What did Bilbo Baggins do for a living?

[Little Nemo]

I mean before the events of The Hobbit. I assume afterwards he lived off the treasure he got from that.

But he was fifty when he met Gandalf and the dwarves so what had he been doing for an income up to then? Was he a farmer? A land owner who lived off rents? Did he have inherited family money?

[Bryan Ekers]

He worked at the Safeway, baggin' groceries.

[Baker]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

I mean before the events of The Hobbit. I assume afterwards he lived off the treasure he got from that.

But he was fifty when he met Gandalf and the dwarves so what had he been doing for an income up to then? Was he a farmer? A land owner who lived off rents? Did he have inherited family money?

Your last question got it I think. He had family money. His dad wasn't poor, but his mom, Belladonna Took, had the bucks. I remember a line from the book, where it says Bilbo's father built his wife that wonderful hobbit hole, and it was mostly with her money.

[BrotherCadfael]

Bilbo was a "gentleman". He had family money, probably derived from renting property. While not seen in the book, he probably had some hobbits employed to maintain the property, collect the rents, etc.

[BrainGlutton]

Originally Posted by BrotherCadfael

Bilbo was a "gentleman". He had family money, probably derived from renting property. While not seen in the book, he probably had some hobbits employed to maintain the property, collect the rents, etc.

Of course, gentlemen do not discuss such things.

But it is very curious that a hobbit of Bilbo's means does not appear to have any servants around. (Which is why nobody knows the reasons for Bilbo's sudden disappearance from the Shire and he can eventually be presumed dead.)

[Chronos]

While not seen in the book, he probably had some hobbits employed to maintain the property, collect the rents, etc.

I think it's said somewhere that Hamfast Gamgee worked for Bilbo as a gardener before Sam and Frodo.

[njtt]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I think it's said somewhere that Hamfast Gamgee worked for Bilbo as a gardener before Sam and Frodo.

Er, yeah, but that would be an expense for Bilbo, not a source of income.

Anyway, what BrotherCadfael said (and probably what Baker and MrDibble said, too).

[Civil Guy]

Samwise Gamgee - and probably other Gamgees before him - did at least some of the gardening around Bag End. Well, okay... It really only says that on the one instance, Sam was close enough to the window to 'accidentally' overhear the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo (not Bilbo), and that Sam's excuse was that he was trimming the bushes or some such. It says somewhere else that Sam was integral to the young hobbits' 'spy ring' keeping track of Frodo. But the whole state of affairs implies a bit about the social standing of both Sam and Frodo, and by extension, the elder Bilbo.

And Chronos is correct, I'm sure.

[Exapno Mapcase]

If the series is about anything it's about the English class system. And how wonderful it was. In ways it wasn't anymore. Tolkien wasn't a classicist because it paid well. He was a believer.

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

If the series is about anything it's about the English class system. And how wonderful it was. In ways it wasn't anymore. Tolkien wasn't a classicist because it paid well. He was a believer.

I'd go further than that. Tolkein loved a past that had never really existed. I think he was, like many people, actually nostalgic for his childhood but got it confused with the setting of that childhood. Tolkein probably did have the happiest period of his life in Sarehole in 1898. But that's because he was a six year old not because Sarehole was a particularly wonderful place in 1898.

[WotNot]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

If the series is about anything it's about the English class system. And how wonderful it was. In ways it wasn't anymore. Tolkien wasn't a classicist because it paid well. He was a believer.

Are you confusing classicist with classist, here? Because otherwise I don't know what you mean. Tolkien's subject was English, not Classics.

[Wendell Wagner]

Regardless of what he may have believed about the class system, Tolkien spent most of his childhood in genteel poverty. His father was a bank employee, and had he lived the family would have been reasonably well off but not rich. When his father died, it became harder to get by. Because his mother converted to Catholicism, both his father's and his mother's family didn't get along with his mother and didn't want to help them financially. Then his mother died and a Catholic priest became his guardian for the rest of his childhood. Tolkien and his brother barely scraped by.

[Exapno Mapcase]

The class system in Britain is correlated with wealth but means large amounts more, which is how the concept of genteel poverty came about. When I said he didn't get into his field because it paid well I thought that it was obvious that I was separating money from class.

His field was the past. All of his writings indicated long and loving study of earlier England - language, history, myths, writings - and I'm pretty sure you can find plenty of examples of him hating the new world around him. He deified a way of life and thinking that was visibly dying around him in wartime England. Why it is surprising that it came out in his fiction?

[BMalion]

Originally Posted by Civil Guy

...

And Chronos is correct, I'm sure.

as always.

[MrDibble]

I always got the sense, (without any direct textual evidence, admittedly,) that the Gaffer was a tenant of Bilbo's - that, in fact, the Bagginses owned all of Bagshot Row. But mostly the inheritance.

[well he's back]

Baggins were landed gentry, old money. tenants did the agricultural work.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

It was quite clearly stated that Bilbo was a Burglar.

[Acsenray]

He was appointed the party's burglar by the dwarves. That wasn't his prior profession.

[Saint Cad]

This reference piece may have the answer.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Saint Cad

This reference piece may have the answer.

Noooooooooo!

[simster]

Originally Posted by saint cad

this reference piece may have the answer.

bilbooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

[Alan Smithee]

Originally Posted by Saint Cad

This reference piece may have the answer.

"The video you requested is not available."

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

"The video you requested is not available."

Well, thank Eru for that. It was Leonard Nimoy's repulsively upbeat rendition of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins."

[Alan Smithee]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Well, thank Eru for that. It was Leonard Nimoy's repulsively upbeat rendition of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins."

Thanks! I expected it to be that, but I wasn't sure.

[Vinyl Turnip]

He was a writer of popular, albeit highly implausible travelogues.

[Encinitas]

Originally Posted by Saint Cad

This reference piece may have the answer.

We've been Nim-rolled.

[Chronos]

Er, yeah, but that would be an expense for Bilbo, not a source of income.

Yes, of course. I was just mentioning it as support for the notion that he'd hire people to maintain the property. The money to hire said folks presumably came from inheritance and/or land ownership, as others have said.

[hogarth]

I thought he got rich from inventing a marital aid, but maybe I'm thinking of Daggins of Dag End.

[muldoonthief]

Originally Posted by hogarth

I thought he got rich from inventing a marital aid, but maybe I'm thinking of Daggins of Dag End.

Different book - I believe you're referring to Mr. Bugger of Bag Eye, in the Stye. Of course, he made his living in the dwarf protection rackets.

"A little Scrabble, a little pederasty."

[Autolycus]

Originally Posted by hogarth

I thought he got rich from inventing a marital aid, but maybe I'm thinking of Daggins of Dag End.

Originally Posted by muldoonthief

Different book - I believe you're referring to Mr. Bugger of Bag Eye, in the Stye. Of course, he made his living in the dwarf protection rackets.

"A little Scrabble, a little pederasty."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely you actually meant to refer to the Faggins of Fag End. Needless to say, his main profession was wood-crafting.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Autolycus

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely you actually meant to refer to the Faggins of Fag End. Needless to say, his main profession was wood-crafting.

Ah yes, the fellow brandished by the Thesaurus in Bored of the Ring.

[Airk]

Am I the only one who found Bored of the Rings puerile and more or less the opposite of clever and entertaining? I mean...puns? Really? That's all you've got? Let me go fetch a copy of a Xanth book or something. :P

[BrainGlutton]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

Ah yes, the fellow brandished by the Thesaurus in Bored of the Ring.

No, by the Ballhog.

"You dieth, GI!" screamed the faggot.

[Arnold Winkelried]

An English Gentleman is not a Gentleman if he has to "do something for a living". One of the necessary qualites is not fortune, but idleness. An impoverished Gentleman will earn his living by marrying into money.
Bilbo Baggins was an English Gentleman transplanted to the world of Hobbits.

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

an English Gentleman transplanted to the world of Hobbits.

There's your sequel right there. Cha-ching!

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

An English Gentleman is not a Gentleman if he has to "do something for a living". One of the necessary qualites is not fortune, but idleness. An impoverished Gentleman will earn his living by marrying into money.
Bilbo Baggins was an English Gentleman transplanted to the world of Hobbits.

Except that Bilbo wasn't married. So either he wasn't impoverished or he wasn't a Gentleman.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

Except that Bilbo wasn't married. So either he wasn't impoverished or he wasn't a Gentleman.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit in my post. Bilbo Baggins wasn't impoverished. He inherited his wealth. For a living, he collected the interest from his investments, and the rents from his tenants.

Of course, afterwards, he brought back a nice little bag of gold from his adventure, as you mentioned in the OP.

If he had been impoverished, his options would have been:
invest his money better
encourage his tenants to make the farms produce more and therefore get more money in rents (in a supervisory fashion of course, a Gentleman wouldn't actually dirty his hands)
marry a wealthy woman

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

(in a supervisory fashion of course, a Gentleman wouldn't actually dirty his hands)

You mean he wouldn't beat the serfs, he'd pay Sam to do that?

[Arnold Winkelried]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

You mean he wouldn't beat the serfs, he'd pay Sam to do that?

I think beating the serfs is more Russian style than English.
English Gentleman landlord: turn out that peasant and send him and his family to the workhouse!
Russian Nobleman landlord: Flog that man and fling his body on the dungheap!

[njtt]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

An English Gentleman is not a Gentleman if he has to "do something for a living". One of the necessary qualites is not fortune, but idleness. An impoverished Gentleman will earn his living by marrying into money.

I think that this is a considerable exaggeration. It was always quite possible to be a gentleman, even an aristocrat, and to be in certain sorts of professions (especially, but not only, a military officer) and even certain sorts of business (in a CEO or director type role), if it did not occupy too much of one's time, and was not too obviously money grubbing.

Not that any of this is relevant to Bilbo, of course.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Originally Posted by njtt

I think that this is a considerable exaggeration. It was always quite possible to be a gentleman, even an aristocrat, and to be in certain sorts of professions (especially, but not only, a military officer) and even certain sorts of business (in a CEO or director type role), if it did not occupy too much of one's time, and was not too obviously money grubbing.

Not that any of this is relevant to Bilbo, of course.

Are you talking about hobbit gentlemen or human gentlemen? Because I believe Arnold Winkelried is correct about human gentlemen. Or maybe you mean 2012 not while Tolkien was alive?

[njtt]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy Dunlop

Are you talking about hobbit gentlemen or human gentlemen? Because I believe Arnold Winkelried is correct about human gentlemen. Or maybe you mean 2012 not while Tolkien was alive?

I am most certainly talking about human gentlemen, and when Tolkien was alive and earlier, back when the term "gentleman" really meant something (by Tolkien's own time it had ceased to mean much at all, but his writing was nostalgic for earlier eras). In the 18th 19th and early twentieth centuries, the entire officer class of the British military were gentlemen, if not aristocrats. The more successful doctors and lawyers would also, for the most part, have been considered gentlemen, as well as at least some business men. They might have had some inherited money or land, as well as an inherited status, but some of them still chose to work (or even needed to, to maintain their preferred lifestyle).

Many gentlemen may not have done any paid work, and lived entirely off inherited money and rents, but it is just not true that not working for a living was ever a necessary qualification for being considered a gentleman.

[Elendil's Heir]

:: burp ::

[yanceylebeef]

One of the few Hobbits with the talent and wherewithal to do the job, he was the area's foremost cleanser of lady parts.

You may have heard of his Nom de Boulot "Douche Baggins"

[well he's back]

Airk - the problem with "Bored of the Rings" is that it's hilarious - but only in VERY small doses. read only a little bit at a sitting & it's quite funny.

[Chronos]

The part I found oddly amusing is that the Ballhog wore a Villanova jersey. I was at Villanova at the time, and that's the last thing anyone would have called our star Kerry Kittles, while the biggest ballhog in history, Me-Myself-and-Iverson, was then playing at our rival Georgetown.

[Tom Scud]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

I mean before the events of The Hobbit. I assume afterwards he lived off the treasure he got from that.

But he was fifty when he met Gandalf and the dwarves so what had he been doing for an income up to then? Was he a farmer? A land owner who lived off rents? Did he have inherited family money?

I believe he was a Senator.

Also, re: Bored of the Rings, the prologue ("Concerning Boggies") is amazing but the rest is only sometimes funny.

[asterion]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

I believe he was a Senator.

He was. I can't find the full text of Andy Duncan's "Senator Bilbo" but here's a podcast reading. I think your best chance is to find a copy of Year's Best Fantasy 2.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by asterion

He was. I can't find the full text of Andy Duncan's "Senator Bilbo" but here's a podcast reading. I think your best chance is to find a copy of Year's Best Fantasy 2.

There is this guy, already mentioned somewhere.
Can't see his feet in the picture.

[well he's back]

Speaking of making a living in the Shire, what other professions were there? Farmer, miller, postman, bartender? Wonder if Sam gave up gardening when he became mayor.