The edition and the spoilers on this page
The Baggins family tree on this page follows The Lord of the Rings as Allen & Unwin published it, The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954 and The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 1955.1 The novel is made of six books, two in each volume, and the family trees stand in Appendix C at the end of the last volume.17 Bilbo’s parents come from the first chapter of The Hobbit.2
Appendix C names only a selection of each family, and this Baggins family tree keeps the ancestors who join Bilbo, Frodo, Merry and Pippin.17 The chart opens at Book One, and the cards for Book Six tell the ending. The novel is in copyright, so this page shows no picture and quotes none of its sentences. Nothing here is taken from the films.
The Bagginses of Hobbiton at the top of the Baggins family tree
The Baggins family tree of Appendix C begins with Balbo Baggins and his wife Berylla Boffin. Two of their sons matter to the story. Mungo is the grandfather of Bilbo, and his younger brother Largo is the great-grandfather of Frodo, so the two Ring-bearers meet on the tree three generations up.17
Mungo married Laura Grubb, and their sons included Bungo and Longo. Largo married Tanta Hornblower, and their son Fosco married Ruby Bolger. Fosco and Ruby were the parents of Drogo, the father of Frodo.17
Bungo built Bag End. The first chapter of The Hobbit says that he made it, partly with her money, for his wife Belladonna Took, the mother of Bilbo.2 That marriage is the first of the Took lines that run through the Baggins family tree.
How Bilbo and Frodo are related on the Baggins family tree
Readers often call Bilbo the uncle of Frodo, but the Baggins family tree makes them cousins, and cousins twice over. In the first chapter of Book One, the Gaffer explains it at the inn in Hobbiton. Primula Brandybuck, the mother of Frodo, was a first cousin of Bilbo on his mother’s side, and Drogo, the father of Frodo, was a second cousin of Bilbo on the Baggins side.5
On the Took side, Belladonna and Mirabella Took were daughters of Gerontius, the Old Took, and Mirabella was the youngest of them. Mirabella married Gorbadoc Brandybuck, and Primula was their daughter.517 On the Baggins side, Bungo and Fosco were first cousins, which makes Bilbo and Drogo second cousins.17 Frodo is one generation further down on both lines.
| Side | Bilbo’s line | Frodo’s line | What Frodo is to Bilbo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baggins | Balbo, Mungo, Bungo, Bilbo | Balbo, Largo, Fosco, Drogo, Frodo | Second cousin once removed |
| Took | Gerontius, Belladonna, Bilbo | Gerontius, Mirabella, Primula, Frodo | First cousin once removed |
Drogo and Primula drowned in a boating accident on the Brandywine, and Frodo, left an orphan, grew up among his mother’s family at Brandy Hall. Bilbo later took him to live at Bag End and made him his heir, and the two shared a birthday. At the party for Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday, Frodo came of age at thirty-three.5 The green arrow from Bilbo to Frodo on the chart is that adoption, drawn beside the two lines of blood.
The Tooks in the Baggins family tree
The Prologue explains that the head of the Took family held the old office of Thain of the Shire.4 Gerontius, the Old Took, married Adamanta Chubb, and Appendix C gives them twelve children. He lived to 130.175
Three of his children join this chart. Belladonna is the mother of Bilbo, Mirabella is the grandmother of Frodo, and their brother Hildigrim is the great-grandfather of Pippin. Hildigrim’s son Adalgrim had a son Paladin and a daughter Esmeralda.17
Paladin married Eglantine Banks, and their son Peregrin Took, called Pippin, is the youngest of the four hobbits who leave the Shire. Esmeralda married into the Brandybucks and became the mother of Merry, so Merry and Pippin are first cousins through Adalgrim.17 In Appendix B Pippin becomes the Took and Thain after his father.16
The Brandybucks beside the Baggins family tree
The Brandybucks live across the Brandywine in Buckland. The fifth chapter of Book One tells how their ancestor took the name Brandybuck and began to dig Brandy Hall, and that the head of the family is the Master of the Hall.7 The Brandybuck tree of Appendix C runs from Gorbadoc and Mirabella through their son Rorimac, called Old Rory, who married Menegilda Goold.17
Rorimac was the brother of Primula, so his son Saradoc was a first cousin of Frodo. Saradoc married Esmeralda Took, and their son Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, is a first cousin of Frodo once removed.17 Merry is the heir of the Master, and in the fifth chapter of Book One he reveals that he, Pippin and Sam have long known about the Ring and mean to go with Frodo.7
In the later years of Appendix B, Merry becomes Master of Buckland and Pippin becomes the Took and Thain, so the Baggins family tree ends with two heads of great Shire families, both grandsons of Adalgrim Took.16
The Sackville-Bagginses and Bag End
Bungo’s brother Longo married Camellia Sackville, and their son Otho took the double name Sackville-Baggins. Otho married Lobelia Bracegirdle, and their son was Lotho.17 Until Bilbo chose Frodo, Otho was the heir to Bag End, and the Sackville-Bagginses never forgave the change.5
At the end of The Hobbit, Bilbo comes home to find himself presumed dead and his goods at auction, with the Sackville-Bagginses already measuring his rooms.3 In the first chapter of Book One he leaves Lobelia a case of silver spoons as his parting gift, and in the third chapter Frodo sells Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses before he leaves the Shire.56
In Book Six Lotho has made himself the Chief of the Shire with the help of Saruman’s men, and after the hobbits rise against the ruffians Saruman reveals that Wormtongue has killed him.14 Lobelia comes out of the Lockholes, where the Chief’s men had shut her up. When she dies the next spring, she leaves her money and Lotho’s to Frodo to help hobbits made homeless by the troubles.1415
The Baggins family tree book by book
Each card gives the changes to the Baggins family tree and its neighbours at the end of a book. Read each one after its book.
Book One
The party and the departure
Spoiler note. The opening chapters.
- Bilbo leaves after his eleventy-first birthday, and Frodo inherits Bag End.
- Frodo sells Bag End to the Sackville-Bagginses and leaves the Shire with Merry, Pippin and Sam.
Book Two
Rivendell
Spoiler note. Bilbo returns to the story.
- Frodo finds Bilbo living at Rivendell.
- At the Council of Elrond Frodo offers to take the Ring to Mordor.
Books Three and Four
The cousins apart
Spoiler note. The Fellowship divides.
- Merry and Pippin travel together, and Frodo goes on toward Mordor with Sam.
- No one on the Baggins family tree dies in these two books.
Book Five
Two oaths
Spoiler note. Merry and Pippin take service.
- Pippin swears service to Denethor, the Steward of Gondor.
- Merry offers his sword to Théoden and becomes an esquire of Rohan.
Book Six
The Scouring and the Havens
Spoiler note. The ending is told in full.
- Lotho dies at the hands of Wormtongue, and Lobelia dies the next spring.
- Bilbo and Frodo sail into the West from the Grey Havens.
Appendix B
The heads of the families
Spoiler note. Years after the novel.
- Merry becomes Master of Buckland.
- Pippin becomes the Took and Thain.
Sources16
How to read this Baggins family tree
A square is a man, a circle is a woman and a cross marks a death. The rings are green for the Bagginses, gold for the Sackville-Bagginses, red for the Tooks and blue for the Brandybucks, and a wife from another family, such as Laura Grubb, stands outside them.
The green arrow from Bilbo to Frodo is the adoption, the orange zigzag is the quarrel of Lobelia over Bag End, and the red zigzag is the rule of Lotho. Each line carries a few words at both ends, one for each side.
To build a Baggins family tree of your own, or to add the brothers and sisters left out here, open the chart in the editor from this page or start from the story charts.
Questions about the Baggins family tree
How are Bilbo and Frodo related on the Baggins family tree
Frodo is the first cousin once removed of Bilbo through their Took mothers and his second cousin once removed through the Bagginses. Bilbo also adopted him as his heir.517
Who are the parents of Frodo Baggins
Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck, who drowned on the Brandywine when Frodo was a child.5
How are Merry and Pippin related to Frodo
Merry is a first cousin of Frodo once removed through Primula’s brother Rorimac. Pippin descends from Hildigrim, a brother of Belladonna and Mirabella, and Merry and Pippin are first cousins.17
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 33 characters on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the 17 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.