Author: Sam

Story: Leather-bound: 2 of ?

Series: n/a

Setting: Bagshot Row as related in The Red Book of Westmarch.

Song Note: Working Class Hero by Alan Jackson. A very few sentences were changed to fit more closely Middle Earth and Hobbits. Such things as shiny gold watch, house, and the fifties were altered, as was the amount of time worked due to the Hobbit life span.

Feedback: Yes, please? Especially constructive. samwise_baggins@yahoo.co.uk

Webpage: http://www.oocities.org/samwise_baggins/index.html

Hobbits are a small, friendly people of simple pleasures. They enjoy good food, good ale, and good tilled-earth. In fact, you'll rarely find a Hobbit interested in what lies beyond the Shire, for the business of others is not the business of Hobbits. No, Hobbits are content to live and be left alone, though they do love tracing their longfather trees as well as spinning a good yarn about those same ancestors: the more true, the better the story.

What drives a Hobbit? What makes his life complete? What makes a Hobbit brag and strut?

Why do you even ask?

A Hobbit has no need for bragging and strutting. Of course, we little people do enjoy gaffing to one another. And we love riddles and competitions if it involves plenty of food, laughter, and simple pleasure. Yes, I repeat myself. Perhaps it would be best to describe a particularly everyday Hobbit to help one understand us best.

I believe I will choose Hamfast Gamgee, called the Gaffer by his friends and pretty much all of the Shire. Gaffer Gamgee has always loved just exactly what a Hobbit loves. He has always worked for the same reasons, with the same rewards, as a typical representative of his race. Gaffer is what most would call normal. So, I choose him as my example.

Gaffer was gardener of Bag End until his son, Samwise Gamgee, took over his duties. Every day, for year upon year, he'd trudge up Bagshot Row to his master's large home on the hill. He would spend the day clipping, shoveling, painting, fixing, and any number of tasks set him by Bilbo Baggins, the owner of Bag End. Never a day went by that Gaffer couldn't be seen up on the hill working as hard as he could or training his boy to one day take over. And then, he retired.

After years of working all day, going for a pint at the Green Dragon in the evenings, Gaffer was left with stiff, tired joints, an aching back, and too much time on his hands. He would sit on the stoop and chat with passersby if the mood took him. More often, though, he'd be working in his own garden, doing the same jobs he'd done his entire life for somebody else. And everything he did was for the love of it:

Never a rich Hobbit, nor a very prestigious one, Gaffer Gamgee provided as best he could for his growing family. As he'd come of age, he'd moved from his own people in Tighfield to make a new life in Hobbiton. He'd built a life for himself, got a wife, and had six children all told. Without much time or funds, he did as he could for them, working late into the nights if needed, to finally build his small, cozy home and his well-ordered life.

A thankless existence, think you? Perhaps he should have done more with his life, tried harder, moved further? Perhaps he should have gone into that wide world beyond the Shire to try to acquire what he was missing in order to make life more comfortable, less full? Perhaps, he might have even made a name for himself out there?

After all, Gaffer Gamgee was a typical Hobbit. And Hobbits love what they do:

So, what is a Hobbit? A Hobbit is a body who loves life and living just for the simple joy of it. A Hobbit doesn't need riches or fame to be happy. A Hobbit needs family and work for fulfillment, because that's just the way Hobbits are. And for that, every other Hobbit will be proud for each other and will pass on their stories from generation to generation.