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Dates
Race
Culture
Family
Pronunciation
Usually kamee'lee-a2
Meaning
Named for the flowering shrub Camellia

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About this entry:

  • Updated 23 April 2023
  • This entry is complete

Camellia Sackville

One of Bilbo Baggins’ aunts

The titular head of the Sackville family of Hobbits, whose marriage to Longo Baggins formed the foundation of the Sackville-Baggins family. Longo was the younger brother of Bungo, who was in turn the father of Bilbo Baggins, and so Camellia was Bilbo's aunt. We do not know Camellia's date of birth, but based on that of her husband Longo, she would have been about thirty years older than Bilbo (that is, she would probably have been in her eighties when he set out on his journey to the Lonely Mountain).

Camellia's status as head of the Sackville family passed to her son Otho Sackville-Baggins. Though the title had little real relevance, Otho nonetheless nurtured an ambition to also inherit the headship of the Baggins family, and thus become the formal head of two families at the same time. This was not an impossible hope, because the head of Bagginses was Bilbo, but Bilbo was childless, and Otho was his natural heir. When Bilbo disappeared into the Wild with Thorin and Company, Otho imagined that he had succeeded in melding his inheritance from Camellia with that from Bilbo. However, Bilbo's unexpected return from the Quest of Erebor, and his later adoption of Frodo Baggins as his heir, effectively put an end to the high ambitions of Camellia's son Otho.


Notes

1

We are not given Camellia's dates. The dates shown here are those of her husband Longo Baggins, but presumably Camellia's own dates were at least comparable.

2

At least, the flower name Camellia is typically pronounced with a long 'e' sound in its second syllable. A pronunciation with a short 'e' (so the name begins as in the animal 'camel') is also occasionally used, and is not considered to be incorrect.

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About this entry:

  • Updated 23 April 2023
  • This entry is complete

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