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.
NATO standard 9 millimeter Full Metal Jacket... standard issue ammo fer the Beretta... worthless crap...
I could go to Leavenworth for carryin' the Hydra-shoks...
I think that's now my all time favorite colorful description of the effect of a bullet. Can't wait to use it.
I want royalties...
What? Why?
Ecurbh! - The treasure hunt was too hard for me to figure out this morning... I found the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.soundtracks place, but all I find in a search are the 30 second segments from that review... is there more another place? tell me!
1955 sure was a long time ago. I am ready for my first set of bifocals. Egad! How the mighty have fallen! But when my kids sang Happy Birthday this morning, and my eyes teared up (which does not happen often), I realized that God has been so good to me.
And, though I am sickened by world events, today I am feeling the presence of the reality that: "Though the wrong seems oft so strong, He is the ruler yet...."
Happy Birthday!
Neither me...
Thanks!
Absolutely sickening news from Jerusalem again today, isn't it? Time to take the gloves off.... But then, it's been that time for a while hasn't it? When, Oh Lord?
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul...
But these are special elvish arrows!
I noticed this effect this time in the long version more so than the first, how legolas's arrows dropped all the orcs on the spot, and acknowledge that real arrows may not drop them that way. But I re-state... this is a more magical bow than most... a bow and quiver from the Galadrim! ;~D
I think that a deer would run longer with the same injury than a man. I am impressed that prey animals (wild things in particular) in my experience have a much higher tolerance to pain than we have, giving them more ability to survive an attack than predators have. Having not been a deer hunter, I have seen horses react to pain, or rather, how little they react to pain. Horses are highly sentient, but I am amazed in circumstances where a horse seemed to perform willingly and cheerfully all day on trail, and at the end find that mud or bad placement had caused one heck of a girth sore or saddle sore. If a person had developed such a rubbing injury, I can't imagine they would have continued on. A person would at least limp and slow down .. comment? (There is no stress or adrenaline in this example, will to survive under stress would add strenth to either, but I still think the prey animal would go further. I can't predict the pain tolerance of an orc)
To quote Saruman speakin' to his Uruks: "You do not know pain, you do not know fear,...you shall feed on man-flesh..."
we are agreed that beast are generally tougher than men...would you equate the Uruks to men, after Lurtz's knife lickin'?...
I am dismayed to see 9/11 not become a rallying cry for victory, but a soap opera of grief and sorrow. A national day for tears. I'll cry later! Right now, there is a war to be won.
Israel won't fight. They won't do what is necessary to win their war on terror. They still believe that they can put a terrorist state on their border and live in peace. Europe believes it can negotiate with Islamic terrorists. The American media believe that Islamic terrorists are nothing more than freedom fighters rightfully overthrowing American imperialism.
For me... time stood still on 9/11. I see the storm gathering. I see us standing on the edge of a knife. I am afraid for this nation. We are disintegrating from the inside... and the terrorists circle us like jackals... waiting until we are too weak to fight.
(pinging some Tolkien experts who may know more)
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