Day 1: It’s A Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door

My journey began at eventide yesterday. Armed with my best walking stick, a green travelling cloak, a backpack full of berries and mushrooms, and my trusty pedometer I set off to begin my adventure. The town where I live is nestled in rolling hills, a perfect simulation of what walking in the Shire would have been like. I started off walking past the farm with clucking chickens and an absurdly loud rooster that marks the end of my town. There are a series of fields past the farm and a footpath that I turned off on to. Just as the hobbits did before me, I was leaving my town behind to explore the countryside around it.

Of course Frodo, Sam, and Pippin had the blessing of good weather on their first day. Given my luck, I wasn’t surprised when it started pouring rain ten minutes into the start of my journey. The torrential downpour continued for 20 minutes and left me soaked to the bone and frantically trying to figure out whether or not my pedometer was waterproof. Luckily my pedometer survived and the rain let up to a drizzle which persisted for the rest of my journey. Overall, I walked a total of 9.86 miles (15.86 km) in 3 and-a-half hours.

At this point in the journey Frodo was just starting out. He had sent Merry and Fredegar Bolger (aka “Fatty”) off to Crickhollow earlier that day with the last of Frodo’s possessions. He, Sam and Pippin would enjoy their last meal in Bag End (leaving the dishes for the Sackville-Baggins to clean) before setting off in the dark of eventide to enjoy a leisurely journey to Crickhollow. Tolkien would write, “For Frodo was going on foot. His plan, for pleasure and a last look at the Shire as much as any other reason, was to walk from Hobbiton to Bucklebury Ferry, taking it fairly easy.” Originally Bilbo didn’t take Frodo with him when he left Bag End for Rivendell because Frodo was still in love with the Shire. The above passage from Chapter 3 of The Fellowship of the Ring shows that Frodo still loved the Shire and other passages in that chapter talk about Frodo’s sadness at the prospect of parting from his home and friends. At the 7.5 mile marker (12 km) in their journey Frodo and company stopped to gaze back at the lights of Hobbiton in the distance. And then they turned away and at the ninth mile marker (14.5 km) the lights of Hobbiton were lost behind the rolling hills of the Shire. The hobbits would not see Hobbiton again until the war was over.

For the Frodo, Sam, and Pippin the first nine miles of the journey passed without incident. For me that wasn’t the case. The rain earlier in my journey had made the path I was on slippery. About 7 miles (11.2 km) into the walk I slipped and rolled down the hill I had been climbing. By the time I had come to rest at the bottom of the hill I was covered in mud and the berries I had been carrying in my backpack were crushed. Bilbo was right: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

~Daisy Buttons