Old Toby

From Tolkien Gateway
This article is about the pipe-weed. For the the Hobbit named "Old Toby", see Tobold Hornblower.

Old Toby was one of the three most notable varieties of pipe-weed, grown in the region around Longbottom in the Shire's Southfarthing.[1]

History[edit | edit source]

The leaf took its name from the Hobbit who introduced pipe-weed to the Shire, the original "Old Toby", Tobold Hornblower, who grew the first true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim Took II about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning.

How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day he would not tell.[1]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The genuine Westron name was zara-Tobi.[2]

Portrayal in adaptations[edit | edit source]

Item-Old Toby Pipe-weed.jpg

2007: The Lord of the Rings Online:

The smoke from Old Toby Pipe-weed takes the form of a large heart with a ring inside it.

2012: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:

As Radagast narrates terrified to Gandalf his encounter with the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, Gandalf offers him to pull from his pipe some "Old Toby" to calm down.

References