2. The Shire, Bree and the Lone-lands:
Then Bilbo could have been seen waking the next morning to Gandalf and the Dwarves having gone from Bag End, dirty dishes etc, then hesitating between washing up and running off to join the others and then deciding to do the latter. This then could have been followed by him being seen running past Holman Greenhand and young Hamfast Gamgee, Samwise’s future gaffer, coming up the Hill to do his gardening, during which he asks them to ‘guard’ the Hill from the Sackville-Bagginses taking over Bag End while he is away, like the latter do in the book. And this would have alluded to how in The Lord of the Rings the word ‘garden’ was intended to link up with the word ‘guardian’ and the Gar-Dena or ‘Spear-Danes’ in Beowulf, which is highlighted in Bilbo being the guardian of Frodo and in Sam becoming ‘Gardener of the Hill’.
Meanwhile, Holman and Hamfast could have been introduced in the movie’s extended edition the day before gardening at Bag End, after Bilbo finishes talking with Gandalf, while Otho and Lobelia Sackville-Bagginses could have been introduced in the Hobbiton market. And during this Bilbo could have been seen defending young Drogo Baggins and young Primula Brandybuck, Frodo’s future parents, from the Sackville-Bagginses. This is after the latter could have tried to ‘drag’ Drogo, as his name can translate, away from Primula because the Brandybucks live on the east side, and therefore the ‘wrong’ side, of the Brandywine River where the Brandybucks fool around in boats. This would have alluded to how Drogo and Primula end up ‘drowning’ there in the future as Drogo’s name also can translate, hence leaving Frodo orphaned. Also, it would have alluded to the differences between the Shire’s West Farthing and East Farthing Hobbits.
Furthermore, during this Bilbo could have also said that if he did not stand up for the Hobbits the Sackville-Baggins would end up developing the Shire into nothing more than lots of cul-de-sacs. And this would have referred to Tolkien’s dislike of French terms and their influence on the English language after the Norman Invasion in 1066, and how he reflected this in naming Bilbo’s Hobbit-hole Bag End. This is because cul–de–sac translates as ‘end of the sack’, while the Old English conflation of baggi–ende is the English equivalent. It would also have alluded to how at the end of The Lord of the Rings Frodo and his companions rouse up the Shire against Saruman’s ruffians, who descend from Saruman’s cross-breeding of Men and Orcs, who took it over while they were away due to Lotho Sackville-Baggins buying up a lot of Shire land with Saruman’s money obtained from the Orcs plundering the Dwarves’ treasure hoards. This included Bag End which Frodo sells to the Sackville-Bagginses before he leaves on his quest to give the Hobbits of the Shire the pretext that he was returning to live with his mother’s family in Buckland. Notably the names Otho, Lobelia and Lotho are of French origin, with Lobelia’s name referring to a French rose.
Meanwhile, the differences amongst the Hobbits of the Shire’s four Farthings could have been reflected, as Bilbo runs to catch up with Gandalf and the Dwarves, in lyrics in the music score derived from Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Middle English. Because a Middle English society is something like what Tolkien represents in The Lord of the Rings, in his portrayal of the Shire. This also could have been expanded on by Holman saying to Hamfast, after they hear Bilbo say before he runs off that he was off on an adventure with some Dwarves to get back their treasure from a Dragon: ‘Dwarves and Dragons! Cabbages and Potatoes are better for you and me! We don’t need to go where folk are queer. We’ve got all we need here’. This would have reflected how Holman and Hamfast’s names are Old and Middle English for ‘man at home’ and ‘stay at home’, respectively, which, in turn, indicates how people in Middle English society never travelled very far and regarded people living in other parts with suspicion, which is something that Hamfast demonstrates in The Lord of the Rings.
Then Bilbo could have been seen meeting up with Farmer Maggot and his son, who are travelling towards Hobbiton, who could have told him that they had seen Gandalf and the Dwarves passing by. Then as Bilbo runs onwards Maggot senior could have said to Maggot junior that Bilbo’s mixing with outlandish folk will only land him in trouble and there could be trouble coming too. And then Maggot senior could have added, in the movie’s extended version that he wanted to be home within three days because he was expecting Tom Bombadil, who had to rescue him from Old Man Willow a week earlier when he was in the Old Forest. Then he could have added, in turn, that Tom had said that the trees were getting stirred up by trouble in lands to the east of the Barrow-downs, and Tom had gone to the Barrow-downs to investigate what the Barrow-wights were doing, which could have alluded to the Necromancer/Sauron awakening the dead in the movie.
This also would have alluded to how ‘Maggot junior’, who Frodo and his companions encounter as they travel through the Shire in The Lord of the Rings, is possibly a conflation of the occasional farmer and Dwarf that Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves pass by as they travel through the Shire. This is with the name Maggot possibly alluding to how dwarves in Old Icelandic literature were made from the maggots embedded in the flesh of Ymir the giant, from who Midgard, the Old Icelandic Middle-earth, was created by Odin and his brothers. This naming also makes Farmer Maggot an anomaly among Hobbits because of his attitude to outlander folk like Gandalf and the Dwarves, while associating at the same time with Tom Bombadil, who along with Goldberry his spouse, is an anomaly in The Lord of the Rings, who Frodo and his companions encounter after they leave the Shire, along with Old Man Willow and a Barrow-wight.
Then after Bilbo joins Gandalf and the Dwarves in the first Hobbit movie, and the montage of scenes that follow, there could have been the scene of them at The Prancing Pony Inn, which I referred to above. And this could have embellished on how in The Hobbit Gandalf, Bilbo and the Dwarves pass through lands, where people spoke strangely and sang songs that Bilbo had never heard before, before going into lands where there were no people left or inns. During this scene there could have been snatches of Tom Bombadil’s verse sung by Bree-men, while Bilbo could have got drunk on whole pints of beer and the Dwarves could have demonstrated their eating habits. Then Bilbo could have stood on a table and recited the long version of ‘Hey diddle diddle’ that he composes in The Lord of the Rings, at least in the movie’s extended version, after which he could have been asked to repeat the verse about the cow jumping over the moon, which could have been retained in the theatrical release. During this he could have leapt off the table, broken all the crockery on it and fallen on top of Thorin, who could have just entered the room and, consequently, gets a bad first impression of Bilbo. This is instead of one of the Dwarves singing the song in Rivendell, in the movie’s extended edition, so to suggest that there could be enough wit about Bilbo when he is sober to do things like cause the Trolls that capture him and the Dwarves to argue about how to cook them until dawn turns the Trolls to stone. And it would have alluded to how Thorin also has a bad first impression of Bilbo when the Hobbit’s opening of his front door in The Hobbit causes Bifur, Bofur and Bombur to fall on top of Thorin.
Balin then could have been seen greeting Thorin, at which Thorin could have asked Balin why they had not met him at Fornost. Then Gandalf could have discovered that the innkeeper, Barliman Butterbur’s grandfather, had forgotten to give him a message from Thorin urging the company to meet the Dwarf at Fornost where he was meeting with his people because the innkeeper only knew Fornost Erain, Norbury of the Kings, as Deadmen’s Dike. And this would have alluded to how the Bree-men in The Lord of the Rings did not know of the guard that the Rangers, who descended from the kings, who the Bree-men were scornful of, had on Bree-land. This would have also alluded to Barliman forgetting to send a message to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings from Gandalf urging Frodo to leave the Shire immediately for Rivendell, which Frodo, consequently, does not do only jeopardizing his position. This is because of the Nazgul/Black Riders’ rise, which Gandalf, after leaving Frodo, hears about from Radagast who urges him to go to Saruman for aid immediately, which leads to Gandalf being imprisoned by Saruman in Orthanc after he discovers that Saruman has become a traitor.
Meanwhile, in the first Hobbit movie some unsavoury looking Bree-men in the inn could then have been heard saying: ‘Did you hear? It’s Thorin Oakenshield. Come let’s go tell Yazneg’. This would have suggested that Saruman had already begun his cross-breeding of Orcs with Goblin-men, which is seen in The Lord of the Rings movies, by cross-breeding Men with Goblins who the unsavoury Bree-men act as agents to. And this would have alluded to how in the book Frodo and his companions encounter one of Saruman’s ruffians who take over the Shire while they are away, who they see in the company of some of the unsavoury Bree-men when they stay at the inn. This is while the latter see Frodo disappear after he ‘accidentally’ puts on the Ring while he is singing Bilbo’s embellishment of ‘Hey diddle diddle’, which the ruffian and the unsavoury Bree-men report to the Nazgul/Black Riders who attack the inn as Frodo and his companions sleep watched over by Aragorn. Meanwhile, in the first Hobbit movie the unsavoury Bree-men could have been present with Yazneg when they see Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves camping on the Weather-hills.
Then the scene could have changed in the inn to Gandalf, Bilbo and the Dwarves in a private room talking about the map and key of the Lonely Mountain etc. Then Thorin could have been seen expressing to Gandalf his reservations about Bilbo and then talking to Balin about the rest of their people not wanting to be involved in the quest. Then the scene could have changed to Bilbo telling Gandalf that he was thinking of returning home, at which Gandalf could have encouraged him to continue going onwards on the quest referring to how the Hobbit’s ancestor the Bullroarer defeated the Orcs who invaded the Shire. This is with Gandalf making the reference to all good stories needing embellishment after adding that the Bullroarer’s knocking off the head of the chief Orc’s head with a club and its going down a rabbit hole led to the game of golf being invented at the same time. This also would have referred to, at least in the movie’s extended version, how the poem that Bilbo recites in the inn is an embellishment of ‘Hey diddle diddle’. Then the Dwarves could have been seen and heard singing the song beginning: ‘Far over the Misty Mountains’.
Then there could have been an embellishment of Gandalf, at least in the movie’s extended edition, referring to the Rangers protecting the lands west of the Misty Mountains from evil as he, Bilbo and the Dwarves are seen passing through the Lone-lands by ruins with a wicked look about them as they do in the book. This would have alluded to how Aragorn, who descends from the Rangers, refers to these things in The Lord of the Rings, as he leads Frodo and his companions by these ruins. And this could have happened in the first Hobbit movie as Gandalf tells Bilbo about the North Kingdom’s decline, especially since Galadriel, at the White Council meeting in Rivendell later on, refers to the Men of the North entombing the Witch-king of Angmar. Gandalf, during this, also could have referred to how the Rangers had often worked with Hobbits, such as the Bullroarer and his descendents and other families in the Took and Old Buck clans, like the Maggots and the Brandybucks, to keep the Shire safe. This could have then been followed by the Rangers being seen later with the Elves hunting the Orcs and Wargs who pursue Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves from Trollshaws who had alerted the Elves to the Orcs and Wargs being seen near the hidden entrance into Rivendell.
Meanwhile, Gandalf and Radagast’s meeting in Trollshaws, in which Radagast alerts Gandalf to the Necromancer/Sauron and the Nazgul’s rising, obviously derives from Radagast alerting Gandalf to the Nazgul/Black Riders’ rising in The Lord of the Rings. This is while Radagast, in the movie, seems to take too much after the fool that Saruman perceives him to be in The Lord of the Rings rather than the ‘spirit of counsel’ that his name can translate as from Old English and Old Icelandic, which is how Gandalf seems to view him in the book. This could have been avoided, in the movie, by Radagast not being so enamoured by the birds and beasts that are his friends and if he went around on a horse like he does in the book rather than a rabbit-pulled sled. In addition, when Radagast tells Gandalf about what he saw at Dol Guldur he could have added that Iarwain Ben-adar/Tom Bombadil had told him that he had seen images of the kings of old coming out of their barrows in the Barrow-downs.
Furthermore, Radagast’s meeting with Gandalf could have happened while Bilbo and the Dwarves encounter the Trolls and the only time that they see him is when he suddenly comes riding out of Trollshaws to act as a decoy for them as they run towards the hidden entrance into Rivendell. This is so that they have no interaction with him as in the book. In addition, in the movie, when Gandalf tells Bilbo about the Wizards in Middle-earth, he could have referred to how skilled and crafted Saruman was to allude to how the latter is the ‘man of skill/craft’ that his name can translate as from Old English and Old Icelandic.
