LOTRO Baggins Birthday Event

LOTRO Baggins Birthday Event Guide | Gaffer's List | Map

Every September, LOTRO takes time to celebrate Baggins’ Birthday, especially on the 22nd of the month. To anyone familiar with the lore of The Lord of the Rings will know that Bilbo and his nephew Frodo share the same birthday and so both can be enjoyed. And hopefully it’ll go better than the eleventy-first event at the Party Tree with the disappearing Hobbit trick! In this guide, I’m going to first cover the Shire part of Bilbo’s Birthday, as it’s accessible to all players of all levels.

I have now also added The Forgotten Birthday, which all players can do, so long as you take a little care!

When is Baggins’ Birthday 2023?

From 20th September from 2pm GMT (10am /servertime) to 26th September at 7am GMT (3am /servertime).

How to Start Baggins Birthday

As with many other LOTRO Events in the Calendar, Baggins’ Birthday is auto-bestowed. So, you need to look for the prompt on the right of the screen.

However, you’ll need to travel to Rivendell.

Travel Requirements

The Bilbo part takes place mostly in The Shire. However, Frodo is in the Last Homely House in Rivendell. If your character has not reached Imladris yet, you have a few options:

Ask for Travel

You may be able to ask in World Chat for a Hunter to port you there. They will invite you to Fellowship to make this possible. Be sure to thank the person who goes out their way to help you!

Trollshaws Stables

If you have made it to Ost Guruth in the Lone-Lands, then you’re not far from the border with the Trollshaws. Consider using LOTRO Plugins to help you, such as StableGuy to find the best route. Once you’ve got to a Trollshaws stable, use that to go to Rivendell and/or the Last Homely House.

Run/Ride There

Trollshaws is a L35-40 region. If you have yet to visit Rivendell and you are under that level you can try to get there on foot or on a mount. This is technically achievable, as any Chicken playersExternal Link (Opens in New Window/Tab) will tell you. But beasts especially stray near to the paths, so reaching Rivendell this way is a last resort!

Travel Tips from Twitter

…once you reach lvl 20 you can pick up the Road to the Lonely MountainExternal Link (Opens in New Window/Tab) quest from Gandalf at the Prancing Pony, which will immediately transport you to Rivendell. Speak to the stable master there to get the travel location.

And then cancel the quest so you can talk to Gandalf again to repeat the free port.😁


Bilbo Baggins’ Birthday

The whole of this event takes place over various quests. It’s aim is not the reward, but the journey – to which I wholeheartedly approve! These are:

  1. Frodo’s Request
  2. Gaffer’s List
  3. Bilbo’s Present

Most of your time will be spent on Gaffer’s List, which is where you collect stories about Bilbo.

Frodo’s Request

Reminiscent of the end of Shadows of Angmar where you have to keep going back to Elrond in Rivendell, Baggins’ Birthday starts with Frodo in Imladris. He sends you back to the Shire and you’ll need to return to the Last Homely House to complete the quest! Frodo’s Request is just the opener – like a summons I suppose. That Hobbit will then move you onto the main quest: Gaffer’s List.

Gaffer’s List

Once you’ve spoken to Frodo, he sends you to Gaffer Gamgee in Hobbiton. He will suggest people to gather stories from about Bilbo Baggins to put together into a book of sorts. All good, so far?

The Title Chronicler title deed has twelve parts, and apparently all the NPC Hobbits are active all of the time.

Don’t Rush

If this is your first time, please read the stories rather than racing yourself to complete the event. There are twelve and they’re all only a few short paragraphs each. There are some real gems in there, like the Riders of Roger!

LOTRO Gaffer Gamgee on Bagshot Row

Where Are All the NPCs?

Here is a map of the Shire, showing where all the Hobbits you need to speak to can be found.

4. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins at Bag End

Bag End: 29.4S, 71.3W

5 & 9: Storyteller and Child

Both the “Child” and “Storyteller” are round the corner in the Ivy Bush.

The Ivy Bush Inn (34.1S, 71.1W)

6. Hal Hornblower

Hal Hornblower in Hobbiton

31.5S, 71.2W

7. Bogo Chubb

Bogo changes his appearance, by the way. Something to do with a change they made to make Stablemasters roughly 50/50 Male/Female in Middle-Earth, I think.


31.5S, 71.2W (Stable-master)

8. Lotho Sackville-Baggins

Lotho Sackville-Baggins at Bag End

Bag End, 29.4S, 71.3W

10. Hereward Loamsdown

Hereward Loamsdown at the Ivy Bush in Hobbiton

The Ivy Bush Inn (34.1S, 71.1W)

11. Holly Hornblower

Holly Hornblower

31.2S, 71.1W

12. Postman Grubb

Postman Grub in Hobbiton

31.2S, 71.3W


The Collected Stories



I’ve put screenshots of the collected stories into the next tab. They are spoilers if you’ve never run this event. If you’re on a larger screen just keep scrolling to avoid seeing them. On smaller and mobile devices, jump to Deliver the Stories to Frodo Baggins to skip past them!


Return to Gaffer Gamgee

Don’t forget this part! The Gaffer has the follow-on quest you need to be able to complete the event.

Deliver the Stories to Bilbo Baggins

Once you’ve completed your task and spoken with Gaffer Gamgee, go to Bilbo in Rivendell to complete this stage of Baggins Birthday.


Bilbo’s Present

Bilbo is in the Hall of Fire, just across the hall in the Last Homely House. I’ll let you read Bilbo’s reactions yourself!

That said, his speech-bubble comments could be different between characters. LOTRO-Wiki has a list of all the reactions he could have hereExternal Link (Opens in New Window/Tab).

Bilbo's Present Quest Reward - Scribe's Bookstand Housing Decoration

(Bilbo) Baggins’ Birthday Rewards

The Forgotten Birthday

It was only last year that I realised there was a second part to Baggins’ Birthday. But it’s not obvious unless you’ve visited the location already. The Forgotten Birthday quest starts in Lake-Town in Eryn Lasgalen. While the enemies around the paths are Level 115, they are avoidable and anyone of any level can complete this quest, if you can get there. I’ll try to summarise the journey points and leave the storytelling up to the NPCs.

The Premise

Unlike the Baggins Birthday main quest where you are collecting random stories, The Forgotten Birthday is specific. You’re asking about the events around the death of Smaug the Dragon and Thorin Oakenshield’s company. There is a fair amount of travelling for this one – and that is a good thing! This is especially true if you’ve never been to this area before, which was the case for me.





The Forgotten Birthday – Quest Rewards

As well as whatever standard XP you receive, there are two additional rewards:

  • Legendary Item XP Legendary Item XP
  • Title Title: either
    • Birthday Girl, or
    • Birthday Boy

TL;DR Which Baggins Birthday is it? Why, both of course!

Even if you’re a low-level character you can at least run the part for Frodo about Bilbo Baggins’ birthday. If you can make it to Lake-town then you can enjoy The Forgotten Birthday too. Either way, this is about celebrating someone else’s birthday, so enjoy it for the story and quest writing. Bilbo is Eleventy-One again, so have fun in Middle-Earth!


About the Author

Fibro Jedi
Fibro Jedi

I have been playing MMOs for about ten years and began writing guides to The Lord of the Rings Online in 2017. I've only been creating content about Final Fantasy XIV since 2022, but I am glad for the mix. My current games include LOTRO, FFXIV and the occasional Palia session too.

LOTRO Posts | FFXIV Posts | Please support me on Ko-Fi Donate Coffee | Author Page


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