Descendants
of The Old Took
No Chance Meetings Genealogy
Page
No Chance Meetings
Genealogy Books Page
No Chance Meetings Books
& Odd Bits: HOMEPAGE
J.R.R. Tolkien
Reader
On Their Passion for Genealogy
They drew long and elaborate family-trees with innumerable branches. ... Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Prologue, §1).
"You do not know your danger, Theoden," interrupted Gandalf, "These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience." The Lord of the Rings (Book 3, Chapter 8). (This could be said of many genealogist I know).
On Family Lines
[T]he mother of this hobbit--Bilbo Baggins, that is--was the famous Belladonna Took, one of the three daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of the Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was of course absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Chapter 1).
"There is not enough of the breed of Bandobras the Bullroarer in me: these howls freeze my blood." Peregrin "Pippin" Took, The Lord of the Rings (Book 2, Chapter 4).
Bullroarer ... was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment. The Hobbit (Chapter 1).
"I said to myself: 'I want a dash of the Took' (but not too much, Master Peregrin) 'and I want a good foundation of the stolider sort, a Baggins perhaps.' That pointed at once to Bilbo." Gandalf on why he chose Bilbo to go with the Dwarves, Unfinished Tales, The Quest of Erebor.
"Baggins is his name, but he's more than half a Brandybuck, they say. It beats me why a Baggins of Hobbiton should go looking for a wife away there in Buckland, where folks are so queer." Old Noakes of Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, Chapter 1).
Miss Primula Brandybuck "was our Mr. Bilbo's first cousin on the mother's side (her mother being the youngest of the Old Took's daughters); and Mr. Drogo was his second cousin. So Mr. Frodo is his first and second cousin, once removed either way, as the saying goes, if you follow me." The Gaffer on the relationship between Bilbo and Frodo, The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, Chapter 1).
Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already become divided into three somewhat different breeds. ... The Fallohides ...being somewhat bolder and more adventurous, they were often found as leaders or chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo's time the strong Fallohidish strain could still be noted among the greater families, such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland. The Lord of the Rings (Prologue, §1).
TO Descendants of The Old
Took
Family Histories
[Pippin] knew the story well. Bilbo and Frodo had told it often; but as a matter of fact he had never more than half believed it." Pippin upon encountering the Stone Trolls from Bilbo's adventures, The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, Chapter 12).
Migration Legends
Of their original home, the Hobbits in Bilbo's time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning (other than genealogical lore) was far from general among them, but there remained still a few in the older families who studied their own books, and even gathered reports of old times and distant lands from Elves, Dwarves and Men. Their own records began only after the settlement of the Shire, and their most ancient legends hardly looked further back than their Wandering Days. It is clear, nonetheless, from these legends, and from the evidence of their peculiar words and customs, that like many other folk Hobbits had in the distant past moved westward. Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a time when they dwelt in the upper vales of the Anduin, between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the Misty Mountains. Why they later undertook the hard and perilous crossing of the mountains into Eriador is no longer certain. Their own accounts speak of the multiplying of Men in the land, and of a shadow that fell on the forest, so that it became darkened and its new name was Mirkwood. The Lord of the Rings (Prologue, §1).
The Gaffer's* Wisdom
"But my lad Sam ... [is] crazy about stories of the old days he is, and he listens to all of Mr. Bilbo's tales. Mr. Bilbo has learned him his letters--meaning no harm, mark you, and I hope no harm will come of it. 'Elves and Dragons! I says to him. cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you,' I says to him." The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, Chapter 1)
*Hamfast Gamgee, father of Samwise Gamgee, was known as "The Gaffer." The term is similar to "Grandfather."
On The Shire
The land was rich and kindly, and though it had long been deserted when they entered it, it had before been well tilled, and there the king had once had many farms, cornlands, vineyards, and woods. The Lord of the Rings (Prologue, §1).
"I should like to save the Shire, if I could--though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again." Frodo to Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Tolkien Links I Like
The Scrolls of
Orthanc
The Grey
Havens
Of Luthien and
Beren
About Hobbits and
Such
The Tolkien
Guild
Aragorn's Tolkien
Links
No Chance
Meetings Books & Odd Bits: HOMEPAGE
J.R.R. Tolkien
Reader
Descendants
of The Old Took
No Chance Meetings Genealogy
No
Chance Meetings Genealogy Books
No Chance Meetings Books &
Odd Bits: HOMEPAGE
This page is maintained by Susan Innmon Nelson.
E-mail me.
No Chance Meetings Books & Odd Bits
Copyright 1998