Brockhouse Family
Brockhouse 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
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, "Boffin of the Yale"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Long-expected Party"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 754
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Return of the Shadow, "The Second Phase: XIV. Return to Hobbiton"
