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Eruonen
Gondolin
Oct 15 2024, 8:32pm
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Revisiting the LOTR prologue
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I had forgotten a lot of the Hobbit history details -
Who remembers Marcho and Blanco?
No, not missing Marx Brothers.
Who was the High King of Fornost who authorized their journey?
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GreenHillFox
Nevrast
Oct 16 2024, 7:36am
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From Tyler's "The complete Tolkien Companion":
From 1589–1670 Third Age, the tenth King of Arthedain. It was this ruler who, embroiled in endless wars with Angmar, freely gave permission for the Hobbits Marcho and Blanco, together with their following, to cross the Baranduin and settle in the fertile lands beyond. All that he asked of the Hobbitry in return was: ‘that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair … speed his messengers, and acknowledge his lordship’. So the Hobbits first came to the Shire, as they called their new land. Three hundred years later the North-kingdom came to an end and the Shire-dwellers soon forgot (except in tradition) that there had ever been a King.
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Eruonen
Gondolin
Oct 16 2024, 1:35pm
Post #3 of 5
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*As the records of Gondor relate this was Argeleb II, the twentieth of the Northern line."
A very interesting time period for the Hobbits as they established communities after their westward expansion and the mingling of the individual tribes.
"The Fallowhides....and of old preferred hunting to tilling."
This would indicate a more adventurous strain present in Bilbo and Frodo....as well as Merry and Pippin.
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squire
Gondolin
Oct 17 2024, 1:36am
Post #4 of 5
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"Preferred hunting [starving] to tilling [not starving]"
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I'd forgotten or never noticed this little romantic footnote by the Prof.
As you say, it says more about idealistic temperaments and character - the Fallowhides are the 'Elvish' hobbits, it's clear - than it does about actual living conditions in Eriador and the Shire. You may 'prefer' hunting to being a mere dirt farmer, but unless there is a remarkable profusion of calorie-rich and easily killable prey in the area, and unless your hunter population is so small, and remains so small (no large families now!), that it does not kill off and consume the prey population in a generation or two, it's impossible to imagine an entire sub-population of hobbits surviving as hunters.
The same goes for the Elves, of course. Settled human societies are inevitably agricultural for very solid reasons of survival and growth. Tolkien never came up with a nomadic lifestyle for hobbits or Elves (although he did with the Men of Rohan), but traditionally it's nomadism, not hunting, that is the path taken by roaming or adventurous folk who disdain to be farmers.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Archive: All the TORn Reading Room Book Discussions (including the 1st BotR Discussion!) and Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
Dr. Squire introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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Eruonen
Gondolin
Oct 17 2024, 1:49am
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Smaller beings can survive on smaller game from birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, fish
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......but, as you note, a growing society that becomes village centered adds plants. Native Americans in the East hunted and raised crops....corn, squash etc.
Plains tribes were centered around bison as their chief food resource. Bison being quite large and numerous were able to sustain them. However, ".....Nomadic Plains tribes, such as the Crows and Lakotas (Sioux), traded buffalo meat and hides to the farming peoples for vegetables." http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/...pedia/doc/egp.ag.052
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