Bilbo's Disappearance at the Party

Bilbo Baggins's eleventy-first birthday party, held on September 22, 1401 in the Shire-reckoning, was the most magnificent celebration Hobbiton had ever seen. The festivities culminated in a grand pavilion where one hundred and forty-four guests—a number Bilbo called "One Gross"—sat down to a feast rich, abundant, and prolonged. After the meal came the inevitable after-dinner speech, which the guests dreaded for its tendency to include what Bilbo called poetry and allusions to his absurd adventures. Yet the company, now in a tolerant mood at the stage they called "filling up the corners," prepared to listen to anything.

The Speech and the Disappearance

Bilbo rose in his place and began, "My dear People," but was interrupted by cheers and shouts of "Hear! Hear!" He left his place and stood on a chair under the illuminated tree, the light of lanterns falling on his beaming face and the golden buttons on his embroidered silk waistcoat. He addressed the assembled Bagginses, Boffins, Tooks, Brandybucks, and many other families, including the Sackville-Bagginses, whom he welcomed back to Bag End. He announced his one hundred and eleventh birthday and Frodo's thirty-third, noting that together they scored one hundred and forty-four. The guests cheered and hammered joyously on the tables. Then Bilbo declared he had called them together for a Purpose—and then for Three Purposes: first, to tell them he was immensely fond of them; second, to celebrate his birthday; and third, to make an announcement. He spoke the last word so loudly and suddenly that everyone sat up. "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 when the guests opened their eyes, Bilbo was nowhere to be seen. One hundred and forty-four flabbergasted hobbits sat back speechless.

The Aftermath and the Ring's Role

As Bilbo made his speech, he 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 guests were left in shock and annoyance, with most taking it for granted that his disappearance was nothing more than a ridiculous prank. Old Rory Brandybuck, however, suspected that "that mad Baggins is off again." Frodo, the only one present who had said nothing, felt deeply troubled, realizing suddenly that he loved the old hobbit dearly. He slipped out of the pavilion, while the Sackville-Bagginses departed in wrath. Bilbo himself walked briskly back to his hole, took off his party clothes, folded his embroidered silk waistcoat, and put on old untidy garments. He fastened a worn leather belt, hung a short sword in a battered scabbard, and took out an old cloak and hood from a locked drawer. He then went into his study, took out 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. At that moment, Gandalf entered, and after a tense exchange in which Bilbo briefly succumbed to the Ring's influence—calling it "my Precious" and reaching for his sword—he finally surrendered the Ring to Frodo's keeping. With that, Bilbo left Bag End, stepping out into the fine night with three dwarves, following the Road that goes ever on and on, and passing into the darkness like a rustle of wind in the grass.