Editing Bilbo Baggins (section)

===Period===

{{further|Anachronism in Middle-earth|Tolkien and Edwardian adventure stories}}

Bilbo's [[Anachronism in Middle-earth|distinctly anachronistic period]], compared to the characters he meets, can be defined, Shippey notes, by the presence of [[tobacco]], [[Columbian exchange|brought to Europe]] in 1559, and a [[Uniform Penny Post|postal service, introduced in England in 1840]].<ref name="Shippey 2001 pp5-11">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |date=2001 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261-10401-3 |pages=5–11}}</ref>{{efn|''The Annotated Hobbit'' notes also that Bilbo feels for [[match]]es (a 19th century invention) to light his pipe.<ref group=T name="Riddles in the Dark"/>}} Like Tolkien himself, Bilbo was ''"English, [[middle class]]; and roughly [[Victorian era|Victorian]] to [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]]"'', something that as Shippey observes, does not belong to the much older world of [[Elf (Middle-earth)|elves]], [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|dwarves]], and [[Wizard (Middle-Earth)|wizards]].<ref name="Shippey 2001 pp5-11"/>