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.
Part of mine is in an attempt at semi-archaic language. I bet MY semi-archaic language is lamer than YOUR semi-archaic language! ;-)
Big meeting with the head honcho going on in my story right now...
I can post a part of mine, too, if you like. For comparison.
“I thought I would be dead from the wound I took,” he said. “Yet now I see I live, for surely not in this world or the next can there be another as beautiful as you, lady. Is it to your arts that I owe my life?”
“To my arts, and to your father’s Men, who bore you quickly hence,” she agreed. “I am pleased to see you awake, but you must be still for many days yet. You came here on the verge of death, and it will be some time before you are whole again. Yet whole you shall be,” she pledged.
“How long did I sleep?” he asked.
“Seven days ago you fell,” she told him.
“Seven days! And I remember naught since felling the great goblin. Is my father about?”
“He has taken the army and pursued the goblins. He took no wound in the battle, yet looked like a man stricken with chills when he thought you would not live. I doubt they will be gone many days more; he will be pleased to see you so healed.”
This was just a random chunk from the middle of the story. It's all like this. Some is worse.
Here's mine:
…At this time were found the four stones. They were remarkable in appearance, being of the deepest black, and yet one could see through them, as well as look into their very depths. In the center of each stone was a brightness, a light that shone like a far off star. There was a message, intricately etched in a lettering strange to us, around the perimeter of the stones; each stone contains a portion of the entire message. We believe it to be written in the language of the star people.
One of our number, a great seer, was able to interpret for us the message of the stones. We do not understand by what means he was able to read the strange lettering. It is his gift, he knows not how it came to him.
OK I'm heavily into the classical genre when it comes to Christmas music, so how about Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols"; anything at all done by the group Anonymous 4; "A Renaissance Christmas" recorded by Boston Camerata; and anything by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers.
On the more contemporary side, I like George Winston's "December"; A Winter's Solstice V; "The Carols of Christmas" a Windham Hill Collection, 1996, and "Celtic Christmas Spirit" done by Caroline Peyton produced by Spring Hill Music Group, 1998.
My taste in Christmas music is about as eclectic as my taste in music in general. It goes from the sublime, Anonymous 4 doing 15th century Hungarian Christmas songs, to the ridiculous, Trisha Yearwood doing a very torchy "Santa Claus is Back in Town".
The most mine will do is put their ears back. But then, maybe fiddle isn't as painful to them as whistle, I don't know!
Hmmmmm....you could have weird cats. My sister's cats leave the house when she practices violin.
MY cats weird? No way! ;-)
Up to 55,000 words and I'm finally finishing up...I think!
Then we're going to a fiddle concert tonight. Cape Breton music. Not my favorite, but maybe it'll be pretty good.
Have fun at the Cape Breton 'fiddlin thang' tonight! I kind of like Cape Breton music, but I guess I'm partial to the harp music. Isn't Alan Stevell (sp) a Cape Breton harpist?
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