#Concerning Hobbits

[autistook]

The Fellowship of the Ring - 13/?

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

name a more comforting piece of music than "Concerning Hobbits" by Howard Shore

[pineappleseeker]

"There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same."

— Tolkien

[thekalpar]

A pet peeve that has been bugging me lately is this trend I've noticed online of assuming Hobbit pipeweed is...well. Weed. Jazz Cabbage. Reefer. The Devil's Lettuce. Marijuana. And I think this stems entirely from Saruman's line about how "love of the halflings' leaf has slowed your mind". (Which might be original to the films, it's been a while since I read the books.)

And like...it's not. It's explicitly not. In the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring Tolkien says it's tobacco. The hobbits are basically Victorian country gentlemen which is why they have tomatoes for a full English breakfast and potatoes for fish and chips and tobacco for a good post-meal pipe.

I know it's fairly small in the grand scheme of things, but it vexes me so.

[jack-in-the-pantry]

“If I were a knight of Rohan, capable of great deeds. But I’m not. I’m a Hobbit. And I know I can’t save Middle-Earth. I just want to help my friends. Frodo. Sam. Pippin. More than anything, I wish I could see them again. ”

[sam-not-samwise]

I could go on and on forever about the importance and significance of everyone in Gondor bowing and kneeling to Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

[mushroomates]

samwise gamgee headcanons:

enjoys doing the dishes and folding laundry

love language is quality time or acts of service

likes to give sprouts and seedlings to friends and neighbors

nerd about mushrooms and has a mushroom log growing in his closet

keeps a hoard of ladybugs to deploy at any time

windowsill is lined with old jars and bottles, filled with clippings for propagation

he gives the best slices of pie and best baked cookies to others. will keep “defects” for himself- they taste just as good

favorite cookies are “everything but the kitchen sink” where he throws a bunch of stuff into the bowl (fruit, pretzels, nuts) and puts it into a cookie

has like 80 pillows on every couch/bed/chair

in addition to the 50-something blankets also piled high

“please, have a seat” he says. ha, no. any surface you could possibly settle onto is adorned with elaborate spreads of throws and such.

has a fruitcake that is legit an heirloom. it’s so stale it’s a brick. you can use it as a doorstop, stepping-stool, or a bludgeoning weapon. (note: has been used for all. he once chucked it at a late night visitor. this is how he learned frodo takes late walks at night. this is also how frodo learned that sam has an arm on him)

his great aunt made it forever ago and honestly he doesn’t know if it’s still good. he keeps it around because it’s been with him so long he feels bad throwing it out.

likes pecan pie! goes nuts (pun intended) for it.

roast his own chestnuts, pecans and walnuts. has a strange grudge against macadamia nuts. (almost choked on one as a child)

very cozy. has scarves and mittens and even slippers (GASP) at the ready

likes to watch the rain with a cup of tea for hours on end

takes his tea with honey, two sugars, and cream. it barely counts as tea.

enjoys bubble baths.

guerrilla gardening. sam is a force to be reckoned with on this front. he is a strong advocate for native plants and will gut someone over deforestation.

carries a salt shaker filled with seeds everywhere. kind of just. shakes it around empty plots of land.

has a hostile land grab once a month and slowly expands the baggin’s garden by an inch, until it takes up nearly the whole estate.

has a great misconception about the appropriate amount to discuss you garden with someone. this is because:

he tends to talk about this to frodo, who will listen, good naturedly

frodo also prevents anyone from talking over sam or changing the subject

most hobbits are to polite (passive aggressive) and don’t have the skills to subtly change the subject in a way sam understands

and if he does recognize the effort he will avoid it

likes to try new recipes but at the same time never follows them

knows a great deal about farming hemp. this is because merry and pippin recruited him into their pipeweed shenanigans and now sam has unintentionally created a strain of the good stuff that has hobbits traveling miles to get their hands on

loves his houseplants like children. they have names and backstory and a rich inner life that he has created that could fill a book

is fighting a battle with english ivy at the moment and only slightly loosing it. it’s suffocating the tree outside his house and he’s not very happy with it.

[shoulderscars]

I never liked the whole "musicians understand and love music better than non-musicians" argument, but I (violinist) was playing 'Concerning Hobbits' and...it was so pure. I can't get over the feeling of actually playing it. It beat the feeling of listening to it :')

[worldstoforge]

I am all for the legalization of a certain organic substances that have been proven to have very little side effects in developed brains. I am cool with you, an adult, smoking or ingesting what you need to get through this time in our history (as long as it doesn’t hurt others). Do I personally partake? No. But I’d be an idiot to think that my choices should have anything to do with what goes in your body. You do you.

HOWEVER… it drives me up a friggin wall when people wink wink nudge nudge each other when talking about hobbits smoking pipe weed. Or implying that hobbits are high during 5 of their 7 meals of the day.

For some context, Tolkien was an avid and prolific tobacco smoker. I would say it might have been his third favorite hobby (languages, writing being his first two). The cannabis connection wasn’t truly a thing until the rise in popularity of LoTR in the. 60s and 70s among counter culture groups and rebellions youth especially those that were already indulging in this newer form of smoking.

Tolkien did not write Old Toby to be weed. He wrote it to be a much more deadly and more addictive substance that was very popular during his generation. Ironic as that may be.

Now if you NEED it to be weed for you to enjoy LotR then more power to you, I can’t stop your imagination filling in that blank and I wouldn’t want to if I had that power. In fact I bet even Pete Jackson agrees with you. The magic of a work is that it can be whatever you need it to be. But please stop making it sound like it’s the only interpretation that is available to us and that you are somehow the most clever person in the world for espousing it.

[memoriesofthingspast]

🌻✨🐉

[happy-mokka]

"Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted."

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings

Concerning Hobbits

I've been coming back to this book for more than 3 decades now.

How could I not notice this?

Maybe I first had to reach a certain level of adulthood (not calling it "maturity" on purpose...because 'thou shalt not lie' and stuff...), to finally see:

I. Am. A. Hobbit.

No doubt about that. It all fits too perfectly. The hairy feet are not even mentioned in this quote...

I never identified more with Frodo than today. That good hearted middle-aged (and sooo queer) bachelor.

I'll go have my 2nd breakfast now. It's little past 9 am after all...

[autistook]

The Fellowship of the Ring - 12/?

[boomer-mythology-destroyer]

[werkwerkelizaaa]

Gandalf’s Hobbiton Lecture

When Gandalf had promised her an unforgettable adventure and whisked her far away from the tall elven trees, a visit to the bucolic, idyllic Hobbiton was about the furthest thing from what her imagination had conjured up.

Nevertheless, there she finds herself, stood in front of the most eccentric teacher she has ever studied under.

Which is saying something, because despite their ethereal appearance, some of those elves, as the kids say, be wildin’.

Instead of looking into his eyes as he speaks, she watches his bushy eyebrows move up and down.

"You are not to disrupt their way of living. While they admittedly could use some excitement, this is to come from your nature and not any deliberate actions. Learn all that you can from them while you are here. They have much more to teach than you might think at first glance. Do try not to offend, and be respectful. Now, off you go!" Gandalf punctuates this ramble with an abrupt shooing motion.

Eryneth crosses her arms with an inquisitive head tilt.

“But what will you be doing then--" "Important wizard things, none of your concern,” Gandalf brushes her off as he herds her out the door.

Eryneth jolts as the door shuts with a bang behind her, then hears a muffled noise that is undoubtedly Gandalf hitting his head on the low ceiling once again.

She rolls her head to one side, then the other, and stretches out her arms.

The people here seem to be so unflinchingly happy, it’s almost suspicious. Might as well see what all that’s about, then.

[alightindarkplaces]

Hobbits are generally darker of complexion and usually have dark hair- brown and black being most common, though some are lighter in both skin and hair. Being that they were, long ago, three distinct peoples who eventually came together, they have a lot of variety in their looks, aside from the few key features that they're known for: curls, no beards, large feet with wooly hair. They also tend to have more body hair, especially in the lower half, with less on their chests than your average man. Freckles are also very common.

When mixed with other races, they do not produce hybrids, but rather their children tend to come out as whatever other race they're coupled with. Unfortunately, the halfling gene is recessive.

[sam-not-samwise]

It has been so long since I have read The Hobbit, so I don’t remember if this is already canon, but in my head, the reason the Hobbits eat so often is less of a gluttony and more of a “oh fuck our silly lil metabolisms are so damn fast, i need something hearty STAT,” which then evolved into a culture that prioritizes and maximizes the efficiency of gastronomy.