The Hobbit-Hole

A Legacy Project at Magnalia Homestead & Farm

Context

Magnalia Homestead Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established to be a welcoming shelter and beacon of hope for people. Magnalia hosts community-creating experiences, offers “soul care hospitality,” and curates related educational and ministry programs on its 12-acre property in North Carolina. Nearly 2,500 guests visited the Magnalia grounds this past year for retreats, events, community meals and respite – they came to experience gospel-centered homestead life in what has become a kind of Parish Village. The development vision is animated by a “theology of place” – each venue is connected to “history, literature, and the theology behind it all.” The Hobbit-hole will be the crown jewel of the property’s Western Front, anchoring community activity there for guests at Camp Paradiso, for visitors to the natural amphitheater already roughed into the forest, and for the envisioned Parish Chapel.

Vision

The Hobbit-hole will host a unique and diverse band of people who help one another contend for Good in the context of a legendary place that reminds each guest of “our citizenship in another Country.” J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, stir up this sense of pilgrimage.

Uses of the Venue

The Hobbit-hole will be used for four primary purposes, all connected to an anticipated weekly calendar of activity. Tuesday and Thursday nights will be pub nights, with one of the Hobbit-hole’s curators convening a group each night and facilitating readings and discussion connected to literature and Scripture with an invited group of members and guests. Wednesday nights are for small group gatherings, including youth and parent-youth groups. Weekend nights are for events – including amphitheater concerts – or for guest overnights. On Monday nights, the space will rest and get a deep cleaning. This rhythm will be punctuated by podcast interviews with special guests here, “Live from the Hobbit-hole.”

Design Inspiration

The Hobbit-hole will be designed to reflect (outside and in) the main features of a hobbit-hole as brought to life by Peter Jackson in his filming of the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Envisioned design elements include a large and colorful circular wooden door, two rounded windows, a two-sided (open) stone fireplace, two seating booths, handmade tables sized to create group or intimate seating arrangements, painted plaster-and-timber walls, aged wood from surrounding forests used in distressed post and beam construction, a crafted pub-style bar, locally-made pottery and black smithed ironworks, and a hidden murphy bed. Plus, Starlink WIFI and a world-class podcast setup will capture the ambience for interview sessions produced “Live from The Hobbit-hole.” Preliminary architectural renderings are included below.

Experience

Of a Hobbit-hole, Tolkien wrote: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” Magnalia’s Hobbit-hole, we expect, will attract special guests from around the world, as has Walden Cabin and Narnia House. Classic Hobbit pub fare will be served: soups, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, breads and jams, fresh vegetables, wood-fired pizza, cobblers – together with assorted teas, coffee, and craft (kegged) root beer and ales. Food service will come from a permanent Italian oven and stew pot a few dozen yards away. Across from the Hobbit-hole there will be an outside fire pit and Adirondack chairs. Parking for vehicles will be just out of sight from the Hobbit-hole. Enclosed porta johns will likewise be just ‘round the corner. There will be electricity, but no well or plumbing.

Budget, Funding & Sustainability Model

In addition to donations made to pay for the work already completed (i.e., for the clearing, grading and roadwork paid for by the Foundation and a project patron to date), the remaining budget estimate for the Hobbit-hole construction is $68,800. Of that amount, we are proposing to raise $5,000 each from four “Honorary Inn Proprietors.” A donor has agreed to match these four gifts. The balance of the funding requirements will be raised by “Hobbit-hole Founding Members” who we will ask to contribute a one-time gift of $500 for a lifetime membership, and from a group of “Hobbit-hole Patrons” who we will ask to donate $250 for a two-year membership, Ongoing Hobbit-hole Members (other than Inn Proprietors or Founding Members) will be asked to contribute annual dues of $100/year to remain active Hobbit-hole Members. Proceeds from overnight lodger rentals via AirBNB and VRBO and food and beverage sales for weekly and special events will also help support the ongoing upkeep of The Hobbit-hole. All contributions (including food and beverage sales) will be made to the Foundation, which will be responsible for all costs of operation and maintenance.

Legacy Return on Investment

If the Lord grants it, our prayer is that The Hobbit-hole will be a place for lifetime memories, for stories shared and remembered, for fellowship that transcends time: for pilgrims reminded that to live is to remember that there are things worth dying for, and that place matters – but no place more than that “far off Country for which we have been made” – a place “west of West, where night is quiet and sleep is rest.”

All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.