View Full Version : Just how big were Hobbit Holes?
webwizard333
08-09-2001, 04:50 PM
We often hear of them being filled with deep larders, many storerooms, and a good amount of rooms. I picture the nicer ones (Baggins, Tooks, etc.) having massive underground mansions. How do you picture the size of a Hobbit Hole?
Shanamir Duntak
08-09-2001, 05:17 PM
The older, the bigger. Do not forget you need a nice big hill to have a big Hobbit hole.
webwizard333
08-10-2001, 12:00 PM
Good point. I wonder if in really big hills, maybe several hobbit holes were built into them (I live on a really big hill myself).
Manwe Sulimo
08-10-2001, 12:23 PM
Well, the biggest was probably that big hall over at Buckland, or wherever, where several hundreds lived, I think...
And in the same hill as Bag End were Bag Row or whatever, where the Gaffer lived... I think that was in the same hill, at least...
webwizard333
08-11-2001, 11:31 AM
This makes me think of that article on the mob and hobbits. :)
Manwe Sulimo
08-11-2001, 07:41 PM
Ehh... what article? or rather, what did it say?
Ñólendil
08-15-2001, 04:13 PM
Michael Martinez's article, a sarcastic agreement with the thieves-hideout-at-Tharbad-and-in-Middle-earth-in-general-enthusiasts.
Renju48
08-21-2001, 07:27 AM
I Reckon The entrance size is about a metre square but the actual hole is about the size of a cricket pitch to fit so much in.:D
fatclown
09-20-2001, 10:31 PM
i think they could be elaborate in dimension, rooms, and many of cavern. Yet in height they were lacking. For as it was written in LOTR Gandalf had quite an adventure just standing up without striking his head while dwarves and hobbits fit nicely
Sister Golden Hair
09-21-2001, 12:22 AM
Aren't they described as being long tunnel like passages with rooms off to the side, and all on one level?
Ñólendil
09-22-2001, 05:52 PM
There's a nice picture drawn by Tolkien of Bilbo standing in the entrance hall of Bag-End: click here (http://www.tolkien.art.pl/galeria/tol_15.jpg).* I can't imagine Gandalf hitting his head on that roof, but then again I can't imagine Bilbo easily reaching the door handle either! Another picture (which I can't find) shows that Gandalf's head just goes over the height of the doorknob of the Bag-End door, but if you make Bilbo half his height, it still must be admitted that he'd have a time reaching that doorknob.
*If you look closely, you'll see that Bilbo's ear is slightly pointed.
Comic Book Guy
09-22-2001, 06:13 PM
Almost "Elvish"....
anduin
09-22-2001, 06:34 PM
Why does Bilbo have socks on?
Comic Book Guy
09-22-2001, 08:03 PM
I don't think Tolkien was the greatest of artists, not meaning to sound disrespectful but he probally didn't really pay much attention to his sketches and drawings that weren't meant to be published and the mistakes such as hobbit-socks show.
Michael Martinez
09-26-2001, 09:52 PM
Tolkien's art improved over time, but he was never a threat to the likes of Da Vinci and Rembrandt. The Tooks and the Brandybucks had huge mansions. Great Smials in Tookland was probably the largest in the Shire. Some people have argued that Bagshot Row should have been deemed a part of Bag End, in the country estate sense.
Ñólendil
09-28-2001, 11:13 PM
What's the country estate sense?
Michael Martinez
09-28-2001, 11:29 PM
A number of people argue that the residents of Bag Shot Row (whose number included the Gaffer and Sam) were servants and/or tenants for the Master of Bag End. Bilbo (and his father before him) probably owned the entire Hill, and most probably the field with the party tree, and perhaps many other fields nearby.
The Baggins family (at least Bungo's part of it) was wealthy, and they live like aristocrats in some ways, although Bilbo has no evident servants when Gandalf and the Dwarves drop in. So, he seems to have been a landlord living off of rents. He was not like a Scottish laird or a Norman baron. He didn't rule an estate. He owned property, and he supported himself by renting out that property.
So the theory goes.
easterlinge
10-02-2001, 02:35 AM
I *had* been wondering what Bilbo did for a living......
webwizard333
10-08-2001, 10:16 AM
I've got an illustration in my book thats shows a massive hill with many door. I have always assumed they were seperate hobbit holes, but in light of this new information, maybe they were seperate rooms in "Bilbo's Bed and Breakfast". :D
Ñólendil
10-08-2001, 05:36 PM
But there only appear to be three smials in Bagshot Row, right? One for the Gamgees, one for the Twofoots and one for someone else. Can you live off that? Or maybe you don't need to with all that wealth to begin with.
Oliver Thornton
11-20-2001, 08:30 PM
:cool:
I think the hobbit holes were about 3 feet high by 3 feet wide.
Ñólendil
11-21-2001, 12:06 AM
Welcome Mr. Thornton!
L@ur@y Elven Warrior
12-24-2002, 02:30 PM
I think hobbit holes are big but not that big
Elf Girl
12-25-2002, 01:18 PM
I always imagined them about 3 ft in diameter.
SamwiseGamgeeOTS
12-25-2002, 07:41 PM
they didn't look too big in the movie though, and the hills weren't large enough to have a larger hobbit hole....hmmm
Eothain
12-29-2002, 02:53 PM
the older the bigger.
Blackboar
12-29-2002, 04:04 PM
Well it'll varie with each Hobbit Hole won't it!
The wealther you are, the bigger the hill, etc. etc, etc.:D
samwiselvr2008
01-01-2003, 06:11 PM
I always imagined them to be huge, bigger then any house I have ever been in. Of course, there was only one floor, but that wouldn't make them any smaller, I think that in some of them, you could brobally on walk back a couple of rooms worth, but being hobbits, I don't think that any of them were poor, it seems that the hobbits stuck together! I think that they all had basicly the same amount of money, some may have had less then others, but being the Shire, it probally didn't matter much, and most of the wholes were the same. We haven't really been in any other hobbit whole that I can remember in the Hobbit and in LOTR, other then Bag End, (wasn't there another whole in FOTR?) So I can't really imagine them being diffrent. Samwise in FOTR ran into his hole to give something to the Gaffer, but it never tells you what the whole looks like, so it's hard to tell.
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