Bag End - Thorin Oakenshield Lost His Way

Bag End is the home of Bilbo Baggins where Thorin Oakenshield and Company meets Bilbo Baggins to start their journey to Erebor to take back their homeland from Smaug the Dragon.

 

 

[as the dwarves wash and stack the dishes, the door bell rings]
Gandalf: He's here.
[Gandalf opens the door and we see Thorin (Actor Richard Armitage)]
Thorin: Gandalf. I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice.
[Thorin walks in]

Thorin: I wouldn't have found it at  all, had it not been for that mark on the door.



Quote and Screen caps from "The Hobbit There and Back Again"

Bag End was the largest and most luxurious Hobbit home and sits on top of the hill overlooking the Shire with an oak tree growing over its' roof.  I did not understand why Thorin lost his way twice and had to look for the mark on the door.  Gandalf did not communicate with Thorin very well from the beginning. He should have told Thorin to look for the Oak which was visible in all directions. This scene shows the beginning of the contemptuous relationship between the two characters. Gandalf is not being honest of his full intentions and he keeps Thorin at bay and not fully informed. Later in the journey, Gandalf's leaves the party at Mirkwood on their own when they needed his guidance the most. He went back on his word and they were left to face the dragon without him.  Gandalf is to blame for the future events and calamities with the dragon. He is not my favorite character in the book due to his instigation of the journey's purpose, and then leaving the quest, which lead to a chain of events that eventually ended in the deaths of Thorin and his nephews. Gandalf has been missing for a large part of the book and yet when he returns, he has chosen not to return to the dwarves, who he encouraged and aided up to this point, but sides with Bard and the Elven king for the treasure. I could write a paper about the greed from dwarves, man and elves and the theme of betrayal but I'll leave that for another topic.  Thorin Oakenshield did lose his way more then once but redeemed himself in the end by showing enormous courage in The Battle of Five Armies: Thorin gives everything he has to change the tide of the battle. I am looking forward to the third trilogy.



The No Admittance sign except on party business still hangs on the gate in front of Bag End for the Hobbiton tour.  It appears at the beginning of the film when the Older Bilbo is giving a party but it carries a deeper theme for the story of the exclusive party consisting of 13 Dwarf's, Gandalf and Bilbo going on an quest to Eredor:  "Built deep within the mountain itself, the beauty of this fortress city was a legend. Its wealth lay in the earth, in precious gems humed from rock, and in great seams of gold running like rivers through stone."  No one else joins their dangerous party to enter the lonely mountain where the dragon allows  "No Admittance".

Middle-earth Hobbiton Movie Tour in Matamata, New Zealand

 

 

Middle-earth is located on the picturesque Alexander farm, where we visited the Hobbiton Movie Set from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films in a  2 hour guided tour. The tour started with a drive through the picturesque 1,250 acre Alexander sheep farm in the Waikato region with spectacular views across to the Kaimai Ranges. It is a twelve acre site where the 44 hobbit holes were created and transformed into The Shire from Middle-Earth. Peter Jackson spotted Alexander Farm during an aerial search of the North Island, and he thought its rolling meadows and fantastic views made it a perfect spot to build the set of The Shire. The Shire includes the Hobbit holes, Green Dragon Inn, Mill and other structures created for the LOTR and Hobbit films. While Bilbo Baggins is on an adventure far away from his homeland of The Shire, we were there strolling through hobbit holes and had a drink at The Green Dragon.

Bilbo Baggins "Good Morning" Bench

These are photos I took on the The Hobbiton film tour of Bilbo's bench at Bag End where he was approached by Gandalf the Grey looking for someone to go on an adventure.

"Bilbo Baggins: Good morning.

Gandalf the Grey: What do you mean? Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say that you feel good this particular morning? Or are you simply stating that it is a morning to be good on?

Bilbo Baggins: All of them at once, I suppose. [long pause] Can I help you?

Gandalf the Grey: That remains to be seen. I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure.

Bilbo Baggins: An adventure?... Well, I don't imagine anyone west of Bree would have much interest in adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner!"

Hobbiton Shire - Bilbo Baggins Jumping Fences

 

 The last photo is a screen cap of Bilbo Baggins yelling “I’m going on an adventure” running and jumping over a fence during a scene from The Hobbit. The Hobbiton film set has many fences throughout The Shire. I noticed the fence Bilbo jumps has the middle rail located higher up from the ground then the rails on the fences I photographed.  I remember a different scarecrow from the Lord of the Rings. 

Hobbiton Shire, Green Hill Country and Beyond

The pictures above are landscape photos I took while on The Hobbit Film set in Matamata, New Zealand.  The second photo from the top is the famous Party Tree from Lord of The Rings, the third photo is Bag End with the Oak Tree growing on top of the roof. The shire is surrounded by rolling hills in the distance. The location is picturesque at every angel.

The Old Mill on The Water at "The Hobbiton Shire"

Bilbo Baggins ran by the Mill and a mile beyond to get to the Green Dragon to meet Thorin and Company.  The Old Mill was the water-mill of Hobbiton, owned and run by the Sandyman Family.  The Old Mill was a corn mill powered by a large water wheel. It lay directly adjacent to the bridge across the ByWater Pool and next to the Old Grange as well. The Hobbiton Movie Set is located at Alexander's Sheep Farm, Matamata, New Zealand. These are some of the pictures I took during the film tour.  ByWater Pool was very picturesque under the gathering rain clouds and reflected the surrounding trees like a mirror. 

Tire Swings and A Coastal 'May Day'

 

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. Warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom.  As I walked along Shores Blvd, the tree swings and boats were idling quietly in the breeze.  I could find the energy coming from the warm weather.  The cold fronts of the North is lingering with snow falls in Colorado and in the mid-west, but in St. Augustine, winter is over and sunny days are here with mother nature's vibrant colors abound swirling around my head.

Sir Thomas Malory (died 14 March 1471)
Le Morte d'Arthur


"The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May."
(Le Morte d'Arthur Book XVIII, ch. 25)
In 1469-70, a man named Thomas Malory (1405-1471) sat down to write a book about the adventures of King Arthur and his knights – a book that indirectly gave rise to works ranging from the novels of Sir Walter Scott and the poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson to the Prince Valiant comics and Camelot musicals of the twentieth century. More information:

"How the Red Bud Came" and other Trees Georgia Hwy 82

Ga. Hwy 82 from Tifton to Columbus is the route I travel to my home town.  It is mostly farm fields and pecan orchards.  In March, the Bradford Pear trees and Red buds were blooming along side of Hwy 82.  New leafs were just starting to grow on the Pecan trees.  The visions of spring was worth a stop along side the road. The colors of the Red Bud capture my eye and I had to embrace it's beauty.

 

How the Red Bud Came by Kate Stephens
1853-1938

 

Once upon a time, the old books said,
A winsome girl in a Riding Hood Red,
Fell prey to Mr. Wolf when he searched for his bread.
 
But the books are wrong (as books may be),
For a strange thing happened, as we shall see.
 
Red Riding Hood did on a fair spring day
Visit her Grandmother - then, singing a lay,
With basket and flagon take homegoing way.
 
'Twas in woods Mr. Grey Wolf came on her path .
And his lips were curled in a wolfish laugh.
 
As the fierce old rogue walked hastily towards
The red-cloaked girl speaking promise-fair words,
(For those were the days when the animals talked
In a speech like to humans'), when towards her he stalked,
Stood Little Red Riding Hood fast to the spot
Rooted, eager to fly but daring not.
 
(Now what we here tell of those days of old,
Her Grandmother Tanager in carols has told;
Also Smoothcoat Chipmunk has chatted from the mold.)
 
And as Mr. Grey Wolf neared and snarled
in those far-away woods 'neath an oak tree gnarled
And grown with ivy, yet standing there
And raising its head in the glad sweet air,
Then came that strangest of things to see -
(Far out of the ken of you or of me)
For Riding Hood changed all at once to the tree
That now we call Red Bud.

And, too, suddenly
Her cloak turned to blossoms, which once in a year
She puts forth to tell Mr. Wolf drew anear.
A moment of doubt and a moment of fear.
 
Her basket and flagon (this likewise is odd)
Became the seed covers, brown silvery pods,
Which fall to the ground when the winds blow loud.
 
And this is the reason, the wood-folks agree,
That we now have each spring the cloaked Red Bud tree,
Who never grows tall, as other trees grow,
She loves her old child-like stature so.

 

by Kate Stephens

1853-1938

(Winds of Delphic Kansas, Woodstock, N.Y.: The Maverick Press. 1911)