Character of the Week

Fredegar “Fatty” Bolger

Last week we honored Merry Brandybuck with the Character of the Week title. This week we’re honoring a lesser known Hobbit, but one who was still helpful to Frodo and his journey.

Fredegar Bolger was a good friend of Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Folco. They’d spend a lot of their time together and when Frodo was deciding to leave Bag End, Fatty was there to help. He went ahead early, along with Merry to Crickhollow to get the house situated while Frodo wanted to wait a little longer for Gandalf to arrive.

When Frodo finally made it to Crickhollow, and the Conspirators revealed themselves, Fatty had a role to play as well. He was to stay behind in Crickhollow and pretend to be Frodo, for as long as possible. So it was, that when Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo left for Bree, Fatty was left alone in Crickhollow. There was a certain knowledge that the Black Riders would eventually catch up to Frodo and the other Hobbits, but I don’t think Fatty expected them to burst through the door of Crickhollow.

To Fatty’s credit, he hadn’t just cowered in fear, as soon as the Black Riders were surrounding Crickhollow he snuck away, ran to the nearest house, and (once he calmed down) alerted the residents that enemies were in Buckland. All the Hobbits in the area were called to arms to defend their land.

It was, however, too late, the Black Riders mounted their horses and rode away with speed.

Fatty played his part for now, no longer were the residents of the Shire unwary that enemies were abroad. He also played a chief role later on in the story, but we’ll get to that part later.

Thank you for your time, we hope you join us as we celebrate Fredegar Bolger this week.

Remember, all that is gold does not glitter.

– The Wandering One