"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call you Sting."
The troupe sounds begins their trek through the Mirkwood, without the security blanket known as Gandalf. It starts off well, with them following Beorn's instructions, but after the Bombur incident, things go to pot. Discomfort and a lack of food leads to straying from the path, and the troop gets captured by Ron Weasley's worse nightmare, the giant spiders. Bilbo's quick thinking leads to an opportune rescue, only for the dwarves to be captured by the Wood Elves.
I think the scene with the spiders is the highlight of Bilbo's character so far. Its the one moment so far when he really reacts first thing, instead of first feeling sorry for himself.
The scenes with the woodelves seems to set up the dysfunctional relationship between dwarves and elves we see when the fellowship firsts meets up in Lord of the Rings. Who knows, maybe this scene is part of why they reacted they way they did. I must say, these sections were another part that I didn't really remember from before, so it was almost like a first read again.
