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Places in Middle-earth

Party Field

Type: Forests, Fields, Plains

Region: Bree/The Shire

Location: The large open field on the Hill between Bag End and Bagshot Row. It was the site of the Party Tree until it was cut down by Saruman's ruffians during the Occupation of the Shire.

Description:

One morning the hobbits woke to find the large field, south of Bilbo's front door, covered with ropes and poles for tents and pavilions. A special entrance was cut into the bank leading to the road, and wide steps and a large white gate were built there. The three hobbit-families of Bagshot Row, adjoining the field, were intensely interested and generally envied. Old Gaffer Gamgee stopped even pretending to work in his garden.

The tents began to go up. There was a specially large pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it, and stood proudly near one end, at the head of the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches. More promising still (to the hobbits' mind): an enormous open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party

As they crossed the bridge and looked up the Hill they gasped. Even Sam's vision in the Mirror had not prepared him for what they saw. The Old Grange on the west side had been knocked down, and its place taken by rows of tarred sheds. All the chestnuts were gone. The banks and hedgerows were broken. Great waggons were standing in disorder in a field beaten bare of grass. Bagshot Row was a yawning sand and gravel quarry. Bag End up beyond could not be seen for a clutter of large huts.

'They've cut it down!' cried Sam. 'They've cut down the Party Tree!' He pointed to where the tree had stood under which Bilbo had made his Farewell Speech. It was lying lopped and dead in the field. As if this was the last straw Sam burst into tears.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 8, The Scouring of the Shire

So Sam planted saplings in all the places where specially beautiful or beloved trees had been destroyed, and he put a grain of the precious dust in the soil at the root of each... The little silver nut he planted in the Party Field where the tree had once been; and he wondered what would come of it. ...

Spring surpassed his wildest hopes. ... In the Party Field a beautiful young sapling leaped up: it had silver bark and long leaves and burst into golden flowers in April. It was indeed a mallorn, and it was the wonder of the neighbourhood. In after years, as it grew in grace and beauty, it was known far and wide and people would come long journeys to see it: the only mallorn west of the Mountains and east of the Sea, and one of the finest in the world.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 9, The Grey Havens

Contributors: docmon, 2 Oct 05
added quote: Elena Tiriel 10Aug06

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