The speech given by Bilbo Baggins at his famous eleventy-first Birthday Party of 22 September III 3001, also known as the Farewell Party because of the speech and especially because of its extraordinary ending. The speech started simply enough, announcing his birthday and that of his heir Frodo (who happened to come of age, at thirty-three on the same day). The speech was rather a long one by Hobbit standards, and Bilbo was beginning to lose the attention of his audience as he reached the point where he made an (emphatically capitalised) ANNOUNCEMENT: that he was leaving. At that moment he used his Magic Ring to vanish (and Gandalf supplied a brilliant flash of light to hide the manner of his disappearance). After that, Bilbo was not seen again in the Shire,¹ and his Farewell Speech, with its abrupt and astonishing ending, became the stuff of Shire legend.

Notes

Bilbo did in fact return to the Shire, but not until after the end of the War of the Ring, twenty years after his disappearance. On that occasion he travelled quietly with the Last Riding of the Keepers to the Grey Havens, and so his brief reappearance would have remained unknown to most of the Shire-folk.

Farewell Speech

Bilbo’s farewell to the Shire

Notes

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