Celebrate September 22, Frodo and Bilbo Baggins's birthday, by enjoying the cozy, simple hobbit life: good food, good drink, curling up in a comfortable home and avoiding anything stressful or upsetting.
Hobbit skills can help you bring some coziness into your autumn. If you're familiar with "cottagecore, opens a new window," it's a lot of the same idea: taking pleasure in making things yourself, or sourcing them locally, whether beer, dairy products, jam, bread, or vegetables.
Below you'll find many suggestions for how to go about it. Hopefully you can find some grounding and relaxation in these activities - but fret not! If the idea of raising bees or making your own cheese makes you break out in hives, you need read no further than The Lost Art of Doing Nothing by Maartje Willems, which also beautifully embodies the hobbit mindset.
Eating
Hobbits are known for their insatiable appetites, and in Tolkien's books they took six mealtimes: breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. (Director Peter Jackson increased this to seven in the movies with the addition of "second breakfast".)
Below you'll find reading suggestions for the kinds of things hobbits are fond of eating. If you really want to go all out, you can follow this author's example and prepare a day-long "feast fit for a hobbit" alongside a Lord of the Rings movie marathon.
Good Old-fashioned Pies and Stews
The Complete Guide to Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt at Home
Drinking
While tea and ale are the favored drinks of hobbits, they also enjoy wine and other fermented beverages.
The Northern California Craft Beer Guide
Weed
There are a variety of references in both The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy to hobbits smoking pipe-weed, or simply, "weed". In fact, when Théoden, king of Rohan, first meets hobbits, we learn that "it was Tobold Hornblower, of Longbottom in the Southfarthing, who first grew the true pipe-weed in his gardens." For hobbits, the pleasure of smoking is second only to a good meal.
While it's clear that when Tolkien wrote of pipe-weed he was thinking of tobacco rather than cannabis, it's also undeniable that generations of fans have interpreted and related to the hobbits' weed as... weed! In this spirit, we offer some reading recommendations below:
The Garden
Samwise Gamgee might be one of the most famous gardeners in fiction. Aside from being Frodo's gardener, Sam is also a loyal and erstwhile companion on Frodo's quest. During the long and perilous journey to Mordor, Sam often dreams about his garden back home, yearning for the delight and simplicity of that work compared to the hopeless and uncertain task before him.
There's a lot of hopelessness and uncertainty in our world too right now. So perhaps, like Sam, we can take comfort in those moments when we can touch solid dirt with our hands and feel the sun on our faces, even if only briefly.
Growing Vegetables in Drought, Desert & Dry Times
English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners
Chickens for the Backyard Homesteader
Architecture and Decor
Hobbits famously prefer living in holes in the ground, with those who dwell in cottages being viewed with suspicion by their peers. While hobbit holes aren't a realistic option for many of us, there is a movement toward earth-sheltered houses in various designs that you may enjoy learning about!
Ideas for Great Backyard Cottages
The Natural Building Companion
For more reading suggestions, try our Hobbit Hobbies book list. Happy autumn, and happy hobbiting!
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