In this chapter, the Battle of Five Armies occurs, and Bilbo reprises some of his former hobbit behavior when he is knocked unconscious by a stone, which puts an end to any further heroism on his part. Thorin’s greed and his anger over the theft of the Arkenstone put into motion the many alliances and enmities among the different creatures of this world. These relationships had developed over time, some without understandable cause, some maintained simply because historically they have always been. The message seems clear, in this book written in the years before World War II: Peacekeeping is endangered by those motivated by personal and material gain and the unquestioning allegiance to longstanding political relationships.
