Bilbo Baggins and the Home of Bag-End

Bilbo Baggins's relationship with Bag-End, his hobbit-hole under The Hill, is the foundational anchor of his identity and the central symbol of the comfortable, respectable home life he must leave behind and ultimately return to, transformed. The physical description of Bag-End, the emotional pull it exerts throughout the quest, and the changed circumstances of his homecoming together define the arc of his adventure as a journey away from and back to a place that is both the same and profoundly different.

Identity and the Home

Bag-End is introduced as the epitome of hobbit comfort: a perfectly round green door with a shiny yellow brass knob, opening into a tube-shaped hall with panelled walls, tiled and carpeted floors, polished chairs, and many pegs for hats and coats. The tunnel wound into the side of The Hill, and all the rooms—bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries, wardrobes, kitchens, dining-rooms—were on the same floor, with the best rooms on the left-hand side having deep-set round windows overlooking a garden and meadows sloping down to the river. This hobbit-hole was built by Bilbo's father, Bungo Baggins, for his mother Belladonna Took, and was the most luxurious to be found under The Hill, over The Hill, or across The Water. Bilbo, her only son, lived there after his parents' death, and by the time he was about fifty years old he had apparently settled down immovably. The Bagginses were considered very respectable, rich, and averse to adventures, and Bilbo looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father. Yet something from the Took side waited for a chance to come out, and that chance arrived when Gandalf came by one morning long ago.

The Pull of Home During the Quest

Throughout the journey, the memory of Bag-End serves as a constant counterpoint to the hardships of the road. When the dwarves sing of the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo feels the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic, and something Tookish wakes inside him, but then he thinks of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames, and he quickly becomes plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill again. When he sees the Misty Mountains for the first time, he thinks of his comfortable chair before the fire in his favourite sitting-room in his hobbit-hole, and of the kettle singing. In the goblin tunnels, he wishes again and again for his nice bright hobbit-hole. When he finds the ring, he sits down on the cold floor and gives himself up to complete miserableness, thinking of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home. In the Elvenking's halls, he wishes he was back in his hobbit-hole by his own warm fireside with the lamp shining. The very name of the quest, "There and Back Again," frames the entire adventure as a circuit that must return to its starting point.

The Return and Transformation

Bilbo and Gandalf cross the bridge and pass the mill by the river and come right back to Bilbo's own door. He arrives in the middle of an auction: a large notice announces the sale of the effects of the late Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton. His cousins the Sackville-Bagginses are busy measuring his rooms. The return creates a great disturbance, and it is a long time before Mr. Baggins is admitted to be alive again. He has to buy back quite a lot of his own furniture, and many of his silver spoons mysteriously disappear. He finds he has lost more than spoons—he has lost his reputation. He is no longer quite respectable, held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be 'queer'. Yet he does not mind. He is quite content, and the sound of the kettle on his hearth is ever after more musical than it had been even in the quiet days before the Unexpected Party. His sword he hangs over the mantelpiece, his coat of mail is arranged on a stand in the hall, and his gold and silver is largely spent in presents. He takes to writing poetry and visiting the elves, and though few believe any of his tales, he remains very happy to the end of his days, and those are extraordinarily long. Bag-End remains his home, but it is now the home of an elf-friend, a traveller, a changed hobbit who has seen the Lonely Mountain and the dragon's lair, and who keeps a magic ring a great secret, using it when unpleasant callers come.