# What did Bilbo Baggins do for a living? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426 "2012-04-11T01:59:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/41 "2012-04-13T16:59:03Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/42 "2012-04-13T17:04:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But we didn’t see what that “goo” was made out of, did we? Goo is goo. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/43 "2012-04-14T04:15:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …When it comes to black magic, dead bodies are like high fructose corn syrup. LOL. This is just about the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/44 "2012-04-14T13:51:52Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > LOL. This is just about the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks! And “goo is goo” is what, chopped liver? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/45 "2012-04-14T18:37:43Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > And “goo is goo” is what, chopped liver? The Hobbits I know have little appreciation for kosher food. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/46 "2012-04-14T18:41:20Z")
Hence the outrageous price of matzoh in Hobbiton. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/47 "2012-04-14T20:47:55Z")
> [@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? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/48 "2012-04-14T21:22:24Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/49 "2012-04-14T21:42:06Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > He was a writer of popular, albeit highly implausible travelogues. That sounds like something Goodgulf would say… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/50 "2012-04-14T22:51:38Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > That sounds like something Goodgulf would say… No devices more complicated than a garotte or a Luger…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/51 "2012-04-14T23:19:21Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > No devices more complicated than a garotte or a Luger…🙂 Pity stayed his hand. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/52 "2012-04-14T23:44:52Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Pity stayed his hand. “It’s a pity I’ve run out of bullets,” he thought. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/53 "2012-04-15T02:39:42Z")
What’s the final scene? Sam kneels down, Frito shoves Goddamn over him into the lava of Mount Doom? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/54 "2012-04-15T02:53:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > When it comes to black magic, dead bodies are like high fructose corn syrup. That sentence is going straight into my “find a use for this someday” file. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/55 "2012-04-15T03:41:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > “It’s a pity I’ve run out of bullets,” he thought. I just came across that book in a box, unread for several decades. I hope it’s as good as I remember… ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/56 "2012-04-15T04:00:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > What’s the final scene? > Sam kneels down, Frito shoves Goddamn over him into the lava of Mount Doom? “Floop, said the tar pit.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/57 "2012-04-16T03:01:51Z")
:: burp :: ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/58 "2012-04-18T04:35:37Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I thought he got rich from inventing a marital aid, but maybe I’m thinking of Daggins of Dag End. > [@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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/59 "2012-04-18T11:43:57Z")
> [@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. \* ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426/60 "2012-04-18T19:50:39Z")
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. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-bilbo-baggins-do-for-a-living/618426.md?page=4)