A Hobbit Kitchen and the Fróðafrið

I find it poignant to paint Frodo Baggins when he was still just a happy, simple hobbit, but passages in The Lord of the Rings that show what he loved reveal the good things he sacrificed so much to protect. Here, we see him about two years before his journey, preparing for his annual celebration of the birthday he shared with the long-absent Bilbo. Some in the Shire thought Bilbo had passed on, but Frodo seems to have felt in his heart that this wasn't so.

It is a merry scene in the smial's best kitchen, on the window side of the hole, in the last rays of the sun before the rest of the guests arrive. Frodo roasts mushroom on a spit at the cooking table while Sam tosses a massive bowl of taters with parsley. Great kettles bubble and steam with savory soups and stews. Beautiful desserts stand ready on one table, from a tiered plum cake to a dark honey cake embellished with multi-colored apple peels and berries in the shapes of flowers and leaves, to a great birch bark basket of russet apples. There are little raspberry tartlets, a scrumptious pear tart, and beautiful grapes brought up from the Southfarthing. Later, cordials, cheeses, walnuts, and pickled nasturtian pods will be brought out to "fill up the corners". It will be a night of dining, laughter, and song. 

Pippin is just 26 years old at this time - a mere tween - and his coat looks rather too large on him. Perhaps he and Merry should be helping with the cooking, but they add to the festive atmosphere just by their good-humored presence. Fredegar Bolger has removed his own coat to take the last loaf of bread from the oven while Folco Boffin carries a tray of currant wine and Bilbo's best small crystal goblets out to the dining room which is hung with pressed-flower lanterns and garlands of autumn blooms. This isn't the great Hundredweight Feast Frodo once held, but it's a party I'd love to be invited to, wouldn't you?

And there is a little something more to think about here. Do you see the wheat wreath above the hearth? Up-close you can also see that Frodo's party waistcoat is embroidered with sheaves of grain. I have learned from Professor Tom Shippey's Beowulf scholarship to associate Frodo to some degree with with the Norse legend of the Fróðafrið - the peace of Fróði. In this account, Fróði has a great grain mill on which he grinds out peace and plenty for the locals. My hope with this painting is to show the life Frodo knew and loved in the Shire for which he won long-lasting peace and plenty with his selfless courage.

It is also a depiction of the warm fellowship that existed between Frodo, his cousins, and his friends which not only underpins that start of the quest, but in some cases, sees it "there and back again". What a great-hearted hobbit Frodo truly was, and I hope it gives you pleasure, as well as food for thought, to see him in these happy days. Please come into the kitchen in this video short to experience for yourself the "merrier world" of the hobbits, and do bring your appetite with you: