Mr. Baggins' Birthday

Witches, Wizards, and Magickry

Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo?

I've been celebrating Bilbo and Frodo's birthday (an event that has come to be known as Hobbit Day in the wider world) more of less since I saw my first Tolkien calendar in 1977. For quite a few years, every September 14th I'd try to scrounge up some sort of feast for friends and family, even if it was only some root beer and Little Debbie Cakes.

Wait a minute, you might say. The Birthday was on September 22nd. It says so in the book. It's canon, dammit. What's this 14th biz?

Well, so it does. The story goes Tolkien chose September 22nd as Bilbo's birth date, because that was the day he misremembered as the publication date of The Hobbit (it was actually the 21st). But he also clearly states in the Appendices that there is a difference between the Shire Reckoning and the Gregorian Calendar. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about that:

"Due to the discrepancies between the Shire calendar and the Gregorian calendar there is some debate about when to celebrate Hobbit Day, since the actual birthday would be between September 12 and 14 the Gregorian calendar, as explained in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings." [The movable spread over those dates is due to optional days in the Shire Reckoning.]

The people who put together those early calendars were loyal nerds of the most devoted stripe, and had to set down the "actual" date. The fandom is a little looser, more casual these days, and it is a lot easier just to say "Happy Birthday" on the day it says right there in Chapter One, without worrying about those fusty old calculations in the back.

So, that's when I celebrate now, too. It is close to the publication of the book that started the whole business (for the public anyway), and most of the geek-world (especially the movie fandom) does it, so it's convenient. But I can't help but feel a little contrarian, and a little bit guilty, even though it's simply wishing two imaginary characters well on their made-up birthday.

More Images of Bilbo and Gollum

More versions of Bilbo and Gollum, most from Eastern Europe. Special credit to Babel Hobbits ( www.tolkien.com.pl/hobbit/ ), where I found many of these pictures.

Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo! Hobbit Oddities

"Stick to the forest track, keep your peckers up, hope for the best, and with a tremendous slice of luck you will come out one day and see the Long Marshes lying below you--and beyond them faint and far the top of the Lonely Mountain in the East. There is a path too across the Marshes..." --Bladorthin (Gandalf) bidding farewell to Bilbo and the dwarves on the verge of Mirkwood, form the original draft of The Hobbit, in The History of The Hobbit Part One: Mr Baggins, edited by John D. Rateliff. (Peckers in this instance meaning noses; he is essentially saying 'Chin up.')

More Of The Many Faces Of Bilbo Baggins

Since my last post on "The Many Faces of Bilbo Baggins," the part of Bilbo has been cast for Peter Jackson's two upcoming movies based on The Hobbit. The crucial part has at last gone to Martin Freeman, best known to me previously for his role as Arthur Dent in the movie The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. As satisfied as I was with his work in that film, I was not totally convinced about Freeman until I saw an interview that he and all the actors cast as Thorin and Company gave in New Zealand. When I saw him out of other context and simply in himself, I caught a glimpse of his potential as Baggins.

Part of this potential is his comic English diffidence, the sense of self-worth tempered by humility that tries not to be "uppity," and then feels chagrin when that is taken at face worth. The greatest danger in making The Hobbit is, perhaps, the temptation to make Bilbo into an action hero. He is a hero, of course, but his heroism is a different kind of courage, and he only wields Sting defensively. The story of The Hobbit is (besides a Quest) the story of a culture conflict, of the modern sensibility (and Bilbo, with his morning letters, butcher's meat, and handkerchiefs, is to all intents and purposes Modern) with the tenets of a Heroic Age, typified mainly by Thorin. As in any dialectic, the two viewpoints meet, clash, and change each other. Bilbo's virtues are mercy, pity, non-possessiveness and (when in a pinch) the courage to face horror with hope. These will take a steady hand to translate into film.

So, the pictures are, in order: 1) Martin Freeman; 2) Bilbo reading Tolkien's manuscript, looking rather like Leo McKern, a picture by Tony de Terlizzi of Spiderwick fame; 3) Bilbo and Gandalf by Iain McCaig; and 4) Bilbo and Gandalf by Ted Naismith.

The Many Faces Of Bilbo Baggins: Part Seven

Today's first Bilbo is from a 1945 Swedish edition. He looks kind of like a genie, or a gypsy, or Jiggs from the old "Bringing Up Father" comic strip. In this edition "hobbit" was translated as "hompen." This was the sort of pointless invention that annoyed Tolkien, and led him to compose some Notes On Nomenclature for translators of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The second Bilbo is by David Wenzel for the graphic novel adaptation.

The third Bilbo is by Inger Edelfeldt, and shows Bilbo giving his speech at his 111th Birthday Party. He seems rather dispassionate to me, not as if he's been teasing his friends and relations and preparing to pull off the biggest practical joke of his life.

The fourth Bilbo is by Maurice Sendak, from a drawing he made while considering whether or not to try to illustrate The Hobbit. What an intriguing "if only" proposition! This is by far the smuggest Bilbo I've ever seen, ripe to be taken down a notch or two by a wandering wizard.

The fifth Bilbo is by Lidia Postma, and has been re-used in many of David Day's Tolkien books. It shows Bilbo in a scholarly mood, perhaps considering a passage in his memoirs. It's hard for me to give a completely unbiased judgement on this portrayal, as it bears a very strong resemblance to my Great Aunt Ruby.

And this, I think, must be my last posting on the Many Faces of Bilbo Baggins; not because there are no more, but because there are too many. I believe I could scrounge up about forty more; there is definitely a plethora of bizarre interpretations through the decades and across the globe. But who will be the newest face of Bilbo Baggins when the movie is cast?

The Many Faces Of Bilbo Baggins: Part Six

These Bilbos are all from foreign editions of The Hobbit. Behold the wonder of Bilbo Baggins filtered through other cultures.

The first Bilbo is from the 1962 Portuguese edition, drawn by Antonio Quadros. Tolkien called these illustrations "hideous."

The second Bilbo is by Tamas Szecsko, from the 1975 Hungarian edition. This Bilbo looks like the English character actor Robert Morley to me.

The third Bilbo is by Livia Rusz, from the 1975 Rumanian edition. I love these illustrations, but wonder about Bilbo's sugar-loaf hat. Perhaps it just went in her mind with "the Little People" kind of thing.

The fourth Bilbo is by Mikhail Belomlinskiy from the 1976 Russian edition. Apparently (according to notes cited in Douglas Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit) the common Russian language does not differentiate between the terms for "legs" and "feet" which accounts for this Kruschev-lookalike Bilbo's hairy lower appendages.

The fifth Bilbo is by an illustrator known only as "Chica," from the 1976 French edition. This Bilbo looks so French and so 70's I'm surprised he's not wearing a neck-scarf. The striped pants are particularly groovy.