Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Bilbo’s Traveling Outfit

When Bilbo left Bag End after his Long-Expected Party, he wore a traveling outfit that he had assembled during his adventure with Thorin and company many years earlier. The base of this outfit was heavily worn hobbit-clothes, which I have designed to look similar to a late 18^th century costume previously described in “Characters: Bilbo & Frodo Baggins”. The outer layer was a cloak and hood, common clothing for dwarf-men who liked to travel. The cloak and hood were “rather too large” for Bilbo, presumably because although he was nearly the same height as dwarves, he had less muscle mass and a narrower build.

In this essay, I will describe how I designed a traveling outfit for Bilbo, which will include a quick discussion on wearing clothes from other cultures, different types of hoods and cloaks in the Real World, swords from Spain, and methods of carrying supplies before the modern backpack. At the end, I will share illustrations of the design along with explaining my reasoning behind scenes to appear in the animatic, such as watching Bilbo’s packing process in his perspective and the appearance of mirrors throughout the text.

Colonization, Appropriation, and Appreciation

Throughout Tolkien’s works, characters from different cultures interact and share wisdom about their world. Some cultures become allies, with best-known examples including the Dwarves of Erebor with the Men of Dale and the Men of Gondor with the Men of Rohan. Other cultures become enemies, such as a tribe of Orcs with any other group of people. Regardless of the relationship between a pair of groups, people exchange cultural information during periods of contact. This new cultural information is incorporated into traditional culture with varying levels of willingness and respect. Tolkien seemed to have understood colonization, appropriation, and appreciation more than many of his 1950s compatriots, but it is unfair to hold him to the standards of cultural awareness developed in the 2010s and 2020s, especially when many members of the general public are unaware of these academic terms. Even so, his text contains excellent examples of these three types of cultural exchanges.

Here is a brief review for readers not as familiar with this terminology. Colonization is when one group of people moves into an area occupied by another group of people and imposes their culture on the group. In the Real World, Great Britain colonized much of the globe between the 16^th and 20^th centuries, which is why English is now the most commonly spoken language. In Middle-earth, indigenous Hobbits used the language and calendar system of Dúnedain who came from the West. Appropriation is when the group of people who colonized an area take aspects from the culture of the group of people who they have colonized. The colonizers use these aspects in a different context than where the aspects originally appeared. In the Real World, this often happens to personal belongings of Native Americans, including the sales of inauthentic dreamcatchers, moccasins, and headdresses. Additionally, Americans with European ancestry have historically attended camps with pseudo-indiginous names or claimed to have Native American ancestry. Instances of cultural appropriation appear throughout Tolkien’s text, and I will highlight these in future essays.

Three dwarves wearing colorful clothing peek into a darkened hallway and look towards the camera.

An example of appreciation for another culture appears in this part of the story: Bilbo wore clothing belonging to Dwarves. This act is categorized as appreciation and not appropriation for two reasons. First, the clothing was given to him by Dwarves as a gift for being their companion. He did not make the clothing himself based on what he saw from a picture, nor did he steal the clothing from a Dwarf, living or dead. Second, Bilbo spent a significant amount of time with Dwarves and was considered a valued member of their community. Bilbo was not perfect; he disparaged aspects of Dwarf culture, claiming they were greedy and complained too much. However, Dwarves likely considered him an ally, a person who would advocate for them while in the Shire or traveling. In this way, Bilbo and his ‘nephew’ Frodo became famous throughout Middle-earth as people who respected other cultures, although Frodo seemed to put in more effort than Bilbo.

Hoods and Cloaks in History

Since Middle-earth is a fantasy continent influenced by places in the Real World, my costume design for the hoods and cloaks worn in Middle-earth likewise took inspiration from several sources, including 11^th century cloak design found on the Bayeux Tapestry and hundreds of years of cloak design from the Ottoman Empire.

A smiling hobbit with tucked back ears wearing a grey-green hood.

The Bayeux Tapestry is an 11^th century embroidered cloth that depicts William, Duke of Normandy, also known as William the Conqueror, taking over England in 1066. The Norman Conquest was a major historical event for the world but especially for linguists, as this introduced French or Romantic words into English, which began as a Germanic language. Medieval clothing experts have analyzed the tapestry to gain a better understanding of what people wore during the conquest. They admit that representation of clothing was likely not perfect, as the clothes are rendered in two dimensions while they existed in three. My animation is also in two dimensions, so these renderings perfectly suit my needs. Cloaks of this period were generally knee-length. The single piece of fabric was clasped either at the neck with a centered brooch or on the right shoulder with an off-center brooch. Cloaks came in a range of colors, including red, gold, and purple. Fancier cloaks decorated with cloak ribbons indicated a high status.

A hobbit stands outside a round green door at night. He wears a cloak and hood.

I last discussed the influence of the Ottoman Empire in my depiction of dwarfish clothing in “Races: Dwarves”, as the empire spread across the Mediterranean region during the European Medieval Period. I found illustrations of Turkish costume from the 16^th century to the 19^th century in A Pictorial History of Costume by Wolfgang Bruhn and Max Tilke, which I reviewed in January 2025, and noted similarities in style throughout the four centuries. Clothing across the empire tended to be loose fitting, although coats and vests were apparently preferred to cloaks. The only cloaks I saw in the illustrations belonged to the sultan’s favorite wife, a military officer of Egyptian-Ottoman troops, and a pair of Turkish women from Constantinople. Evidently, cloaks were perceived as feminine in Ottoman culture, contrasting the masculine perception in Middle-earth cultures.

Sting and Scabbard

Bilbo’s glowing sword Sting was a significant character in The Hobbit and would play a major role in The Lord of the Rings. In “Characters: Bilbo & Frodo Baggins”, I had mentioned the connection between Bilbo’s sword and his name, which bears a strong resemblance to the town of Bilbao, Spain known for its ironworks beginning in the 16^th century. The quality of the iron was so high that mining continued throughout the 19^th century and was used to create infrastructure throughout Great Britain during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. Today, the town is known for its Guggenheim Museum and as a stronghold of Basque nationalism, an ethnic minority from the Iberian peninsula that speaks a language isolate, called Basque or Euskara.

A small sword on the left. A black leather scabbard on the right.

Bilbo originally kept the sword in the leg of his breeches, but this was not a practical long-term solution. By the time of his Long-Expected Party, he had a sheath for it. During the 14^th through 16^th century, Europeans kept swords in “Sheaths, Scabbards and Grip Coverings”, a medieval scholar lecturing at University of Turku in Finland. His knowledge on the topic is extremely extensive and comes from both literature reviews and archaeological research.

Long brown clever hobbit fingers guide a black leather scabbard containing a small sword onto a brown leather belt.

Sheaths were generally made of leather and sewn together with different types of stitches. Decorated sheaths with geometric designs were popular, the most common patterns being lines, chevrons, and lattices. Other swordsmen preferred plant and flower designs or animals. Harjula emphasized the difference between professional sheaths with handles, extra pockets for an additional knife or tool, and fancy decoration versus unprofessional sheaths with poor stitching, little decoration, and inferior leather. While Bilbo’s black leather sheath did not seem to be fancy, he was particular with his appearance and would have wanted professional storage for Sting.

The Overstuffed Pack

With our curved spines, arched feet, strong necks, and multiple other adaptations, anatomically modern humans are designed for traveling long distances by foot unlike our hominid ancestors. Despite these advantages, humans of the developed world spend much of their time in chairs, even while traveling, while people of earlier times walked, whether they were conscripted into the Roman army, pilgrims on a journey to a holy site, or drafted into the World Wars. Today, backpacking is a fun activity for people who enjoy exercise and the outdoors rather than a necessity for travel. Modern innovations in backpacks would not have been possible without the clunkier alternatives carried by people of the past.

A green backpack with a pair of front pockets, a pocket on either side, and a handle on the top.

I first learned about packs from Ancient Romans during my daily research period on Instagram, a genuinely great way to learn new vocabulary from an engaging presenter. The entire kit was known as a sarcina or marching pack, as soldiers had to carry their own gear to speed up troop movement. All equipment was attached to a pole known as a furca fitted with a shelf called a tabella. On top was the loculus or “little place”, a small leather bag which stored miscellaneous items. The largest leather bag type, carried underneath the loculus, is now called a Comacchio bag because surviving bags were discovered in a shipwreck near Comacchio, Italy during 1981. The patera or cooking pot and eating bowl was strapped to the back. Soldiers used a dolabra or Roman pickaxe to dig trenches. Besides archaeological evidence, historians studied the relief sculptures carved onto Trajan’s column in Rome, which has depictions of soldiers.

A pair of hobbit hands press a red leather book and a bundle into the top of a green backpack.

Descriptions of travel bags in the European Medieval Period have been preserved through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as the comic poet discussed the lives of pilgrims traveling in 14^th and 15^th century England. The most interesting article I found on the topic described a group of four undergraduates associated with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who decided to reenact a five-day pilgrimage to better understand the experience. For this trip, reenactors wore period clothing and used a large leather “sausage bag” to carry their belongings, which included a mat, a pillow, a cloak, medieval-style food, a sword, and a cell phone for safety. The students noted that the sausage bags “were not nearly as efficient in distributing weight as a modern backpack”.

In a cozy parlor, Gandalf the wizard wears grey robes and a blue hat. He sits on the little yellow couch and smokes. Bilbo wears his traveling outfit with his backpack at his feet. He stands by the mantlepiece looking anxious.

Tolkien would have been most familiar with backpacks used during the World Wars between his own service in World War I and that of his sons in World War II. Kit bags, as these were called during WWI, weighed about 30 kg (4.5 stone or 66 lb.) and carried everything a soldier needed on and off the battlefield. British soldiers were among the best equipped during the war, and their kit included all of their clothes, hygiene items, food, weapons, identification, and personal items like cigarettes and diaries. Americans carried a different design called the M1910 haversack, which used one strap instead of two. The pack system clipped to suspenders supporting a belt and was less convenient to carry. Instead of improving this specific problem, the United States military issued an M1928 Haversack and a M1941 Haversack during WWII.

A hobbit dressed in a grey-green traveling outfit stands in a darkened hallway with a red brick barrel vault ceiling and walls. He selects a wooden walking stick from a yellow stand

The bag carried by Bilbo looks closer to the green version of the 1941 British Army Bergen Rucksack. This pack had two straps, one for each shoulder, a drawstring to close the top, and a zipper on the front pocket. While Bilbo did not have a zipper, as these were products of the Second Industrial Revolution, the rest of the backpack is fairly similar, creating a playful touch of anachronism.

How I Illustrate and Animate Bilbo’s Traveling Outfit

Part of the fun of Tolkien’s writing, at least if you are a person who enjoys processes, is that he occationally details exactly how something is done. Tolkien apparently enjoyed packing, as he gave details of Bilbo putting on his traveling outfit and packing his bags as the hobbit left Bag End for the final time. Packable items included “a bundle wrapped in old cloths, and a leather-bound manuscript”, while the “large bulky envelope” containing his will and the One Ring would be set on the mantelpiece for Frodo.

A large bulky envelop, a bundle wrapped in old cloths, and a leather-bound manuscript inside a metal safe.

Since this part of the story is driven by Bilbo’s perspective, I wanted viewers to experience Bilbo’s point of view while packing. I had first seen this concept while watching an episode of the children’s animated television show Arthur, where the title character trained to run a local road race. “You Are Arthur”, the second half of the fifth episode in season five, treated young viewers to an awkward elementary school kid bumbling through his day, from eating too many pancakes to getting beaten up by younger neighborhood kids. Similarly, my illustrations in Bilbo’s perspective include plenty of close-ups featuring his hands. Observant viewers may be surprised that Bilbo initially seems to have only three fingers and a thumb. This is actually what hands look like most of the time, since palms are curved and the tiny pinky finger hides behind the other fingers. I had to look at a lot of hands to figure out how to realistically portray them.

The right hand holds the envelope while the left hand lowers the ring on its fine chain into the envelope.

My other scene of significance features the first full view of Bilbo’s traveling outfit. In this short clip, Bilbo stood in front of a dusty mirror to admire himself. This is the first of several mirrors to appear in the text, introducing the concept. A mirror of this size and quality would have been an expensive item in a protoindustrial society, indicating Bilbo’s wealth. Since I have a resource for everything, I must refer to The Mirror: A History by Sabine Melchoir-Bonnet, which cites a story appearing in Mémoires written by Parisian writer Louis de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon in 1699 during the reign of Louis XV. Saint-Simon claimed the Comtesse de Fiesque, Gilonne d’Harcourt, sold a wheat field for a mirror and considered it a fair price. As for physics and fantasy, the mirror reflects as expected with Bilbo appearing outside the mirror exactly as he appears inside the mirror, but this will not be the case for all mirrors in the story.

The hobbit stands with his back to the viewer and grins at his reflection in a rectangular mirror.

With these disparate components in mind, the scene in which Bilbo’s traveling outfit appears lays a foundation for future scenes in the animated musical. The outfit and accompanying backpack set viewers in a specific time related to real-world history. The packing process demonstrates a first person animation technique to mimic the limited third-person narrative used throughout the original text. Bilbo’s moment of self-admiration in a mirror provides an example of a symbolic object that will reappear throughout the work.

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