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Re: Bilbo plothole

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  Posted by Alexander on May 25, 2000 at 19:04:33
In Reply to: Re: Bilbo plothole posted by Filby on May 24, 2000 at 10:57:44:



: : In the end of "The Hobbit" it says that Bilbo took only a little of the dragon treasure. So why in the beggining of "The Fellowship of the Ring" was Bilbo's wealth described as wonderfully vast, and how did he afford to be so free with gold and afford that last birthday party?

: Tolkien describes Bilbo as being "very rich" which he no doubt was. He was even more rich in the imaginations of the local hobbits, who believed "the Hill at Bag End was filled with tunnels stuffed with treasure". I think Tolkien's description of Bilbo's riches accurately reflects the profits from his journey there and back again, although the popular beliefs of locals were certainly exagerated.

That is quite true, and the legend enormously exaggerated his wealth, but the real reason for his reputation for riches, quite apart from his generosity, is the fact that in the lands of the shire in last decades of the third age a very little money went a very long way.

In Bree, a day`s walk from the shire, six silver pennies were a fair price for a pony. If these pennies were the same weight as Anglo-Saxon ones, less than a twentieth of an ounce, then a (modern) pound of silver would buy fifty-something ponies, and a pound of gold would buy between 750 and 800, as in ancient and medieval europe the gold/silver rate of exchange generallly hovered between 12 and 16 to 1. If Bilbo`s pony took a hundredeight of gold and another hundredweight of silver, then he brought back enough money to buy a hundred thousand ponies - not that I think there were that many in the shire - and you can perhaps double that figure if you include the gold he obtained from the trolls. In the shire, that was enough to make him a plutocrat.

Another indication of the lack of money in the shire, as compared to other regions, is the ease with which Saruman (and his agents like Lotho) could buy what they liked. There`s also a reference in the Return of the Shadow, that "money went a prodigiously long way in those days."

I`ll say more about this in my next message, about valuing the Shire!


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