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

-----------------------------------------

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.

[RMDupree]

It would be "absurd" to SPAM this thread for a couple of zeros, right?

[RMDupree]

Bye Sam. Travel safe!

[2Jedismom]

I hope I am not sounding too crazy.

Well, I won't think you're crazy if you won't think I am for liking the idea of blowing something into oblivion!

Did you save my "Blow it out your shorts" motto too? I'm afraid that's as philosophical as I get...;-)

[carton253]

Except at the end of the Bond movie, everyone who died on 9/11 would have gotten up when the director said cut!

It's totalitarianism... it comes with many faces and in many different names.

[Lil'freeper]

Boy, that was a threadkiller.

[carton253]

Sorry... but sometimes reality invades even the warm, security of the Hobbit Hole! Ask Frodo. :)

[Lil'freeper]

Heh, I understand completely.

[RMDupree]

I'm still here! I just had to actually work for a few! :)

...Trying to keep a low profile after my SPAM session.

[HairOfTheDog]

The second link that g'nad gave you (I am stunned at that! ;~D) has the cloak pattern that I am using... look for the link that says "fellowship cloak pattern"!

Hullo! - I am back from town, it is pouring out! Anyone know how to build an Ark?

cable won't work... I am using my %&*@$# dial-up account. 21.6 kbps. @&*#$%!

[Overtaxed]

I am using my %&*@$# dial-up account. 21.6 kbps. @&*#$%!

Hee Hee...I usually get around 48000 using my %&*@$# dial-up account.

[HairOfTheDog]

the fastest I have ever gotten on my $&*@#$* dial up account is 36 k.

[Overtaxed]

Nyah! Nyah! :)

[HairOfTheDog]

I have been trying to beg, plead and bribe my cable modem all morning... it blinks at me hopefully for a little while, and then breaks my heart again. If I had other options I would break up with it!

[carton253]

Without being a downer... but my life divided into two parts. September 10th and before/September 11th and after.

Here are a few thoughts... (If I Had My Way... Linda Eder)

Long ago and far away
Before the world had come to this
I took for granted how my life would be
Assuming that my freedom would be free
Before these evening shadows fell
I reveled in the light of day
I rarely ever cried, my patience wasn't tired
And heros never died

But if I had my way
Things would be different
Danger wouldn't come from a sky of blue
Choices would be clear
Strangers would be kinder
Love a little blinder
As it saved the day
If I had my way

Every now and then it seems
We live our lives to such extremes
Racing all around, never homeward bound
Losing what we found

But if I had my way
Things would be different
No one would believe that a lie was true
Choices would be clear
And wisdom would be heeded
Warnings never needed
That is what I'd pray
If I had my way

The milk of human kindness
Would seek us out and find us
And color all the words we say

And hearts would come alive
Instead of breaking
No one would believe
That a lie was true
Angels would appear
Children would be cherished
Hope would never perish
Faith would not be tried
If I had...

My way

[RMDupree]

Pass the tissue ALERT!

That was lovely, carton. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

[John Farson]

I have a thing for words too... Here is a collection of words I enjoy for their rarity or pronunciation -- but probably wouldn't use in conversation:

lacunae
dirigisme
antipodean
distaff
porcine
dotage
treppenwitz
pastiche
sinecure
pulchritude
bête noire
aquiline
usufruct
daguerreotype
shibboleth
samizdat
Schadenfreude
Weltanschauung
über alles
Zeitgeist
syzygy
quisling
sesquipedelian
panoptikon
kòu tóu
meretricious
soi-disant
décolletage
wergild
zymurgy
abapical
schlemiel
somnambulist
lycanthrope
farthingale
suzerainty
sortition
amour-propre
ipsedixitism
Teuchter
kulak
laogai
jolie laide
copacetic
chthonic
psychomachia
bricolage
peripatetic
circadian
Manichaeligan
pleonasm
lagniappe
Cantharides
embroglio
caesaropapism
salopettes
cwm
crwth

These words can be great for Scrabble or gøøglewhacking.

[John Farson]

"Blind Skyscrapers"


I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-Second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,

Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
``I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,''
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

- W. H. Auden, September 1, 1939
(response by W. H. Auden to Germany's invasion of Poland)

[HairOfTheDog]

That is a really sad song carton, and I have certainly had that emotion.

We will have more tragedies, I believe that. I support whatever action we can take to defend ourselves and get bad guys, but we will never stop all the evil that is out there. We don't have a "lock" on all the cunning in the world. The other side has some too.

But I try not to be sad and fearful. My goal is to have the best life I can before it is over! The end is going to come whether I spent the middle partying or cowering. I have as much chance of getting killed tomorrow by a truck, or some twerp who wants money for drugs as wackos who are driven to hate me by creed.

9/11 woke me up to only one more threat, it didn't change me... we had threats before, and will have new ones after. We don't know when or where they will happen. Are we better or worse for that?

My mom was told that she would be killed by disease a year before it took her. She knew the approximate time and manner she would die, and she never let it get her spirit. The weekend before she died, she went to a jazz festival, because she really liked jazz.

I want that kind of bravery. I fail sometimes.

[Lil'freeper]

Wow- awesome words! I have used a few of those, some regularly, in conversation: daguerreotype (have a few), circadian (used to teach science), and uber ____ (uber dude, uber coat, and such just to be silly).

[Sam Cree]

Tolkien definitely had a thing for words, I reckon it is not surprising that some of his fans, like us, also might have it in a minor way.