No respectable hobbit chooses to burgle for their livelihood. Well, the jury of public opinion is still deliberating as to whether Bilbo Baggins is a respectable hobbit. A lifetime of Bounder service will not be enough to clear my name in The Shire, unless "the Dragonslayer" becomes my surname.
It all started with pansies, peonies, and blue bonnets. And no, I did not get my start stealing flowers from gardens. Flower pots, specifically bronze flower pots, was the gate to a journey of adventure. Clay pots simply wouldn't do the job.
Hobbits are not known for their metal casting skills. That's generally left to the dwarves. Yes, Michel Delving has a forge in the crafting area. It works well enough for horse shoes and hobnails, but not much else. I got my start refining copper ore found here and there around The Shire, and then began casting bronze, trough style flower pots for window sills. The green patina color that formed as the bronze weathered was a nice color balance to the potted plants, far better than terra cotta.
Because the bronze cast course and thick, there was strength that allowed tooling the surface into "woodcuts" of patterns and pictures. Neighbors began to take notice of the little art pieces, as well as a certain member of the Mathom Society, who happened to be a follower of Bilbo's adventures. He asked me one day if I would do a scene from "There And Back Again", which I had no problem with once I learned the story. He let me use the Society Library to read their one copy, since it was too precious to loan out. Once I learned Bilbo's story, I was able to tool the Riddle Scene when Bilbo encountered Gollum. (To be honest, I suspect the Mathom Society finds "There And Back Again" to be a bit too subversive for your average hobbit. That copy never leaves the Society.)
The Society member then asked if I would be interested in casting a bronze statue of Bilbo, to be put on display in The Mathom Society house. I had no experience casting, but knew that such skills could be learned from the dwarves. The Society decided it was their best interest for me to train such, and sent me to Thorin's Hall on scholarship to learn the casting arts. By the time I returned to The Shire, the question of which building to put the statue in became so heated, the Society decided to abandon the project altogether. I was able to gather enough copper and tin to sell bronze back to the Dwarves and pay off the tuition. But while in Thorin's Hall, I also learned the art of weapon smithing.
The Dwarves certainly have a different take on burglars in general and Bilbo in particular. They are not opposed in the least to take back what belongs to you from somebody holding it from you. They don't trust Men burglars for being too greedy (I know, coming from a dwarf!), but they are fascinated with hobbit burglars, to the point of being treated as legendary.
"Hmm", says I, maybe not the worst career choice. But they'll never understand this back in The Shire.
Burgling is not the only thing the Dwarves understand differently. Because of their life span, they respect history and scholarship second only the the Elves. While at Thorin's Hall I was able to witness the reforging of a short sword crafted in the Second Age... yes, of Middle Earth! Such things simply don't exist in The Shire. The weaponsmith permitted me read the history of this weapon while it was being recrafted. The history was incomplete, though, as it was a Barrow weapon, and pages from it's journal had most likely been stolen by tomb raiders from the Bree Blackwolds.
The dwarven weaponsmith, overhearing the conversation between me and the weapon owner, exclaimed matter of factly, "Well, Miss Hobbit, it looks like you need to burgle back those journal pages for this fine gentleman." The gentleman looked at me with expectation, and said, "If you were to do this, you would be doing me a great service, for which I would reward handsomely! There is a Ranger, by the name of Strider, last seen in Archet of Bree, who may be able to give you a lead on the whereabouts of those pages. He will understand the significance of this weapon."
Let's just say that in Archet, all hobbits are understood to be Baggins, as well as burglers.
My fate was sealed; my life shall now be occupied with scholarship and burgling, or as I like to call it, "repossessing antiquities".
