Timeline Event
Bilbo prepares for a grand party
Event Type: General
Age: 3rd Age - The Stewards
Dates: September 1, 3001 ~ September 21, 3001
Description:
An event in the prelude to Bilbo's Farewell Party; see that entry for an overview:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton....
[It] was understood that something quite exceptional was being planned.... Bilbo was going to be eleventy-one, 111, a rather curious number and a very respectable age for a hobbit (the Old Took himself had only reached 130); and Frodo was going to be thirty-three, 33, an important number: the date of his 'coming of age'.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
That very month was September, and as fine as you could ask. A day or two later a rumour (probably started by... Sam) was spread about that there were going to be fireworks... such as had not been seen in the Shire for nigh on a century....
Days passed and The Day drew nearer. An odd-looking waggon laden with odd-looking packages rolled into Hobbiton one evening and toiled up the Hill to Bag End.... It was driven by outlandish folk...: dwarves with long beards.... A few of them remained at Bag End. At the end of the second week in September a cart came in through Bywater... in broad daylight. An old man was driving it all alone.... At Bilbo's front door the old man began to unload: there were great bundles of fireworks of all sorts and shapes, each labelled with a large red G....
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
The next day more carts rolled up the Hill, and still more carts.... [That] very week orders began to pour out of Bag End for every kind of provision, commodity, or luxury that could be obtained... anywhere in the neighbourhood. People became enthusiastic...; and they watched eagerly for the postman, hoping for invitations.
Before long the invitations began pouring out, and... the Bywater post-office was snowed under.... There was a constant stream of [voluntary assistant postmen] going up the Hill, carrying hundreds of polite variations on Thank you, I shall certainly come.
A notice appeared on the gate at Bag End:
Even those who had, or pretended to have Party Business were seldom allowed inside. Bilbo was busy: writing invitations, ticking off answers, packing up presents, and making some private preparations of his own.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
Practically everybody living near was invited. A very few were overlooked by accident, but as they turned up all the same, that did not matter. Many people from other parts of the Shire were also asked; and there were even a few from outside the borders.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
Guests [for the special family dinner-party] were selected from all the families to which Bilbo and Frodo were related, with the addition of a few special unrelated friends (such as Gandalf). Many young hobbits were included, and present by parental permission; for hobbits were easy-going with their children in the matter of sitting up late, especially when there was a chance of getting them a free meal. Bringing up young hobbits took a lot of provender....
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
The Sackville-Bagginses were not forgotten. Otho and his wife Lobelia were present. They disliked Bilbo and detested Frodo, but so magnificent was the invitation card, written in golden ink, that they had felt it was impossible to refuse. Besides, their cousin, Bilbo, had been specializing in food for many years and his table had a high reputation.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
One morning the hobbits woke to find the large field, south of Bilbo's front door, covered with ropes and poles for tents and pavilions. A special entrance was cut into the bank leading to the road, and wide steps and a large white gate were built there....
The tents began to go up. There was a specially large pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it... at the head of the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches. More promising still (to the hobbits' mind): an enormous open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field. A draught of cooks, from every inn and eating-house for miles around, arrived.... Excitement rose to its height.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 21Sep07, 19Apr10
