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Bilbo finds a dagger in the trolls’ lair, which is small for the trolls, but large enough to serve as a sword for him. Later, when Bilbo is rescuing his friends from the spiders in Mirkwood forest, he renames this sword Sting. It’s no coincidence that Bilbo gives his weapon a name at the same time that he’s discovering his own aptitude for adventure, deception, and fighting. In effect, Bilbo “renames” himself in the second half of The Hobbit — he goes from thinking of himself as a well-to-do, adventure-phobic hobbit to a bold, daring adventurer (when he talks to Smaug, he even gives himself new names). Thus, Sting symbolizes Bilbo’s changing nature, and proves that ordinary things —a dagger or a hobbit — are full of surprises.
Sting Quotes in The Hobbit
The The Hobbit quotes below all refer to the symbol of Sting. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8
Quotes
Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.
He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.
"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call you Sting."
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Hobbit LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sting Symbol Timeline in The Hobbit
The timeline below shows where the symbol Sting appears in The Hobbit. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders
...him. Bilbo manages to free his sword and kill the spider. He names his sword Sting, and suddenly feels powerful and excited.
(full context)
