The Peoples of Middle-earth (18 page)

The Gaffer's name on the other hand was Ranadab, meaning

'settled, living in a fixed abode or group of hobbit-holes', and hence often 'stay-at-home', the opposite of 'wanderer'.

Since this closely corresponds with ancient English bamfaest, I have translated it as Hamfast. The shortenings [Sam and Ham] at any rate rhyme, as did Ban and Ran in the Shire.

Moreover neither Banzira nor Ranadab were any longer current in the Shire as ordinary words and survived only as names, originally given no doubt as (not entirely complimen-tary) nicknames, but used traditionally in certain families without much more recognition than is the case today with, say, Roy or Francis.

8. For Laban-nec 'Bag End' in A the second text B has Laban-neg.

The 'hobbit' word became kubug, and the Rohan form kugbagul, changed on the typescript to cuduc and kudduka. The true name of Gorhendad Oldbuck became Ogmandab, and that of Meriadoc Kalimanac, altered to Kalimanoc (Kalimac in RK); that of Hamfast Gamgee became Ranagad (Ranugad in RK), and of Sam Banzira. The Westron word for 'hobbit' became banakil, as in RK; but Branduhim 'foaming beer' as the Hobbits' perversion of Baranduin remained (see note 10), as did Carbandur for Imladris (with Karningul, as in RK, pencilled against it).

9. It is clear that there was no intermediate text.

10. The introduction of the Hobbits' original name for the river, Branda-nin 'border-water' or 'Marchbourn', transformed into Bralda-him 'heady ale', was only made in this last typescript.

III.

THE FAMILY TREES.

This chapter is an account of the evolution of the genealogical tables given in Appendix C to The Lord of the Rings; and since such a development can obviously be followed far more easily and rapidly by successive stages of the tables themselves than by any account in words, I present it here largely by redrawings of the original family trees. My father followed his usual course of emending each one (most of them being carefully, even beautifully, made) more or less roughly in preparation for its successor; I have therefore in my redrawings excluded subsequent alterations, when the distinction can be clearly made.

Baggins of Hobbiton.

The first four genealogical tables of the Baggins family, to which I give the references BA 1 to BA 4, are found on pp. 89-92.

BA 1 (p. 89).

This is the earliest tree of the family of Baggins of Hobbiton (by which I mean the earliest fully formed and carefully presented table, excluding such hasty genealogies as that referred to in VI.222). It was very carefully made, but was much used and corrected later, and is now a very battered document. The number of members of the Baggins family shown is still far fewer than in the published table; and the presence of Folco Took (with Faramond pencilled beside it) suggests that it belongs to the period that I have called 'the Third Phase' in the writing of the earlier chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, before the emergence of Peregrin Took (see VII.31-2). It may be related therefore to the original text of the Prologue (see p. 3 and note 1), and to the original tree of the Took family given in VI.317. As in that table, the ages of those present at the Farewell Party are given, but not extended as a system of relative dating for all members of the family including those long dead; and dates are also given according to the Shire Reckoning (which appeared quite early, in the autumn of 1939, see VII.9).

It will be seen that virtually all the dates in BA 1 differ from those for the corresponding persons in the published form, though seldom by much.

A good deal of this genealogy was present already in the first stages of the writing of The Lord of the Rings, but I will not return here to the early history of the Baggins family tree, since it has been fully recounted in The Return of the Shadow and all the names indexed. It may be noted, howerer, that the maiden name of Miranda Burrows, who was described (VI.283) as the 'overshadowed wife' of Cosimo Sackville-Baggins, was never given in the narrative texts before she disappeared (VI.324); and that Flambard Took, son of the Old Took, and his wife Rosa Baggins had appeared in the original Took family tree given in VI.317.

BA 2 (p. 90).

This table was a rough working version, taking up changes marked on BA 1, and with further alterations and additions entering in the course of its making. It was immediately followed by an even hastier version without dates, hardly differing from BA 2, but introducing one or two further changes that appear in BA 3 (and changing Miranda Burrows to Miranda Noakes and then to Miranda Sandyman). I have given no number to this text, regarding it simply as an extension of BA 2.

As my father first made this table Bingo Baggins was moved down to become the youngest of the three sons of Mungo, but remained the husband of Maxima Proudfoot. While it was in progress, however, a daughter Linda Baggins was introduced above him, and she took over the Proudfoot connection, becoming the wife of Marco Proudfoot and the mother of Odo Proudfoot; while Bingo, now the youngest of a family of five, as he remained, became the husband of Fatima Chubb.

Olo Proudfoot was first named Rollo; and Rosa Baggins' husband Flambard Took becomes Hildigrim Took (the final name: see the Took genealogy T 3 on p. 110). The names Ponto, Largo, Longo, Fosco, Dora, replacing Longo, Tango, Largo, Togo, Semolina respectively, remained into the final form of the genealogy. It may also be noted that Drogo's birth-date was changed to make him a year younger than his sister Dora, though his place in the tree was not altered; it will be seen that in BA 3 he is again made older than her by a year.

BA 3 (p. 91).

The third Baggins family tree is one of a series of carefully made tables, and being the first carries an explanatory head-note, as follows: The dates in these Trees are given according to the 'Shire-reckoning', in the traditional Hobbit manner, calculated from the crossing of the Baranduin (Brandywine River), Year 1, by the brothers Marco and Cavallo. The persons mentioned in these tables are only a selection from many names. All are either concerned with the events recounted in the memoirs of Bilbo and Frodo; or are mentioned in them; or are persons present at the Farewell Party, or the direct ancestors of the guests on that occasion. The names of these guests (such of the 144 as room has been found for) are marked *.

Bilbo Baggins, born 1290, went on his famous journey 1341-2.

At the age of 111 he gave his Farewell Party in 1401. Frodo Baggins sold Bag End in 1418 and returned at the end of 1419. He left the Shire in 1421. Meriadoc Brandybuck succeeded to Brandy Hall and the headship of the family in 1432. Peregrin became The Took (and Seventeenth Shirking) in 1434. The memoirs (and additions by Samwise Gamgee) close in 1436.

The mention here of Peregrin becoming the seventeenth Shirking relates this table at once to the texts of the Prologue (see pp. 5-7, 11) composed after the narrative of The Lord of the Rings had been completed, and suggests that the family trees followed something of the same succession as is found in the Prologue texts. - I have not included in my redrawing the stars indicating presence at the Farewell Party, for my father only put them in later and incompletely.

On the family name Gaukroger (subsequently lost), appearing in Togo Baggins' wife Selina Gaukroger, see VI.236 and note 10; and on Belisarius Bolger see note 3.

BA 4 (p. 92).

The fourth tree is the first text of another set of genealogies, and seems to belong to much the same time as BA 3. This also is finely written, with an introductory note that is virtually the same as that in the published form (RK p. 379), apart from the preservation of the names Marco and Cavallo, but then continues with the second paragraph (giving dates) of that to BA 3, and includes the reference to Peregrin's becoming the 'Seventeenth Shirking'.

This version retains the dates of BA 3 (not repeated in the redrawing), and differs from it chiefly in the addition of descendants from Bingo and Ponto Baggins; also by the loss of Togo Baggins and his wife Selina Gaukroger and their replacement by a second daughter of Inigo and Belinda, Laura, and her husband Togo Gaukroger.

The new names Polo, Porro are referred to in both texts of the original version of the Appendix on Languages (see p. 46, $43), showing that that work followed or accompanied this stage in the development of the family trees.

The starred names, indicating presence at the Farewell Party, are as in the published table, with the omission of Cosimo Sackville-Baggins and Dora Baggins: this was perhaps inadvertent, but neither name is starred in BA 3.

Sweeping changes to the existing names were entered subsequently on BA 4. In the introductory note Marco and Cavallo were changed to Marcho and Blanco (see pp. 6, 17), and 'Seventeenth Shirking' to

'Twentieth Thane' (see under BA 3). In the family tree the following changes were made, listed by generations:

Inigo Baggins > Balbo Baggins

Belinda Boffin > Berylla Boffin

Regina Grubb > Laura Grubb

Ansegar Bolger > Fastolph Bolger

Maxima Bunce > Mimosa Bunce

Cornelia Hornblower > Tanta Hornblower

Laura Baggins > Lily Baggins

Togo Gaukroger > Togo Goodbody

Bertha Baggins > Belba Baggins

Rudigor Bolger > Rudigar Bolger

Magnus Proudfoot > Bodo Proudfoot

Fatima Chubb > Chica Chubb

Robinia Bolger > Ruby Bolger

Conrad Bolger > Wilibald Bolger

Cosimo Sackville-Baggins > Lotho Sackville-Baggins Gerda Chubb-Baggins > Poppy Chubb-Baggins

Arnor Bolger > Filibert Bolger

Porro Baggins > Porto Baggins

Crassus Burrows > Milo Burrows

Duenna Baggins > Daisy Baggins

Guido Boffin > Griffo Boffin

Flavus, Crispus, Rhoda, Fulvus Burrows > Mosco, Moro, Myrtle, Minto Burrows

In addition, the wife of Posco Baggins was introduced, named (as in the final form) Gilly Brownlock; and Ponto Baggins' daughter Angelica appeared.

On the removal of the Latin names of Peony Baggins' husband and their offspring see p. 47, $45, and commentary (p. 69).

The nomenclature and structure of the Baggins genealogy as published was now present, except in this respect. In the final form Frodo's aunt Dora again becomes older than her brother Drogo (see under BA 2 above), and her husband Wilibald Bolger (see the list just given) is removed; while Posco Baggins has a sister Prisca, born in 1306, and she gains Wilibald as her husband.

In subsequent manuscripts (of which there were five, making nine all told, not including incomplete drafts) these changes entered, and in one of them the word 'spinster' was written against Dora Baggins.

Bolger of Bsdgeford.

It is a curious fact that the genealogical tables of the families of Bolger of Budgeford and Boffin of the Yale were already in print when they were rejected from Appendix C, but I have not been able to find any evidence bearing on the reason for their rejection. In a letter from the publishers of 20 May 1955 my father was told: 'We have dropped Bolger and Boffin from Appendix C', and on 24 May Rayner Unwin wrote: 'I have deleted the two family trees and the redundant note that introduced them' (no copy of either tree has any note specifically relating to them). These remarks might suggest that it was my father who proposed their omission, though no trace can now be found of any such request; but it is hard to see why he should have done so.

That he was pressed for space, and greatly oppressed by that necessity, is certain, but it seems strange (if this is the explanation) that he should have been so limited as to abandon these genealogies in order to obtain a couple of pages elsewhere in the Appendices.

I refer to the versions of the Bolger genealogy by the letters BG, and the three that I have redrawn, BG 1, BG 2,and BG 4, will be found on pp. 95 - 7.

BG 1 (p. 95).

This earliest form of the Bolger family tree is entitled Bolgers of Woodhall. On my father's original map of the Shire, reproduced as frontispiece to The Return of the Shadow, the Bolger territory is marked as lying north of the Woody End and south of the East Road (i.e. west of the Brandywine Bridge).

The very brief table is found, together with genealogies of the Tooks and Brandybucks, on the page that carries the original Baggins family tree BA 1, and was very plainly made at the same time, at an early stage in the writing of The Lord of the Rings (see pp. 85, 89); but these early Bolgers, Scudamor, Cedivar, Savanna, Sagramor, are not found in those texts. Robinia Bolger in the fourth generation appears also in BA 1 as the wife of Togo Baggins; but her brother Robur is seen to have existed independently before he was introduced into the Baggins family in BA 2 (p. 90) as the husband of Bertha Baggins, Bilbo's aunt, who first emerged in that version. Rollo Bolger is that friend of Bilbo's to whom he bequeathed his feather-bed (VI.247). Olo and Odo appear in the Took genealogy given in VI.317; for my attempt to expound briefly the history of 'Odo Bolger' see VII.31-2.

BG 2 (p. 96).

The second version of the Bolger genealogy (1) is one of the group of which the Baggins table BA 3 (p. 91) is the first, carrying the explanatory head-note. The title is now changed to Bolgers of Budgeford. In the chapter A Conspiracy Unmasked (FR p. 118) Fredegar's family is said to come 'from Budgeford in Bridgefields' (the only occurrence of these names in the narrative of The Lord of the Rings).(2) Apart from Odovacar, Rudigor (later Rudigar), and Fredegar (applied to a different person), none of the actual names of members of the Bolger family in this genealogy appear in the family-trees in RK, but some recur in other tables made at the same time: thus in the Baggins table BA 3 are found Ansegar (husband of Pansy Baggins), Robinia (wife of Fosco Baggins), Conrad (husband of Dora Baggins), and Belisarius (replacing Hamilcar).(3)