Brockhouse family

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The Brockhouse family 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

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

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