Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo!

September 22nd is the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo!

The Hobbit I used to ignore even more than I ignored the four in The Lord of the Rings (shame on my irreverent youth!), now my favorite Hobbit. Three cheers for Bilbo, the bravest little Hobbit of them all!

"Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!"

 

 

"I come from under the hill,

And under the hills and over the hills my paths led.

And through the air: I am he that walks unseen.

I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly.

I was chosen for the lucky number.

I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water.

I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me.

I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles.

I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer;

and I am Barrel-rider."

 

 

 

"Farewell, King under the Mountain!" he said. "This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils - that has been more than any Baggins deserved."

 

 

 

"If ever you are passing my way," said Bilbo, "don't wait to knock! Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time!"

 

 

 

"Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

 

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the Moon.

 

Roads go ever ever on,

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

 

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known."

 

 

 

"The Road goes ever on and on,

Down from the door where it began,

And far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it meets some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say."

 

Thank you, Bilbo. And thank you, Professor Tolkien. You have changed my world for the better, and I would not have it any other way.

 

Aaaaaand here is where this post devolves into the many different gifs I have of Bilbo - and of Frodo, because we haven't forgotten him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate,

And though I oft have passed them by

A day shall come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run,

West of the Moon, East of the Sun."

 



 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse