THE STAGE IS SET
Hobbiton and Bag End
HOBBITON WAS BOTH MAPPED AND ILLUSTRATED by Tolkien, providing firm knowledge of the village and the surrounding countryside.1 The village was so small that it had no inn or public house, and its residents were forced to walk “a mile or more” to Bywater to visit The Ivy Bush and The Green Dragon.2 Its principal buildings were Sandyman’s Mill on the Water and the Grange on the west side of the road to The Hill.3 South across the bridge on both sides of the Bywater Road were most of the residences,4 but the most luxurious home of the village (indeed of the area) was to the north—Bag End Underhill.5
Bag End was not a building, of course, but a Hobbit-hole excavated into the side of the only suitable hill around.6 Below it on the south flanks were other, smaller holes, including Number Three Bagshot Row, occupied by the Gaffer Gamgee and his son Sam.7 Between the Row and the door of Bag End was a large open field, the site of Bilbo’s great birthday party. For the party a new opening had been cut through the bank to the road, with steps and a gate. In the northern corner was set the “enormous open air kitchen,” and farther south was the Party Tree around which the family’s pavilion had been raised.8
Bag End
The residence of Bag End wound from the great green door west into the side of the hill. The door opened onto a hallway that may have been up to fifteen feet wide, judging from one of Tolkien’s drawings.9 The door faced south, with the opening cut steeply into the bank where the path ran east before turning south to the gate. On the porch Bilbo talked with Gandalf, the Dwarves left their instruments, and Frodo set the hiking packs while preparing to depart.10
The hall itself served as an entry closet, with hooks for coats and plenty of room to set out the parting gifts Bilbo had left.11 Past the entrance doors opened “first on one side and then the other.”12 The best rooms were “on the left, going in,” for they had windows cut into the bank, some of which overlooked the kitchen and flower gardens west of the open ‘Party’ field.13 Among those rooms were the parlour where the Dwarves met with Gandalf and Bilbo, the dining room, a small sitting room where Bilbo and Gandalf talked before The Party, and the study where Frodo spoke with the Sackville-Bagginses, and later with Gandalf.14 At least the study and the parlour had hearths.15 Additionally there was a drawing room where Bilbo was “revived,” two or more bedrooms, wardrooms, a kitchen, and “cellars, pantries (lots of those).”16 All in all it was a most comfortable residence.
Hobbiton: Before and After
Before the War of the Rings, Hobbiton lay amid the picturesque countryside of well-managed fields separated by neat hedgerows, where tree-lined lanes led to cozy cottages and holes edged by bright gardens. After the war the Hobbits returned to find a very different view. Along the Bywater Road all the trees were cut, as were all the chestnuts on the lane to The Hill. The hedgerows were broken and the fields, brown. A gigantic chimney, presumably a smelter, choked the air; shabby new houses stood thickly along the road; and Sandyman’s Mill was replaced by a larger building, which straddled The Water, befouling the stream. The old farm past the mill had been turned into a workshop with many windows added.17 The Grange was gone, and tarpaper shacks stood in its place. Bagshot Row was “a yawning sand and gravel quarry,” Bag End could hardly be seen for the large huts built right up to its windows, the ‘Party’ field “was all hillocks, as if moles had gone mad in it,” and the Party Tree was gone!18 It was a sad sight, but a year of work restored the village, and “All’s well as ends Better!”19
Upper: BAG END Lower Left: HOBB1TON: BEFORE THE WAR Lower Right: HOBBITON: AFTER THE WAR
Along the Brandywine
WHEN FRODO LEFT BAG END on the first stage of his quest, he headed east toward his newly purchased house at Crickhollow. Instead of going along the Great East Road and crossing the Bridge of Stonebows, he chose to hike south through the Green-Hill Country and the Marish, crossing the river on the Bucklebury Ferry. The appearance of the Black Riders forced the Hobbits off the road, so they reached the Ferry in a rather unorthodox way.
Cutting across country east of Woodhall, the Hobbits headed through the well-kept fields of the Marish. They were passing along the edge of a field of turnips when Pippin suddenly realized where they were—old Farmer Maggot’s.1 They were actually trespassing until they went through the stout gate at the edge of the field and into the hedge-lined lane beyond. Ahead in the distance was a clump of trees that concealed the farmstead. Within the trees stood a high brick wall with a large wooden gate opening onto the lane. Inside the enclosure stood the farm buildings (including, possibly, houses for the three ferocious dogs), and a large house where the company had a bite of supper before Maggot drove them to the Ferry.2
Maggot’s farm was a mile or two from the main road. The land west of the Brandywine was apparently quite wet, as the word Marish hints. Tolkien originally had shown only a road, but soon decided it was necessary to raise the road above the surrounding fields and meadows on a high-banked causeway.3 A deep dike along the west side of the road also helped alleviate the drainage problem.4 About five miles north of Maggot’s Lane the ferry lane ran straight east a hundred yards to the landing. This, too, was changed from the early versions in which the ferry landing was placed south of Farmer Maggot’s, yet in the final tale they had “turned too much to the south . . . [and] could glimpse . . . Bucklebury . . . to their left.5 The width of the Brandywine was not mentioned, but it was a major river, possibly comparable to the upper Mississippi. It “flowed slow and broad before them,” was too wide for a horse to swim, and the Hobbits could barely make out the figure of the Black Rider “under the distant lamps.”6
On the east shore of the river was another landingstage from which a path wound up the bank to the road past Brandy Hall and Bucklebury. Brandy Hall was excavated into the west face of Buck Hill and on the flanks were built the holes and houses of Bucklebury.7 The ferry lane passed south of the hill to an intersection with the north—south road of Buckland. Half a mile up the main road the Hobbits took a lane that led them a couple of miles to Crickhollow.8
Crickhollow
Crickhollow was a small house, originally built as the hideaway of Brandy Hall, and its isolation made it ideal for Frodo’s purposes.9 The house was hidden by a thick hedge, inside which was a belt of low trees. Passing through the narrow gate in the hedge, the travellers crossed “a wide circle of lawn” along a green path.10 There were apparently gardens both in front and back, for when the Black Riders entered the gate, Fatty saw them “creep from the garden”; and escaping out the back he also ran “through the garden.”11
The house was “long and low, with no upper story; and it had a low, rounded roof of turf, round [shuttered] windows, and a large round door.”12 A wide hall passed through the middle of the house from the frontdoor where the friends entered to the back-door through which Fatty Bolger ran from the Nazgûl.13 Doors opened along both sides of the hall. One door at the back opened onto a firelit bath large enough to hold three steaming tubs, so while the hikers bathed, Merry and Fatty prepared a second supper in the kitchen “on the other side of the passage.”14 The number and character of the other rooms in the house was not given, but given the shape and relatively small size of the house there could have not been many. There may not have even been a dining room, for supper was eaten at the kitchen table.15 It was, after all, a cozy cottage and did not need an elaborate layout.
Frodo spent only one night at his new home, and at dawn they picked up the ponies from a nearby stable16 and rode to where the Old Forest was bounded by the Hedge: the High Hay.17 West of the Hedge the path sloped down, edged by brick retaining walls on either side. Directly beneath the Hedge was an arched tunnel, barred at the east end by an iron gate. Once through, the Hobbits found themselves on the floor of a treeless hollow, and about a hundred yards away on its far side the path climbed into the edge of the Old Forest—thick and threatening, an expanse bro
ken only by the Bonfire Glade, for which they were headed.18
ALONG THE BRANDYWINE Upper Inset: CRICKHOLLOW Lower Inset: MAGGOTS FARM
On the Barrow-downs
WHILE ATTEMPTING TO CROSS NORTH through the Old Forest, Frodo and his three friends were instead forced south to the Withywindle, where they were entrapped by the Great Willow.1 By good fortune Tom Bombadil came to the rescue, and led the Hobbits up the Withywindle to his home, which stood between the forest eaves and the first of the Barrow-downs.
The Home of Tom Bombadil
Coming out of the forest, the stone-lined path led the Hobbits over a grassy knoll and beyond that up another rise to where the stone house of Tom Bombadil sheltered under an overhanging hill-brow, from which the young Withywindle bubbled down in falls.2 As discussed under “Eriador” the predominant orientation of the Downs would make the cliff face southwest.3 However, the Withywindle must have cut into the cliff as it bubbled down the falls, for Bombadil’s house faced west not southwest.4
Crossing over the stone threshold the Hobbits found themselves in a long low room with a long table, a hearth, rush-seated chairs, and opposite the door, the fair Goldberry seated among her reflecting bowls of lilies.5 There was also apparently a back-door, a kitchen, and stairs leading to a second story, for Tom could be heard (but not seen) clattering and singing in all those places.6
The only other room described was the penthouse, where the Hobbits washed and slept. It was reached by going from the main room, through the door, and “down a short passage and round a sharp turn.”7 The room was a low lean-to added to the north end of the house. It had windows facing west (over the flower garden) and east (over the kitchen garden), as well as space for the four mattresses along one wall and a bench on the opposite.8 After spending two nights in that comfortable lodging, the Hobbits fetched their ponies and rode up the path that passed behind the house and wound its way up the north end of the cliff.9 They had entered the Barrow-downs.
The Barrow-downs
By about mid-day, the Hobbits had crossed numerous ridges, and from the top of one they spotted a dark line that they thought to be the trees along the Great East Road. Much relieved, they decided to stop for lunch. The hill they had climbed was flat-topped with a ring “like a saucer with a green mounded rim,” and in its center was a standing stone. To the east the hills were higher, and “all those hills were crowned with green mounds, and on some were standing stones.”10 All the features—rings, barrows, and stones—were probably remnants of funerals and burials.
As in England the great bell barrows were probably the least common. These mounds were built of carefully laid turves, and sometimes surrounded by a peristalith, a close-set circle of standing stones. The stones may have been of ritual significance, or may only have been physical supports for the barrow. The hollow circle in which the Hobbits ate may also have been a type of barrow, for in Exmoor, England, “Most of the barrows are of the bowl type, shaped like an inverted pudding basin [and] . . . [in] case of cremations . . . there may be a narrow circle of piled stones.”11 The different types of barrows may have been related to varying practices at the same time, or at different periods in history, for the downs had been used as a burying ground even in the First Age by the forefathers of the Edain before they entered Beleriand.12 Upon the return of the Dúnedain the area had been reoccupied and fortified, and new burials were made when the region was known as Tyrn Gorthad, and it was the last refuge of the people of Cardolan from Angmar. After the Dúnedain succumbed to the Great Plague, the downs became evil, inhabited by spirits from Angmar—the Barrow-wights.13
Riding slowly in single file from the hollow circle toward the gap seen to the north, the four Hobbits instead found themselves facing a pair of standing stones, and the horses bolted. Frodo headed east toward his friends’ voices and found himself going steeply uphill toward the south. On the flat summit stood the dark shadow of a barrow where he, too, was caught.14 The next day when Bombadil led them on through the gap, Frodo could not see the standing stones. They headed on toward the dark line which, instead of being the Road, was the hedge, dike, and wall that had once been the northern fortification of Cardolan. At last they reached the road and trotted toward Bree.15
Left: THE BARROW-DOWNS Upper Right: THE BARROW Lower Right: TOM BOMBADIL’S HOUSE
At the Prancing Pony
EAST OF THE BARROW-DOWNS the Hobbits came to Bree-land, “a small country of fields and tamed woodlands only a few miles broad.”1 Bree-land had four villages: Bree, Staddle, Combe, and Archet. The settlements were clustered around the slopes of Bree-hill—Bree on the west, under the frowning hill-brow; Staddle on gentler southeastern slopes; Combe in a valley on the eastern flanks; and Archet in the Chetwood north of Combe.2 Of the four, the largest and most important was Bree. Tiny as it was, the little country had bent with the ebb and flow of many centuries, for it had been settled by Men of Dunland in the Elder Days.3 About 1300 the Big Folk had been joined by Hobbits fleeing Angmar,4 and the Little Folk settled especially in Staddle, but there were also some in Bree.5
Bree
The predominance of Bree probably stemmed from its location at the intersection of two major roads: the Great East Road and the old North Road. The latter had been most important during the early Third Age when the Dúnedain passed between Fornost in the north down to Tharbad, and beyond to the realm of Gondor. After the fall of Arnor the road was seldom used and became known as the Greenway for it was grass-grown.6 The road-crossing was just west of Bree-hill, and as with many ancient settlements the Bree-men had attempted to protect their village with physical obstructions. They built no walls, but dug a deep trench or dike with a thick hedge on the inner side. The Great East Road passed through the village, so a causeway was built across the dike at the Road’s entry in the west and exit in the south. At the hedge the Road was blocked with sturdy gates, constantly tended.7
Inside the village the Road curved south around the hill, then turned east again.8 A drawing shows a lane which curves north from the Great Road, one branch climbing to the crest of the hill, while another leads through a small opening in the hedge for a shorter route to Combe and Archet. In the same drawing the dike is shown as being almost semicircular.9 This gently sloping area was not nearly as popular as the hill of Bree, however, for most of the houses of Bree were built east of the Road, with few between there and the dike. The village held about a hundred stone houses, mostly on the lower slopes of the hill. East and above them were delved Hobbit-holes.10 Only four structures were specifically mentioned: lodges for the two gatekeepers, Bill Ferny’s house (the last before the South-gate), and the excellent inn, the Prancing Pony.
The Prancing Pony
Tolkien stated that bree meant “hill,” a term appropriate for the locale;11 but it may also have been a dual play on words (although it was not mentioned), for bree is also Scottish for “liquor” or “broth”—both of which were served by Butterbur in large measures.12
Looking for some refreshments and a room for the night, the Hobbits rode to the inn. It stood where the Road began to turn east, yet was not far from the West-gate, for the Hobbits had passed only a few houses before reaching the yard.13 The windows on the front faced west toward the Road, and two wings ran back into the hill, with a courtyard between. As the inn had three floors, there was an archway in the center that permitted entrance to the courtyard yet supported the upper rooms. The Hobbits left their ponies in the yard, and Bob was sent to stable them—possibly on the ground level of the south wing, which had no doors nor steps mentioned.14
The inn was entered by climbing the broad steps on the left side under the arch.15 Once inside Frodo almost collided with Butterbur, who was carrying a tray of mugs “out of one door and in through another.”16 He was probably going from the kitchen to the Common Room, which normally would have been close to the front-door for the convenience of the villagers. The innkeeper led the Hobbits down a short passage to “a nice little parlour.” It
was small and cozy, had a fireplace, some chairs, and a table.17
They were also shown to their rooms to wash up. These were apparently farther along the hall of the north wing,18 and may have been at the far end; for tucked against the rising hill there may not have been enough space for a full-sized room, but only for the small beds of Hobbits. The location was also supported by Strider’s statement that the rooms’ windows were close to the ground;19 and while steps were needed at the front of the inn, in back the lower story was actually shorter than the upper ones due to the rising slope.20 Those low-set windows were so unsafe that the ranger wisely insisted the Hobbits spend the night in the parlour. The kitchen, a private dining room used by Gandalf (in an early version), Butterbur’s chamber, and a side door would also have been conveniently placed on the ground floor.21
Upper Left: BREE-LAND Upper Right: THE PRANCING PONY Lower: BREE
WEATHERTOP Inset: THE DELL
Weathertop
FAR EAST OF BREE was Weathertop, the highest of the Weather Hills, standing slightly apart, at the south end of the undulating ridge. Its summit rose a thousand feet above the surrounding lowlands, giving a clear view of all the terrain and lifting it to the upper airs that gave the hill another name: Amon Sûl, the Hill of Wind.1 The top of Weathertop was flat and was crowned by a tumbled ring of stones, which was all that remained of the watchtower built in the early days of Arnor.2 The tower and the hills to the north had been further fortified after the fall of Rhudaur to Angmar, but in 1409 all was lost, and the tower burned.3