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.
But if I find something I like, like a poster or something on the internet, I just integrate that into what we are doing. I have a huge poster of the food pyramid stapled to my kitchen wall and a cleanliness/hygiene poster in the bathroom, at 3-6 year old eye level. So I use the lifepacs as a sort of guide to what I need to be expounding on.
Besides that, we do a monumental amount of reading. We are involved in 2 summer reading programs. Reading is the key, my friend...as I'm sure you know. Reading is the key.
We just received a catalog in the mail from a place called "Veritas Press". They like to push a classical education, basically facts, facts, facts through fourth grade, then putting those facts together through eighth grade, and then using the facts and conclusions from the previous years.
The catalog is broken down by grade. They don't push a certain company's curriculum. Their stance is to offer you certain books that the child should be reading/working in a certain grade. It would probably be worthwhile just to check it out (they recommend LoTR and the Hobbit for high school reading ;^) )
Veritas is put out by people who are of the Reformed/Calvinist viewpoint, but hey, the Iliad is the Iliad no matter who you buy it from. ;^)
-Kevin
Carton's a she! :)
Yes it is. I love reading and books, my wife doesn't (although she is getting MUCH better, she just finished FoTR the other day), I have always been afraid that my children would grow up not liking books. I think I worried for nothing. My daughter and oldest son both like to read. I bought a book by G.A. Henty (no pictures, well there are illustrations scattered throughout the book, but it essentially has no pictures) for Josh, who is seven, thinking that I would read it to him. However, I came home from work one night and he was reading it all on his own, and understanding the story (it is a story of Wallace and Robert the Bruce).
Kind of makes a pappy happy. ;^)
-Kevin
-Kevin
-Kevin
Another thing, as I've mentioned before...I was a drama major when I was a kid and although I don't have anything to do with it now, I love reading to my boys using full drama! I read to them every night. Another thing I do, after reading and prayers...I put in a CD or audiocassette of Adventures in Odyssey. Ever heard of it? It's a radio program that lasts about 25 minutes. Full sound effects and everything. Anyway, they listen to the program and then it shuts off automatically and they fall asleep. Usually the 3 year old is already asleep, but lately he's even been telling me the stories the next day. It's a radio program, so they have to "see" the pictures inside their heads. I just can't help but think this helps develop their imagination.
You know I was 99% sure of that and second-guessed myself. I lost three fingers getting that wrong about someone else in the religion wars...
Sorry carton. Beg pardon, ma'am
We have a couple of their sets on CD. I really like the Imagination Station stories.
There's another guy out there, Ron Hamilton, who has a series of Patch the Pirate stories. They are way more evangelistic than Odyssey and their humor and stories are just as well written.
Whenever I come home from school (January, May, and August) I try to have a new Odyssey and Patch the Pirate adventure with me for the kids.
-Kevin
At 2 and 13, my boys are sort of on either side of Odyssey, but I'm sure we'll pick them back up soon enough.
I order them from a guy on ebay, when I can get them at a reasonable bid. But they are going to stop making the audiocassettes. I moved my old Mac in the boys room and now I can program the cd-rom to play just one "program" at a time from a cd.
Have you ever found yourself on a different thread and you are arguing or taking up for one side of an issue when one of our fellow HH’ers chimes in on the competing side of the argument? I’ve had that happen, and when normally I would fire off a shot I find myself restrained and responding kindly, well more kindly, than I normally would have. I think that is a great side effect to threads like these.
Too bad more people wouldn’t get involved in the social threads together so that way the flame wars wouldn’t get quite so heated since people would actually “know” other posters.
Well, that’s my two cent, completely off the subject thought. ;^)
-Kevin
Yup. Over in the religion wars, I'm on the opposite side from several Hobbits. We're nice to each other and we all agree we don't like the nasty posters on either side...
Here is my favorite Bootsman story (name of my cat).
He comes to my bed and tries to wake me up. I wake up, but I don't move. He goes into the living room which I can see from the bedroom. He scratches the couch with his claws really hard. Then he stops and looks into the bedroom to see if that has any reaction. When there wasn't. He did it again. Scratched for about thirty seconds... stops and looks. He did it a couple of times.
Finally, I said... "You had better stopped..." He runs into the bedroom and gets all lovey...
He got a scuggle and breakfast...
Who says cats are dumb.
I have said... Hey - That is a hobbit, not just a crazy person! - What got him so ticked off?
We should be tempered all the time of course, but the social threads do help to personalize the relationships. It creates a peer group instead of a bunch of individuals, a peer group that will have to answer to each other for things we say, because we are not so anonymous anymore. And that is a good thing!
Yeah, I think threads like this one, the Dimensional Door, the Guild, and believe it or not the Neverending Story help the atmosphere of FreeRepublic immensely. I believe that because these type of longrunning threads help us get to know one another and to realize that these are real people with real lives, not just targets to aim at on the other side of the issue.
-Kevin
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