History Characters / TheHobbit

** The homonym with "smog" was probably deliberate as well.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Ravens are, of course, black-feathered carrion birds and thus usually symbols of death. Roäc is considered a respectable and eminent figure.

* {{Greed}}: Smaug, like all dragons is obsessed with treasure, and will hoard as much as he can during his lifetime ([[LongLived which is forever unless killed]]). Yet he [[AllThatGlitters never enjoys a single brass ring of it]].

* MeaningfulName: "Beorn" ("warrior") is an Anglo-Saxon cognate of ''bjørn'', Danish/Norwegian for "bear".

->"''A very good tale! The best I have heard for a long while. If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder.''"

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: He's the only dwarf not to greet Bilbo with "at your service." He is also the only one ''not'' to help clean the dishes.

* {{Hypocrite}} He takes great offense to Bombur rambling...despite it being firmly established that Thorin is the one whose flaw is that he rambles on for ages if given a chance. Especially since his very...''intense'' rebuke is just as long as Bombur's rambling.

A dwarf with just enough HiddenDepths to break through being often described as “fat”. For the first act, he can usually be counted on putting in the heavy work and being described as heavy. [[TraumaCongaLine But]] [[BrokenAce after that...]]
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Bombur gets this from the others in Mirkwood after Thorin starts it off by ripping the poor guy a new one for rambling about his coma dreams. When Bombur wails that his legs (which the narrator has already told us are weak and wobbly from being comatose for six days) won’t carry him and he needs to stop and sleep, the others reply with: "No you don’t! Let your legs take their share, we have carried you far enough!" (It’s implied that this exchange and variations of it took place over the course of an entire day) Later, when Bilbo describes having similar dreams as Bombur, they say that Bilbo’s “gone like Bombur.”

--->'''Thorin:''' [[ThreateningTropes If you hadn't waked up]], [[WhamLine we should have left you]] to your [[KickTheDog idiotic dreams]] [[MurderByInAction in the forest]].

A dark presence residing in southern Mirkwood that Gandalf goes to confront. Also see Sauron's character sheets in ''Characters/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Characters/TheSilmarillion''.

* CrypticBackgroundReference: All that the reader learns of him during the book, and yet he is the link that connects ''Literature/TheHobbit'' to the earlier ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and the yet-to-come ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Mentions of him hint of even greater dangers and older evils than what is seen on-page.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Sauron had somehow kept his ''true'' identity quiet for a long time -- it was during one of Gandalf's mid-book absences that he discovers the truth.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Lives in one, later named Dol Guldur in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* TheGhost: He's mentioned often, but never seen on-page.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Since he's appears in the book on-page, he has no real characterization and exists only as a reason to keep Gandalf out of the story.
* GreaterScopeVillain: He definitely exists and will later be revealed as the canonical ultimate evil, but has no direct role in the story's plot, except as a device to give Gandalf a reason to leave the group for chapters at a time to go get information on him.
* {{Necromancer}}: Not of the zombie-master type, necessarily: Tolkein was referring to older myths of necromancy -- the transfer of souls, the creation of a SoulJar and such...
** On the other hand, Tolkien based him off on the Necromancer Thû of his broader legendarum that he was working on at the time, and even named him as such in some drafts, a character who would later evolve into Sauron. And even at this point he was characterized as the lord of "phantoms, and of wandering ghosts".
* OffStageVillainy: While his evil would be elaborated on in later books, it's only hinted at without much elaboration here.
* VillainOfAnotherStory: One that would become far more important than the events of this story.

* NonMaliciousMonster: Smaug is so vainglorious that under the right conditions, anyone could encounter him and walk away. Those conditions are: 1. Don't touch anything. 2. Don't carry any visible valuables. 3. Don't touch anything! 4. Grovel. 5. ''Don't touch anything at all.'' 6. Remind him of all the horrible things he's done. 7. ''In the name of all that's holy, don't touch anything.'' 8. Be sure to mention how rich he is, and how all your friends will be jealous of you just for having seen all that money. 9. Well, you know.

** Just as some of his treasure has been incorporated into his body, [[UsefulNotes/Gold Au]] is embedded in his name.

* TheUnChosenOne: The prophecy of Laketown, when the rightful mountain king comes, ''the streams shall run in gladness'' (the journey upriver) ''the like will shine and burn'' (Smaug's attack)''sorrow shall fail and sadness'' (this means that when the true king returns, sorrow shall ''fail'', as in there will be no more sorrow for a while. Thorin's brief reign was fairly miserable and the resulting battle was gloomy indeed. But after Dáin is crowned and sorts everything out responsibly that things truly become happier for the next sixty years.

-->'''Gandalf:''' Of course! And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole bene-fit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!

* NotSoDifferent: To Thorin. A king in exile who wouldn't mind some gold.

* FamousLastWords: The last sentence of dialogue he has in the book (not counting his thoughts when he's attacking Lake-Town). Even these are a badass boast.
--> '''Smaug''': They shall see me and remember who is the real King under the Mountain!

* AmbiguouslyHuman: It's not entirely clear what he is. His enormous size, combined with his ability to transform into a bear, seems to imply that he's not entirely human, but it's difficult to say what else he could be. Gandalf speculates that he's either a descendant of the bears who lived in the Misty Mountains before the Stone-giants arrived or a descendant of the men who lived in the region before the arrival of foul beings and beasts from the north.

* BerserkButton: Conversations amuse him, but, [[DoNotTauntCthulhu NEVER insult or mock him]], [[EvilIsPetty he doesn't take that well]]. Also, he doesn't like being stolen from.

* OldSoldier: Glóin is a confirmed veteran of Azanulbizar. (Incidentally, Glóin was a mere sixteen at the time, half the age of a Dwarf considered 'Battle ready'- Azanulbizar must have been a desperate battle indeed).

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They talk, for one -- Smaug was one of the first Western dragons to be depicted as talkative and intelligent, rather than a ravening beast. Tolkien, who was a fan of Myth/NorseMythology, drew his inspiration for Smaug from [[Literature/PoeticEdda Faf]][[Literature/VolsungaSaga nir]] and [[Literature/{{Beowulf}} the unnamed dragon who fought Beowulf]]. Among Smaug's original characteristics are a fondness for riddles and HypnoticEyes.) While animated and live-action movies go for a saurian appearance -- with a wolf head in the former case -- Tolkien made a painting of Smaug himself and depicted him as more narrow and serpentine (Smaug is called a "worm"; the Old English form ''wyrm'' connoted both "snake" and "dragon"), with proportionally small limbs, a tail ending in a fleur-de-lis shape and a hornless, eared, mammalian head.

* BigBad: He's undeniably big and definitely bad, but he does ''not'' [[SubvertedTrope fill the trope]]. While he is the motivation behind the hero's journey, he is not responsible for any of the problems encountered on the way, nor is he aware of the dwarves' intentions until Bilbo rather foolishly ''states it to his face.'' He has (and needs) no minions, and his strategy when he realizes he's dealing with thieves is a straightforward, but hardly brilliant "kill them, then kill anybody who helped them."

* PersonalHorror: He loses his memories, thus waking up in the horrible place that is Mirkwood without remembering how he got there. He loses all his strength, previously going from being able to keep up with the others at a dead run to struggling withstanding. And then the heir of Durin makes it his personal mission to destroy his self-worth, which soon results in the company following said heir's lead in the bullying (or at least turning a blind eye to it, in Balin and possibly Bilbo's case-though with Bilbo's case it's important to note that he felt guilty enough about it to include the incident-as well as his own lack of involvement-in his memoir, which is how the reader learns about the whole sorry affair to begin with). As a result, Bombur is badly damaged and traumatized; his arc is about him making a very slow recovery (which, [[RealityEnsues realistically]], is far from complete by the end)

* KnightOfCerebus: His appearance causes a big case of RealityEnsues. The company is helpless against him, and even after his death, they still have to face the consequences of his rampage.

[[folder: Bilbo Baggins]]

[[folder: Thorin II Oakenshield]]

* CoolSword: Orcrist, an elven sword. Although it's confiscated by the Wood-elves and never returned [[spoiler: while he is alive]]; he later uses a dwarven axe from the Lonely Mountain's armories.

* EnemyMine: Thorin is forced to team up with the Elves and the people of Lake-Town after learning that [[spoiler: the Goblins and Wargs are marching to their location. Ironically, this is what prevents Thorin from becoming a FallenHero.]]

* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Has this reaction after Bilbo betrays him by giving the Arkenstone to Bard and the Elves to use as a bargaining chip.]]

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: On his death bed, Thorin comes to regret his fall from grace, and honors the request to give money to the people of Lake-Town.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: When he finally gets his throne and gold, he [[SanitySlippage almost goes off the deep end]], refuses to help the survivors of Laketown (who took the brunt of Smaug's anger after the Company went into Lonely Mountain and stirred him up, and who actually killed him), and nearly murders Bilbo after the latter attempts to resolve the conflict. Later, Thorin [[BigDamnHeroes leads his dwarves into the Battle of the Five Armies]] and dies from his wounds shortly after. On his deathbed, he apologizes to Bilbo.]]

* PrinceCharmless: It's almost certain that the pompous and arrogant Prince-In-Exile Thorin would know how to behave himself in the home of a guest. He does, for Elrond and Beorn, but for Bilbo, his royal highness must have decided the hobbit was unworthy of common manners. After an undignified entrance he fumes silently which Bilbo, out of a mixture of fear and politeness, apologizes for so much that finally, he lets it go. He hums so loudly that Bilbo can hear him through the wall and is kept up, smokes with his feet on the fender while Bilbo and the dwarves are doing the dishes, and when Bilbo suggests that they all have breakfast before leaving on the quest. Thorin agrees, except he takes it for granted that Bilbo will make the breakfast (and then all the dwarves follow his royal lead and order them, (leaving Bilbo royally peeved)

* TragicHero: It's generally believed his fate to be this is sealed after his TragicMistake. He gets what he wants, but [[spoiler: he only has it for less than a month before his demise]].

[[folder: Bombur]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Bombur gets this from the others in Mirkwood after Thorin starts it off by ripping the poor guy a new one for rambling about his coma dreams. When Bombur wails that his legs (which the narrator has already told us are weak and wobbly from being comatose for six days) won’t carry him and he needs to stop and sleep, the others reply with: “No you don’t! Let your legs take their share, we have carried you far enough!” (It’s implied that this exchange and variations of it took place over the course of an entire day) Later, when Bilbo describes having similar dreams as Bombur, they say that Bilbo’s “gone like Bombur.”

[[folder: The Rest of the Dwarves]]

[[folder: Gandalf the Grey]]

[[folder: Elrond Half-Elven]]

[[folder: The Lord of the Eagles]]

[[folder: Beorn]]

%%* TheBerserker: In bear form.

%%* TheCavalry: In the Battle of Five Armies.

* MeaningfulName: "Beorn" is an Anglicisation of ''bjørn'', Danish/Norwegian for "bear".

* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Tolkein drew on Slavic myth, not necessarily the more recent forms of shape-shifter myth. Beorn's ability is under his conscious control, and he retains at least enough human mentality to rescue [[spoiler: Thorin]] after he falls in battle. The power seems to run in his bloodline, since some of the Beornings after his time share the ability.

[[folder: The Elvenking]]

The ruler of the elves of Mirkwood. He is later named Thranduil in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; he sends his son Legolas to join the Fellowship of the Ring.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Initially set out to capture the treasures of Erebor for himself, but turned around to help the people of Laketown when he learned about the disaster that struck them.

[[folder: Bard the Bowman]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He is acclaimed king by many in Lake-town because [[spoiler: he kills Smaug]] and he leads the contingent of Men in the Battle of Five Armies because of this also. But [[spoiler: since Smaug had just destroyed Lake-town]] he still submitted to Lake-town's Master [[spoiler: until it was finally rebuilt.]]

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: Kills Smaug, the last of the great dragons.]]

* TheDragonslayer: He tries to become this when Smaug attacks Laketown. [[spoiler: And eventually succeeds.]]

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Towards the Master of Lake-Town. When the latter flees during Smaug's assault on the town, Bard [[HoldTheLine fights to the last]] [[spoiler: and ultimately kills Smaug. It reaches the point where the town wants to dispose of the Master and make Bard their new leader.]]
* ImprobableAimingSkills: [[spoiler: Kills Smaug with one shot, through a tiny hole in the armour of gems that had embedded into the dragon's soft underbelly over decades.]]

[[folder: Roäc the Raven]]

[[folder: Dáin II Ironfoot]]

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Lord of the Iron Hills ([[spoiler: and later King under the Mountain]]) and a supreme badass who's a force to be reckoned with.

[[folder: Thráin II]]

* MementoMacGuffin: [[spoiler: Inherited the last of the seven Dwarven Rings from his father Thrór before the latter set out to recapture Moria. Sauron took it from him, with torment, in Dol Guldur.]]

[[folder: Thrór]]

* MementoMacGuffin: [[spoiler: Inherited the last of the seven Dwarven rings from his father and, before setting out to recapture Moria, gave it to his son Thraín.]]

[[folder: Smaug the Magnificent]]

* TheDreaded: No one even went near him for decades after he claimed Erebor. The Dwarfs, even Thorin, are too afraid to enter the Mountain when they know he's there. It's stated that [[spoiler: many of the people defending Lake-Town would've just fled from Smaug without a fight when he attacked, if not for Bard's orders and constant encouragement]].
* EvilCounterpart: To Thorin. Interestingly, they're both Kings under the Mountain according to themselves -- Smaug is TheUsurper to Thorin's RightfulKingReturns. Thorin and Smaug have the same [[FatalFlaw Fatal Flaws]] of {{Pride}}, and {{Greed}} (for the same freaking treasure no less), and both their goals and motivations are pretty self-centred. They also both blockade themselves and their treasure inside the same mountain and wish for others to leave them alone with it or otherwise face DisproportionateRetribution. Furthermore, both take a more active role in the plot in the present time frame for {{Revenge}}. Both of them expect others to treat them like nobility... but Thorin is definitely [[BerserkButton more tolerant of not getting this than Smaug is]], whilst Smaug has a [[FauxAffablyEvil lot more charm when he's talking to others than Thorin does]]. Smaug is a formidable OneManArmy and is seemingly alone in the world, whereas Thorin operates with (and often relies on) other dwarves and Bilbo Baggins. Smaug is huge whereas Thorin is a dwarf. Smaug is a GeniusBruiser whereas Thorin makes some bad decisions on his own. Smaug is red and gold, while Thorin wears blue and silver colors. Thorin commands the loyalty of the other Company dwarves to the point [[spoiler: his nephews die defending him]] and he makes a HeelFaceTurn out of his SanitySlippage; Smaug has no such redeeming qualities.

[[folder: The Great Goblin]]

[[folder: Bolg]]

[[folder: Azog]]

[[folder: Gollum]]

[[folder: Wargs]]

[[folder: The Spiders of Mirkwood]]

[[folder: The Master of Lake-town]]

[[folder: The Necromancer]]

[[folder: Were-worms]]

A Hobbit chosen by the wizard Gandalf to accompany 13 dwarves on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

* BritishStuffiness: Bilbo is very much modeled on a country squire of Tolkien's era or slightly before: shackled by manners and a code of propriety from expressing himself (even when facing a home invasion by thirteen uninvited guests). Through the story, Bilbo slowly loses those inhibitions via his exposure to the forthright dwarves and learns to speak his mind but tempered with the tact and subtlety of his upbringing. In his conversation with Smaug he's able to amuse the dragon with his riddling speak and yet land a number of solid blows against Smaug's overpowering ego.

* EastwardEndeavor: Bilbo gets dragged into the dwarves' quest to get Smaug's treasure in the east. He's more or less useless at the beginning, but some incidents later (including getting [[ArtifactOfDoom the One Ring]] and saving the party from huge spiders) he becomes much more competent. In the end, his experiences turned him into a full GentlemanAdventurer.
* FireForgedFriends: His relationship to the rest of the Company.

* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: After a long and exciting adventure, Bilbo returns to the Shire safe and rich... only to discover that his fellow hobbits have not only missed him but have even tried to take over his home and belongings. He also finds out that no one believes the stories of his adventures, and that added to his mysterious disappearance makes him lose his reputation. He still lives comfortable and happy for a long time in the Shire.

* ByronicHero: A charismatic leader with a a DarkAndTroubledPast and a talent for music, who obsessively tries to reclaim his birthright and refuses to give up even a shred of it for any reason, including his own survival, and whose defining traits are Greed and Pride? Yep, he qualifies.

* CharacterDevelopment: It takes long for it to kick in, but he manages it before the end.

* CoolSword: Orcrist, an elven sword. Although it's confiscated by the Wood-elves and never returned [[spoiler:while he is alive]]; he later uses a dwarven axe from the Lonely Mountain's armories.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Poor Thorin had a pretty rough life. His kingdom, Erebor, was taken over by a dragon who either killed most of its inhabitants in the initial attack or forced them to flee to distant lands. Much of Thorin's life afterwards was spent working in menial, dead-end jobs that brought little respect from the humans around him. His grandfather was brutally murdered by Azog for daring to set foot inside the gate of Moria, the Longbeards' original stronghold. Then, Thorin had to fight in a war of vengeance against the orcs, climaxing in the Battle of Azanulbizar, which cost his people a huge percentage of their fighting strength (essentially every dwarven male of fighting age fought in the battle), including his brother. Not long after that, his father embarked on an attempt to take back the Mountain. After several years of getting nowhere he disappeared, presumed dead, and Thorin spent the next hundred years burdened with the fact he'd have to do likewise or be a failure of a king, 'an heir, but an heir without hope'. Very little seems to ever go right or come easy to the poor guy.
* ConservationOfCompetence: Along with Bilbo, is only one who is not immediately jumped by trolls, the only one who keeps his bow out in a forest.

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Thorin is the second character after Bilbo, because the quest is to restore Thorin as King under the Mountain.
* DisappearedDad: His father, Thráin, disappeared attempting to reclaim the Mountain when Thorin was ninety-five, leaving Thorin to care for and guide the exiled dwarves of Erebor alone.

* EnemyMine: Thorin is forced to team up with the Elves and the people of Lake-Town after learning that [[spoiler:the Goblins and Wargs are marching to their location. Ironically, this is what prevents Thorin from becoming a FallenHero.]]

* {{Hypocrite}} He takes great offense to Bombur rambling...despite it being firmly established that Thorin is the one whose flaw is that he on for ages if given a chance. Especially since his very...''intense'' rebuke is just as long as Bombur's rambling.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: When he finally gets his throne and gold, he [[SanitySlippage almost goes off the deep end]], refuses to help the the survivors of Laketown (who took the brunt of Smaug's anger after the Company went into Lonely Mountain and stirred him up, and who actually killed him), and nearly murders Bilbo after the latter attempts to resolve the conflict. Later, Thorin [[BigDamnHeroes leads his dwarves into the Battle of the Five Armies]] and dies from his wounds shortly after. On his deathbed, he apologizes to Bilbo.]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Taking back Erebor is no easy task, but Thorin firmly believes that it is his responsibility as the king of the Longbeard dwarves to reclaim their ancestral home and riches. And (as revealed in later books) despite his sometimes arrogant behavior, Thorin is also willing to do the same work and menial jobs as his fellow dwarves in exile.
* PrinceCharmless: It's almost certain that the pompous and arrogant Prince-In-Exile Thorin would know how to behave himself in the home of a guest. He does, for Elrond and Beorn, but for Bilbo his royal highness must have decided the hobbit was unworthy of common manners. After an undignified entrance he fumes silently which Bilbo, out of a mixture of fear and politeness, apologizes for so much that finally, he lets it go. He hums so loudly that Bilbo can hear him through the wall and is kept up, smokes with his feet on the fender while Bilbo and the dwarves are doing the dishes, and when Bilbo suggests that they all have breakfast before leaving on the quest Thorin agrees, except takes it for granted that Bilbo will make the breakfast (and then all the dwarves follow his royal lead and order them, (leaving Bilbo royally peeved)

* SanitySlippage: Starts to lose it when he finally gets his throne and gold, but manages to pull himself back from the brink at the last minute. Thereafter he seems to realize what a jerk he's been and is more cordial to both his allies and enemies.
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: More like "screw politeness, I'm important" [[LemonyNarrator according to the narrator]]. Thorin specifically does not introduce himself to Bilbo by declaring to be "at your service", nor does he assist the other dwarves in doing the washing-up after they eat, and throughout the rest of the book his manners are rather brusque and business-like.

* TragicHero: It's generally believed his fate to be this is sealed after his TragicMistake. He gets what he wants, but [[spoiler:he only has it for less than a month before his demise]].
* TragicMistake: After reclaiming the Lonely Mountain, Thorin starts repeatedly doing this due to his {{Fatal Flaw}}s (likely further exacerbated by GoldFever): he seals himself inside the Mountain, refuses to honor his agreement with the survivors of Lake-town despite the destruction and dispossession they've suffered from Smaug's attack (not least due to a grudge against Thranduil), and he denounces his friend Bilbo as a traitor upon learning the latter has aided the Lakemen and Thranduil. How beyond will of Eru this causes Thorin's downfall is uncertain given what happens next, but this is interpreted as what seals Thorin's fate in the Battle of Five Armies.
* TheUnChosenOne: The prophecy of Laketown, when the rightful mountain king comes, ''the streams shall run in gladness'' (the journey upriver) ''the like will shine and burn'' (Smaug's attack)''sorrow shall fail and sadness'' (this means that when the true king returns, sorrow shall ''fail'', as in there will be no more sorrow for a while. Thorin's brief reign was fairly miserable and the resulting battle was gloomy indeed. But after Dain is crowned and sorts everything out responsibly that things truly become happier for the next sixty years.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Bombur gets this from the others in Mirkwood, after Thorin starts it off by ripping the poor guy a new one for rambling about his coma dreams. When Bombur wails that his legs (which the narrator has already told us are weak and wobbly from being comatose for six days) won’t carry him and he needs to stop and sleep, the others reply with: “No you don’t! Let your legs take their share, we have carried you far enough!” (It’s implied that this exchange and variations of it took place over the course of an entire day) Later, when Bilbo describes having similar dreams as Bombur, they say that Bilbo’s “gone like Bombur.”

* DrivenToSuicide: After taking a heap of abuse from the other dwarves for his magical coma creating problems and dealing with the aftermath from not eating for the six days, and repeatedly begging for (and being very harshly denied) a rest, Bombur decides that there’s no hope of getting out of the forest and refuses to be arm-twisted into struggling any further-and lies down and declares that he never wants to wake up again. He gets up when Balin spots a light in the distance though he’s still clearly damaged.

* OldSoldier: Glóin is a confirmed veteran of Azanulbizar. (Incidentally, Glóin was a mere sixteen at the time, half the age of a dwarf considered 'Battle ready'- Azanulbizar must have been a desperate battle indeed).

* ItsAllAboutMe: Not unusually, since the dwarves of Middle-earth are a reserved and suspicious people towards outsiders. They rack up extra points for bribing the people of Laketown to aid them instead of imprison them, and after their involvement with the people of Laketown leads to Smaug decimating them, the dwarves turn the survivors away instead of aiding them.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Most of the dwarves could be considered to be this.
--> ...dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect too much.

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Apparently he's named King of All Birds and given a sizable portion of the dwarves' treasure (presumably for his pivotal role in the Battle of Five Armies).

* AmbiguouslyHuman: It's not entirely clear what he is. His enormous size, combined with his ability to transform into a bear, seem to imply that he's not entirely human, but it's difficult to say what else he could be. Gandalf speculates that he's either a descendant of the bears who lived in the Misty Mountains before the Stone-giants arrived or a descendant of the men who lived in the region before the arrival of foul beings and beasts from the north.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Hunts and skins a wolf ''and a goblin'' then leaves them on display as a warning.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He holds the dwarves prisoner, but also provides aid to the people of Laketown after it's destroy by Smaug.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He is acclaimed king by many in Lake-town because [[spoiler:he kills Smaug]] and he leads the contingent of Men in the Battle of Five Armies because of this also. But [[spoiler:since Smaug had just destroyed Lake-town]] he still submitted to Lake-town's Master [[spoiler:until it was finally rebuilt.]]

* BadassNormal: Even the dwarves are said to use spells (albeit to ward treasure rather than any battle magic). Bard is an ordinary foot soldier with no special powers.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: [[spoiler: Kills Smaug with one shot, through a tiny hole in in the armour of gems that had embedded into the dragon's soft underbelly over decades.]]
* ImpoverishedPatrician: His grandfather was Girion, Lord of Dale. After Smaug's attack his family was left with nothing and he's a simple bowman by the time we meet him.

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: The royal line of Girion have one [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower incredibly lame supernatural ability]]: they understand the speech of birds.

* CleverCrows: Ravens are historically pals with dwarves. Roac's grandfather was pals with Thorin's granddad, and Roac's family keep themselves busy acting as messengers between Thorin and Dain.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Ravens are, of course, black-feathered carrion birds and thus usually symbols of death. Roac is considered a respectable and eminent figure.
* TheMentor: He actually ''refrains'' from advising the dwarves since their decisions are their own, but the dwarves greatly respect him.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Lord of the Iron Hills ([[spoiler:and later King under the Mountain]]) and a supreme badass who's a force to be reckoned with.

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Dáin -- far more than Thorin and his companions -- is like the prototype for every dwarven warrior since.

--> '''Dain''' ''(to Bilbo):'' Yet even though you were willing to lay aside all your claim, I should wish that the words of Thorin, of which he repented, should not prove true: that we should give you little. I would reward you most richly of all.

* RoyalBlood: Grandson of Grór, brother of Thrór II.

* MementoMacGuffin: [[spoiler:Inherited the last of the seven Dwarven Rings from his father, Thrór, before the latter set out to recapture Moria. Sauron took it from him, with torment, in Dol Guldur.]]

* PyrrhicVictory: Thráin won the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs. The dwarven losses were staggering.

* MementoMacGuffin: [[spoiler:Inherited the last of the seven Dwarven rings from his father and, before setting out to recapture Moria, gave it to his son Thraín.]]

* ThemeNaming: He had two brothers named Grór and Frór.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: He attacked and conquered the Lonely Mountain from the dwarves, driving an entire kingdom's survivors into poverty and exile in the wilds for years while he held the mountain and its treasure as the de facto king. Taking the Lonely Mountain (and the goodies inside) back from him is the dwarves' motivations in their quest.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: His otherwise-tough scales are soft on his underside, and to make up for this he's allowed Erebor's treasure to stick to it and form a makeshift waistcoat -- but Bilbo spots a bare patch on the upper-left side where his chest's exposed. Bilbo reports it to the dwarves, and is overheard by a bird who takes the vital information to the one bowman in Esgaroth who could talk to birds.

* BreakingSpeech: In a sense his entire conversation with Bilbo is this, but in particular when he spreads doubt in Bilbo's mind about the dwarves and how (or whether) they actually intend to pay him his fourteenth share- there being nothing in the agreement about providing transport or guards for his journey home, and it would take longer than he has to live to even steal it all.

* CatlikeDragons: In the Creator/RankinBass adaptation, [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-d1dtoP3E__8/Uq_nYR36GVI/AAAAAAAAFcE/kmjvpwWQuC4/s1600/original-smaug.jpg he's depicted as very mammalian]], with a distinctly catlike face sporting a short muzzle, prominent triangular ears, bushy cheek fur and slit-pupiled feline eyes.

* CompositeCharacter: Tolkien designed him as based on the two iconic dragons of the Norse lore (which he considered [[SeriousBusiness "the only true dragons"]]), Fafnir and the dragon that Literature/{{Beowulf}} killed. The former is the basis of his witty, sassy personality, while the later is the reason he flies, breathes fire, and is nigh invulnerable.

* EvilIsHammy: When drawn into conversation, he's boastful, gloating and melodramatic. There are plenty of ways he could have called Bilbo's bluff about the dwarfs coming after him for revenge, but he choice to the route of lengthy BadassBoast about how nobody dared to challenge him in decades despite all the enemies he's made and brags about all the ways he can kill.

* AwakenTheSleepingGiant: By the time Bilbo gets to him, Smaug is just snoozing at the top of his giant pile of treasures and has been doing nothing but that for the past several decades. All his evil deeds are in the past, and it did not seem like he was planning to go out and commit more anytime soon. But Bilbo entering his lair to part with his steal his prized possessions really REALLY pissed him off and the dragon rose to wreak havoc once more

* AwakenTheSleepingGiant: By the time Bilbo gets to him, Smaug is just snoozing at the top of his giant pile of treasures and has been doing nothing but that for the past several decades. All his evil deeds are in the past, and it did seem like he was planning to go out and commit more anytime soon. But Bilbo entering his lair to part with his steal his prized possessions really REALLY pissed him off and the dragon rose to wreak havoc once more

-->'''Bilbo:''' So the prophecies of old have come true after all!