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Saelind
Menegroth
Nov 18 2007, 4:49pm
Post #1 of 9
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Chapter 4 A Short Cut to Mushrooms VIII Open Discussion
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Thanks for letting me "double dip" and to all who participated or will participate. 
I tried to have a mix of "easy" and "thoughtful" questions. I had a feeling that Maggot and some of the other hobbit names had philological meanings thanks to those who contributed on that topic.
Other comments?
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a.s.
Doriath
Nov 19 2007, 3:30am
Post #2 of 9
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I like seeing a glimpse of young Frodo
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I like the little glimpse we have of the young, mischevious, "pre-Bilbo" Frodo. It helps me "place" him in the Shire, and is just one more small example of Tolkien's ability to hint at "other stories".
I didn't know on my first read, of course, that Maggot would turn out to be an acquaintance of Tom Bombadil's. Which is very interesting! VERY interesting. Now when I read the House of Tom B chapter, I always think that Tom probably likes Mrs. Maggot's cooking, too.
I sometimes think the reason Mrs. Maggot gives the basket of mushrooms to Mr. Baggins with her compliments isn't only because he has recently enjoyed them at her table, but also because she has a sense of humor and remembers him in his younger days as well as Mr. Maggot does...and with perhaps a more motherly concern.
Thanks, Saelind!
a.s.
"an seileachan"
Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past.
~~~Landrum Bolling
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Nov 19 2007, 4:29am
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This chapter has a good mix of sinisterness and hominess. What a delight to get to see the home life of a Hobbit family for a while! And Sam's personality is starting to develop.
Thanks, Saelind!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
"It struck me last night that you might write a fearfully good romantic drama, with as much of the 'supernatural' as you cared to introduce. Have you ever thought of it?"
-Geoffrey B. Smith, letter to JRR Tolkien, 1915
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PrincessWhat
Nevrast
Nov 19 2007, 5:50am
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I am sorry work kept me from participating in the reading of these fine chapters, but I send greetings and kudos from your friends in Tennessee anyway! 
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Nerdanel
Ossiriand
Nov 19 2007, 7:09am
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I love how Maggot turns out to socialize with Bombadil, yet he thinks folk up in Hobbiton are queer. He seems to have more tolerance for the truly strange than for the almost familiar. Are all hobbits like that? Are we?
Thank you for a very interesting week, Saelind!
(This post was edited by Nerdanel on Nov 19 2007, 7:10am)
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Beren IV
Mithlond
Nov 20 2007, 12:40am
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Once a paleontologist, now a botanist, will be a paleobotanist
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Morwen
Nargothrond
Nov 20 2007, 4:02am
Post #7 of 9
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This has been a fun and thought-provoking discussion. I will certainly have to cook mushrooms in the near future.
Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
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N.E. Brigand
Gondolin
Nov 22 2007, 12:57am
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You did fine work with both weeks! Thanks especially for taking two chapters so close together, which hasn't happened, if memory serves, since Entmaiden led "Riddles in the Dark" and "Out of the Frying-Pan, Into the Fire", obviously back-to-back, in 2004.
Now that you can relax, I look forward to hearing some of your own thoughts on others' chapters. But don't worry about responding to every thread! Unlike The Children of Húrin, this discussion seems likely to attract enough response that we can, um, share the load.
A final thought on this chapter: note how the belief that Bilbo is dead ("he had undoubtedly fallen into a pool or a river and come to a tragic, but hardly an untimely, end") reappears:
'If any of these black fellows come after you again, I'll deal with them. I’ll say you're dead, or have left the Shire, or anything you like. And that might be true enough; for as like as not it is old Mr. Bilbo they want news of.'
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We're discussing The Lord of the Rings in the Reading Room, Oct. 15, 2007 - Mar. 22, 2009!
Join us Nov. 19-25 for "A Conspiracy Unmasked".
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N.E. Brigand
Gondolin
Nov 29 2007, 10:21pm
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That's an interesting phrase, in the chapter's last paragraph.
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We're discussing The Lord of the Rings in the Reading Room, Oct. 15, 2007 - Mar. 22, 2009!
Join us Nov. 26-Dec. 2 for "The Old Forest".
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