Character Bios
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Other Names:
Lobelia Bracegirdle
Mistress Lobelia
Location(s):
Hardbottle
Southfarthing
Bag End
Race/Species: Hobbit
Dates:
III 2918 - Spring 3020
Parents:
father: Blanco Bracegirdle
mother: Primrose Boffin
Siblings:
Bruno Bracegirdle
Spouse: Otho Sackville-Baggins
Children:
Lotho Sackville-Baggins
Description:
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins was born as Lobelia Bracegirdle, the daughter of Blanco Bracegirdle and Primrose Boffin of Hardbottle:
Lobelia Bracegirdle married Otho Sackville-Baggins; their son was Lotho, who seized control of the Shire at the time of the War of the Ring, and was then known as "the Chief."
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 4, The Hunt for the Ring: Notes, Note 17
The Sackville-Bagginses were not forgotten. Otho and his wife Lobelia were present. They disliked Bilbo and detested Frodo, but so magnificent was the invitation card, written in golden ink, that they had felt it was impossible to refuse. Besides, their cousin, Bilbo, had been specializing in food for many years and his table had a high reputation.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
But Bilbo had not finished.... I have called you all together for a Purpose.... to celebrate my birthday. Cheers again. I should say: OUR birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance today. Some perfunctory clapping.... The Sackville-Bagginses scowled, and wondered what was meant by 'coming into his inheritance'. Together we score one hundred and forty-four. Your numbers were chosen to fit this remarkable total: One Gross, if I may use the expression. No cheers.... Many of his guests, and especially the Sackville-Bagginses, were insulted, feeling sure they had only been asked to fill up the required number.... 'One Gross, indeed! Vulgar expression.'....
Most of the guests went on eating and drinking and discussing Bilbo Baggins' oddities, past and present; but the Sackville-Bagginses had already departed in wrath.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
For LOBELIA SACKVILLE-BAGGINS, as a PRESENT; on a case of silver spoons. Bilbo believed that she had acquired a good many of his spoons, while he was away on his former journey. Lobelia knew that quite well. When she arrived later in the day, she took the point at once, but she also took the spoons.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
In the middle of the commotion the Sackville-Bagginses arrived.... Otho loudly demanded to see Frodo....
'He is indisposed,' [Merry] said. 'He is resting.'
'Hiding, you mean,' said Lobelia. 'Anyway we want to see him and we mean to see him. Just go and tell him so!'
Merry left them a long while in the hall, and they had time to discover their parting gift of spoons. It did not improve their tempers. Eventually they were shown into the study. Frodo... looked indisposed — to see Sackville-Bagginses at any rate.... But he spoke quite politely.
The Sackville-Bagginses were rather offensive. They began by offering him bad bargain-prices (as between friends) for various valuable and unlabelled things. When Frodo replied that only the things specially directed by Bilbo were being given away, they said the whole affair was very fishy.
'Only one thing is clear to me,' said Otho, 'and that is that you are doing exceedingly well out of it. I insist on seeing the will.'
Otho would have been Bilbo's heir, but for the adoption of Frodo. He read the will carefully and snorted. It was, unfortunately, very clear and correct....
'Foiled again!' he said to his wife. 'And after waiting sixty years. Spoons? Fiddlesticks!' He... slumped off. But Lobelia was not so easily got rid of. A little later Frodo came out of the study to see how things were going on and found her still about the place, investigating nooks and corners and tapping the floors. He escorted her firmly off the premises, after he had relieved her of several small (but rather valuable) articles that had somehow fallen inside her umbrella. Her face looked as if she was in the throes of thinking out a really crushing parting remark; but all she found to say, turning round on the step, was:
'You'll live to regret it, young fellow! Why didn't you go too? You don't belong here; you're no Baggins — you — you're a Brandybuck!'
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
'My dear Gandalf! Half a minute!' cried Frodo.... 'Come in! Come in! I thought it was Lobelia.'
'Then I forgive you. But I saw her some time ago, driving a pony-trap towards Bywater with a face that would have curdled new milk.'
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party
One summer's evening an astonishing piece of news reached the Ivy Bush and Green Dragon.... Mr. Frodo was selling Bag End, indeed he had already sold it — to the Sackville-Bagginses!
'For a nice bit, too,' said some. 'At a bargain price,' said others, 'and that's more likely when Mistress Lobelia's the buyer.' (Otho had died some years before, at the ripe but disappointed age of 102.)
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 3, Three Is Company
After lunch, the Sackville-Bagginses, Lobelia and her sandy-haired son, Lotho, turned up, much to Frodo's annoyance. 'Ours at last!' said Lobelia, as she stepped inside. It was not polite; nor strictly true, for the sale of Bag End did not take effect until midnight. But Lobelia can perhaps be forgiven: she had been obliged to wait about seventy-seven years longer for Bag End than she once hoped, and she was now a hundred years old. Anyway, she had come to see that nothing she had paid for had been carried off; and she wanted the keys. It took a long while to satisfy her, as she had brought a complete inventory with her and went right through it. In the end she departed with Lotho and the spare key and the promise that the other key would be left at the Gamgees' in Bagshot Row. She snorted, and showed plainly that she thought the Gamgees capable of plundering the hole during the night.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 3, Three Is Company
'Why, they even took Pimple's old ma, that Lobelia, and he was fond of her, if no one else was.... She comes down the lane with her old umbrella. Some of the ruffians were going up with a big cart.
'"Where be you a-going?" says she.
'"To Bag End," says they.
'"What for?" says she.
'"To put up some sheds for Sharkey," says they.
'"Who said you could?" says she.
'"Sharkey," says they. "So get out o' the road, old hagling!"
'"I'll give you Sharkey, you dirty thieving ruffians!" says she, and ups with her umbrella and goes for the leader, near twice her size. So they took her. Dragged her off to the Lockholes, at her age too. They've took others we miss more, but there's no denying she showed more spirit than most.'
The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 8, The Scouring of the Shire
The day after the battle Frodo rode to Michel Delving and released the prisoners from the Lockholes....
Then there was Lobelia. Poor thing, she looked very old and thin when they rescued her from a dark and narrow cell. She insisted on hobbling out on her own feet; and she had such a welcome, and there was such clapping and cheering when she appeared, leaning on Frodo's arm but still clutching her umbrella, that she was quite touched, and drove away in tears. She had never in her life been popular before. But she was crushed by the news of Lotho's murder, and she would not return to Bag End. She gave it back to Frodo, and went to her own people, the Bracegirdles of Hardbottle.
When the poor creature died next Spring — she was after all more than a hundred years old — Frodo was surprised and much moved: she had left all that remained of her money and of Lotho's for him to use in helping hobbits made homeless by the troubles. So that feud was ended.
The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 9, The Grey Havens
Contributors:
Lyllyn 11Nov03
Elena Tiriel 1Dec05, 22Sep07
