Bilbo's 111th Birthday Party

Bilbo Baggins's eleventy-first birthday party, held on September 22, S.R. 1401, is the opening event of The Lord of the Rings. It serves as a grand farewell, during which Bilbo publicly vanishes using the One Ring, bequeaths his estate to his heir Frodo, and departs the Shire, setting the entire quest in motion.

The Announcement and Preparations

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar, and had been the wonder of the Shire for sixty years, ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected return. The riches he had brought back from his travels had now become a local legend, and it was popularly believed that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels stuffed with treasure. The preparations were extensive: an odd-looking waggon laden with odd-looking packages rolled into Hobbiton one evening, driven by outlandish folk singing strange songs—dwarves with long beards and deep hoods. At the end of the second week in September, a cart came in through Bywater from the direction of Brandywine Bridge in broad daylight, driven by an old man with a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf. This was Gandalf the Wizard, whose fame in the Shire was due mainly to his skill with fires, smokes, and lights. A notice appeared on the gate at Bag End: NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON PARTY BUSINESS. The large field south of Bilbo's front door was covered with ropes and poles for tents and pavilions, and a specially large pavilion was erected so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it. An enormous open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field, and a draught of cooks from every inn and eating-house for miles around arrived to supplement the dwarves and other odd folk quartered at Bag End.

The Party Itself

Thursday, September the 22nd, dawned fair and clear. Bilbo Baggins called it a party, but it was really a variety of entertainments rolled into one. Practically everybody living near was invited, and many people from other parts of the Shire were also asked. Bilbo met the guests at the new white gate in person and gave away presents to all and sundry. The hobbit-children were so excited that for a while they almost forgot about eating, for there were toys the like of which they had never seen before, all beautiful and some obviously magical, many of them of real dwarf-make ordered from the Mountain and from Dale. There were songs, dances, music, games, and of course food and drink, with three official meals: lunch, tea, and dinner. The fireworks, designed and made by Gandalf, were superb: rockets like a flight of scintillating birds singing with sweet voices, green trees with trunks of dark smoke whose leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a moment, and a final surprise—a red-golden dragon that flew from his jaws, his eyes glared down, and he whizzed three times over the heads of the crowd before bursting over Bywater with a deafening explosion. The special family dinner-party was held in the great pavilion with the tree, limited to twelve dozen guests selected from all the families to which Bilbo and Frodo were related, with the addition of a few special unrelated friends such as Gandalf. The feast was rich, abundant, varied, and prolonged.

The Speech and the Disappearance

After the feast came the Speech. Bilbo rose in his place and addressed the company: "My dear Bagginses and Boffins, and my dear Tooks and Brandybucks, and Grubbs, and Chubbs, and Burrowses, and Hornblowers, and Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses and Proudfoots." He spoke of his one hundred and eleventh birthday and of Frodo's coming of age. Then he announced: "I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. I regret to announce that—though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you—this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!" He stepped down and vanished. There was a blinding flash of light, and the guests all blinked. When they opened their eyes Bilbo was nowhere to be seen. One hundred and forty-four flabbergasted hobbits sat back speechless. It was generally agreed that the joke was in very bad taste. Even while he was making his speech, Bilbo had been fingering the golden ring in his pocket—his magic ring that he had kept secret for so many years. As he stepped down he slipped it on his finger, and he was never seen by any hobbit in Hobbiton again.

The Aftermath and the Bequest

Bilbo walked briskly back to his hole, took off his party clothes, and put on some old untidy garments. He fastened round his waist a worn leather belt with a short sword, took out an old cloak and hood, and from a large strong-box took a bundle wrapped in old cloths, a leather-bound manuscript, and a large bulky envelope. Into the envelope he slipped his golden ring and its fine chain, sealed it, and addressed it to Frodo. Gandalf arrived, and after a tense conversation in which Bilbo briefly succumbed to the Ring's influence, calling it "my Precious," he finally agreed to leave it behind. He gave the envelope to Gandalf, who placed it on the mantelpiece. Bilbo then stepped out of the front-door into a fine night, followed by three dwarves, and passed into the night like a rustle of wind in the grass. Frodo, who had been in the know, found Gandalf sitting in the dark and was told that Bilbo had left a packet for him containing his will and a golden ring. As master of Bag End, Frodo felt it his painful duty to say good-bye to the guests, and the party ended with carriages rolling away filled with full but very unsatisfied hobbits.