The Encyclopedia of Arda - Bingo Baggins (original) (raw)
One of Bilbo Baggins’ uncles
The youngest child of Mungo Baggins and Laura Grubb. Bingo was thus the younger brother of Bilbo Baggins' father Bungo, making him one of Bilbo's eleven uncles. He married Chica Chubb, and they had one son, Falco Chubb-Baggins. Born in the year 1264 by the Shire-reckoning (or III 2864), Bingo lived long enough to see his nephew set out on his famous journey into the east, as well as his unexpected return (Bingo would have been 77 years old at the time of the Quest of Erebor).
In the Lord of the Rings as published, Bingo is an extremely minor character (he appears once only, in the genealogies of the Baggins family) but in preliminary versions he - or at least his namesake - was far more important. Indeed, in the early drafts he was not Bilbo's uncle but his son and heir, and it was Bingo who was to have set out on a dangerous journey from the Shire. In early versions, Bilbo was imagined as having had many children, including Bingo, but as the story developed he instead ended his days as a bachelor. So his son Bingo's place was taken by his cousin Frodo instead. Bingo himself was transformed into Bilbo's uncle and relegated to a single mention in the Appendices.
Notes
| 1 | Bingo's name, by all accounts, comes from a family of toy koala bears owned by the Tolkien children, collectively named 'the Bingos'. |
|---|
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 25 August 2015
- This entry is complete
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2015. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.