Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical

I last compared Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday to famous parties in the summary of Book I, Chapter 1 “A Long-Expected Party”, where I referenced biblical celebrations, parties gone wrong in France, PR stunts in Ancient China, and exclusive musical scores in Great Britain. This installment focuses on what the hobbits might have eaten at that party. While discussing “Prologue, 3 On the Ordering of the Shire”, I determined that hobbits appeared to live in two timelines with their political system and architecture reflecting the early 17^th century or post-medieval period while their technology, interior design, and fashion reflected the early 19^th century or Industrial Revolution. Their foods likewise are split into different time periods, with some staples being invented during ancient times in the Real World, others appearing in Europe due to the trade of the late medieval period, and still others dating from the Victorian era or mid- to late 19^th century. As the self-proclaimed “person with a resource for everything”, I will use the heavily researched “Food Timeline” based on the research of food historian Lynne Olver whose work is now stored at the Virginia Tech University Libraries.

Ancient Foods

Many of the foods enjoyed by the Men of the Real World and Hobbits of the Shire are ancient in origin. This included mushrooms, eggs, poultry, fish, mutton, pickles, alcohol, and dairy. Prehistoric people scavenged for mushrooms in the field and forests, along with eggs from wild birds. Mushrooms were treated with varying regard by classical Greeks and Romans. In Greece, mushrooms or mykes were only eaten when no other food was available, while Romans loved their mushrooms or boletus. Unfortunately, they knew nothing of how to prevent poisoning and believed eating a pear would prevent negative affects. A 6^th century book about food from Gaul, now France, noted mussirio as a food. The word became mousseron in modern French and arrived in English as mushroom by the mid-15^th century. As for eating eggs, the domestication of egg-laying birds dated to the 33^rd century BC in India, arrived in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa by the 15^th century BC, and came to Europe before the Roman conquest during the 1^st century AD.

An illustration of a roasted chicken on a plate

An illustration of brown mushrooms in a basket

Hobbits loved pickles, a must-have for any respectable party; while I have been to plenty of parties without pickles, none of them were any good. However, what the word “pickles” meant is not as clear as it first seems. The word “pickle” arrived in English from a Germanic language around the 15^th century as a sauce for meat and only became a preserved cucumber in the early 18^th century. Pickling and fermenting dated to the 11^th century BC in India, as early as the 8^th century BC in China, and at least the 5^th century BC in the Middle East. While modern Western people think of cucumbers as the ultimate pickle, traditional Chinese food preservation called for pickling meats, including eggs, deer, rabbit, goat, and fish. With the hobbits’ love of food and pickling but lack of modern refrigeration, they may have preserved their meat in a similar way.

Drinks flowed at Bag End, whether Bilbo served beer, ale, and porter to the dwarves (The Hobbit, 8 10) or Frodo hosted lavish parties for his twenty closest friends (The Fellowship of the Ring, 43). Bilbo’s father Bungo may have started the tradition when he set down the wine that Bilbo later gifted to Rory Brandybuck (Fellowship, 40), as the Brandybuck clan was known for imbibing (The Return of the King, 465) The origins of alcohol in the Real World are confusing. Many ancient religions include one if not several gods and goddesses of alcohol in their pantheon, such as Ninkasi of Sumer and Babylon and Dionysus or Bacchus in Greco-Roman mythology. In Judeo-Christian tradition, Noah invented wine after surviving the flood, last mentioned in “Perspectives on the Sea”, and unfortunately became drunk from his invention (Genesis 9:20-27). For the timeline created by historians through archeological evidence, ale brewing began around the 80^th century BC or up to 10,000 years ago, while wine making began in Mesopotamia around the mid-50^th century BC, or about 6500 years ago. Ancient Greeks and Romans found the beer consumption of Germanic and Celtic people to be barbaric, so I imagine Elves and Dúnedain were not keen on the beer guzzled by Hobbits and by Men of Breeland.

Illustration of a pewter wine cup and a pewter beer stein

Illustration of two jars, one with pickle chips and one with pickle wedges

An illustration of a jar of pickled rhubarb

Dairy products are similarly ancient, although the concept of adult humans ingesting a food made for baby animals must have taken some mental gymnastics. Milk and curds were favorite foods in Mesopotamia, evidenced by biblical Abraham preparing them along with roasted calf for a trio of visitors (Genesis 18:8), while Israel was described as “a land flowing with milk and honey” throughout the Old Testament and ancient Egyptians worshiped the goddess Hathor or Hesat who appeared as a woman with a cow head or a white cow.

For northwestern Europeans, dairy has been a stable food for thousands of years. Dairy cows flourished in the British Isles for the first time from the mid-3^rd century BC, but sheep milk was originally more popular, while donkey milk was given to sick people and children. Milk was added to tea and chocolate beginning around the 18^th century, soon followed by its addition to coffee. Seemingly modern almond milk was invented in the medieval period, perhaps around the 15^th century, as drinking animal milk was not permitted during Lent.

The people of Middle-earth doubtlessly had milk. I have previously mentioned the inclusion of dairy in one’s diet as an indicator of increased height with Germanic people outgrowing most other ethnic groups due to their dairy obsession. I designed the Men of Dale and Rohirrim as having these characteristics, contrasting the height of the even taller Dúnedain, which they received due to their Maiar and Elvish ancestry. Hobbits did not reap the height benefits of dairy, as they were apt to grow wider instead of taller, but they indulged in cream for their tea, cheese as a side dish, and perhaps ice cream for dessert.

In the Real World, the earliest ice cream is widely attributed to China from 3000 BC with its modern counterpart arriving in England by 1688 via Italian merchants. By the mid-18^th century, ice houses allowed ice cut from ponds to be stored throughout the year and the summertime ice cream industry was born. (I have visited plenty of American ice houses during my travels, including a large ice house at Historic New England’s Codman Estate, Rothwell Ice House at Cotuit Historical Society, and a family ice house at Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth, MA. Transposing this history to Middle-earth, Dúnedain merchants might have traded with Easterlings to learn their ice cream recipes, then developed ice storage techniques through working with Men of Lossoth or Snowmen, before sharing this knowledge with colonial subjects like gastronomically adventurous hobbits.

While the book has no evidence of Hobbits eating insects during the late Third Age, these were and still are considered a viable source of protein for people throughout history. Insect consumption may have been practiced by hobbit ancestors or among the ‘rustic’ hobbits, especially since they seemed to devour anything they could get their long clever brown fingers on. Insect consumption was historically popular in Mesopotamia, although not all were considered good to eat. Leviticus 11:20-23 cited “locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper” as permitted, but all other species were “unclean”.

The concept of insect consumption has appeared regularly in the medieval period and throughout the Victorian era, as recorded by British researcher Peter Lund Simmonds in his book The Curiosities of Food published in 1859. He asked readers to “lay aside [their] English prejudices” when considering edible bugs in the East and West Indies, India, Australia, South America, Western Africa, Arabia, and Turkey; Simmonds was remarkably ahead of his time, at least when it came to food. Perhaps the most interesting reference in Curiosities was to the poem collection Hesperides, published by English poet Robert Herrick in 1648. The poem “Oberon’s Feast” described a party held by the king of “fairy elves”, who also appeared in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His favorite dishes included “A bloated earwig and a fly… A little moth / Late fatten’d in a piece of cloth”. While hobbits may not have munched on insects, elves might have.

Domestication: Chickens & Apples

Two food items of note from the Middle Ages were chickens and apples since what modern people consider chickens and apples are different than the medieval counterparts. Breeds of chickens have changed significantly in the past few hundred years, and the chickens for sale at the average American grocery store are “production breeds”. I found a helpful article about “heritage breed” chickens written by a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. (You may remember this organization from its last citation in “Characters: Shire Hobbits of the Fourth Age”.) Popular European medieval breeds included black rose-comb bantam and old English game bantam with striking orange feathers, while Asian chickens included silkies with white or black feathers.

Another blogger, Katherine Ashe of English Historical Fiction Authors, believed that chickens had been domesticated for at least 5000 years, which correlated to the date of 3200 BC given on the Food Timeline. Both sources pointed to the Red Jungle Fowl of southeast Asia as the original chicken, meaning ancient birds were traded west to Egypt, Greece, and Rome. These birds were thinner than their modern counterparts and could only lay one egg every two or three days. As a result, eggs were more of a treat, although with the current ridiculous egg prices, we seem to have backslid to the Middle Ages.

Like chickens, apples have been extensively cultivated. I first learned in “Episode 6 – Apple of Your Eye” of The Folklore Podcast that the word “apple” originally meant any type of fruit but has become more specific over time. The word is Proto-Germanic and is hypothesized to come from a Proto-Indo-European word abel or abl. Early Bible translators used apple for the “fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden” from Genesis 3:1-6, confusing modern people. My favorite use of apple was “appel of paradis” from Middle English, the name given to bananas.

Illustration of a clay bowl filled with red apples.

Illustration of a slice of holely cheese

As for the origin of apples, the earliest physical evidence of people eating them came from the archaeological site Çatalhöyük in modern Türkiye, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site where people lived 7400 BC to 6200 BC. Recent genetic studies point to an origin in the Tian Shan Mountains of Central Asia, now part of China, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. Some variations of apples were domesticated in Iran and may have been traded along the Silk Road. Wild crabapples were already native to Europe and may have been cultivated before the larger eastern apple arrived with the advancing borders of the Roman Empire.

Across the water in North America, apple orchards were planted in abundance during the colonial and federalist eras to make hard cider; the small amount of alcohol kept the drink safe at a time where water was unsafe to drink. The first European person born in New England, who had the hobbitish name Peregrine White, grew up to be an apple orchard owner. Further north, Historic New England’s Marrett House in Maine was once amid an apple orchard of this type, its heritage fruit popularized by Loammi Baldwin whose second cousin John Chapman or “Johnny Appleseed” was better known for his apple promotion.

How Victorians Ate

A number of scientific advances and the introduction of foods to Europe changed the diet of the Victorian era. The creation of ice houses and ice boxes allowed food to be stored fresh for longer periods of time, enabling them to be eaten just outside of the regular season, while improvements to transportation along with globalization allowed foods to be shipped from anywhere within a few weeks. Citrus arrived in Europe from around the world beginning in the 15^th century AD but had been grown in Southeast Asia since the 5^th century BC. Other citrus varieties came from the Americas after Spanish colonization and interbreeding them created the astonishing range of fruits available at the modern grocery store.

Merchants from the Americas brought tomatoes and potatoes. According to archeological digs, ancient people cultivated potatoes in the Andes Mountains of South America from the 6^th century BC. By the time Spanish colonizers arrived in the region around 1570, the plant had received the Quechua name papa, deceivingly similar to the Spanish word papá meaning “dad”. British privateer Sir Francis Drake, who was widely hated in Central and South America for his aggression against Spanish colonists, legendarily picked up potatoes on his trip around the globe to bring back to Great Britain, although the arrival of potatoes in the country predated the trip by a few years. This cheap food source enabled the move from an agrarian society to an industrial society, ushering in the First Industrial Revolution by the mid- to late 18^th century. In Middle-earth, a similar phenomenon occurred for the hobbits of the Shire, evidently the only culture to grow potatoes and also the only free people to enter an industrial revolution.

Illustration of potato salad in a clay bowl

Illustration of mashed potatoes in a clay bowl

Illustration of large red tomatoes in a clay bowl

As for Sam’s favorite potato dishes, the potato salad has been referenced as far back as 1597, at least according to professional chef Arnold Shircliffe in The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book from 1928. While he mentioned a John Gerrard or Gerard as the author, he did not cite the specific resource, although it appears to be the first edition of The herball, or Generall historie of plantes, clearly written in a time where spelling was an art rather than a science. The mayonnaise dressing of my potato salads is apparently an American invention, while vinegar is preferred in Europe. Mashed potatoes date from at least 1747.

Fish and chips were a working class staple from at least 1860. The fried fish arrived in England as peshkado frito in the 15^th century as refugee Sephardic Jews from Portugal evacuated after the latest Spanish Catholic invasion. Interestingly, this real-world event aligned to the coding of Harfoots in the “translation” of The Lord of the Rings, as many ‘rustic’ hobbits received “Hebraic” nicknames, while some members of the Baggins clan were implied to make their wealth as moneylenders, a stereotypically Jewish occupation during the medieval period, and the name Bilbo was Spanish in origin. Back in the Real World, the first commercial fish and chips dish is credited to either Joseph Malin of London or John Lees of Mossley, now Manchester, apparently a heated debate.

Tomatoes are distant genetic cousins to potatoes, but for many years were not as popular. They were ornamental rather than a food source when they came to Europe by 1544. Like many fruits, tomatoes originally received an apple-based name, called pomodoro [apple of gold] in Italian, although the English word is based on the Nahuatl tomatl. Nearly every historic house in the United States has a pewter plate with lead coating for demonstration where they will relay the mostly true tale that colonial Americans believed tomatoes to be poisonous, since the acid of the tomato would absorb the lead of the plate and sicken the eater. They will likely follow up with American political figure Thomas Jefferson popularizing tomatoes as a healthy food, since he instructed enslaved people to plant these at his plantation Monticello from at least 1781.

An illustration of fish and chips wrapped in old paper with a side of mushy peas and tartar sauce in a small clay bowl

Illustration of a stalk of rhubarb, which has a pink stem and green leaves.

For the final food item, I wanted to mention rhubarb, a tasty plant first cultivated in China, possibly as early as the 28^th century BC, but made famous in Yorkshire, England. In its “Rhubarb Triangle”, farmers have employed a technique known as “forcing” to encourage the plants to grow faster and sweeter. Local tradition dates the first “forcing” from 1817, but this took place in Chelsea Physic Garden of London rather than in Yorkshire. Rhubarb must be grown in total darkness to become sweeter, pinker, and more tender than its well-lit counterparts. The plant was trendiest during the late 19^th century but does not have the same appeal today except among traditional bakers and “foodies”. Since hobbits took pride in their hedonistic inventions, whether this was golf or smoking, forced rhubarb seemed in line with their way of thinking.

As for the hobbit meal times, which number either six or seven depending on whether they ate a second breakfast, these aligned to the eating habits of the wealthiest Victorians. An informative article from NPR naturally cited The Lord of the Rings as the most common source of knowledge for non-British people interested in British food culture, along with explaining the difference between elevenses (tea at 11 o’clock), afternoon tea (around 3 o’clock) and high tea (around 5 o’clock and eaten by working class people as a replacement for dinner). Additionally, hobbits indulged in a luncheon (around 1 o’clock) plus supper (around 7 o’clock).

Conclusion

With Bilbo’s need to display his (reputedly) unending wealth and gain further admiration from even the poorest and least important hobbits, the feast at “The Long-Expected Party” would have contained every food that hobbits liked, both locally sourced and from abroad. Plentiful baskets of mushrooms may have been purchased from local grower Farmer Maggot, while the Cotton family and other local farmers may have sold their extra eggs for the party. Foreign fruits like oranges and “apples” could be imported, just like the fireworks from Dale. The hobbits must have maintained abattoirs or butchering facilities to produce chicken, mutton, and ham for the feast, while wild fish could be netted in the nearby Water, the river flowing into the Brandywine. The Baggins clan owned orchards and vineyards, providing fresh fruit for the feast along with cider and wine. Other vegetables from their extensive gardens might have been served fresh or pickled to last throughout the year. Of course, the hobbits’ love of potatoes must not be forgotten, and Gaffer Gamgee was known for his expertise in the “matter of roots”. For dessert, a dish of ice cream and a slice of rhubarb or apple pie with a side of sharp cheese would have “filled in the corners” for the always hungry hobbits.

Read past installments of Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical