Abby Epplett, Historian

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.

This post will be divided into three sections to explain how I used a combination of textual evidence, evolutionary theory, and historical fashion to illustrate the three breeds of Hobbits that will serve as my basis for designing future characters. In the first segment, I will discuss the evolutionary theories of the Hybrid-and-Replacement Model, Assimilation Model, and Convergent Evolution, relating these real-world theories about human history to descriptions presented in the first section of the Prologue, “1 Concerning Hobbits”, that appears in The Lord of the Rings: Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring . In the second segment, I review the physical descriptions of Hobbits overtly presented in the text along with making inferences based on this text and The Hobbit . Finally, I will describe the real-world 16 th and 17 th century cultures that inspired the outfits for these characters, including the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and the Sámi. The Lord of the Rings ...