Hobbiton

Hobbiton sits in the middle of the Westfarthing, on the north bank of the Water, with the Hill rising behind it and the road to Bywater running east along the stream. It is roughly in the centre of the Shire's settled country: Michel Delving lies west on the White Downs, the Brandywine and Buckland are east, and Bree is several days' walk further east again along the Great East Road.

The village itself is small. There is a mill on the Water with a wheel, an inn called The Ivy Bush on the Bywater road, the lane of holes known as Bagshot Row, and above them all Bag End, the smial Bungo Baggins dug for his wife Belladonna Took. Gardeners, millers and farmers make up the population, and the chief occupation is talk.

Both journeys start here. Gandalf came to Hobbiton in TA 2941 and marked Bilbo's door, and thirteen Dwarves arrived for tea the next day. Sixty years later Bilbo gave his farewell party in the field below the Hill on his eleventy-first birthday, vanished in front of the guests and left the Ring behind for Frodo. Frodo walked out of Hobbiton on 23 September TA 3018.

The village suffered for it. When the hobbits returned in TA 3019 they found the Party Tree felled, Bagshot Row dug away, the old mill replaced by a brick and iron building that fouled the Water, and Sharkey installed at Bag End. Sam replanted the whole of it with the dust Galadriel gave him, set a mallorn seed where the Party Tree had stood, and the year SR 1420 became the byword in the Shire for a perfect harvest. The mallorn that grew in the Party Field was the only one west of the Misty Mountains.

Events at this place

1. TA 2941 · The Hobbit

   An unexpected party

   Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves came to Bag End, and Bilbo Baggins left Hobbiton the next morning without a pocket-handkerchief.

2. TA 3001 · The Lord of the Rings

   Bilbo's farewell party

   On 22 September Bilbo turned 111, gave a speech to 144 guests in the field below the Hill, put on the Ring and disappeared.

3. TA 3018, September 23 · The Lord of the Rings

   Frodo leaves Hobbiton

   Frodo sold Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses and walked east out of the village on 23 September with Sam and Pippin.

4. TA 3019, November 3 · The Lord of the Rings

   The Scouring and the replanting

   Hobbiton was found wrecked by Sharkey's men. After the ruffians were driven out, Sam replanted the village and set a mallorn in the Party Field.

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