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.
Or you can get your own Dwarf axe and head out there some night after dark and.....
I'd say both. We wouldn't want to be shine-snobs.
But I still may contact the owner. People in the neighborhood have put their brush and leaves back there on that lot for years (20+). It's a fire trap also...
Bye now.
That's why I'm giving my kids a year and a half to do US History. The younger one has a 10 book set which he's about halfway through (he's in the middle of the Civil War) and our daughter is using an AP US History text and study guides, but is not going to take the AP test. I may have her do the CLEP tests, though, because this text exactly mirrors the time frames covered by that program.
In Feb. or March, they'll both start their classical sequence with the study of Ancient History.
We thought about pursuing a classical homeschool education starting this year, but we got intimidated. ;^)
And one for the man-loving horse-fanciers, or horse loving man-fanciers!
There are other new ones too.... I am not yet enamored with Eomer. I don't think I am gonna have a new love there. Ladies? What do you think of him?
He needs to brush his hair.
Dunno....I'll have to see him in action first.
Home economics?
Yeah... that would be fair! There is just something about him that looks odd to me. I can't put my finger on it.
Most of the times we see him, he has his face covered by that nosepiece thingy on his helmet. The only times I've seen him without the helmet, his hair is all mussed up and he looks rather grim. I'll have to see how he interacts with the other "friendlies."
Would it make good fire-wood? Or do y'all have to worry about laying in wood for the winter in Richmond?
Oh Don't be! The first book I read on the subject was "The Well Trained Mind" and THAT was intimidating! But we use some ideas from it, especially their reading lists and suggested curricula for Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary and Writing, etc.
Our kids are both going to use a different Classical curricula called TRISMS. I like it because it is all laid out for us and the kids do the research, etc. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. The younger one(7th gr.) will do a World History sequence in a year and a half. It is called "History Makers", and it will concentrate on the study of History by looking at Scientists, Explorers and Inventors. Our daughter(9th gr.) will begin the high school sequence with "Discovering the Ancient World" and will study all kinds of civilations like the Sumerians, Babylonians, Ancient Japan and China, and the usual Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. Both programs employ the use of historical fiction in the reading program to bolster what is being learned from the research into the period. You can check it out at www.trisms.com. The instructions for making the link are no longer on the post wimdow, so I don't remember how to do it!
But if your kids are young, the main thing is to just expose them to lots of stuff! As I said, "The Well Trained Mind" is intimidating, but you don't HAVE to do all of that for your kids to be well educated. In fact, they said it is likely that not everyone would do it all and that's ok! See if you can get the book from your library. The authors are Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. It is a wonderful sequence for putting everything in its proper historical perspective.
Everything is customizable, colors, fonts, sizes, everything. The big blank spot is where the text will go. It's a textarea object. The good points to this is that spacing will be picked up automatically. However, you cannot use HTML formatting inside the area, so you don't get italics, underlines, or font headings. If you want those you'd need a more complicated design, which I can do.
So, what do you all think? I can give more info on the structure you'd need if desired.
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