'Lord of the Rings' Fans Reveal Theories About Bilbo Baggins
Vote up the most interesting fan theories about Bilbo Baggins.
There would be no Lord of the Rings without Bilbo and his adventures in The Hobbit. These fans had Baggins on the mind when they thought up or found these theories about Frodo's uncle.
- 161 VOTES
The Ring Didn't Affect Bilbo As Much Because He Had No Thirst For Power
From Redditor u/ClickerMonkey:
Hobbits don't have a thirst for power like man does. That would make Bilbo less attached to the Ring.
- 263 VOTES
Bilbo Was A Land Baron
From Redditor u/Decoder68W:
A Gentleman Farmer. He presumably owns the hill and surrounding lands, including acres of farmland, which he rents out to farmers and folk like the Gamgees. His own personal plot is Bag End and the garden, but he is a landlord to multiple other families besides the Gamgees. He wouldn't have much costs, since he inherited the properties and there aren't any property taxes. The people who actually farm on his land pay him rent, usually at the end of the season.
The Sackville-Bagginses wanted all of it, but the home of Bag End itself is the crown jewel. Implied to be the nicest home around.
- 382 VOTES
'The Hobbit' Is Lighter Than 'Lord of the Rings' Because Bilbo Wrote It
From Redditor u/felix_florentine:
The tone of the Lord of the Rings trilogy evidently more gritty than that of The Hobbit. The Hobbit is a lot more action-oriented, and the CGI used gives those movies a more fantastical styling. This kind of bothered me, I really liked that dark feeling the first set of movies had.
So I rationalized that the different tones must be because of the writer of the story. Bilbo is more whimsical and tends to exaggerate, so his movie follows that personality. On the other hand, Frodo was met with more injury and damage, so his part of the tale reflects that.
- 457 VOTES
Gandalf Was Unconvinced That Bilbo Had One Of The Great Rings
From Redditor u/SeaFortress:
Gandalf originally suspected Bilbo's ring of being one of the Great Rings, but, after the last meeting of the White Council, the evidence and info Saruman gave them made Gandalf think there was no way that it could be one of the Great ones, and so he assumed it must be a lesser one. Hence his doubt sleeping uneasily.
Read the full theory here.
- 567 VOTES
'The Hobbit' Movie Is Telling A Version That Peter Jackson's Bilbo Wrote And Not Tolkien's Bilbo
From Redditor u/Emb3rSil:
After watching the film with a couple friends, the inaccuracies and embellishments to the original story stuck out to me. My theory is that the movie The Hobbit is not in fact a movie version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, but rather a movie version of Peter Jackson's Bilbo Baggins' There And Back Again, which would be, naturally, quite embellished by Bilbo- even if it was drawing from grains of truth.
Minor thing, but Gandalf's line in the beginning about 'good stories always being embellished' or something to that effect got me thinking.
- 663 VOTES
Bilbo Is An Unreliable Narrator
From Redditor u/TwoLastNamesGuy:
The movie version of The Hobbit is framed as Bilbo telling his story to Frodo. This is not the case in the book- the book is the story from an objective point of view, and while Bilbo does write his memoirs, it's not necessarily that book.
With that said, there's a scene in the first movie where Gandalf mentions that all good stories need a little embellishment.
My theory is that Bilbo takes this to heart, and while the book is the objective narrative, the film is Bilbo embellishing the story to Frodo. That's where we get Azog's expanded role, Tauriel, Legolas, etc. None of that happened- Bilbo is making it more of a legend than a story.
(In any case, this is the only way I can accept the way the movies butchered one of my favorite stories.)
