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At least three
unnamed sons3
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A family of Hobbits who lived at the farm of Bamfurlong, southward from Stock in the Marish. Like most of the inhabitants of that part of the Shire, the Maggots were likely descended largely from the Stoors, and they followed the habit in that marshy landscape of building from brick and stone rather than digging Hobbit-holes. The farmhouse of the Maggots at Bamfurlong was a solid brick structure with a surrounding wall.
We know little of the history of the Maggots, but the Farmer Maggot who lived at the time of the War of the Ring was a stout and inquisitive fellow. We know that he had dealings with Tom Bombadil, and was said to have visited the strange Old Forest at times. He was married2 with at least three sons and three daughters, so the line of the Maggots would have continued into the Fourth Age.
Notes
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Tolkien addresses the name 'Maggot' in his notes for translators of The Lord of the Rings, where he says that it is 'intended to be a 'meaningless' name, hobbit-like in sound ... it is an accident that maggot is an English word meaning "grub", "larva"'.
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Farmer Maggot's wife is never named, except as 'Mrs. Maggot'. As a family, the Maggots were most closely connected to the Puddifoots of Stock, and were also said to be friendly with the Brandybucks, so perhaps Mrs. Maggot came from one of these families, though nothing certain can be said on the topic.
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3 |
There's a single reference to the Maggot children in The Fellowship of the Ring I 4: 'Two of Maggot's sons and his three daughters came in...' The wording 'two of Maggot's sons' implies that there was at least one other absent son.
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- Updated 9 October 2015
- This entry is complete
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