Sam, Rose and the Complete Gamgee Family at Bag End

If you've ever wondered what it might be like to see Sam Gamgee, his wife Rose Cotton, and all thirteen of their children, I hope this new paintings makes some dreams come true. The family has gathered in the best bedroom at Bag End and perhaps it's a nightly ritual to have a hot drink together (perhaps some chamomile tea) at close of day. It can take quite a bit of ingenuity to settle children down for the night, even when you have fewer than a baker's dozen!

15-year-old Merry is old enough to be trusted with a candle and so he is lighting the way for Sam to piggyback a boisterous 7-year-old Bilbo to one of the lads' rooms down the hall. 11-year-old Hamfast is already asleep in the little bedroom chair, and so is 13-year-old Pippin at the foot of the great Tester-style bed. Mother Rose has the baby of the family, Tolman, in her arms while 8-year-old Primrose nods off beside him.

Young Rosie looks so much like her mother, even at 17, and she leans over the back of the chair while 19-year-old Frodo is reading from one of the Red Books. Given that he is the lad who grows up to be called Gardner, I wouldn't be surprised if he's studying the pages relating to the flora of the Golden Wood. 12-year-old Goldilocks and 10-year-old Daisy are cuddled up in their parents' bed with 5-year-old Ruby asleep between them. The eldest child, Elanor, has just entered her tweens at 21, and she is showing 3-year-old Robin the wonder and ever-present sign of hope of Eärendil in the sky.

Speaking of stars, I wanted to show something special in this painting about the hobbit custom of giving gifts to others on their birthdays. Professor Tolkien explains in a letter that small children might give little bouquets; handmade things were always appreciated. A very old craft in many European nations is the making of decorations from straw. The agrarian Shire would have abounded in such natural materials and I could imagine hobbit children learning to soak and shape the straw into little stars and flowers. With 13 youngsters, these kinds of birthday presents would add up quickly! And so, I though, Sam and Rose might have taken the notion to hang them from the ceiling of their bedroom, as a kind of recreation of the night sky.

Bag End as an estate

The whole room, in fact, is as natural as possible, and bespeaks Bag End's growing history as an estate. Bungo built the bed for himself and Belladonna. The silver candelabra date from Bilbo's elegant day. The green carpet was Frodo's idea, featuring a pattern of little rabbits meant as a jolly tribute to his benefactor's great adventure. Rose's heritage is seen in the bed curtains as a continuation of my envisioning of the Cottons as textile growers and dyers (my own little tribute to Professor Tolkien's play-on-words with the Gamgee Cotton connection). The draperies are extremely fine and feature a pattern that makes going to bed the next best thing to sleeping in a bed of ferns. Real ferns hang in baskets from the ceiling and that is Sam's heritage from his father, the great gardener!

Can you imagine being there, under the moon and under the hill, in this great smial that all of Hobbiton looked up to? Given that Elanor eventually settled at Undertowers, I suppose Frodo-the-younger would have eventually inherited the Bag End estate. I find it touching and fitting to think of there being a Mr. Frodo in the "hole in the ground" again one day.

But for now, this is such a happy, cozy time in Sam's life and I hope you can see how he and Rose cherish their children. There would have been laughter and song and games filling what had, for so long, been a bachelor's residence. Think of the huge homestyle meals eaten and the birthday parties celebrated! But every evening a time would have come to quiet the family, with bedtime stories and lullabies, and warm family feeling that is worth more than any other kind of riches. I hope you'll feel a part of all this with this video short.