Thursday, January 12, 2012

Blog Post 5: Enter the Hobbits

Have you recovered from the exam yet? Are your hands still cramped? You might be interested to know that the exams I've graded thus far have been quite good and so, while your hands might still be twisted into some sort of claw shape, your grades are just fine.

For tonight's blog, I'd like us to think about hobbits. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf tells Frodo, "[i]t would be a greivous blow to the world, if the Dark Power overcame the Shire; if all your kind, jolly, stupid Bolgers, Hornblowers, Boffins, Bracegirdles, and the rest, not to mention the ridiculous Bagginses, became enslaved." Gandalf seems to be acknowledging that hobbits serve an important role in Middle Earth; just what that role is, though, is a bit unclear.

In the previous post, I suggested that one of the roles for hobbits (as narrative devices) in telling stories about Middle Earth is to provide a grounding for our sense of humanity. But do hobbits merely serve a narrative purpose in the stories of Middle Earth? How or why are they important to Middle Earth, as Gandalf indicates? Bilbo certainly develops some more heroic qualities as the novel progresses, but he would be hopelessly out of place in a lineup of heroes which included Fingolfin or Turin or Finrod or Beren. In a world inhabited by Elves and Numenoreans, and filled with orcs and dragons and trolls and giant spiders, where do hobbits fit in?

Why hobbits?

22 comments:

  1. Hobbits are chosen to be the heroes in The Lord of the Rings precisely because they don’t fit with the heroes of great men or elves of old. They are a simple people, a quiet people “content to ignore and be ignored” when it comes to matters of the big folk. But this weakness and ignorance of important matters is what saves them and makes their stories more remarkable. In several instances, both in the Silmarillion and in The Lord of the Rings, when the “big folk” saw power and desired to possess it, they often brought about their own ruin. Gandalf and Galadriel both refuse to carry the ring precisely because they are powerful and knowledgeable of the corruptive force of power. Hobbits, on the other hand, may not be the strongest, most clever, or valiant of heroes, but they do possess an enduring quality of goodness that evil cannot comprehend. Tolkien describes Hobbits as “abnormally, for humans, free from ambition or greed of wealth” (Letters, 158). This quality is probably what allows Bilbo to give up the Ring, and is what allows Frodo to contend with the temptation of the Ring for so long. So it would seem that it takes a certain sort of heroic meekness, as opposed to sheer strength and power, to contend with the will of evil. And that it something that evil does not suspect, nor can it understand.

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  2. To me, hobbits serve the role as being innocent. Frodo was able to take the ring for so long because of his innocence and almost child-like demeanor. Bilbo survives because of his fear and how careful that required him to be. Middle Earth may be filled with courageous heroes who aren't afraid to run into battle, but the hobbits are the ones who stay behind and still risk themselves when they see things go wrong with their friends. Bilbo may not be the typical form of hero, but going after his friends when they have been locked up is still a very brave thing to do, and his cleverness enables him to survive and help the group. The hobbits had a very important role in Middle Earth.

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  3. Hobbits are important simply because they are not grand and heroic and the stuff of legends. Simply, those heroes have to be saving the world for somebody. Yes, they have their families and less heroic elves and men and whatnot, but to me Hobbit society appears to be the pinnacle of what everyone's fighting for: the ability to have a simple life without much trouble. They are the representation of simple goodness. They haven't done anything to anyone (most of them). So Turin can fail on a grand, epic scale because he is a Hero. But to fail so completely and utterly that the Hobbits are destroyed, that's when you know you have Lost.

    This is in reference to Hobbit society in general, and not specifically to our Hobbit heroes. However, I think the principle is a bit the same. While Hobbits are not inclined to be heroic in the first place, when they are forced to be they make good heroes. It takes quite an awful lot to make a Hobbit truly and utterly despair, they are patient, kind, and above all have an innate goodness. Not that they are all nice (Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, anyone?), but they are so far from evil. In that sense, when a Hobbit has been turned, you know everything is really, really desperate.

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  4. I think the purpose of the hobbit in Middle Earth is to offset the grand heroes that seem to be so present everywhere. In The Hobbit, the company that sets out is thirteen great dwarf warriors. Oh, and a hobbit. The same is true for the fellowship that sets out in The Lord of the Rings; there are great kings of men, a powerful wizard, a limber elf, a fierce dwarf, and also four small hobbits. Without these hobbits to counteract the greatness of these characters, I think the reader would feel out of place in this lineup of heroes. The hobbits serve the purpose of ensuring that the reader does not get overwhelmed by the larger than life characters that are so abundant in the world of Middle Earth.

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  5. I think that a reason the hobbits are so integral to the story is that they CAN be heroes, even though they aren't always. So many other heroes, like Aragorn, are of a descended line of heroes, and are almost expected to become heroic because of their family lineage. Yet the hobbits certainly do not have this lineage, as heroism is almost shunned in the Shire. Neighbors are encouraged to live calm and quiet lives, and when someone like Bilbo leaves on an adventure, it is disgraced by the neighborhood rather than praised.
    Hobbits aren't encouraged to be heroes, yet they can be, which I think makes them all the more heroic. Certainly Sauron was not expecting a hobbit to carry his Ring into his own kingdom and make it all the way to Mount Doom!

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  6. The hobbits seem to embody that middle space between how we wish to see ourselves (elves and men) and how we would probably actually react when thrust into an adventure the likes of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Despite the fact that they are small, weak, and tend toward a more comfortable life, hobbits have a great capacity for heroism, and their good nature makes them just as noble, if not more, as the elves or men. They don't really have the capacity for evil, which is why--in the case of Gollum/Smeagol--they go mad when they are consumed by it, instead of simply giving in and becoming evil themselves. This is why they are so important to the mythology, and probably why Gandalf approaches both Bilbo and Frodo to go on dangerous adventures--they cannot truly be corrupted.

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  7. I think that what Gandalf meant when he said that it would be terrible if Hobbits were enslaved is that of all the races in Middle Earth, Hobbits more than any other are the race of innocence. They are naïve people and have no idea of the evil of the world. That is the purpose of Hobbits in Middle Earth. They represent the innocence of people, and it would be a true travesty if Sauron was able to enslave them and in effect destroy their innocence. If you look at every race, while they definitely aren’t evil, they are also definitely not an innocent race any more. Men have had their share of falling to evil. So have the elves. Even the dwarves cannot be described as innocent in any way. But the Hobbits can. They have no real idea of the evils of the world and are just happy to have 7 meals a day, smoke their tobacco, and have parties. If this race of people were enslaved, more than any other, it would be a devastating loss. I think that that is what Gandalf was getting at when he was talking to Frodo. The Hobbits cannot be counted as the heroes of the world like Fingolfin or Beren. But, they serve an important part in Middle Earth.

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  8. Hobbits fill in an interesting category in Middle Earth. They have many human characteristics but are not completely corruptable by evil. They hate adventures and would rather stay home. They can act brave when thrust into difficult situations such as Frodo and Bilbo as well as the hobbits that went off to fight in the Goblin Wars. However they are more concerned about food.
    In stories Middle Earth, the hobbits provide a comic relief to the seriousness of Aragorn and other characters such as the dwarves in the Hobbit. However, since they are not able to be fully corrupted by evil they are able to perform great deeds. Bilbo was unconquered by greed and gave the Arnkenstone to Bard to attempt to solve the problem peacefully. Frodo willingly bore the weight of ring as he cared it to the Mountain of Doom. The Hobbits did an important job, while giving comic relief to the story.

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  9. The Hobbits are there for a narrative to connect us back to humanity in Middle Earth, but at the same time I feel that they are there to also be the most level headed about things like the ring of power. If you look at it, there are the underdogs when it comes to battles too. When Gandalf says that Hobbits are important, I think he is referring to how they seem to be the best entities to carry the ring. We discussed in class how Bilbo is the only one who actually willfully gives us the ring, and I think this holds true with my point. They don't become so overpowered that they can't see reason in why they shouldn't have it and why it must be destroyed. This holds true even for Frodo. Yes he does have problems with the ring, but in the end he knows why he needs to destroy it. The Hobbits are the simplest being in Middle Earth to me and this makes them the least greedy and the least evil, so in carrying the ring there is something that is just perfect there.

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  10. Although I don't believe that Tolkien really knew exactly what hobbits were when he started, I think he had a good idea of how to accomplish some of his goals, such as eucatastrophe. In order for eucatastrophe to work the story must reach a hopeless point and suddenly all is not lost and someone saves the day. When an author is thinking about how to achieve this moment of hopelessness he obviously must consider the characters involved. A hobbit is in no way a Fingolfin or Turin so at a low point in the story ones hope would probably turn elsewhere, but it seems that hobbits have a tendency to do brave things in the face of danger and they always pull through in the end. This small character accomplishing such great feats in the face of hopelessness and despair creates an even greater moment of eucatastrophe that captures the heart of the reader. Everyone feels bad for the runt of the litter, but if that runt was the one to save the rest of the puppies from a wolf you would undoubtedly feel even more for him. I think that is what Tolkien was doing with hobbits and why he makes them such a huge part of The Lord of the Rings.

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  12. I think that while the hobbits can help to ground us to humanity, they also serve as an inexhaustible source of joy. Nothing gets their spirits down. Like we talked about in class, no matter how dark the situation gets, there is a hobbit somewhere in the area willing to crack a joke about it. The material held in the Lord of the Rings is, for the vast majority, very somber and serious. Without the hobbits' happy perspective I think would be easy for us to get bogged down in the seriousness of it all. I also think that the fact that they have not suffered the hardships and history of the other races of Middle Earth is important, and perhaps the source of this joy. For Elves and Numenoreans the evil that they are fighting is a personal thing. Almost all of them can find a point in their genealogy where Sauron or Melkor affected them in a direct way. The hobbits can't. They don't even know where they have come from. If evil were to invade the Shire then it would become a personal issue for the hobbits and we would lose that aspect of unexpected joy in the face of extreme evil.
    -Chelsea Mueller

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  13. To understand the role Hobbits play in the epic of The Lord of the Rings, we must first understand what, exactly, a Hobbit is. We know physically what a Hobbit is like, but what do they represent? I say that Hobbits, chiefly Bilbo Baggins, serve to symbolize an average person, who wants nothing more than to be comfortable in their home, and have not a worry at all. This would be a very large stereotype, assuming that everyone's dream is to live in comfort and happiness, but fairly accurate as far as the "American Dream" goes. This being said, Tolkien uses this quite interestingly, not unlike another character of his, Farmer Giles: He takes a Hobbit on an adventure. Now, this is interesting, because according to any Hobbit you would ask, including Bilbo, would immediately say how dreadful adventuring is. They wholeheartedly believe that they have no capacity for it, and want nothing to do with it. But Gandalf chooses Bilbo for this adventure because he can see something Bilbo himself cannot. Gandalf sees qualities in Bilbo he could not find anywhere else, not in any dwarf or elf or man, but in a Hobbit. A commoner, a little dimwitted, but clever in ways that are not always thought of as being practical in any way.
    By taking a Hobbit on such a tremendous adventure, and playing the star role as hero, Tolkien shows how even though a normal person, though they think they cannot do much of any real use, or want nothing to do with it, they have the capacity to succeed in their own adventures, if they choose to embrace it, like Bilbo embraced his Tookish side. We all have a Took inside of us; it is our choice to use it or let it lay dormant in comfort and peace. But that would be a very boring life indeed.

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  14. I personally believe that Hobbits do play a significant role among the many races of beings in Middle-Earth. According to Gandalf when he is telling Frodo of his opinion of Hobbits, it seems that among the races of Elves, Men, Dwarves, and so forth, Hobbits are the most cheerful and light-hearted. They also aren't really involved or don't really have much knowledge of the outside world beyond the Shire. They are like children. In a way this makes them somewhat vulnerable and naive of all the powers lingering in the rest of Middle-Earth. The other races of Men and Elves however are very much involved in the doings of Middle-Earth and have been so for a thousand of years or more. They are very knowledgeable of everything that is happening in all the realms of Middle-Earth. This makes them more serious and concerned for the well-being of Middle-Earth. Despite Hobbits being unaware of everything happening in Middle-Earth,I believe that they play a significant role. They are the only race that are in some way pure in the sense that they haven't had to dealt with the evil in the world as much as elves and men. Among all the evil, conflicts and despairs in the world, they display that such goodness, cheerfulness and innocence is still prominent. They almost display that not all hope and lightness of Middle-Earth is lost. Both men and Elves have had to deal with the mistakes of their ancestors that changed the whole course of Middle-Earth on their conscience. Hobbits do not have this problem therefore they are able to live a joyful, jolly existence.

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  15. In a world inhabited by elves and numernoreans and dragons and what have you, Hobbits occupy that space from which the greatest under-dog stories come from. They aren't held in as lofty as a position as many of the other races that inhabit middle earth. They are not known for great feats of ravery, nor are they known for their capacity to commit atrocities but in characters like Bilbo, they are characterized by an unlikely sense of heroism despite overwhelming obstacles.
    Where other heroes may go charging into Angband bent on slaying Morgoth, Bilbo gradually works into his role as a hero. He comes from a background where not much is expected of him, as a hobbit. So to see him move on despite his physical and social handicaps serves as an inspiring tale and an example ot greater characters in Middle-Earth whose ambitions are much greater, that there are always goods to be found if the least of those among us can find them among the greatest of challenges.

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  16. Hobbits are important to Middle Earth because of their innocence. The majority of hobbits have no idea what happens outside the borders of the Shire. Even Bilbo and Frodo don't seem to fully understand what is happening at times and they are the most knowledgeable of the hobbits. Because the hobbits know little about the outside world the outside world knows little about the hobbits and because of that they are underestimated and undervalued by the whole of Middle Earth. This makes them the perfect candidates for Burglars trying to steal Smaug's treasure or destroy Sauron's ring. Smaug does not recognize the smell of a hobbit because he has never seen one and why would he? Hobbits don't have hoards of treasure and they would not make very good meals for a big dragon like Smaug. And Sauron? The hobbits are a complete after thought to him. Good people like Elrond are regularly surprised by hobbits. Even Gandalf, who is supposed to know the most about hobbits among the Wise, is continually surprised by hobbits. Despite their innocence (or perhaps because of it), hobbits prove to be the least corruptible and always last to succumb to the will of the Ring.

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  17. The simplistic life that Hobbits live is admirable in it's own way. It allows the Hobbits to have a unique kind of heroism. The heroism of Hobbits is not in the might of their arms or in their nobleness and courage. Though Bilbo does indeed kill some spiders and defend the dwarves that is really the only place in the book that he uses his sword. No Bilbo is heroic because of his cleverness, steadfastness, common sense, and loyalty. The most important quality of Bilbo however is his simplistic perspective. If any of the heroes of elves or of men were in Bilbo's place they would have killed the dragon, claimed their portion of the treasure, and perhaps help Thorin defend against the elves and men. However you can be sure that they would not have been interested in avoiding a battle nor would they have ever given up the arckenstone. The nobleness and pride that they are revered for would lead them to be susceptible to the lure of the treasure and especially that of the arkentone. It is the simpleness of Bilbo's perspective that allows him to give up his treasure so easily especially the arkenstone and allows him to pursue peace instead of courageously defending the gold until his last breath. It is very similar to the way that only a Hobbit could have carried the Ring so far into Mordor. Hobbits are unique heroes more inclined for peace than for war but sometimes they are just what is needed.

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  18. A hobbit’s chief purpose for me is to serve as a sense of relief. Yes they ground us in humanity with all of their relatable quirks, and yes they are the joy through out the novels, but The Hobbit, and I’m guessing that the Lord of the Rings would be a dark and dreary road to travel with out the aid of a Hobbit’s point of view. They are the bright spot in the woods, and have an ignorance is bliss kind of attitude. They allow us to step out of this intense little bubble of spiders and prison, and let us enjoy the view and marvel at how truly extraordinary the story is.

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  19. I think the Hobbits serve as a representation of innocents experiencing the magical world for the first time. In a way, they’re much like the reader – thrust into a world of magic that they can hardly comprehend both in terms of its scope and depth. We’re unaware, just like the hobbits are, of the dangers and wonders that exist in the world. Because they are simple content creatures we can identify with them very closely. Hobbits are important also because they are the penultimate race of underdogs – they’re likeable, silly, small and weak, and not particularly well suited for adventuring in most circumstances. Their triumphs are all the more exciting because they’re so improbable or the events that lead to their victories are a result of their heroism, bravery, and cunning, rather than their magic or strength at arms. Again, this works well with modern audiences because not everyone is a mighty warrior or a descendant of a proud lineage of elven kings (in fact no one is, probably!), but we all can be heroic or brave if we dig deep and we all have our clever days.

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  20. We have seen through out all of Tolkien's work so far death betrayal and kin slaying. The Elves have done it and fallen, the Dwarfs have, and so have the Men. No race in Middle Earth so far has yet failed to be irational and betray their friends. Then come hobbits, who are inoccent and live above evil things. In the gathering of clouds we see the only person who is above the bickering of gold is in fact Bilbo who is more worried about his friends than gold. In that I think is the true function of hobbits to reperesnt the good in all of the peoples of middle earth. In the end they are the only race that can live peacfuly among them selves.

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  21. I don’t think that it is fair to say that hobbits merely serve a narrative purpose in the stories; however they play the role of story teller better than any other of characters except maybe Gandalf. I think that the role of the hobbit is to show the extreme differences in the beings of middle earth. We have crazy merciless goblins/orcs that serve as the classic evil characters who we so easily hate and fear. Then there are also the mysterious elves who we see in times of need (or in times to mess the situation up worse). The men and the dwarves seem to be depicted more as warring beings that can easily get caught up in treasure- as well as the elves. But hobbits are there to fall into their own category as easygoing. The story needs a diverse population of characters for it to be more interesting. This way we see how a hobbit would react to one situation at the same time as how a dwarf would react. The many different points of view are needed in Tolkien’s fairy story to represent different characteristics and levels of good and evil.

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  22. Hobbits are more than important to Middle Earth, they are absolutely essential to the life of the other beings in all the realm! Throughout the Silmarillion, we have great tales of massive castles made by elves and men. But you cant grow grain in a castle! Almost nowhere in either the Silmarillion or the Hobbit, do we hear about agricultural enterprises by elves, dwarves, or men!(aside from the vineyards that send wine to the elven king).
    It is made abundantly clear that hobbits love nothing more than good food and tilled earth. Again and again throughout the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, we see farmers and farms. However, not once is there a mention of a farm by Minas Tirith, or outside Etiross. And as there is a noticeable lack of agrarian societies elsewhere in Middle Earth, we can only conclude that the Shire is responsible for the majority of the agricultural production!
    Also, if the Shire is at all like New Zealand, which we can safely assume that it is (for obvious reasons), they have an abundance of sheep as well. Here middle earth acquires all the mutton and lamb they need.
    Of course we cannot forget that the Hobbits' brews and pipeweed are famous and revered across Middle Earth, even Saruman has the good stuff in his larder.
    So, in looking at the facts plainly left before us by Tolkien himself, this data obviously points out that most (if not all Hobbits) are employed (except for the rich ones, ie the Bagginses)in farm or farm-related job (such as blacksmithy or milling). This means that each and every Hobbit is directly tied to the survival of Middle Earth as a whole, for without the Shire kingdoms would fall for want of food.

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