever e, ao longo do tempo, se considera parte integrante do grupo e realmente desfruta dele. As razões para esse desfrute, como Gandalf sabia, também foram mencionadas no primeiro parágrafo:
Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked and
behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable
father, got something a bit queer in his make-up from the Took side,
something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never
arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old
or so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father,
which I have just described for you, until he had in fact apparently
settled down immovably.