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.

[HairOfTheDog]

I am not happy with the amount of gunfire I am hearing around me this morning. I keep looking out to check the horses. Whoever it is is close. Single shots... couple minutes apart and there is no good reason for that. If my neighbor is sighting in his rifle around here he is a butt-head. If he is shooting at an intruder, then I am a butt-head, (but it would have to be a slow but determined intruder, because he has been shooting at it for half and hour!).

Dang it!.... two shots since I started writing this. There is a deputy that lives over there. If it isn't him doing it, perhaps he will go check it out.

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

I'm the original Timexses. I takes a lickin' and keepses on tickin'.

You and me both, smeags... you and me both...

[RMDupree]

Be careful Hair. Make some phone calls now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, I hate to make phone calls, I live in the country.... but we are not so rural that someone ought to be shooting around here.

[RMDupree]

Theyses needses to be made of firmer stuffses... like Smeagol!

You cried like a baby when Sam put that rope on you though. ;)

[HairOfTheDog]

The frequency of the single shots make me think perhaps he is sighting in a rifle.

[RMDupree]

Better to err on the side of caution.

They keep shooting like that, it's senseless. Spooks the horses too. One phone call won't hurt - just have them check it out.

[HairOfTheDog]

There are two houses it could be coming from and I can't see either of them from here. They are about 200 feet from me through the trees. A deputy lives in one, I see his cruiser parked there when I drive by, but I don't know anything about the other one.

[ksen]

It never hurts to make a report on the police non-emergency line.

Just the other day we woke up and there was a car parked at the vacant, wooded lot across the street from us. I went out with pen and paper to write his license plate down because I thought the car was empty. When I got close to the car I saw a guy in the driver's seat with the seat reclined.

I knocked on his window and asked him if I could help him. He flashed some sort of laminated card with his picture on it saying he was a private investigator from South Carolina. He said he was working for an insurance company and was investigating some insurance fraud allegedly committed by a person who lived down the road a bit from us.

I told the guy thanks and went back in the house. I called the non-emergency number for our police station and told them about it. They had a car out in about 15 minutes. They checked the guy out and left. I wished they would have stopped in and told us what they found.

Anyway, it never hurts to have something on record.

[HairOfTheDog]

Interestingly enough, the horses are pretty immune to it. (spotted dog is another story, but I am not letting her out) One of the places I ride out of is a gun club that borders the state forest here, so the horses get pretty used to the gunfire. They flinch a little, but haven't really spooked. But I hear enough horror stories about buttheads that I worry about what their target is.

[2Jedismom]

Yeah, like that girl riding that horse and that old fellow shot the horse she was riding??!! Unbelievable!

[ksen]

Invitational ping!

[RMDupree]

Well, it's that time again.

I'll see you all in the morning! Gotta run!

Hair - make a quick call. Just to put our minds at ease please! ;)

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, I thought it had quit.... but then there were two more just now. GRRRR!

[HairOfTheDog]

OK - I called. Turned my scanner on so I can hear what they say about it. Dispatcher said they'd send a deputy around to look and listen.

[JenB]

It's an elf. Isn't it Jen?

House elves aren't really elves; they're brownies. However, now that you mention it...

Anyone who's seen the new Potter movie, tell me; is Lucius Malfoy Haldir's long lost evil twin?!

[Vindibudd]

glad to be here!

[2Jedismom]

Any more news?

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to the hobbit hole... We are a mixed bunch... We love the Tolkien books, we love the movies, we are all ages and types!

I will let the others introduce themselves... I am a normally cheerful rather hobbity lass who is just a bit rattled this morning by gunfire!

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't hear anything on the scanner... but I went out to check the mail. I got your whistle tutor! - I will try it out tonight!

I stopped at the store next door on my way back from the mailbox, and said "What's up with all the gunfire today?" He said... (in thick Korean accent) "I don't know... It is OK to shoot guns in this town, I don't worry about it"... So then I felt like even more of a worry-poo. I said... "I know, I know... it is just not that normal this close by...." Jeepers.