Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out, and talk amongst ourselves in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
In keeping with the new posting guidelines, the thread idea is continuing here, as will the Green Dragon Inn, our more structured spin-off thread, as soon as we figure out how to move all the good discussion that has been had there. As for the Hobbit Hole, we will just start fresh, bringing only a few mathoms such as the picture above with us to make it feel like home, and perhaps a walk down memory lane:
Our discussion has been light:
It very well may be that a thread named "New Zealander builds Hobbit hole" will end up being the longest Tolkien thread of them all, with some of the best heartfelt content... Sorry John, but I would have rather it had been one with a more distinguished title!… post 252 - HairOfTheDog
However, I can still celebrate, with quiet dignity, the fact that what started as a laugh about some wacko in New Zealand has mutated and grown into a multifaceted discussion of the art, literature, and philosophy that is Tolkien. And now that I've managed to write the most pompous sentence of my entire life, I agree, Rosie… post 506 - JenB
Hah! I was number 1000!! (Elvish victory dance... wait, no; that would be too flitty) … post 1001 - BibChr
Real men don't have to be afraid of being flitty! Go for it. – post 1011 – HairOfTheDog
Seventeen years to research one mystical object seems a bit excessive… post 1007 - JenB
Okay...who's the wise guy who didn't renew Gandalf's research grant?… post 1024 – Overtaxed
To the very philosophical:
…Judas Iscariot obviously was a good man, or he wouldn't have been chosen to be one of the Apostles. He loved Jesus, like all of the Apostles, but he betrayed him. Yet without his betrayal, the Passion and Crucifixion would never have occurred, and mankind would not have been redeemed. So without his self-destruction infinite good would not have been accomplished. I certainly do not mean this to be irreverant but it seems to me that this describes the character of Gollum, in the scenes so movingly portrayed above… Lucius Cornelius Sulla
To fun but heartfelt debates about the integrity and worth of some of the characters…
…Anyone else notice how Boromir treats the hobbits? He's very fond of them but he seems to think of them as children - ruffling Frodo's hair, calls them all 'little ones'. He likes them, but I don't think he really respects them… post 1536 - JenB
Yes... Tolkien told us not to trust Boromir right off the bat when he began to laugh at Bilbo, until he realized that the Council obviously held this hobbit in high esteem. What a pompous dolt… post 1538 - HairOfTheDog
…I think almost every fault of his can be traced directly back to his blindness to anything spiritual or unseen. He considers the halflings as children, because that is what they look like. He considers the only hope of the ring to be in taking it and using it for a victory in the physical realm. He cannot see what the hobbits are truly made of, he cannot see the unseen hope of what the destruction of the ring might mean--the destruction of Sauron himself, and he cannot see the unseen danger that lies in the use of the ring itself… I just feel sorry for Boromir--he is like a blind but honorable man, trying to take the right path on the road but missing the right path entirely because he simply cannot see it… post 1548 - Penny1
Boromir isn't a jerk, he's a jock… post 2401 – Overtaxed
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Oh, I think by the time Frodo reaches the Cracks, he's not even himself anymore! I think he's not only on the brink of a dangerous place physically, he's on the brink of losing himself completely during the exchange with Gollum. But for some reason, the take-over isn't complete till he actually has to throw the Ring in. The person speaking to Gollum is not Frodo, but the "Wheel of Fire" that Sam sees. After the Ring is destroyed, Frodo not only comes back to himself, but comes back with the unbearable (to him) knowledge of what it's like to be completely without compassion. I think that's why it's so important to him to be compassionate in the Shire… post 2506 - 2Jedismom
…Regarding Frodo's compassion... it's a little too much at the end. Even Merry tells him that he's going to have to quit being so darn nice. But you're right. He's learned a lesson about evil that very few ever learn since it wasn't an external lesson but an internal one. (Those kinds of lessons have the greatest impact) Not only did he totally succumb to it, but he was rather ruthless to my little Smeagol… post 2516 - carton253
Well that Frodo was a big mean bully! (to Smeagol)… post 2519 – Overtaxed
So as you can see, everything JRR Tolkien (and Peter Jackson) is welcome here in our New Row, our soon-to-be familiar New Hobbit Hole…; philosophy, opinion, good talk and frequent silliness.
Hey, I already sprang for the link. ;^)
Hehehe
How about if I buy a new TV and hook up the old one to the computer? I have the S cable adapter and RCA cables....yeah...that'll work!
You may be correct. And look, you snagged the semi-precious without even sneaking...
I wasn't paying attention (but I've explained that over on the daily Ritalin is the Mark of the Beast thread...)
That's why you need to go with the flat panel monitor, space savings.
Or a flatter cat...
Kitty wouldn't like that.
They see each other at Orthnac and I think, although I have no reference handy, that Saruman mentions something about the weed there.
or was I? To sneak, without sneaking, is the secret to mastering sneaking...
You are right of course...I don't remember a pipe weed reference...
Well, you know what they say, if you can remember the 60s you weren't really there...
BTW, Thanks for the streamload hook-up...TTT trailer was awesome, and the FOTR extended sold my wife on waiting till Nov...I let my 6 y/o daughter and 4 y/o son watch the trailer...I think they're hooked...
There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana.
Tolkien was a pipe-smoker and it's annoying that the movie tried to change the image, not because I'm all that apposed to pot smoking (I've said before, I don't mind potheads as much as I do drunks) but because they changed the spirit of the story when they did that.
It rarely happens in the movie that they offend me, so I just look over it as just an annoying little gnat in the great outdoors of the story.
It was also mentioned somewhere, don't ask me where...that Merry and Pippin get drunk with Treebeard. I don't believe that happened in the story and I believe Tolkien would not have written something so vulgar as drunkeness in to this beautiful story. Once again, I will probaby overlook it.
Yes, I caught that line too when the movie first came out, and it struck me as very odd that the writer chose to turn tobacco into something more 'illicit.' And again, it is not my wont to make a HUGE case of it, but it *does* highlight my point about people aside from the actors infusing the story with the idea that all of it was drug induced.
Never once in the story did I get the idea that that the 'halfling leaf' was anything more than a tobacco like substance that the general populace enjoyed on level with food and drink. That's all *I've* ever thought about tobacco, even with its nasty side-effects. Heck, I've been known to smoke a good cigar now and again, especially when I have had a very stressful day. It really does help to smooth out the wrinkles.
I guess technically one could say that tobacco and caffeine are drug items that alter the mind, and in my mind it would make sense that a being like the Istari, whose entire existence is bent on purity of thought, and that even tobacco is considered a corruption of that purity, would make sense for Saruman to say something like that to Gandalf. But I am afraid most of the young set would just conclude that the hobbits are high on weed ie marijuana. which really burns my butt, I guess. They turn their noses and freak out over someone smoking a cigarette or cigar, but think its uber cool to talk about someone getting jacked up on reefer.
Stupid people.
Don't do it too much or it'll give you wrinkles! LOL
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