The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Excavated in approximately III 28901
Location
Race
Culture
Family
Important peaks
Built into Hobbiton Hill
Meaning
Refers to a place at the end of a road2

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About this entry:

  • Updated 24 May 2009
  • Updates planned: 1

Bag End

The great smial beneath Hobbiton Hill

Map of Bag End

A large and comfortable Hobbit-hole, well-known as the home of Bilbo Baggins and his heir, Frodo. Its round green door opened into a large, well-appointed Hobbit-hole that took up much of the Hill above Hobbiton. In the tradition of Hobbit-holes, all the rooms at Bag End were on the same level, and there were many of these.; '...bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes ([Bilbo] had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms...'.3


Notes

1

The exact date that Bag End came into existence is unknown, but we do know that it was excavated by Bilbo Baggins' father Bungo, after he had married Belladonna Took: 'Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most luxurious Hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money)...'. The latest possible date for the building of Bag End is III 2926, the year of Bungo's death, but the context of the text quoted here seems to suggest that Bungo built it rather earlier than this.

Actually the dating of Bag End is slightly more problematic than the foregoing might suggest. This is because the surname 'Baggins' is explicitly connected with a place named 'Bag End', and we have records of Hobbits named Baggins going back at least two generations before Bungo's time. The implication seems to be that, while the familiar Bag End of Bilbo and Frodo was built by Bungo Baggins, there must have been an older 'Bag End' of some kind on the same site for at least a century beforehand.

2

The name 'Bag End' is almost exactly equivalent to the French cul-de-sac, a place at the end of a road or lane that leads nowhere else. In fact the Hobbit-hole of Bag End took its name from a real place, a farm owned by Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave in the village of Dormston in Worcestershire, England.

3

From The Hobbit, Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party.

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 24 May 2009
  • Updates planned: 1

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