Just how big were Hobbit Holes?

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?

The older, the bigger. Do not forget you need a nice big hill to have a big Hobbit hole.

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).

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]

This makes me think of that article on the mob and hobbits.

[Manwe Sulimo]

Ehh... what article? or rather, what did it say?

[Ñólendil]

Michael Martinez's article, a sarcastic agreement with the thieves-hideout-at-Tharbad-and-in-Middle-earth-in-general-enthusiasts.

[Renju48]

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.

[fatclown]

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]

Aren't they described as being long tunnel like passages with rooms off to the side, and all on one level?

[Ñólendil]

There's a nice picture drawn by Tolkien of Bilbo standing in the entrance hall of Bag-End: click here.* 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]

Almost "Elvish"....

[anduin]

Why does Bilbo have socks on?

[Comic Book Guy]

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]

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]

What's the country estate sense?

[Michael Martinez]

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]

I *had* been wondering what Bilbo did for a living......

[webwizard333]

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".

[Ñólendil]

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.