A Hobbit Walking Party in the Sweet Shire Air

Have you ever gotten very far away from the thing known as "modern civilization"? If so, you'll be able to imagine the clarity of the light and the freshness of the air in the garden courtyard of Bag End on a perfect summer morning. This new painting is set in the first years of Frodo's residence under The Hill.

This is the first time I've gotten to paint the famous dooryard in high summer, giving me the chance to depict the nasturtians, snapdragons, and sunflowers we read about. There are tall hollyhocks, too, and the roof of the smial is spangled with seasonal wildflowers.

While the scent of wood smoke would have drifted up from Bagshot Row, the acridness of fossil fuels is blissfully absent from the Westfarthing. It is a pleasure to breathe. You can smell the trees and see so far. There may be the musty odors of domesticated animals down in Hobbiton, but there are no synthetic chemical fragrances, no detergents - only natural smells.

These were gracious blessings which later societies began to lose in Jane Austen's day. I am persuaded that Professor Tolkien would have liked to restore them, given his disapproval of the stench and noise of industry. I'm so looking forward to reading the new release of his prescient Bovadium Fragments, about the problem of motorcars.

A Hobbit walking party: one of my favorite concepts

Hobbits rode ponies and had wagons, but their well-made feet could carry them far. I have long been captivated by the notion of hobbit walking parties, and hope that spending time with this scene might spark your imagination as to where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins are going with their walking staves and cunning baskets of provisions. I feel Bilbo would have been eager to show his heir all the beauties of his new and unfamiliar home.

Perhaps they are heading down to the Woody End to cook over an open fire in the starlight and look about for chance elves.

"A star shines on the hour of our meeting" - Miriam Ellis

Perhaps they will picnic on the peaceful shores of the Water and then stop back at The Green Dragon in case any dwarves are passing through with news.

Perhaps this is the first stage of a longer walking party. They may bunk down in the smials of friends and relations on the way to Michel Delving, there to take rooms at a commodious inn to better enjoy the Free Fair on the White Downs.

"Michel Delving in the Lithedays, 1390" - Miriam Ellis

For generations, hobbits were able to walk all about the land they called "Suza" with a high degree of certainty that no harm could come to them. How good it is to imagine such a state of affairs!

Walking with power

Kind readers of this blog may have noticed my tendency to emphasize imagination as though it were a very important power. Professor Tolkien has taught me to think so. None of my friends or family are content with the state of Middle-earth in our present Age. I think that many of us hold far better visions in our hearts than those we are confronted with in the "real world" of ugly lampposts, machines, orc talk, and wars.

Imagination and inspiration are two strong roots of vision, and perhaps the more clearly we try to visualize places like the Shire that feel good to us, the closer we may walk towards an actualization of a happier mode of living. Even the simple practice of daydreaming about getting to be part of the Bagginses' walking party could take us a few steps closer to it.

Please bring your imagination to this video short as Bilbo and Frodo set out into a green world filled with good and quiet possibilities.