Hobbit talk

[bunn]

I just re-read The Hobbit. It left me speculating on how Turgon's sword got from Gondolin to a troll-cave near Rivendell. There's no official explanation, far as I can tell, so I can make up a theory for my own satisfaction.

I'm thinking it was either recovered during the fall of Thangorodrim and passed to some elf-relative or other of Turgon's, who then got mugged, perhaps in the Misty Mountains, on his way to Rivendell or Lorien some centuries later, or alternatively, it got shipped out before the fall of Beleriand and ended up in Angmar, where it would have made a nice bribe, perhaps to some rather dodgy king of Rhudaur.

I don't buy the idea that a gang of orcs carried it all the way from Beleriand. I mean, OK, nice addition to your basic hoard, but I don't suppose they would have wanted to actually use it or carry it long distances without a good reason, what with its scary anti-goblin glow. Likewise, wouldn't have thought it would be the first thing that a dragon fleeing disaster would have taken. Dragons don't seem to be the kind of creature that would carry baggage long distance.

Hey, here's a thought. I wonder if the Moria Balrog was at the fall of Gondolin, and the sword was something he mislaid in his rush out of Beleriand...? I like that thought. Somehow a Balrog with a backpack sounds more convincing than a dragon.


... also, I wonder if hobbits bred smaller breeds of cow, pigs etc? And were Farmer Maggots big scary dogs actually small terriers?

My icons are not really suitable to this post, but I thought this one could reasonably be described as 'Over the land there lies a long shadow'. :-p

Comments

[tena524.livejournal.com]

If the average hobbit is only about 3 1/2 feet tall, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a terribly small dog. Something we consider medium height would probably do the job of scaring hobbits out of the mushroom beds adequately.

As for standard farm animals, surely the hobbit's cows were Jerseys? Another neighbor keeps very small goats as well as the full size ones. I think the little guys are Miniature Nubians. Bantam hens are pretty small, comparatively. That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are plenty more options.

One of my neighbors has a teeny tiny pony that's not much more than waist high, but I have no clue what the breed is called. It got out on Sunday, along with it's much taller barn-mates, or I never would have known they had it. Two big bay horses and this little grey pony, trotting merrily down the road - "Oh, look, it's really spring after all, let's go check out the neighborhood!" They were having a wonderful time, although their owners weren't. Moral of the story - mind your fences....

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise the variety of cow was mentioned, but Jerseys are certainly relatively small and manageable. I was thinking of a 3-foot person trying to manage a Herefordshire bull - though I suppose even if you are 6 foot, on the whole the art of dealing with bulls is making them want to go along with you...

If the teeny pony was here I'd think it was a shetland pony, we have several herds of those wandering loose on the moors. They have very short legs.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't recall that any breeds are specified in any of the Tolkien books, but then, farming wasn't exactly JRR's area of expertise. It's just fun to speculate. I just mnade some off-hand guesses based on breeds I've seen about locally here in New England. As far as I know, all the ones I mentioned are pretty widely available on both sides of the Pond.

As for our neighbor's pony, he's pretty shaggy, as well as being short, so perhaps he is a Shetland. I'll ask one of these days, but we don't often see their humans out and about.