Our story begins:
Fellowship of the Ring
PROLOGUE – Concerning Hobbits and other matters
We begin our story in the year 1401, according to the Shire reckoning, 59 years after Bilbo returns home from the adventure recounted in The Hobbit. Some history and events concerning hobbits and their habits are told in the Prologue. I think many would agree with my humble opinion that to fully adore our hobbits and their character, you cannot skip The Hobbit.
BOOK 1
Chapter I – A Long-Expected Party
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar, and had been the wonder of the Shire for sixty years, ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected return. The riches he had brought back from his travels had now become a local legend, and it was popularly believed, whatever the old folk might say, that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels stuffed with treasure. And if that was not enough for fame, there was also his prolonged vigour to marvel at. Time wore on, but it seemed to have little effect on Mr. Baggins. At ninety he was much the same as at fifty. At ninety-nine they began to call him well-preserved; but unchanged would have been nearer the mark. There were some that shook their heads and thought this was too much of a good thing; it seemed unfair that anyone should possess (apparently) perpetual youth as well as (reputedly) inexhaustible wealth.
“It will have to be paid for,” they said. “It isn’t natural, and trouble will come of it!”…
OK, I'll stick in my two cents...one thing I've always loved about the first chapter is how it is, to pretty great extent, written from the hobbits' perspective. We really get a feel for how they like their comfort, their familiar country, and how by nature they dislike change and "adventure". It sets up the next part of the story, so that in a way, we are, like Gandalf, surprised at how quickly they can make up their minds and act when they really need to.
It is easy to see pre-World War I England in both the Shire and the Hobbits. Things valued by rural England at the turn of the century are the same things valued by hobbits -- love of land, love of family, love for one another, and love of king and country. (In the Shire, the head of each family represents the king)
The danger England faced in both wars parallels the danger faced by the Shire. The reaction of Tolkien and his boyhood friends to that danger mirrors the reaction of Hobbits when confronted by the same danger. Both the soldier in the trenches of France and the Hobbits face a superior enemy with resolve and courage. They summon up strength they do not know they possess and do what has to be done to defend their home.
But in the first chapter, as we prepare for the party, we see the Hobbits and the Shire without the stormclouds of war on the horizen. What occupies their time are silly things. A birthday party, gossip, strained relations, and greedy relatives.
After 9/11, a columnist wrote that the last decade found America consumed with "petty" things. After 9/11, that changed. Everything was different. New definitions were imposed. (For example: now when I think of heros, I think of firefights and policemen running to their deaths at the WTC. I think of passengers calling home to say I love you before overpowering hi-jackers and driving a plane into the ground)
The Shire doesn't have the jadedness that '90's America had because Tolkien did not know those times. Instead it has the ease of country living. The values and the things that would preoccupy a society before "war and modernization" drove away the innocence and replaced it with cynicism.
In the first chapter, we see the Hobbits untried by danger, terror, fear, and war. When the important things in life was whether you would be invited to the big party or not.
That will change. The crucible of events will break them open and expose what lies at the heart of the race...but that is a future they can't even envision. In Chapter 1... the ring is just a bauble to make you invisible so you can hide from the Sackville-Baggins, Bilbo is 111, Frodo is 33, and Gandalf has come to visit.
I believe Tolkien himself said it was loosely based on historical events.
I feel that the first chapter was not only an introduction to Middle-Earth for the non-initiated, but also an introduction to the Kuduk culture for those who had only read The Hobbit before. Tolkien establishes early on that Bilbo, as much as we loved him from the previous work, was very much different from his fellow Hobbits, and so this was a look at Hobbiton, in particular, up close. We see the personal politics, get a feel for the government, understand the Hobbits suspiscion for outsiders, all from this first chapter. Those who have problems later on telling Merry and Pippin apart (Why, they are as different as a Took and a Brandybuck!), have not read the first chapter carefully. I believe the good Professor wanted to flesh out this simple and healthy people, and he has a very good start in the first chapter.
Bump
As we know, Bilbo is turning 111 and Frodo will be 33. Aragorn is 70, Boromir is 23, Sam is 18, Merry is 19, Pippin is 11, Gimli is 222, and Legolas's age is unknown.
Sauron made a secret return to Mordor 59 years ago. Gollum hasn't been captured yet, so Sauron still thinks that the ring is at the bottom of the Anduin.
Saruman has had designs on the ring for the last 150 years. He still hides from the rest of the White Council that the knows where the ring was lost, and has been secretely searching for it.
Smeagol, AKA Gollum, first found the ring 538 years ago.
Gondor has been without a king for 1051 years.