Hornblower Family

An old and important family of the Shire's Southfarthing. Its most famous member was Tobold Hornblower of Longbottom, who introduced pipe-weed into the Shire, and his family remained associated with the industry. Their Longbottom Leaf variety was famous, and indeed barrels of Leaf bearing the Hornblower mark were found as far afield as the ruins of Isengard.

From Tobold's time, and perhaps earlier, the Hornblowers were one of the Shire's more important families. Frodo Baggins himself had Hornblower blood - his great-grandfather Largo married one Tanta Hornblower. The meaning of this old family name is unclear; perhaps one of Tobold's ancestors actually did blow a horn of some kind, or perhaps the name is a punning reference to pipe smoking.