near the end before they enter the mountain, bilbo said he has rescued thorin twice already. i believe he was referring to the spider and wood-elf incidents. but wasn't thorin captured by the elf without being captured by the spider? so technically he was rescued only once by bilbo
am i missing something?

hew as refering to the first one, where he saved thorin from the orc, by dive tackling him

i don't remember any orc indidents in this book

there also were not three books

He's referring to saving them from the elves, as well as thinking quickly on his feet when they were captured by the three trolls. He used his wit to trick the trolls and assisting the their escape.

pretty sure that was gandalf who saved them from the trolls, not bilbo

He stalled the trolls

how did bilbo stall t he trolls?

Trolls turn to stone when they come in contact with the rays of the sun. Bilbo noticed that first light would peak over (blank) shortly, but not before him and his companions would become troll food. So with quick thinking he stalled the trolls by discussing different ways to cook dwarf. (if memory serves me right, has been years)

E*
I found this particular clip on youtube of the hobbit movie. Given the movie and book are different, if memory serves me right this interpretation isn't that off? Other people can comment if I'm incorrect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Tw3JP-M44

This post was edited by Noobtard on Dec 28 2013 03:10am

in the movie that would be correct, but that was not in the book. Bilbo tricks the trolls into arguing till sunrise by imitating their voice to escalate an argument