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.
Oh please DON'T, LCS. I enjoy your 'history lessons' and pass them on to my kids. We start our 'Classical Education' in Feb. after finishing Amer. History. We'll begin with the Ancients, then go through Medieval, Renaissance and Modern eras over the next 4 years. I love History, so I'll be learning along with the kids because there is a lot of this stuff I never learned before I graduated from high school 31 yrs. ago! AARGH! Has it REALLY been that long? Seems like only yesterday!
Amen to that.
Our town is having an observance tonight at 5pm, which will include an Ecumenical Prayer service. I'll definitely include the hankies!
I first heard that verse of the Star Spangled Banner after Sir SuziQ and I had married and moved to FL. You remember how TV stations would sign off at night with that song? On the local PBS station in Tallahassee, the signoff was two women, one playing guitar, who sang that last verse. They broke into harmony on the phrase above, and it was one of the loveliest renditions of our National Anthem that I have ever heard! It still makes me fahklempt to hear it today!
I believe our cause is just, though much of the world does not agree. Too bad for them, but we ARE filled with righteous anger which will turn into cold rage as the time goes on and we continue to be threatened. We do need to remember always to ask God to Bless our nation, though, and we need to act in a manner that would serve HIM. That doesn't mean we don't need to exact justice on those who supported and supplied the perpetrators of 9/11, it just means we need to identify and make sure who it is we need to target. I frankly think Saddam is knee-deep in it, so I have no problem with Pres. Bush going after him. Saddam will continue to be a menace to ALL his neighbors as long as he lives.
Sounds like you have just about everyting you need!
Walgreen's Evacuated Because of Suspicious Truck in Palm Bay, FL
"All I need is my life and my husband....and this ashtray...that's all..."
I mean no disrespect, but laughter is also healing. I hope you agree.
...and this chair, and nothing else...
I'll skip the ashtray, but you can add chocolate ice cream instead.
Maybe the cd player, and cd's to go with that. Oh and my kitty... LOL
Thanks for trying to lighten the mood. I need laughter right now with the documentary playing.
Yep, don't forget the family pet. Unlike that Freeper who lost the family cat while the wife and kids were gone...
I was dressed to leave the house and go to Seattle for a commute day, when the *BREAKING NEWS* banner came on the television as I walked around gathering my things. The live shot showed one of the WTC towers with black smoke billowing.
I called the beach house to talk to my Dad and my brother, as is my habit with serious breaking news, and told them to turn on the TV... They didn't have the TV on, they didn't know about it...
I tried to fill them in: "Well, there has been an accident, apparently a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York... I don't know what kind of plane... Yes, it is a very big deal. How will they ever put out a fire that high up? - How many people are above the fire and trapped? - I don't know. It's bad."
We watched from different channels and tried to figure it out. Still just kind-of ogling at an apparent freak accident far away from us.
Dad and I stayed on the phone, while the talking heads kept talking, who knows what they were talking about. Whatever it was, they were wrong. We were all wrong.
I saw the second plane, silently approaching the buildings and bursting into orange flame. "What the HELL?" All my assumptions and expectations of the kinds of things that could reasonably happen in this world turned upside-down. This was no accident.
Some time over the next few minutes Dad and I watched, together over phone lines, sometimes switching and talking to my brother… pulling our thoughts together. I don't know what they were doing, but I was standing 2-feet in front of the television, staring. Hoping that the black box would tell me what the hell was going on. I was glued to it.
They were grounding all the aircraft in the entire US. All planes had to head to the nearest airport and get on the ground. As the authorities and the media scrambled to account for all the planes, some were missing. Maybe as many as eight planes were missing or not communicating. Assumed hijacked. Where were they going to hit? – This isn't over!
"Did they just say a plane crashed into the Pentagon?" "No… they are confused. Airhead reporter meant trade center, or you heard wrong. The crashes are in New York." So many images were flashing before me. It was all happening very fast.
At some point I hung up with my Dad and called my boss at home. She was still getting dressed to go into the office. She wasn't watching the news either. I told her as briefly as I could what was going on.
"I do not want to be in Seattle today." I said from my safe compound in the country. "I understand. Stay home if you want." Our office, literally in the shadow of the Space Needle. Would the Space Needle be a target? – No. There were much bigger buildings in Seattle. The Columbia Center. Traffic is at a standstill on a good day. If something happened… I would not be able to get out of the city. "They are evacuating other big buildings, Jen… are you going in?" Yes… she was. I couldn't understand that. Our work is not THAT important. "Ok…" I said… talk to you later."
I don't even know if I came to Free Republic right away, or if I posted here at all that day. I had only been registered here a month. I didn't have friends here.
I returned to a "Pets" chat room where I used to hang out and had friends. It is an live chat space at Pogo games. A place where I used to go and kill time talking about dogs and horses. My friends were there, and we sat sometimes typing nothing, or short disjointed phrases. I spent a lot of time just staring, I know that. One of our friends was posting from her apartment in lower Manhatten. Four blocks from the WTC. She said they might evacuate her building. She was disabled, in a wheelchair. I later heard that her power went out when the WTC buildings came down. She had rolled out to the stairwell, since the elevators were out, and waited with her service dog until someone came to help them get out.
Over the next week or so, I went to that Pets chat site less often, finding the talk there less satisfying and finding FreeRepublic more engaging for the issues that were now so important.
I posted an essay a couple weeks after, How do we end terrorism without being impolite to Muslims? – a vanity… a presumptuous thing to do for a newbie, but it felt good to say, and no one gave me a hard time.
And then I began to find threads about the upcoming movie Fellowship of the Ring. It had been a few years since I had read those books. Lots of people were really into it. We started debating little things like whether Balrogs really had wings, and whether hobbits had funny pointed ears. Whether Arwen was going to join the Fellowship in the movie. The pictures from the movie looked neat. Perhaps the movie would actually be worthy of the books. Better than those horrid cartoons had been.
It was a grand diversion, that movie. A nice place to turn to where the players had integrity and valor and where the outcome was known. And I found so many good people here. Screen names became personalities, and all of you became my friends. I treasure all of you, for your humor, your caring and your love of country.
God Bless America, and if I am not asking too much Lord, God Bless The Hobbit Hole!
Well, that was long-winded, but that is how I remember it. Something happened far away, and happened to me as well, that day. And it changed my year. I think it brought me here.
Ginsu Hobbit.
But I think landing here in The Hobbit Hole is also home for me on FR. It had been almost 25 years since I'd read LOTR. I'd always considered it a favorite, just never picked it back up. The movie, and probably moreso The Hobbit Hole, changed that.
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