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why a hobbit

Plato to MacDonald to Chesterton, Tolkien and the Boys in the Pub.
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re: why a hobbit

Postby Erekose » October 25th, 2005, 9:05 pm

if one argues, why didn't Tolien mention a failure by melkor.. then why doesn't the Silmarilion mention the creation of the Hobbits?

After all they play a part much greater than say, the Ents, and yet the Ents get a mention.

and it could also be surmised that Morgoth would have other failuires far too numerous to be mentioned.

My heresy is such that it doesn't conflict with anything thats written, and yet also complies with the various things writted about Hobbits, and also explains the big question over Smaugs reaction to Bilbo, which surely must be explained?



But... another take is...

Morgoth creates the Hobbits from scratch, in the same manner as the creation of the Dwarves, but they are feckless, without direction, not being possesed of "life". it is only when morgoth spurns them as a "failure", i.e. no longer desires dominion over them, that they do aquire "life", free from the influence of Morgoth, and yet possessed of a "resitiveness".

Sorry that this is somewhat brief.. but I'm a bit pushed for various reasons..

Oh... and as an aside... There's no mention of the corruption of the Ents.. and yet.. and yet... surely this occurred"

Remember, just because something is NOT implicitly written as part of a background, does NOT mean the background does not exist IF the descriptive writing shows such an occurrence by indirect "lighting".
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Re: re: why a hobbit

Postby A#minor » October 26th, 2005, 12:32 am

"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
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re: why a hobbit

Postby Erekose » October 26th, 2005, 6:55 am

Call yourself a dog???? I've seen better hair on a lavatory brush!!!
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re: why a hobbit

Postby Leslie » October 27th, 2005, 9:00 pm

Also consider how hobbits appeared in the writing of the story. Tolkien said they appeared out of nowhere, when he wrote the line "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" on a blank examination paper. He didn't realize they belonged to Middle Earth until he was partway through writing the first draft of The Hobbit. The history of Valinor and Middle Earth was already well mapped out, and he had to fit them in somehow.

Given that he was slow to finish things, he simply may never have gotten around to writing down the story of the origins of the hobbits, if indeed he ever figured it out.
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re: why a hobbit

Postby A#minor » October 27th, 2005, 9:04 pm

Good point, Leslie. Seems like Tolkien did alot of that "fitting it in somehow"; look at poor Tom Bombadil. Tolkien stuck him in there, and now everybody ignores him and cuts him out of movies and radio dramatizations.
Even the ring itself got stuck in there somewhere somehow, b/c Tolkien didn't really know what it was in the beginning any more than Gandalf did, and yet it all comes together in the end. Amazing.
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re: why a hobbit

Postby Erekose » October 27th, 2005, 9:45 pm

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re: why a hobbit

Postby magpie » October 27th, 2005, 10:06 pm

And sometimes, as in the case of my own writing, the holes become the story.
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