Glimpsing Bilbo's heart through his map of favorite walks

Is there any setting more inviting of enjoyment than a country walk? Birds and frogs harmonize when noisiness backs away. Wildflowers of infinite delicacy float in a mauve cloud of Yorkshire fog grass. There are fragrant streams, nests in shady concealment, and shafts of light alive with tiny, gilded beings. The observant hobbit authors we know best knew all such things and more. Some disgruntled modern readers are wont to say that hobbit tales contain too much description of walking through nature, but I think it is there that we see their true hearts.

Now, Pippin Took didn't spend enough time looking at maps when he first visited Rivendell, but he was at his most natural dancing and singing to himself in a pleasant meadow - a place buzzing with nature's variety for his bright eyes to take in, season after season in his life. And what of Bilbo Baggins who so loved his walks that he mapped them out in special red ink and hung this artwork in his hall?

You can see here that he has splurged on a large sheet of handmade paper. So large, in fact, that its edges have to be weighted to keep them from curling up (personal experience may inform this detail!). Each of the flowers in the little pitcher speaks to a detail of the lives of Bilbo or J.R.R. Tolkien. For Bilbo, a snapdragon, a daisy, and a bachelor's button; for the Professor, poppies and cow parsley - can you guess why?

Young Bilbo has fortified himself with an enormous mug of tea and a nice piece of toast and jam. So absorbed is he in this delightful project that he scarcely notices the telltale thrush who has come in at the window in search of crumbs. I expect the hobbit has made his own watercolors of flowers and leaves, and his ink might contain walnut husks and other local ingredients. This map would have been filled with his memories of trees and butterflies, neighbors, and travelling dwarves, and perhaps even tarrying elves.

Eventually, the Road led Bilbo far from the Shire, but perhaps our greatest love always belongs to the homeland green country in which we were lads and lasses. Yet, whether at home or abroad, hobbits like Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam were ever-observant of natural Middle-earth, and their journaling of the beauties and wonders they saw makes their tales sing with the joys of the green world.

Please step into the breakfast room at Bag End and spend a moment looking over Bilbo's shoulder on this pleasant spring afternoon while he makes his charming map. Where would you like to ramble in the Shire? Please check back again soon for news of my forthcoming second book, A Shire Walking-Party, from Uppsala Books!