The New Hobbit Hole

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The New Hobbit Hole
Concerning Hobbits
The New Hobbit Chronicles

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.

[SuziQ]

Thanks for that great HTML site, OT. Everything I wanted to know in one place!!

[Overtaxed]

I wanted to post that table with the colors and the hexcodes, but it wasn't an image and I was too lazy to mess with it last night.

[RMDupree]

Speaking of biscuits, how about those anise cookies? They are crispy on the outside and cakey on the inside.

I was also thinking of those egg biscuit cookies, but they are too light colored to be like lembas.

[HairOfTheDog]

They look too crunchy - like a cracker.

Cornbread.... think thin cornbread!

[RMDupree]

That's what happens with a dial up 56k. :(

[2Jedismom]

Ok, the elves called it cake...Gimli refered to it once as being better than "honey-cake" but Tolkien refered to it as a wafer, more thank cake. Sometimes elf-cakes.

I maintain that "wafer" was the primary word used by Tolkien and only the "characters" called them cakes, because they didn't know a better word for them...

[2Jedismom]

Gimli broke off a "crisp corner", though...

[SuziQ]

the Bothy Band

I like the Bothy Band and Planxty. Both were featured on the folk show we used to hear in NJ. That was our first real intro to Celtic and British folk music. We enjoyed Steeleye Span and Clannad, but liked the mostly instrumental stuff too.

[Overtaxed]

'Nilla Wafers....snack of the Elves.

[Corin Stormhands]

And we all know that Elves couldn't have been muching on that!

You beat me to it!

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, cornbread, when it is thin, can break crisp!

[2Jedismom]

LOL I actually think you are closer to the fact with Nilla wafers! Think about it...they are golden on the outside and cream on the inside, crisp and crumbly and sweet. I just don't know if they were around when Tolkien was writing and I just get idea he was describing something he liked...and the digestive biscuits were around then and common.

[Corin Stormhands]

I maintain that "wafer" was the primary word used by Tolkien and only the "characters" called them cakes, because they didn't know a better word for them...

You know 2J, there's something strangely disturbing about that...

[Overtaxed]

'Nilla Wafers....snack of the Elves.

We have the Nabisco folk of the Sindarin Elves battling the Keebler Elves for domination of the snack food market.

[SuziQ]

Now I'm going to have to make biscuits at home some time soon!

I love Buttermilk Biscuits, and it is definitely the baking time of year! I discovered a delicious Trappist Preserve; Kadota Fig! I haven't had fig preserves since I was a teenager! We used to have a couple of fig trees in the yard of our old house, and Mama used to make preserves. They were SO good, and the Trappist ones bring back those great memories!

[2Jedismom]

Digestive biscuits are more like a cookie than a cracker.

[Corin Stormhands]

Just heard on the news. This morning's victim has died.

[SuziQ]

We'll be fine. It's just not pretty right now.

I'll put your family on our Parish Prayer Line. You'll have lots of folks lifting you and yours up to God.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

But it was also referred to as "Waybread". The term 'Bread' would lead me to think of something slightly soft.

What about this? What if it's more like a semi-thin bread boule? Crispy on the outside, warm and chewey on the inside. Maybe about 3 inches thick?

[2Jedismom]

Well, Tolkien had a kind of atmosphere going with the characters, you must admit and if he'd had them saying a bunch of things that were inconsistent with their times then it would have sounded silly. So he refered to them as wafers when he was describing them...for example, here the elves talk about the Lembas

"All the same, we bid you spare the food,' they said. 'Eat little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them."

And here is a time when Tolkien is refering to them in the story:

`Did you see them again, Mr. Frodo?' asked Sam, as they sat, stiff and chilled, munching wafers of lembas, in the cold grey of early morning.