LoTR discussion: Appendix C

[Earniel]

This is only for the sake of completeness, since we earlier cut the Appendix C out of our discussion. And I might as wel put my 9000th post to good use.

I am not an expert in unraveling family relations, so let's just point out some of the things I noticed or found striking.


General impression

In appendix C we get four family trees, corresponding with the families of the four Hobbits from the Fellowship. They are said to be only a selection out of many, which I took either meaning that there are more family trees in the Red Book, or that there have been people omitted from the trees for reason of space. I haven't quite figured out which one, but both make sense.

My first reaction to it was that Hobbits did indeed hold great interest into maintaining family records. Each family tree goes back at least a few hundred years. Considering I draw a blank on even knowing the names and relations of my ancestors past my great-grandparents, that is quite a feat.

A second thing that catches attention is their ages. Ages from between 90 or even a 100 years are very common, if not prevalent.

If we look at the underlined names, which indicates whether the Hobbits were present at Bilbo's farewell party, we can see about half came from these four families. Which leaves about another 70 invited Hobbits with which Bilbo had no direct family-tie.


Baggins from Hobbiton

We're left a little bit guessing why the Baggins family had such influence or high reputation. With the Brandybucks and the Tooks, this is more clear as these families also control their own territory in the Shire. The Baggins-family does not appears to do so as well. The title above the family-tree says 'Baggins from Hobbiton', which seems to indicate most of them lived in that area, but there is no hint as to whether they owned large parts of it either.

When I compared the names of the family-trees I found each had a distinct sort of name. All the males in the Baggins-family have names ending on -o, which gives some hilarious results: Bingo, Polo, Porto and my personal favourite: Dudo. I was kind of expecting a Dodo too. Aside from Dora and Prisca, all female names are plant-related.

I was also struck by the fact that, when you look at the relation between Frodo and Bilbo in the Baggins family tree, they are not as closely related as one would have thought originally. You have to go back to Bilbo's grandfather Mungo and Frodo's great-grandfather Largo, who were brothers. In that respect family-ties between Bilbo and Otho Sackville-Baggins is closer. No wonder Otho felt cheated out of his enheritage!

Coming to Otho, there is another peculiarity. Why the Sackville-Baggins combination? They are pretty much the only ones in the four family trees that keep a double last name. Only other one that I found is their cousin Falco Chubb-Baggins.


Took of Great Smials

The names of the Tooks strike a more medieval tone, which I tend to link with Germanic and Romanic names from continental Europe. Unlike most Baggins-names you can find Fredegars, Ferumbrasses or Everards in our own history. There's also more repetition of names. The female names have strong southern theme: Belladonna, Esmeralda, Donnamira, but have less connection to flowers or plants.

Frodo and Bilbo are much closer related from the view of the Took-family. Bilbo's mother Belladonna was the sister of Mirabella, who's Frodo's grandmother and probably the one taking care of young Frodo when his parents died young. Seen from this family-relation, it makes more sense that Bilbo chose Frodo as heir.

Under Hildifons, an uncle of Bilbo there's a little line: 'went off on a journey and never returned'. Would Gandalf have been involved, I wonder. He had been accused of getting young Tooks crazy enough to go adventuring. Would Hildifons have been one of them?

Another uncle of bilbo's, Isengar, has the mention: 'said to have gone to sea in his youth'. A very unhobbitlike travel destination, it would seem. I think here's another most interesting untold tale to be had.

With a family like that, no wonder Bilbo went on adventures of his own!

From this family-tree we can also learn that Fredegar, also known as Fatty Bolger was related in some degree to Frodo, Merry and Pippin. Interesting. It also seems to be Fredegar's sister Estella that Merry ends up marrying. This I had never noticed before.


Brandybuck of Buckland

The Brandybuck-family definitely seemed fond of nicknames such as Deepdelver, Masterful and Scattergold. They are about the only ones that include them in their family-tree.

The names of the Brandybucks also share similarities. Most male names tend to end on '-oc' or '-as' but very few are as retrace-able to our own history as the Took-names. I've only been able to identify Dodinas as Madoc as belonging to celtic mythology. The few female names are once again nearly all plant-related.


Longfather-tree of Samwise Gamgee

Like the Took-family, the Samwise's family also liked repetition of names, or very similar names. There are for example three different Halfreds, two Hamfasts, two Mays etc... But unlike the Tooks the Gardner's ancestors didn't bother with numbers.

The names also are very similar. There are several names starting with 'Hal-' or 'Ham-' and several ending on '-wise'.

Unlike the other families, who seem more tied to territory, Sam's ancestors seemed to move and relocate a lot. At least four different persons are mentioned to have moved from their original home.


Discussion

1. Have you ever looked at the family-trees in detail on previous re-reads? Do you feel they could have easily been left out of the appendices?
2. Are there any other family-trees that you think could have been included? Do you think Tolkien ever made others?
3. Hobbits have long lives compared to other non-Dunedain Men. Do you think this means the Hobbits are descended from from Númenoreans or Dunedain, or is this merely coincedence?
4. Do you have any idea why Otho took the name Sackville-Baggins rather than just Baggins?
5. What do you think became of Hildifons, who went adventuring? And do you think Gandalf had been at the source of his departure?
6. What do you think came of Isengar, who went to sea?
7. Do you agree, or disagree with my analysis of the theme or source of the Hobbit-names?
8. Is there anything significant I missed to mention?

You can wake up now.