Old Friendship Between Old Took and Gandalf

The friendship between Old Took and Gandalf is a foundational relationship in Bilbo Baggins's world, established long before the events of the quest. It is through this old bond that Gandalf gains access to the hobbit community and ultimately selects Bilbo for the adventure, and it provides a key reference point for understanding Gandalf's history in the Shire and the Took family's adventurous streak.

Identity and Background

Old Took, the head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, was a figure of considerable renown, and his three remarkable daughters included Belladonna Took, Bilbo's mother. Gandalf had been a friend of Old Took's, and their connection was well-known in the neighborhood. The wizard had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. This long absence underscores that the friendship was a thing of the past, a memory from a more adventurous era before Bilbo's time.

The Bond's Legacy and Gandalf's Return

When Gandalf reappears at Bilbo's door, he immediately invokes this old friendship. After Bilbo initially tries to dismiss him, Gandalf reminds the hobbit of his identity, saying, "To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!" He then explicitly links his offer of adventure to his relationship with Bilbo's family: "Indeed for your old grandfather Took's sake, and for the sake of poor Belladonna, I will give you what you asked for." This shows that the wizard's decision to involve Bilbo is not random but is a direct consequence of his loyalty to the Took line. Bilbo himself recalls Gandalf's past exploits, remembering the "wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered" and the "particularly excellent fireworks" that Old Took used to have on Midsummer's Eve. These memories, which Bilbo treasures, are the tangible legacy of the friendship between the two old figures.

Thematic Significance: The Tookish Inheritance

The friendship between Old Took and Gandalf serves as a narrative bridge between the respectable Baggins world and the adventurous Took world. It is through this connection that the "Tookish" side of Bilbo is awakened. The wizard's presence and his tales of dragons, goblins, and giants, which he used to tell at parties, are the very things that stir something in Bilbo. As the dwarves sing of their lost home, the hobbit feels "the desire of the hearts of dwarves" and something Tookish wakes up inside him, a direct inheritance from his grandfather's generation. The friendship thus represents the adventurous potential that lies dormant in the Shire, a potential that Gandalf, as Old Took's old friend, is uniquely positioned to activate. In the end, after his return, Bilbo remains an elf-friend and is held to be 'queer' by his neighbors, a fate that echoes the Tookish legacy his grandfather's friend helped set in motion.