Spotlight On Middle-Earth : Bag-End On The Hill

' In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. '

Bag-End is a picturesque home set in beautiful hobbit gardens with fabulous views. The house is situated on The Hill and has a private, no through road - The Hill is an attractive, elevated district, lying approximately 2 miles north of Hobbiton, across the Waters. 

Bag End is an un-numbered smial built originally by Bungo Baggins of Hobbiton in the Third Age 2934 as a residence  for himself and his wife Belladonna Took of Tookland. Bungo built the hole in the side of a hill off a path leading from The Hill Road on the north side of Hobbiton. Bag End  sits above its three closest neighbours on Bagshot Row. Bungo and Belladonna  had one child, Bilbo.  Sadly they both died relatively young by Hobbit standards, and so  Bilbo Baggins remained  the sole resident of Bag End as a bachelor. He eventually added a potato garden to its western slope when Hamfast "Gaffer" Gamgee, of Number 3, Bagshot Row, became its gardener. Gamgee himself often employed Holman Greenhand who lived in a hut south of The Water - Gaffer Gamgee and Holman Greenhands created the most lovely gardens at Bag-End for Bilbo. The next-door neighbor to Gamgee was Daddy Twofoot of Number 2, a regular at The Ivy Bush Inn of Hobbiton.

Exactly 78 years after Bilbo's birth, on September 22nd, an other hobbit called Frodo Baggins was born to Drogo Baggins and Primula Baggins (née Brandybuck), in Buckland. When Frodo was still a child, his parents took a boat out onto the Brandywine River and were drowned. Frodo had no siblings, so he was left alone in the world until his cousin Bilbo Baggins adopted him and made Frodo his heir. Bilbo and Frodo lived a Bag-End for many happy years, until recently. Bilbo Baggins disappeared from Bag-End and the Shire during a lavish Birthday Party, leaving Frodo as sole Master of Bag-End. Now it appears even Mr Frodo has gone missing and the property has been passed down to relatives. The current owner of Bag End is Mrs Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, not the most welcoming of hobbits, but on the payment of two silver spoons, she may just let you wander inside this amazing hobbit home. 

Bag-End is a Hobbit house of remarkable importance and hobbit culture, with its multiple meals, pipe-smoking and smoke rings, bright colours, and respectable predictability. So we find ourselves wandering in a cozy and warm Hobbit hole where Bilbo's greatest adventure began when his dining room is invaded by 'outsiders' - Bilbo will recall in his book of how  one day Gandalf arrives with a bunch of dwarves and his peaceful life  and Bag-End are turned up-side-down. They talk about adventures, gold and a dragon and empty Bilbo's pantries, no wonder Mr Baggins can barely cope with their company, but in the end something awakes inside his heart and he finds himself dreaming about far away places.

The origin of the name 'Bag-End' remain obscure a bit of a mystery. the “Bag”  part may be an Old Westron personal name maybe, or a forgotten dialect word for an animal perhaps, or to do with the hobbit agricultural practice of “bagging”   It’s certainly a very unusual name – unique as far as names go. Every year in September Bag-End takes center stage  as Mr Bilbo and Mr Frodo are remembered in the week leading up to their birthday. There are some that sill hope to see them come back in the Shire. Bag-End is a magnificent property in countryside surrounded by ancient oak trees and apple groves with extraordinary views over the village of Hobbiton and over landscapes of rare beauty situated on The Hill. A place of great importance where, as the Old Gaffer Gamgee often say : " The 'End' is a beginning, the beginning is an 'End' "

On behalf of the Laurelin Community, we wish Mr Bilbo and Frodo Baggins a very happy Birthday ! May the hair on your feet never fall out!

Article and screenshots by Amorey for The Laurelin Archives Webteam