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Post by Desi Baggins on Apr 29, 2005 19:35:23 GMT -6
Put yourself in Bilbo's shoes...What would you have done if you came home to find your house up for auction? Most of your belongings had already been sold and you have new found wealth...would you have bought your new things back like he did or bought new stuff?
I found that even thought he had changed from his adventure he was still the same Hobit because he did want his old things back.
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Post by Stormrider on May 1, 2005 3:18:45 GMT -6
Bilbo left one morning on the spur of the moment not telling anyone where he was going. That was probably a very unhobbit-like thing to do in the first place. Hobbits just didn't up and leave.
I wonder if the local police investigated his disappearance. Would they have found any clues such as the party with the dwarves the night before? Or had Bilbo cleaned everything up well enough the next morning to erase all evidence of the mysterious visitors?
Or.......did someone in the neighborhood see the strange party arrive at Bag End or see them leave on ponies? A large party of brightly clad dwarves would be so out of place in The Shire that someone must have taken notice!
If that was the case, I can see how they might think Bilbo had met some bad company and been "presumed dead" just because of his adventuring off with these odd characters.
But as far as Bilbo wanting his old stuff back, that proves that he still wanted his old familiar comforts to return to. He probably was thinking on his entire journey back about all of his old comforts and longing to be back home and back to normal. I imagine seeing everything divided up was a shock to Bilbo! So I can understand his wanting to purchase everything back...especially since he had the means to do so.
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Post by Andorinha on Aug 11, 2006 1:15:31 GMT -6
It has just occurred to me that Bilbo's "homecoming" brings the travel worn hobbit, suitably altered and "empowered" by all his experiences, back to his familiar haunts -- where he finds that things have not stood still while he was far away. The Shire, or at least Bilbo's corner of it, Hobbiton and Bag End, are in turmoil, and at the very end of all his adventures, he has to set his own Hole in order to fit himself back into the society and home he left behind.
When Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin return from their adventures, they find the old familiar Shire in another uproar, and they must "scour" the place clean, return it to its ancient habits and status, re-make it as their home once more. In both cases, Bilbo on one hand, Frodo and gang on the other, the travellers were "presumed dead," and in both accounts, the final outcome of their unexpected survivals was a restoration of the original "homeliness" of their home...
I wonder if Tolkien was using this homecoming scene from The Hobbit as a deliberate template for LotR's "Scouring of the Shire?"
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Post by Desi Baggins on Aug 22, 2006 7:42:41 GMT -6
I never put it together that the endings of the two stories were so familar! In both stories when the Hobbit/Hobbits come home you are thinking the worst if over whether it was with the slaying of the dragon and battle of five armies or the Gondor battle, but then there is still the righting of the Shire!
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Post by Stormrider on Dec 23, 2012 9:21:01 GMT -6
Things wouldn't feel the same after having life-altering adventures, would they? The old way of life, while comforting and familiar, would be seen through an adventurer's eyes now. The experiences you have gone through would make you appreciate the comfortable happy life you now see all around you even more.
Bilbo had the means to buy back his property so in getting most of it back, he was making sure those who had paid for the things were compensated and did not have a loss because of it. He had missed his old hobbit hole during his entire trip, so I think he really wanted his things back the way they were or as close as he could get it. It helped him feel more like he was back at home and still the same respectable hobbit he had always been.
I would have let everyione have the things they bought from the auction. Even though some of the things may have been things I loved, my adventure would have changed me so much that I may as well redecorate! Of course, there would still be some hobbity comforts but there would be some touches of the adventures I had taken part in--Elvish draperies and throw rugs, Dwarven carved lamps and knick knacks, and of course, Sting and the mithril shirt in a special place in the bedroom (not for all eyes to see, of course, unless they asked).
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