In 2941, Bilbo was lured away by a wizard and thirteen Dwarves on the famous quest of Thorin and Company that, in 2941, led to the slaying of Smaug the Dragon and re-establishment of the Dwarf Kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor.

With a modest potion of the Dragon gold he won on his adventure, Bilbo returned to the Shire for some sixty years. On his adventure, Bilbo acquired a mysterious ring which had the power to make its wearer invisible. However, it was later discovered that this was, in fact, the One Ring that belonged to the Lord of the Rings. In the year 3001, Bilbo held a huge birthday party, then vanished before the very eyes of the assembled host, leaving wealth, home and the One Ring to his young cousin and adopted heir, Frodo Baggins.

Bilbo then went on to live a rather monkish life in Rivendell and for twenty years wrote poems, stories and Elf-lore, as well as his memoirs, entitled "there and back again" and his three-volume scholarly work, "the translations from the Elvish". After the War of the Ring, at the age of 131 years, Bilbo sailed with Frodo to the Undying Lands.