The Hobbit, the Hill and the Wardrobe

While the Pevensies adventure through a single wardrobe, Bilbo Baggins has many of them, and J.R.R. Tolkien facilitates our escape into hobbit life through them. If we take care to pull together the scattered visual and textual clues, we can quite clearly picture Bilbo dressing in his best room devoted to clothes on a sunny morning full of promise in the Shire. What he wears and owns suggests the whole societal backdrop of textile growers, weavers, dyers, tailors, and more. The more we mull over the hints, the more we can feel as if we're really there.

Bilbo's beautiful smial under the Hill, with its extensive chambers and fine grounds, makes him landed gentry. Perhaps he is not quite so rich as Mr. Darcy, but he is not far off by hobbit standards. He was raised to be a gentlehobbit of leisure, and he returns from his great adventure wealthier than ever.

Bag End was delved with the fortune that Belladonna Took brought into her marriage to Bungo Baggins. These are hobbits who have gold ornaments, silver and crystal on their tables, and fair objects which Gandalf mentions to Thorin in trying to impress on him the idea of Bilbo's status in his own land.

In studying the texts and Professor Tolkien's authoritative artwork, I hoped to bring just one of Bag End's handsome wardrobes to life and fill it with some of his elegant belongings.

Tolkien shows us Bilbo's Georgian-style knee breeches. These modish garments reveal a sense of pride in hobbits' luxuriantly-furred feet. One of the pair of silver brushes on the table is a foot-brush, and the other is for Bilbo's curly hair. Bilbo is doing up the cuffs of his high-quality linen shirt. The little jewel box on the table holds a selection of studs - not magic ones like those given to the Old Took by Gandalf, but they are of precious metals and stones. A rock crystal bottle of scent is at hand, perhaps imported from the sunny Southfarthing, where they cultivate luxuries like wine grapes.

The bedroom slippers Bilbo has taken off resemble the ones his heir will one day find in the house of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and a sumptuous banyan-style dressing gown has been left on the button-tufted bench. Buttons are a hobbit status symbol, and the ones on Bilbo's fancy weskit are of gold. This gorgeous garment has been hand-embroidered in a pattern of bees and clover meant to memorialize the Beorn episode of the wearer's adventure. Folk of the past took great care of their garments, and you can see Bilbo wearing this same article at his eleventy-first birthday party decades later.

Bilbo has expertly pleated his stock, choosing from the selection hanging on the door of the press, which holds much of his spring attire. I expect that winter garments would be rotated into this front wardrobe on the window-side of the hole as the seasons changed. He will complete today's ensemble with a charming green frock coat.

There are several hats on the wall for varied occasions, an old chest of further oddments, and additional storage in the window seat. The traveling cloak hanging from a peg should be familiar to any reader of The Hobbit. The room is kept fresh with dried lavender, living ivy, and a bouquet of seasonal flowers.

Why it's restful to think of hobbits

The thought of Bilbo garbing himself for the day ahead gives me a lot of pleasure because of the happiness I feel seeing anyone living with dignity. Everyone ought to have some little room like this in which to take care of themselves and prepare to meet the day with a measure of leisure instead of a hectic, stressful dash, don't you think?

There is time in the Shire to embroider draperies like those at the round window which has been carpentered by a skilled craftsperson. Everything in this room has been handmade with care for usefulness and beauty. I hope that if your eyes are tired and your senses feel dulled by the throwaway, shoddy material culture that overwhelms our present Age, this escape through Bilbo's wardrobe is a refresher for you.

A fine day ahead for Bilbo

You might enjoy imagining what Mr. Baggins will do next.

"A Hobbit Pantry, Bag End" - Miriam Ellis

Will he stroll down the hall to his best pantry for the makings of a savory second breakfast?

"A Nice Little Second Breakfast" - Miriam Ellis

Will he go to his study to write a letter or amble out to the garden for a chat with Gaffer Gamgee about root vegetables? Perhaps they'll sit on the bench together.

Or perhaps they'll ramble down to Bywater together to hear the news at the Ivy Bush or the Green Dragon.

I could get a taste for hobbit life, couldn't you? Enjoy a moment in the wardrobe with this video short, and keep imagining that more enchanted life to which we're suited and into which J.R.R. Tolkien invites us.