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.

[HairOfTheDog]

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

[JenB]

That's why you should do it now! Look, most of the participants don't finish. I don't know if I can. C'mon, just give it a try, ok? You can sign up and then not write a word, if you like.

Who else... Hair? OT? Ksen? Any of you harbor secret "I wanna be a writer" notions? It's not as hard as it looks, you know. We can write dreck about horse-farming Elf-hunting North Dakota fishermen and no-one will care!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Yep, if klez gets past your email you can pretty much write your system off... it infects the boot sector, so that when you reboot it destroys your system. And, since it's in the boot sector, a simple reformat won't get rid of it, which is why you have to use the debug command to do a low-level format to get rid of it.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't harbor any secret "I wanna be a writer" notions!

I love watching stuff that is.... And I love the stories of others... but I have never wanted to make up my own!

I have been more drawn to the other arts.... I have painted, and taken artistic photographs...

[ksen]

How many double-space pages, round-about, is 50,000 words?

[ksen]

Oh! I know! Jen can write the books and Hair can illustrate them. Hair could be the next Boris Vallejo(?).

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Thank you for posting that! It's a rather sad and thoughtful piece, I think... and every time I read it I have to imagine the author sitting beside his fire, thinking... and writing that poem.

[JenB]

Um... well, depends on your font. I think it's around 175 - that's what the site says. It's really a novella length, not a novel, if that makes you feel better.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I'll go to their website and check it out, I promise.

Truthfully, I don't know if I have anything 50,000 words long in my mind right now! But I will think about it.

[ksen]

I don't think the point is to have a complete, polished 50,000 word manuscript. The point is to blab on paper until you reach 50,000 words.

Is that about right Jen?

[HairOfTheDog]

[smile]

I just scanned part of one of my paintings that is hanging on my wall... It is too big for the whole thing to fit on my scanner, but here is the main part of it!

It is called "rained out"

[HairOfTheDog]

heh... I didn't say I was good.... I said I had painted....

[ksen]

That's beautiful Hair.

You can tell how much that the dog loves the little boy. You can almost see him sidling up to the boy, trying to cheer the boy up by his presence.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I like it!

[osagebowman]

Hair, I like it, the lab seems the right dog for the scene. For some reason the field across the way reads like a cemetery to me.

[HairOfTheDog]

[smile]

It is actually one of the only ones where I tried to paint people or animals that survived long enough to dry.... They are hard. I usually did landscapes... But I found that I didn't really want any of the places in my house either... I haven't saved very many of them.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

By the way, that writing group I mentioned who did the 3-day novels has a website... Clockwork Storybook. Most of their stuff is PG to R rated, I guess... but I like it. Anyway, the group is disbanded, and I don't know how long the website will still be there, but if you go into the Archives section and search by author you can find the 3-day novels that are still there, as well as the authors contest journals. It's pretty neat!

[HairOfTheDog]

hehehe well, it is supposed to be dark and sad outside ;~D so I guess the mood is OK... but is just supposed to be a back yard!

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks Bear! I can't find anything in the news that interests me.... I am gonna go to bed!

Good night everyone!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

You're welcome!

Will be going to bed here soon too... finally got the bulk of my files uploaded to my new webhosting service, tomorrow I get to work on the CGI files until they work....