Editing Bag End

{{Short description|Fictional location in Tolkien's novels}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
[[File:Baggins residence 'Bag End' with party sign.jpg|thumb|upright=1.65|Bag End, Hobbiton, the comfortable underground dwelling of [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and later [[Frodo Baggins]], constructed for [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film series]].]]
[[File:The_Hill_-_Hobbiton-across-the-Water.jpg|thumb|[[Tolkien's artwork|Tolkien's painting]] ''The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water'', [[watercolour]], 1938<ref name="Holmes 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Holmes |first=John R. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Art and Illustrations by Tolkien |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=27–32}}</ref> showing its ideal position near the top of the Hill at Hobbiton, with less-favoured Hobbit-holes lower down.<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> ]]

'''Bag End''' is the underground dwelling of the Hobbits [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and [[Frodo Baggins]] in [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s fantasy novels ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. From there, both Bilbo and Frodo set out on their adventures, and both return there, for a while. As such, Bag End represents the familiar, safe, comfortable place which is the antithesis of the dangerous places that they visit.<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> It forms one end of the main story arcs in the novels, and since the [[Hobbit]]s return there, it also forms an end point in [[The Scouring of the Shire#Formal structure|the story circle]] in each case.<ref name=Midsummer/> 

Tolkien described himself as a Hobbit in all but size. Scholars have noted that Bag End is a vision of Tolkien's ideal home, and effectively an expression of character.<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> [[Peter Jackson]] built an elaborate [[Hobbiton film set]] including a detailed Bag End in New Zealand for his [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film series]].

== Description ==

=== J. R. R. Tolkien ===

[[File:Tolkien_drawing_Bilbo_Baggins_in_Bag_End.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|left|''The Hall at Bag-End, Residence of B. Baggins Esquire'': Tolkien's drawing of Bilbo Baggins in the front hall of Bag End, showing it as a sizeable room with 20th century fittings including a clock and a [[barometer]].]]

''[[The Hobbit]]'' begins with "among the most famous first lines in literature":<ref name="Vollrodt 2017">{{cite web |last=Vollrodt |first=Kim |title=Tolkien trivia: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" |url=https://blog.oup.com/2017/09/tolkien-trivia-facts/ |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=20 August 2022 |date=20 September 2017}}</ref>

{{quote|In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.{{sfn|Tolkien|1937|loc=Chapter 1. An Unexpected Party}} }}

The [[protagonist]]s of ''The Hobbit'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and [[Frodo Baggins]], lived at Bag End, a luxurious ''smial'' or Hobbit-burrow, dug into The Hill on the north side of the town of Hobbiton in [[the Shire]]'s Westfarthing. Tolkien made [[J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork#The Hobbit|drawings of Bag End and Hobbiton]]. His [[watercolour]] ''The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water'' shows the exterior and the surrounding countryside.<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> Tolkien made several pencil and ink sketches for these subjects, only gradually settling on Bag End's final location and architecture.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hammond |editor1-first=Wayne G. |editor1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |editor2-last=Scull |editor2-first=Christina |editor2-link=Christina Scull |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-261-10322-1 |pages=96–107}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McIlwaine |first=Catherine |title=[[Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth]] |publisher=[[Bodleian Library]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-851-24485-0 |pages=295–298}}</ref>

Another of Tolkien's drawings, ''The Hall at Bag-End, Residence of B. Baggins Esquire'', depicts the interior, complete [[Anachronism in Middle-earth|with 20th century fittings]] such as a [[wall clock]] and [[barometer]].{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|1995|p=146 "The Hall at Bag-End"}} Another clock is mentioned in chapter 2 of ''The Hobbit''.{{sfn|Tolkien|1937|loc=Chapter 2. Roast Mutton."If you had dusted the mantelpiece you would have found this just under the clock,' said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note" [from Thorin].}} The barometer is mentioned in Tolkien's drafts of ''The Hobbit''.<ref>[[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien, J. R. R.]] [https://archive.org/stream/BilbosLastSongJ.R.R.Tolkien/The%20Return%20of%20the%20Shadow%20%28Not%20retail%29/The%20Return%20of%20the%20Shadow_%20The%20H%20-%20J.%20R.%20R.%20Tolkien_djvu.txt Bilbo's last Song]: (for "XIV. Return to Hobbiton" note 21) "the Hornblower who received the barometer now changes from Cosimo (by way of Carambo) to Colombo." (A Long-expected Party): "For Cosimo Chubb, treat it as your own, Bingo: on the barometer. Cosimo used to bang it with a large fat finger whenever he came to call. He was afraid of getting wet, and wore a scarf and macintosh all the year round."</ref>{{-}}

=== Peter Jackson ===

[[File:Bag End, Bilbo Baggins House, Hobbiton Movie Set, Matamata, New Zealand 2016 (50797473207).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Jackson's version of the Hill at Hobbiton on the Water. The image may be compared with Tolkien's watercolour painting ''The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water'' (above).]]

[[Peter Jackson]] had an elaborate [[Hobbiton film set]] built on the Alexander sheep farm at [[Matamata]] in New Zealand for his [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film series]]. It included a water-mill, the [[Green Dragon Inn]], and several Hobbit-holes as well as Bag End in a small hill, with garden.<ref name="LA Times 2003">{{cite news |last=Huffstutter |first=P. J. |title=Not Just a Tolkien Amount |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-24-fi-frodoecon24-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=24 October 2003}}</ref> Jackson said of the set, "It felt as if you could open the circular green door of Bag End and find Bilbo Baggins inside."<ref name="Brodie 2004">{{cite book |last=Brodie |first=Ian |title=The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook |edition=Extended version |year=2004 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=Auckland |isbn=978-1869505301 |page=19}}</ref>

Chad Chisholm and colleagues, reviewing Jackson's 2012 film ''[[The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey]]'' for ''[[Mallorn]]'', write that Jackson humorously has the "rough and ready" Dwarves "bursting into Bilbo's neat little home and cleaning out his pantry", providing "a sort of constant comic relief to the dangers in the dark".<ref name="Chisholm 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Chisholm |first1=Chad |title=Review: A journey to the cinema. Reviewed Work: 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' by Peter Jackson |journal=[[Mallorn]] |year=2013 |issue=54 (Spring 2013) |pages=14–26 |jstor=48614797}}</ref>

== Analysis ==

=== Real-world origins ===

{{anchor|Jane Neave}}

[[File:Iceland Keldur Earth covered homes.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|Turf-covered houses at [[Keldur]], Iceland]]

"Bag End" was the real name of the [[Tudor period|Tudor]] home, dated to 1413, of Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave in the village of [[Dormston]], [[Worcestershire]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lord of the Rings inspiration in the archives |url=https://www.explorethepast.co.uk/2013/05/lord-of-the-rings-inspiration-in-the-archives/ |website=Explore the Past (Worcestershire Historic Environment Record) |date=29 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="Morton 2009">{{cite book |last=Morton |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Morton (writer) |title=Tolkien's Bag End |publisher=Brewin Books |location=Studley, Warwickshire |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-85858-455-3 |oclc=551485018}} Andrew Morton wrote [http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1065-Bag-End-A-Very-English-Place.php an account of his findings] for the Tolkien Library.</ref>
The scholar of literature and film Steven Woodward<!--Bishop's University--> and the architectural historian Kostis Kourelis suggest that Tolkien may have based his Hobbit-holes on Iceland's turf houses, such as those at [[Keldur]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woodward |first1=Steven |last2=Kourelis |first2=Kostis |chapter=Urban Legend: Architecture in The Lord of the Rings |editor1-last=Mathijs |editor1-first=Ernest |editor2-last=Pomerance |editor2-first=Murray |title=From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' |publisher=Brill |date=2006 |isbn=978-90-420-1682-8 |doi=10.1163/9789401201513_016 |pages=189–214 |s2cid=243929250 }}</ref>

=== Character from architecture ===

{{further|Architecture in Middle-earth}}

Tolkien stated "I am in fact a Hobbit", and scholars agree that he was in many ways like his Hobbits, enjoying good food, gardening, smoking a pipe, and living in a familiar and comfortable home.<ref name="Vollrodt 2017"/> Tolkien makes Bag End a place where, in the Tolkien scholar [[Thomas Honegger]]'s words, "most readers feel severely tempted to put on their imaginary slippers and settle down to a piece of cake and some tea."<ref name="Honegger 2004">{{cite book |last=Honegger |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Honegger |chapter=From Bag End to Lórien: the Creation of a Literary World |editor1=Peter Buchs |editor2=Thomas Honegger |title=News from the Shire and Beyond – Studies on Tolkien |date=2004 |publisher=Walking Tree Publishers |location=Zurich and Berne |pages=59–81 |edition=2nd |url=https://www.academia.edu/45669412 |isbn=978-3-9521424-5-5 }}</ref> Honegger argues that places have a critical role in ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the function of the safe Hobbit-hole is to establish the character of the "''hol-bytlan'' (hole-dwellers), in the first place stationary beings who have a deep-rooted aversion against travelling outside the Shire." For them, Honegger writes, "Travelling abroad belongs to the same class as adventures", quoting Bilbo's remark in ''The Hobbit'': "Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"<ref name="Honegger 2004"/>

[[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Joseph Wright]]'s 1898–1905 ''[[The English Dialect Dictionary]]'' has an entry for ''hobman'', one of many possible sources of the [[Hobbit (word)|word ''hobbit'']], which states that "Each elf-man or hobman had his habitation, to which he gave his name".<ref name="Livingston 2012"/> The Tolkien scholar Michael Livingston comments that from this it is easy "to recall the man-like, elf-friend, hole-dwelling hobbit Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, hired by the not-too-dissimilar dwarves to commit thievery".<!--p. 140--><ref name="Livingston 2012">{{cite journal |last=Livingston |first=Michael |title=The Myths of the Author: Tolkien and the Medieval Origins of the Word "Hobbit" |journal=[[Mythlore]] |year=2012 |volume=30 |issue=3/4 |pages=129–146 |jstor=26815505 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26815505}}</ref>

[[File:Till en liten vira.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|left|A cosy interior: the Swedish artist [[Carl Larsson]] portrayed his [[Arts and Crafts movement|Arts and Crafts-inspired]] home in 1901 in this painting. Johanna Brooke suggests that Bag End could have been in such a style.<ref name="Brooke 2017"/>]]

The scholar of literature Johanna Brooke writes in the ''[[Journal of Tolkien Research]]'' that the character of Bilbo Baggins can be inferred from the [[Architecture in Middle-earth#Hobbit-holes|architecture of Bag End]], just as that of Hobbits in general can be deduced from their preference for living in holes. She suggests that Bag End is an [[Arts and Crafts]] building, fitting into the ideas of the designer [[William Morris]] and others in the period between 1880 and 1920. Features such as Bag End's panelled walls, tiles, and carpet could all, Brooke writes, have been manufactured by [[Morris & Co.]], while the prosperous Hobbit-hole clearly indicates that Bilbo is middle-class. Its position at the top of The Hill "demonstrates a physical and social elevation above other hole-owners",<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> since as Tolkien wrote in the Prologue to ''The Lord of the Rings'', "suitable sites for these large and ramifying tunnels...were not everywhere to be found".<ref name="Brooke 2017">{{cite journal |last=Brooke |first=Johanna H. |year=2017 |title=Building Middle-earth: an Exploration into the uses of Architecture in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien |journal=[[Journal of Tolkien Research]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |at=Article 1 |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol4/iss1/1 }}</ref> 

Brooke notes Tolkien's statement that "only the richest and poorest"<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> in fact were able to continue the traditional Hobbit-practice of living in holes: the poor might have, as Tolkien said, "burrows of the most primitive kind... with only one window or none".<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> Bag End is sharply contrasted with such a [[burrow]], its best rooms being provided with "deep-set round windows". Brooke comments that Tolkien has shown this in ''The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water'', where Bag End has several windows while the Hobbit-holes further down (of Bagshot Row) have fewer. Other signifiers of wealth and class include such Victorian era comforts as a dining-room, multiple pantries, and wardrobes. Such things could indicate, Brooke writes, that Bag End's owner is "indulgent, overly-luxurious, too comfortable, a tad vain even",<ref name="Brooke 2017"/> though against this, the hanging-space for many hats and coats suggests that welcoming guests is important to him. Brooke quotes Morris's remark that "the working man cannot afford to live in anything that an architect could design; moderate-sized rabbit-warrens [are] for rich middle-class men",<ref>{{cite book |last=Morris |first=William |author-link=William Morris |chapter=The Revival of Architecture |orig-year=1888 |title=Architectural Theory Volume II: an Anthology from 1871 to 2005 |editor1=Harry Francis Mallgrave |editor2=Christina Contandriopoulos |location=Singapore |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2008 |page=15}}</ref> stating that with its mention of rabbit [[Warren (burrow)|warren]]s, this "aptly suits Bag End".<ref name="Brooke 2017"/>

[[File:Fonstad_Bag_End_Plan.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The cartographer [[Karen Wynn Fonstad]]'s plan of Bag End, showing her vision of its comfortable layout with many cellars and pantries, and multiple fireplaces and chimneys.<ref name="Fonstad 1994"/>]]

The cartographer [[Karen Wynn Fonstad]] created a plan of Bag End, showing her vision of its comfortable layout with many cellars and pantries, complete with multiple fireplaces and chimneys, based on the clues given by Tolkien in ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Her plan makes Bag End some {{convert|130|feet|metre}} long and up to {{convert|50|feet|metre}} wide, cut into the Hill.<ref name="Fonstad 1994">{{cite book |last=Fonstad |first=Karen Wynn |author-link=Karen Wynn Fonstad |title=[[The Atlas of Middle-earth]] |year=1994 |orig-year=1981 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |pages=118–119}}</ref> Honegger writes<!--p. 59--> that Fonstad's work has contributed substantially to giving [[Middle-earth]] an "independent existence".<ref name="Honegger 2004"/>

=== Only one outlet ===

The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] writes that the name Bag End is a direct translation of the French ''[[cul-de-sac]]'' ("bottom of [a] bag"), something that he calls "a silly phrase... a piece of 'French-oriented snobbery', used in England to mean a dead end, a road with only one outlet"; he notes that the French say ''impasse'' for the same thing.{{efn|The French actually also say ''un cul-de-sac'', see the relevant [[:fr:wikt:cul-de-sac|French Wiktionary entry]].}}<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><ref>{{cite web |title=cul-de-sac |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french/cul-de-sac |publisher=Collins English-French Dictionary |access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref> The journeys of Bilbo and Frodo have been interpreted as just such confined roads, as they both start and end in Bag End. According to Don D. Elgin, Tolkien's  ''[[A Walking Song]]'', which appears repeatedly in differing forms in ''The Lord of the Rings'' as the quest progresses, is "a song about the roads that go ever on until they return to at last to the familiar things they have always known."<ref name=Midsummer>{{cite book |title=Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes and Language |editor-first=Janet Brennan |editor-last=Croft |editor-link=Janet Brennan Croft |chapter=What's at the Bottom of The Lord of the Rings and A Midsummer Night's Dream? |pages=52–53 |year=2007 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-786428274}} Citing: {{cite book |first=Don D. |last=Elgin |title=The Comedy of the Fantastic: Ecological Perspectives on the Fantasy Novel |url=https://archive.org/details/comedyoffantast00elgi |url-access=registration |year=1985 |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]]|isbn=9780313232831 }}</ref> As such, it forms one end of the main story arcs in both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', and since the Hobbits return there, it also forms an end point in [[The Scouring of the Shire#Formal structure|the story circle]] in each case.<ref name=Midsummer/>

=== The most desirable residence ===
[[File:Knole, Sevenoaks in Kent - March 2009.jpg|thumb|upright=1.45|Lobelia Sackville-Baggins's desire to acquire ‘Bag End’, Bilbo's home, has been compared to [[Vita Sackville-West]]'s frustrated desire to inherit her family home, [[Knole House]] (pictured).<ref name="Dennison 2015"/>]]

The journalist Matthew Dennison compares [[Lobelia Sackville-Baggins]]'s desire to move into Bag End to the similarly-named aristocrat [[Vita Sackville-West]]'s passionate attachment to her family home, [[Knole House]], which she was unable to inherit. Sackville-West became famous as a novelist and poet, and by the time ''The Lord of the Rings'' was published, as ''[[The Observer]]''{{'}}s gardening columnist. Dennison notes that ''[[Lobelia]]'' is a garden flower, and that readers in the 1950s would immediately have linked the character to the famous gardener.<ref name="Dennison 2015">{{cite web |last=Dennison |first=Matthew |date=18 August 2015 |title=Behind The Mask: Vita Sackville-West |publisher=St. Martin's Press |url=https://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/vita-sackville-west/ |url-status=live |access-date=20 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920103722/https://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/vita-sackville-west/ |archive-date=20 September 2015}}</ref> 

Shippey argues that the Bagginses and the Sackville-Bagginses are "connected opposites", since the opposite of a [[bourgeois]] is a [[burglar]], a person who breaks into bourgeois houses, and in ''The Hobbit'' Bilbo is asked to become a burglar, to break into the lair of [[Smaug]] the dragon.<ref name="Shippey 2001 pp5-11"/> He observes that the name Sackville-Baggins, for the [[snobbish]] branch of the Baggins family,<ref name="Shippey 1982 p66">{{Cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[The Road to Middle Earth]] |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-547-52441-2 |page=66}}</ref> is a [[philological]] joke, as ''Sac[k]-ville'' can be translated as the French form of the humble "Bag Town", another attempt to reinforce the family's bourgeois status by "Frenchify[ing]" their surname.<ref name="Shippey 2001 pp5-11"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ [[Tom Shippey]]'s analysis of the relationships<br/>between Baggins and Sackville-Baggins<ref name="Shippey 1982 p66"/><ref name="Shippey 2001 pp5-11"/>
|-
! Feature !! [[Bilbo Baggins]] !! Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
|-
| Manner, attitude || Plain || [[Snob]]bish
|-
| Role in story || [[Burglar]] || [[Bourgeois]]
|-
| Language || English (dialect){{efn|Shippey notes that "Baggins" is close to the spoken words ''bæggin'', ''bægginz'' in the dialect of [[Huddersfield|Huddersfield, Yorkshire]].<ref>Shippey cites {{cite book |last=Haigh |first=W. E. |title=Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District |date=1928 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}, noting that Tolkien had written the Prologue.</ref><ref name="Shippey 1982 p66"/>}} || Frenchified 
|-
| No through road || Bag End || ''[[cul-de-sac]]'' 
|-
| Bag End || Actual owner, resident || Would-be owner, resident
|}

=== Contrasts with faraway places ===
{{further|Christianity in Middle-earth|J. R. R. Tolkien's explorations of time travel}}
[[File:Lothlorien.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Contrast with Bag End: Matěj Čadil's artist's impression of [[Lothlórien]], "an airy glade in a forest filled with sunlight, evoking a feeling of sheltered openness."<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> ]]

The historian Joseph Loconte wrote that Tolkien had set up a contrast between Frodo's light and serene Bag End and the corrupted [[Wizards in Middle-earth|wizard]] [[Saruman]]'s dark and industrially destructive [[Isengard]]. Loconte likens this to the contrast in Tolkien's fellow-Inkling [[C. S. Lewis]]'s 1950 children's book ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' between the delightful but humble home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, and the icy opulence of the palace of the [[White Witch]]. In Loconte's view, both authors "reintroduce[d] into the popular imagination a Christian vision of hope in a world tortured by doubt and disillusionment".<ref name="Loconte 2015">{{cite book |last=Loconte |first=Joe |title=A hobbit, a wardrobe, and a great war : how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis rediscovered faith, friendship, and heroism in the cataclysm of 1914–1918 |publication-place=Nashville, Tennessee |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-7180-2176-4 |oclc=910568768 |pages=xiv-xv }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tirrell |first1=Jeffrey |title=Review: A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism, in the Cataclysm of 1914–1918 by Joseph Loconte |journal=Anglican and Episcopal History |date=March 2018 |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=116–118 |jstor=44783383}}</ref>

Honegger points out a quite different contrast, between Bag End as depicted in Tolkien's drawing ''The Hall at Bag End'', "the homely yet narrowly limited space of a hobbit-hole with the similarly neat and defined landscape of the Shire in the background," with his ''The Forest of Lothlórien in Spring'', which shows "no particular place, but an airy glade in a forest filled with sunlight, evoking a feeling of sheltered openness."<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> If the Shire is a "secluded [and] remote ''[[petit bourgeois]]'' idyll", then, Honegger suggests, [[Lothlórien]] is a "transcendental [or] idealised idyll". Further, the comfortable Hobbit-holes of the Shire stand in contrast to the untamed nature of the [[Old Forest]], the idyllic [[Rivendell]], and even to what had been the "promised land" of the Dwarves, [[Moria (Middle-earth)|Moria]]. The same applies, Honegger argues, to time: where Bag End and the Shire are [[anachronistically]] in the present, the Old Forest, Rivendell, and Lothlórien represent [[J. R. R. Tolkien's explorations of time travel|journeys back into the past]].<ref name="Honegger 2004"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ [[Thomas Honegger]]'s comparison of Bag End with faraway places<ref name="Honegger 2004"/>
! colspan=2 | Bag End, [[The Shire]]
! colspan=3 | Faraway place
|-
! Quality !! Time !! Name !! Quality !! Time
|-
| Homely, narrowly limited 
| rowspan=5 | In the present
| rowspan=2 | Forest of<br/>[[Lothlórien]] 
| Sheltered openness 
| rowspan=5 | [[J. R. R. Tolkien's explorations of time travel|In the past]]
|-
| Secluded ''petit bourgeois'' idyll || <!--no cell/Lothlórien--> transcendental, idealised idyll
|-
| rowspan=3 | Comfortable, tame || [[Old Forest]] || Untamed nature 
|-
| <!--no cell |--> [[Rivendell]] || Idyllic 
|-
| <!--no cell |--> [[Moria, Middle-earth|Moria]] || [[Dwarves in Middle-earth|Dwarves]]' promised land
|}

=== Strangeness ===

{{further|Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings}}

Bag End receives strange visitors – Gandalf and the Dwarves, making it seem a "queer place", in the character [[Ted Sandyman]]'s words, "and its folk are queerer". Bilbo and Frodo come to be seen as strange also. Bilbo is "very rich and very peculiar", not least because he seems not to grow old, but also because he went on a journey outside the Shire, and returned changed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chance |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Chance |title=Power and Knowledge in Tolkien: The Problem of Difference in "The Birthday Party" |journal=Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society |issue=33, Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference: Keble College, Oxford, 1992 |year=1995 |pages=115–120 |jstor=45320421}}</ref><ref name="Craig 2001">{{cite journal |last=Craig |first=David M. |title=Queer lodgings": gender and sexuality in "The Lord of the Rings |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |date=January 2001 |issue=38 |pages=11–18 |jstor=45321703}}</ref> David LaFontaine writes in ''[[The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide]]'' that Bilbo is a "confirmed bachelor" who is never "linked romantically" with any woman, and who lives alone in the "luxurious, lovely environment", Bag End, "illustrating the hobbit's artistic sensibility".<ref name="LaFontaine 2016"/> LaFontaine comments that Tolkien admires Bilbo's "unconventional lifestyle ... almost to the point of envy." To LaFontaine, Tolkien's account of Bilbo's "queerness" is to be interpreted as a portrait of a homosexual man.<ref name="LaFontaine 2016">{{cite journal |last1=LaFontaine |first1=David |title=The Tolkien in Bilbo Baggins |journal=The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide |year=2016 |volume=23 |issue=6 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA470366852&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=15321118&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E5cf531a2}}<!--https://omnilogos.com/tolkien-in-bilbo-baggins/--></ref>

== Parody ==

The 1969 parody novel ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'', written by the ''[[National Lampoon (magazine)|National Lampoon]]'' founders [[Henry Beard]] and [[Douglas Kenney]], mocks Frodo's homecoming from his dangerous quest to Bag End with the words "he walked directly to his cozy fire and slumped in the chair. He began to muse upon the years of delicious boredom that lay ahead. Perhaps he would take up [[Scrabble]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beard |first1=Henry |author1-link=Henry Beard |last2=Kenney |first2=Douglas |author2-link=Douglas Kenney |title=Bored of the Rings: a Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's The lord of the Rings |title-link=Bored of the Rings |publisher=Signet ([[New American Library]]) |publication-place=New York |year=1969 |isbn=978-0-451-13730-2 |chapter=10 Be it Ever so Horrid }}
</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Earthship]] 

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=[[The Hobbit]] |date=1937 |publisher=[[George Allen & Unwin]]}}

{{The Lord of the Rings}}
{{Middle-earth}}

[[Category:Fictional houses]]
[[Category:Shire (Middle-earth)]]