Bag End

Bag End is the hobbit-hole and home of Bilbo Baggins and later Frodo Baggins, one of the most famous dwellings in the Shire. It lies at the end of a lane beneath the Hill above the village of Hobbiton, a comfortable and well-appointed smial (hobbit-hole) of the kind favored by well-to-do hobbits. It is from Bag End that both Bilbo and Frodo set out on their great journeys.

Bag End is the picture of hobbit comfort and respectability: a snug, many-roomed hole with round windows and a famous round green door with a shining brass knob in the exact middle. It stands as the seat of the Baggins family and, through them, becomes bound up with the history of the One Ring.

Description

Bag End was dug deep into the Hill, with a long tube-shaped hall and many rooms opening off it, all on the same level, with the best rooms, those with windows, looking out over the garden and the meadows beyond and down toward the river. It was richly furnished with panelled walls, tiled and carpeted floors, polished chairs, and rows of pegs for hats and coats, for the Bagginses kept a great many. Bilbo's study, pantries, cellars, and wardrobes filled it. A fine garden lay before and beside it, tended by the Gamgee family.

History

Bag End was excavated by Bilbo's father, Bungo Baggins, for his wife Belladonna Took, and the Bagginses lived there in comfort and good standing for many years. After his adventure, Bilbo returned to Bag End with his treasure and the Ring and dwelt there until his eleventy-first birthday, when he departed the Shire and left Bag End and the Ring to his heir Frodo.

The Sackville-Bagginses, grasping relatives, long coveted Bag End, and after Frodo left on his quest they bought and occupied it, only for it to fall, like much of the Shire, under the ruin of Sharkey's men before the Scouring of the Shire.

In the story

Bag End is where Gandalf marks the door for the dwarves at the start of The Hobbit, and where, years later, he reveals to Frodo the terrible truth of Bilbo's ring. From Bag End, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out on the road that leads at last to Mordor. After the War of the Ring, the hobbits restore the despoiled Shire, and Bag End is set to rights; Sam, who marries and raises his family there, eventually inherits it from Frodo.