The Hobbit (film series) was written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro, who was originally chosen to direct before his departure from the project. The films take place in the fictional world of Middle-earth sixty years before the beginning of "The Lord of the Rings", and follow hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) to accompany thirteen dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). The films also expand upon certain elements from the novel and
The Hobbit themes explored in "The Hobbit". Maps figure in both saga literature and "The Hobbit". Several of the author's illustrations incorporate Anglo-Saxon runes, an English adaptation of the Germanic runic alphabets. Themes from Old English literature, and specifically from "Beowulf", shape the ancient world Bilbo stepped into. Tolkien, a scholar of "Beowulf", counted the epic among his "most valued sources" for "The Hobbit". Tolkien was one of the first critics to treat "Beowulf" as a literary work with value beyond the merely historical, and his 1936 lecture "" is still required in some Old English courses. Tolkien borrowed several elements from