Bilbo's Return to Bag End
Bilbo Baggins's return to Bag-End is the final, decisive act of his adventure, the moment when the transformed hobbit confronts the home he left behind and discovers that he can never truly go back to the life he once knew. The journey that began with an unexpected party and carried him through goblin tunnels, enchanted forests, and a dragon's lair ends not with a hero's welcome but with an auction of his own estate, a comic yet profound inversion of the conventional homecoming that seals his permanent change from respectable Baggins to a figure of local legend.
The Homecoming and the Auction
Gandalf and Bilbo crossed the bridge, passed the mill by the river, and came right back to Bilbo's own door. There they found a great commotion: people of all sorts, respectable and unrespectable, were thick round the door, and many were going in and out without even wiping their feet on the mat, which Bilbo noticed with annoyance. A large notice in black and red hung on the gate, stating that on June the Twenty-second Messrs Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes would sell by auction the effects of the late Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton. The sale was to commence at ten o'clock sharp, and by the time Bilbo arrived, nearly lunchtime, most of the things had already been sold for various prices from next to nothing to old songs. Bilbo's cousins the Sackville-Bagginses were busy measuring his rooms to see if their own furniture would fit. In short, Bilbo was "Presumed Dead," and not everybody that said so was sorry to find the presumption wrong.
The Legal and Social Aftermath
The return of Mr. Bilbo Baggins created quite a disturbance, both under the Hill and over the Hill, and across the Water; it was a great deal more than a nine days' wonder. The legal bother lasted for years, and it was quite a long time before Mr. Baggins was in fact admitted to be alive again. The people who had got specially good bargains at the Sale took a deal of convincing, and in the end to save time Bilbo had to buy back quite a lot of his own furniture. Many of his silver spoons mysteriously disappeared and were never accounted for; personally he suspected the Sackville-Bagginses. On their side they never admitted that the returned Baggins was genuine, and they were not on friendly terms with Bilbo ever after, for they really had wanted to live in his nice hobbit-hole so very much.
Transformation and New Identity
Bilbo found he had lost more than spoons—he had lost his reputation. It is true that for ever after he remained an elf-friend, and had the honour of dwarves, wizards, and all such folk as ever passed that way; but he was no longer quite respectable. He was in fact held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be 'queer'—except by his nephews and nieces on the Took side, but even they were not encouraged in their friendship by their elders. Bilbo did not mind. He was quite content; and the sound of the kettle on his hearth was ever after more musical than it had been even in the quiet days before the Unexpected Party. His sword he hung over the mantelpiece. His coat of mail was arranged on a stand in the hall (until he lent it to a Museum). His gold and silver was largely spent in presents, both useful and extravagant—which to a certain extent accounts for the affection of his nephews and his nieces. His magic ring he kept a great secret, for he chiefly used it when unpleasant callers came. He took to writing poetry and visiting the elves; and though many shook their heads and touched their foreheads and said "Poor old Baggins!" and though few believed any of his tales, he remained very happy to the end of his days, and those were extraordinarily long.
Narrative and Thematic Significance
Bilbo's return completes the arc that began with the story's opening description of a Baggins who "never had any adventures or did anything unexpected." The homecoming is the final proof that he has become something else entirely: a hobbit who has lost the neighbours' respect but gained something far more valuable. The auction of his own belongings while he is still alive is a comic symbol of the death of his old identity, and his cheerful acceptance of his new, queer status confirms that the adventure has permanently reshaped him. The return to Bag-End is not a return to the same person who left it; it is the arrival of a different Bilbo, one who has earned the title of elf-friend, who has seen the Lonely Mountain and the dragon's hoard, and who now finds the kettle on his hearth more musical than ever before.
