Sackville-Bagginses
The Sackville-Bagginses are Bilbo Baggins's cousins and the most prominent members of the Baggins family, embodying the respectable, property-obsessed, and adventure-averse values that define the Baggins side of his heritage. They serve as the primary domestic antagonists of the story, a comic counterpoint to Bilbo's Tookish side, and a measure of how far he has traveled—both geographically and spiritually—from the comfortable certainties of the Shire.
Identity and Family Position
The Sackville-Bagginses are Bilbo's cousins, and they are the family members most invested in the Baggins reputation for solid, unadventurous respectability. The Bagginses, as a clan, are described as "very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected." The Sackville-Bagginses represent this principle in its most grasping and narrow form. Their primary interest in Bilbo is not familial affection but his property: they covet his luxurious hobbit-hole, Bag-End, which was built by his father, Bungo Baggins, and is "the most luxurious hobbit-hole" to be found anywhere under or over The Hill.
The Auction and the Return
The Sackville-Bagginses' defining moment comes after Bilbo's prolonged absence on his quest. Presumed dead, his belongings are put up for auction by Messrs Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes on June the Twenty-second. The Sackville-Bagginses are at the center of this activity: they are "busy measuring his rooms to see if their own furniture would fit." Their eager anticipation of inheriting Bag-End is shattered when Bilbo returns, very much alive, in the middle of the sale. The return creates "quite a disturbance," and the legal bother over his status lasts for years. The Sackville-Bagginses are among those who "took a deal of convincing" that Bilbo was genuinely alive, and they "never admitted that the returned Baggins was genuine." Their resentment is permanent: they are "not on friendly terms with Bilbo ever after," for they "really had wanted to live in his nice hobbit-hole so very much."
Theft and Lasting Enmity
The Sackville-Bagginses' enmity extends beyond mere refusal to accept Bilbo's return. After the auction is reversed, "many of his silver spoons mysteriously disappeared and were never accounted for." Bilbo personally suspects the Sackville-Bagginses of this theft, a suspicion that cements the permanent rift between them. This petty theft contrasts sharply with the vast, dragon-guarded treasure Bilbo has just declined to carry home, underscoring the difference between the Shire's small-scale acquisitiveness and the epic stakes of his adventure.
Thematic Significance
The Sackville-Bagginses function as a living embodiment of the respectable, anti-adventurous world that Bilbo leaves behind and to which he returns. They represent the Baggins side of his nature in its most extreme form: a life devoted to property, comfort, and the avoidance of anything "unexpected." Their greed for Bag-End and their refusal to believe in his adventure mirror the initial skepticism of the entire community. Bilbo's final status in the Shire—held to be "queer" by most hobbits, including the Sackville-Bagginses—is a direct consequence of his journey. He has lost his reputation for respectability, but he has gained something far more valuable: a life of experience, friendship with elves and dwarves, and a deep contentment that the Sackville-Bagginses, with their measuring tapes and covetous eyes, can never understand. His happiness in the face of their disapproval is his final victory over the narrow world they represent.
