Birthday Party

The great celebration held at Hobbiton on 22 September III 3001, in honour of Frodo's 33^rd birthday and, especially, Bilbo's 111^th. In honour of their combined ages, Bilbo invited a total of 144 Hobbits to the Party's feast.

The Party was held in a field below Bag End, beneath a tent so large that it covered the tree that grew there. The magnificence of the event was so memorable that the field and tree became known simply as the Party Field and Party Tree. Most spectacular of all, the Wizard Gandalf entertained the guests with a display of his remarkable fireworks.

The celebrations were made unforgettable by Bilbo's sudden announcement that he was leaving the Shire and passing on his fortune to his adopted heir Frodo. With that, he vanished in a flash, through the trickery of Gandalf and the use of his Magic Ring. Through Gandalf's persuasion, he also left the Ring for Frodo, and passed out of the Shire into the east. Because of Bilbo's farewell speech and his disappearance, his Birthday Party is often called the Farewell Party.

It was later learned that Bilbo travelled widely in Middle-earth after the Party, visiting Dale and Erebor in the far east before settling for a long time in Rivendell. He returned to the Shire in III 3021, twenty years after the famous Party, as he passed through it on the way to the Grey Havens with the Keepers of the Three Rings.