We don't know which of the mapped buildings of Bywater was specifically The Green Dragon (if indeed it is represented by any of them). It was said, however, to be the last building a traveller would pass as they left Bywater for Hobbiton. Even if it was not the particular building marked here, then, it must have been close to that point on the Bywater Road. Alternatively, it might conceivably have been the building some way out of Bywater, to the west of Bywater Pool (though by comparison with other buildings in the area, this perhaps seems a little small to represent an inn).
It should be mentioned that the dimensions shown on this map do not quite match the description of The Green Dragon in The Hobbit. According to that story, Bilbo is able to run the entire distance from Bag End to The Green Dragon in ten minutes (a distance stated to be about a mile). On the map shown here, following that given in The Lord of the Rings, the distance is considerably greater than this, with the full journey by road from Bag End to the inn being closer to eight miles. That would have needed Bilbo to run at nearly fifty miles per hour, so there must be some inconsistency at work. It seems that we have to assume one of two things: either that Bilbo's account of his meeting with the Dwarves was exaggerated for effect, or that the map's scaling around Hobbiton has been adjusted for clarity, and the distance was rather shorter than the map's scale implies.
In fact the latter option seems to be the case. Tolkien later wrote of the large-scale map of the Shire that Bywater had been placed too far to the east, and should have been shown more nearly to the south of Hobbiton. That arrangement would fit the story in The Hobbit rather better, but as the only available canonical map of the Shire at this scale, we follow the standard map here.
|