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.
Wonder if PJ is gonna use it. We could send it to Howard Shore.... 
I'd rather have a brain tumor than that song in my head.
Must have been powerfully close on some of the questions, because on the one where Frodo dropped the ring, I said I'd give it back!
Here is a picture of me after a week at the beach: 
Of course if you took the picture today, I'd be peeling...
Wow, lots of postses while I was gone. Let's see if I can catch up:
LCS/OT: Thanks for looking for me in the pictures. Sorry I wasn't in any of them. Didn't make it to the pier.
OT/Sam Cree: No, we didn't take the dog to the beach. He went to the doggie spa. My brother doesn't allow pets at his rental house (we think a wise move). And after packing the van we would've had to choose between taking one of the kids or taking the dog. That would've been a tough decision at the time, but not so tough at the end of the week!
2Jedismom: We already have a library that serves coffee. It's called "Barnes & Noble."
OT: Congrats on the quadruple precious!
Sam Cree: If you're driving from Florida to Upstate New York, wave when you pass thru Richmond!
TN Republican: 
g'nad et al: If we're singing at the Entmoot, I'm "technically" a baritone, but I currently sing first tenor. Comes from singing in a lot of small churches where there were no other tenors. Just don't schedule the concert too early in the a.m.
Hair: We once had a kitten we called "Foster" because his mother was hit by a car when he was only four weeks old. We adopted him and fed him with a baby doll bottle.
rightwingreligiousfanatic: We make you kindly welcome. (bonus points if you can identify that RWRF reference). ;-)
THAT SAID:
All in all it was a pretty good week. Here are the "highlights."
Of course we got a later start than planned, but I resolved not to get flapped. However, when a three and a half hour trip turned into Six Hours we were all more than a little irritable. (OT, know the bridge on Currituck Sound? - we spent an hour there). Trip home today was much more pleasant (although somewhat sad).
We spent a lot of time on the beach, but also did some playing. Kinda hard to do since we have to account for the little one. But we took turns playing miniature golf with the older one, etc. and that worked out okay.
Weather was hot and clear. The ocean was rather calm. No sharks, but lots of jelly fish in the sound. Our house was on the sound side.
I got most of my reading accomplished: I finished A Wrinkle in Time, Bias, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Return of the King (but not the appendices). I also got through the first session of my online seminar class (the reading part, still have to write the essay), read part of "The Well Fed Writer" and decided that's not the route for me and organized my notes for my novel.
All in all, a good week. Not a great one, but a good one. We managed to not get on each other's nerves too much. But there were times when I wanted to tell all three of 'em to stop whining. (of course I guess that would've been whining...)
Now, on to more important things:
Cute child thing: The little one was going around the house tonite saying "Can you hear me now?....Good...." It's cute tonite, tomorrow we'll regret it...
QUESTIONS:
Like I said, I finished ROTK. We also watched FOTR while we were at the beach. I have a question about kingsfoil. Aragorn sends the hobbits looking for it when Frodo is wounded in the movie. He says something like "this is beyond my powers of healing." BUT, when Eowyn and Merry are injured he calls for kingsfoil (and perhaps uses it for Faramir too?). Is that an "oops" in the movie? Or is there a subtle difference I'm just missing.
And a computer question: I downloaded Quicktime for the Bogart movie. But I have trouble running it on my machine. It's a Packard Bell "Legend Supreme" (don't laugh, we had the credit on the Sears card), and I'm running Windows 98. Everything I try to run on Quicktime is very choppy. Problem is I can't seem to run anything else. It's like Quicktime has eaten all my other media programs. I uninstalled it, but it didn't go away so I downloaded it again and have the same problem. I'm computer illiterate (thus the Packard Bell...). Any clues or suggestions?
Okay that's a long enough post for now...
For your injury question, the wounds were different. Frodo was injured by a Morghul blad and was becoming a wraith. Faramir and Eowyn had different wounds.
Wow, I had a nice evening! Went up to school, hung, talked religion, and it's Saturday tomorrow! Yippee!
I thought that was it. But I just didn't remember the reference to kingsfoil in FOTR (the book). Gee, looks like I'll need to read it again...
Okay...you asked for it! Bilbo Baggins
Not really an oops! Aragorn goes off to collect athelas for Frodo when he's stabbed by the Morgul blade. He puts them in hot water and bathes Frodo's shoulder with it. When Eowyn and Merry are injured, he asks Ioreth for athelas but she doesn't recognize the name. "Kingsfoil" is the common name for athelas.
Jen kinda cleared it up with the different kind of wound thing. It just threw me when in the movie he said "this is beyond my powers of healing..."
On a side note, do we know yet who plays Ioreth? She's gonna be interesting...
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