Hardbottle

From Tolkien Gateway
Hardbottle
Village
Matěj Čadil - Hardbottle.jpg
"Hardbottle" by Matěj Čadil
General Information
LocationNorthfarthing, the Shire[note 1]
TypeVillage
DescriptionA small village standing in rocky ground
InhabitantsHobbits

Hardbottle was a settlement of Hobbits located in the stony northern section of the Shire.[note 2]

The Bracegirdle Family had their roots in Hardbottle. When Lobelia Sackville-Baggins was released from the Lockholes of Michel Delving after the Battle of Bywater she (having been a Bracegirdle before her marriage) returned to her family in Hardbottle. She did so because she had lost the last of her family, her son Lotho, and she gave Bag End back to Frodo Baggins.[1]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The name means "rocky (hard) large dwelling", because it is excavated in or built of stone of the rocky North Farthing. The element bottle and bold (Old English botl, from which the verb "build" is derived) is a real-life English place-name element meaning "(large) dwelling".[2]

Based on this, David Salo suggests that the name represents a possible Old Hobbitish Heardbotl "hard (stony) dwelling".[3]

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes

  1. In The Atlas of Middle-earth, on the map of the Shire, Hardbottle was placed near the southern tip of the White Downs west of Sackville in the Southfarthing. In the "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings (see reference below) the location of the town was specified as being in the Northfarthing.
  2. The town was too far north to appear on the map "A Part of the Shire".

References