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A translated form of the original Hobbit-name Bilba Labingi1Titles
Barrel-rider, The Clue-finder, The Halfling, Invisible Baggins, Luckwearer, Mad Baggins, Mr. Lucky Number, Ring-bearer, The Ring-finder, Ringwinner, The Stinging Fly, The web-cutter
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About this entry:
- Updated 9 January 1999
- Updates planned: 74
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Head of the Baggins family, he dwelt alone at Bag End, Hobbiton, until Gandalf involved him in the Quest of Erebor in III 2941, and so drew the Hobbits into the great affairs of the end of the Third Age. During his journey to the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo came upon the One Ring in an Orc-hold of the Misty Mountains.
Bilbo's records of his travels, and those of his heir Frodo, were compiled into the Red Book of Westmarch, and became the basis of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The only son of the wealthy and respectable Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took, Bilbo grew up at Bag End, which his father had excavated in Hobbiton Hill. He seems to have visited his mother's family at Great Smials, for he remembered Gandalf's firework displays there.
Bilbo's father Bungo died in III 2926, and his mother Belladonna in III 2934, after which Bilbo lived alone at Bag End for seven years until a fateful morning in the spring of III 2941, when his pleasant, uneventful life was disturbed by the arrival of Gandalf.
More than a hundred and fifty years before Gandalf disturbed Bilbo in his garden that spring morning, the Dragon Smaug had descended in flame on Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, an ancient kingdom of the Dwarves far to the east of the Shire. Those Dwarves that survived scattered throughout the northern lands, and many, led by Thorin, the rightful heir to the kingdom, travelled into the west and settled in the Blue Mountains near the borders of the Shire. Now, with Gandalf's aid, Thorin had begun to plot his revenge on Smaug.
Gandalf convinced Thorin that a Hobbit should accompany his party, both because of the Hobbits' natural stealth, and because he wanted to involve them in the wider world, as a preparation against the coming darkness. He chose Bilbo largely because of his descent from the adventurous Tooks, but he later suggested that Bilbo might in some sense have been 'fated' to go on the Quest.
So it was that on an evening at the end of April2 III 2941, Gandalf returned to Bilbo's Hobbit-hole with Thorin and his twelve companions, and the Quest of Erebor was begun.
Notes
1 |
It was conventional in the Shire for masculine names to end with an -a sound, whereas in English the opposite is true, and -a typically implies a feminine name. Hence the original Hobbit-name Bilba is modified to Bilbo in translation, to take these conventions into account. Labingi was the actual name of Bilbo's family used in the Shire, of which the more familiar 'Baggins' represents an approximate translation from the Common Speech to a more recognisable style. |
2 |
In Chapter 2 of The Hobbit (Roast Mutton), Bilbo and the Dwarves set out 'one fine morning just before May' (our italics), and in The Quest of Erebor (in Unfinished Tales) we're given an even more precise date: 27 April. However, when Bilbo looks back on their departure while travelling through Mirkwood (Chapter 8, Flies and Spiders), he remembers that they 'started their journey that May morning long ago.' Perhaps the rigours of his long journey had affected Bilbo's memory!
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See also...
A Hobbit’s Holiday, Adalbert Bolger, Adamanta Chubb, Adelard Took, Aman, Amaranth Brandybuck, An Unexpected Party, Ancient West, Andrath, Angelica Baggins, Aragorn Elessar, Argonui, Arkenstone, Bag End, Baggins Family, [See the full list...]Bain, Balbo Baggins, Balin, Barrel-rider, Basso Boffin, Battle of Five Armies, Belba Baggins, Bell Goodchild, Belladonna Took, Bent World, Berilac Brandybuck, Bert, Berylla Boffin, Bifur, Bilbo Gamgee, Bingo Baggins, Birthday Party, Black Men, Blackberry, Bodo Proudfoot, Boffin Family, Bofur, Bombur, Brandybuck Family, Bridge of Mitheithel, Brownlock Family, Bruno Bracegirdle, Buffo Boffin, Bunce Family, Bungo Baggins, Burrowes Family, Burrows Family, Butterflies, Bywater Pool, Calacirian, Camellia Sackville, Celandine Brandybuck, Chica Chubb, Chubb Family, Chubb-Baggins Family, Cirith Forn en Andrath, Clue-finder, Cold-drakes, Company of the Ring, Cormarë, Council of Elrond, Cram, Cress, Daisies, Daisy Baggins, Daisy Gamgee, Dark Lord, Days of Dearth, Dinodas Brandybuck, Doderic Brandybuck, Dodinas Brandybuck, Donnamira Took, Dora Baggins, Dragon-spell, Drogo Baggins, Dudo Baggins, Dwarf-kingdom, Dwarf-mail, Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, Eleventy, Elvenking’s Halls, Elves of Lindon, Enchanted River, Entwade, Erling, Esmeralda Took, Everard Took, Evereven, Evernight, Falco Chubb-Baggins, Farewell Party, Farewell Speech, Fastolph Bolger, Fell Winter of the Third Age, Ferdinand Took, Ferns, Ferumbras Took III, Findegil, First Homely House, Flambard Took, Flammifer of Westernesse, Folco Boffin, Folk of the Mountain, Folk under the Mountain, Folklands, Ford of Carrock, Forelithe, Forsaken Inn, Fortinbras Took II, Frodo Baggins, Front Porch, Fundin, Gaffer Gamgee, Galion, Gamgee Family, Gandalf, Gerda Boffin, Gilly Brownlock, Glamdring, Glóin, Goblin-gate, Goblin-imps, Goblin-town, Goldfather, Gollum, Gollum’s Ring, Goodbody Family, Great Hall of Thráin, Great Ring of Power, Great Rings, Great Sea of the West, Great Shelf, Green Dragon, Griffo Boffin, Grimbeorn the Old, Grubb Family, Gruffo Boffin, Halimath, Hawthorn, Heart of the Mountain, Heribald Bolger, Herugar Bolger, High Pass, Hilda Bracegirdle, Hildifons Took, Hildigrim Took, Hobbit-lands, Hobbit-names, Hobbiton, Hobbiton Hill, Hobgoblins, Holman Greenhand, Hornets, Hugo Bracegirdle, Ilberic Brandybuck, Isembard Took, Isembold Took, Isengar Took, Ivy Goodenough, Jago Boffin, Karmë, Kíli, King of Durin’s Folk, King under the Mountain, Lalia Clayhanger, Largo Baggins, Last Bridge, Last Riding of the Keepers of the Rings, Laura Grubb, Legolas Greenleaf, Lily Baggins, Linda Baggins, Lindir, Lizards, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (née Bracegirdle), Long Marshes, Longbeards, Longo Baggins, Lord of the Nazgûl, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Luckwearer, Mad Baggins, Magic Ring, Man of the West, Marjoram, Marmadas Brandybuck, Master of Buckland, Master-ring, Mathom-house, Mathoms, Melilot Brandybuck, Mentha Brandybuck, Merimac Brandybuck, Merimas Brandybuck, Merry People, Messengers, Milo Burrows, Mimosa Bunce, Minto Burrows, Misty Mountains, Mithril, Moria-silver, Moro Burrows, Mosco Burrows, Moths, Mountain Kingdom, Mountain Wall, Mr. Invisible Baggins, Mr. Lucky Number, Mrs. Cotton (née Lily Brown), Mungo Baggins, Myrtle Burrows, Narrow Ice, Nasturtians, Necromancer, Night of Naught, Nora Bolger, Nori, Norland, Odo Proudfoot, Odovacar Bolger, Ogres, Old Rory Brandybuck, Old Winyards, Olo Proudfoot, Olórin, Orcs of the Mountains, Orgulas Brandybuck, Otherworld, Otho Sackville-Baggins, Owls, Pansy Baggins, Party Field, Party Tree, Pearl Took, Peony Baggins , Pervinca Took, Pimpernel Took, Ponto Baggins, Ponto Baggins, Poppy Chubb-Baggins, Porto Baggins, Posco Baggins, Postmaster, Primula Brandybuck, Prisca Baggins, Proudfoot Family, Quest of Erebor, Red Book of the Periannath, Red Book of Westmarch, Reginard Took, Ring of the Enemy, Ring-bearers, Ring-finder, Ring-inscription, Ringday, Ringwinner, River Baranduin, Roäc, Rockroses, Roper Gamgee, Rorimac Brandybuck (‘Goldfather’), Rosa Baggins, Rudigar Bolger, S.-B.s, Sackville Family, Sancho Proudfoot, Sandyman, Sapphira Brockhouse, Saradas Brandybuck, Seredic Brandybuck, Shadowmere, Shipwrights, Shire Calendar, Shire-moot, Shire-reckoning, Sigismond Took, Silmarillion, Silver Pennies, Skin-changers, Smaug, Smials, Snapdragons, Sneak, Sorrel, Spiders, Springle-ring, Sting, Stinging Fly, Stock Road, Stone-giants, Stone-trolls, Storks, Straight Way, Strawberries, Sunflowers, Tale of the Ring, Tarmenel, Thain of the Shire, Thain’s Book, The Dreadful, The Elvenking, ‘The Fall of Gil-galad’, The Halfling, The Impenetrable, The Magnificent, The Mighty, The Old, The Renowned, The Ring, The Tremendous, Theobald Bolger, There and Back Again, Third Age, Thorin and Company, Thrór’s Map, Timeless Halls, Togo Goodbody, Tom, Tom, Tosto Boffin, ‘Translations from the Elvish’, Troll-holes, Trolls, Underhill, Undying Lands, Vampires, Web-cutter, Western Land, White Ship, Wilcome Cotton (‘Will’), Wilibald Bolger, Wilimar Bolger, William Huggins (‘Bill’), Woody End, World’s End, Yellow Face, Your Magnificence
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 9 January 1999
- Updates planned: 74
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