Background
Thorin and Company were a group of thirteen
Dwarves, the Wizard Gandalf, and the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins,
led by Thorin II Oakenshield in TA 2941. Their purpose was to
regain the lost Dwarven kingdom of the Lonely Mountain from the
dragon Smaug.
The formation of the group grew out of a meeting Gandalf had with Thorin in Bree which kindled Thorin's interest in
recapturing his long lost family inheritance. (Thorin's grandfather had been the King under the Mountain when Smaug came
and took it.) Remembering that he had once known an adventurous Hobbit on his travels in the Shire, Gandalf decided to
add Bilbo to their company because he knew that stealth and cunning were preferable to force. Gandalf also believed that
someone like Bilbo could keep the sometimes prideful and stubborn Dwarves from rash action. The superstitious Dwarves
also considered thirteen to be an unlucky number, and as Gandalf had planned to leave on other business, welcomed a
fourteenth to fill into their party.