[Lalwendë]

In one way there are two Bilbos, as in LotR he is slightly different, older and perhaps more curmudgeonly. Though this could easily be explained away as the effect of having been a ringbearer for so many years.

I think Bilbo is portrayed in a familiar way in The Hobbit, as a grown up, but as the kind of grown up who appeals directly to children. He is gentle, nervous, and is jolly; Bilbo is a 'safe' adult, the kind of character we also see a little of in the kids' characters and presenters we see on TV on a daily basis. For example, presenters on Blue Peter may seem very childish to our adult eyes, getting enthusiastic about making a living room for Barboe and Action Man out of a cornflakes box and a roll of sticky backed plastic. But to a child, they seem friendly and approachable, and despite being obviously grown ups, they are people they feel they can identify with. And of course these presenters go off and do skydiving and the like, having the adventures for the kids who cannot have them, which Bilbo also does.

In another way Bilbo is also a 'kidult', a horrible marketing term to describe adults who love collecting toys, watching cartoons, playing games etc. He has adventures, and he plays riddle games with odd little creatures he finds deep beneath the mountains.

But Bilbo is not entirely a childish character. Reading about him on another level, he is also a great representation of the traditional middle-class, middle-aged white Englishman. At times, reading Bilbo in this way, he can even come across as slightly satirical. He is suspicious of strangers, he gets in a flap over his manners, and he 'measures out his life in coffee spoons'. I would not be at all surprised had Tolkien written of Bilbo sitting reading The Daily Mail. Then of course he gets dragged off on an adventure and eventually becomes the very kind of character he would have been suspicious of!