Brockhouse family

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The Brockhouse family was a populous family of the Bree-hobbits. Some members of the family lived in the Shire: Sapphira Brockhouse was the wife of Uffo Boffin,[1] and Bilbo Baggins greeted the Brockhouses among other hobbit families in his famous farewell speech on September 22, T.A. 3001.[2]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

Brock is an old (up to the end of the 19th century) country word for "badger" and, in that Hobbit name, refers to its building complicated and well-ordered underground dwellings.

Tolkien noted that English place-names and surnames contain this old word, such as Brockbanks.[3]

Other versions of the legendarium[edit | edit source]

In the fifth version of the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings the Brockhouse family did not have any members living in the Shire; instead those that attended Bilbo's party were from Combe-under-Bree and were Hobbits that Bilbo had befriended on his travels.[4]

References