Stories of Arda - Lord of the Rings Fan-Fiction Archive

All of us are aware to some degree or other, of the presence of certain pervasive ideas that are not found in canon, yet seem to inevitably find their way into most stories of a certain genre. These ideas seem to propagate naturally, and so become memes; the term that has been coined for these memes is “fanon”.

In this essay, I wish to examine seven of the prevalent “fanon” memes found in much “gen” hobbit-fic, as this is the type of story which I read and write most often. I will examine the underlying basis for some of these ideas, and whether or not they seem to be valid.

For the purpose of this essay, the films will be treated as another type of fanfic, and not as canon in themselves. I will also examine the impact of the film versions on “fanon”. If I have a good idea as to where the idea may have originated, I will try to indicate that as well.

All of these memes are those which I have seen used repeatedly in various stories, and which I myself have used from time to time. My singling them out as fanon is not a judgement on their value as elements of a story.

(1) After the death of his parents, Frodo Baggins’ guardians in Buckland were Saradoc and Esmeralda Brandybuck.This particular notion is found in a good many of the stories which feature young pre-Quest Frodo. Is there a basis in canon for this idea? While it is never so stated in the books, this is a bit of speculation that has a good grounding in other canon facts. We are told in “A Long Expected Party” that Frodo was brought up after his parents’ deaths in Brandy Hall, where he lived at least until he was twenty or twenty-one years of age. In looking at the Brandybuck family tree in Appendix C we see that his uncle was Rorimac Brandybuck, Master of Buckland. Frodo was the only child of the Master’s youngest sister Primula and her husband Drogo Baggins. Frodo had some other uncles and aunts, according to the family tree: three other uncles--Saradas, Dodinas and Dinodas, and two aunts, Amaranth and Asphodel. We have no information on Amaranth, other than dates of birth and death, so we do not know if she was married or had children. The same applies to Dodinas and Dinodas, except they do not even have dates. Asphodel, however is married and has a son who would have been in his tweens by the time Frodo was born. Saradoc Brandybuck was Rorimac’s son, and Frodo’s first cousin. He and Esmeralda, at the time Frodo’s parents died, were childless. It seems logical then, that the cousin--younger and unencumbered with children of his own, would be a suitable guardian. We know, for example, that Saradoc’s wife was at the Birthday Party (and thus may assume Saradoc was as well) which indicates a certain closeness.

Therefore, this particular fanon meme appears to have enough canon evidence to be not only credible and possible but probable as well.

(2)Frodo and Merry were like brothers growing up, until Frodo left Brandy Hall at the age of twenty-one. This particular meme follows on the heels of the first one. If in fact, Merry’s parents were Frodo’s surrogate parents, then it would seem likely that the two of them would form a brother-like bond. It goes a long way toward explaining the deep love and loyalty Merry shows in conspiring to follow his older cousin into danger. Most of the evidence pointing to this is the same as the evidence for number one. It is slightly more subjective, but the canon basis is fairly solid for this one as well.

(3) Pippin Took is musically talented.Although the popularity of this particular meme appears to have originated with Billy Boyd’s brilliant portrayal of Pippin, and most especially his poignant singing of an altered version of “Upon the Hearth” in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, as well as his spirited singing along with Dominic Monaghan as Merry, in a couple of other scenes. There is a small amount of evidence in the book that Pippin may have been somewhat musically inclined. In the chapter “Three is Company” we see him singing in the early morning after the three hobbits have camped. He also appears to initiate the singing when they are walking. And in “A Conspiracy Unmasked” he sings a rather spirited bath-song. Of course, while this does indicate he likes to sing, there is nothing there to indicate that he is good at it, except perhaps the lack of any complaints from his companions. However, in “The Siege of Gondor” we have this exchange:

“Yes, well, yes, well enough for my own people. But we have no songs for great halls and evil times, lord…”

While it appears, again, to be negative evidence, given the innate modesty of hobbits, for Pippin to admit that he sings “well enough” for his own people, probably would mean he sings more than tolerably well. However, the evidence is not so strong as to constitute a probability. And as for the idea that he can play instruments, it is totally a fanon invention, although given a person with musical interests, not an illogical one. But it is not one supported by any evidence from the books.

(4) Frodo Baggins and Pippin Took like to climb trees. This is more or less a fanon invention, with very little canon evidence to back it up. It appears to have originated with Baylor’s excellent story “The Care and Feeding of Hobbits”, as well as with the scene in the extended edition of the movie version of Fellowship of the Ring, in which Frodo is shown sitting in a tree smoking a pipe as he and Sam cross the Shire. Against the notion are the several times stated fact that hobbits do not like and are afraid of, heights, as well as this scene in “Lothlórien”:

Hobbits do not like heights, and do not sleep upstairs, even when they have any stairs. The flet was not at all to their liking as a bedroom. It had no walls, not even a rail; only on one side was there a light plaited screen, which could be moved and fixed in different places according to the wind.

Pippin went on talking for a while. “I hope if I do go to sleep in this bed-loft, that I shan’t roll off,” he said.

There are only three bits of evidence, and very slim at that, to weigh against such statements. One is the oft reiterated notion that Tooks are not like the normal, average hobbit. The other is another scene that takes place in the same chapter, a bit later, as the hobbits cross the Silverlode, by walking across a rope stretched over the stream:

Of the hobbits, Pippin proved the best for he was sure-footed, and he walked over quickly, holding only with one hand…”

This episode is a clear discrepancy, which I have exploited and examined in one of my own stories.

The third bit of evidence, which might possibly account for Frodo’s ability to enjoy tree-climbing was Bilbo’s climb to the top of the tree in the “Flies and Spiders” chapter of The Hobbit. It could be argued that this was his “Tookish” side, and that Frodo might have inherited his affinity. It has to be admitted, that although Bilbo is said not to have had much practice at climbing trees, he seemed to master this one rather quickly, and to enjoy himself a bit when he got to the top: not a possibility for the average hobbit.

Still, the evidence in favor is shaky at best. This meme is far more fanon than canon.

(5) Hobbits, especially in strange situations and times of danger, like to sleep huddled together. In other words, the famous “hobbitpile”. This fanon meme also appears to have emanated from Baylor’s “The Care and Feeding of Hobbits”. It is a charming idea, and given the situation the four hobbits found themselves in on the Quest, not an illogical one. Is there any canon evidence for such a thing?

The best that can be said for this is there is no evidence against it. Hobbits are described as social creatures in the prologue, as well as being very clannish and family oriented. While this is a good jumping-off point for the idea, it is not enough to make it have any basis in canon. Any evidence for the idea is rooted in psychological theory. However, as previously stated, the idea is a charming one, and not likely to go away. And since there is nothing to say it did not occur, it does not detract from the source material. It adds a good deal of depth to the characterization of hobbits as a race, and of the four hobbits on the Quest in particular. Nevertheless, it remains purely fanon, with no canon evidence one way or the other.

(6) Besides Frodo, the other hobbits who went on the Quest also suffered from psychological trauma and related to this, Merry Brandybuck also suffered from an anniversary illness on the date of his helping to kill the Witch-king of Angmar, Chief of the Nazgûl.

We really are not given anything to go on one way or the other on this in canon. JRRT concentrated his story of the effects of the Quest on Frodo. We are told of the facts of what happened with the other three, but we are not really allowed into their heads at this point, except for Sam, just a little.

However, there is one factor that seems to me to speak to this issue: at the end of their lives all three hobbits choose to leave the Shire and end their days elsewhere--the implication is that Sam sailed to the Undying Lands, while Merry and Pippin are stated to return to the South to the Kings who held their allegiance, first staying in Rohan until the death of Éomer and then going to Gondor, where they died at some indeterminate date before the death of King Elessar. This speaks to a certain feeling of alienation from the homeland they had loved so well, and would indicate that there were some things they had never quite recovered from.

We also have the rather odd fact that after their return from the Quest, Merry and Pippin went to live at Crickhollow, away from their families. This is often taken as evidence of their efforts to hide their trauma from their families.

Add to this the fact that though they are hobbits, a peaceful race unaccustomed to turmoil, they had been exposed to the horrific face of war and evil, and had experienced battle and pain. There is no doubt that, in modern terms, they would have suffered at least somewhat from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Not, of course, to the extent that Frodo did, but most certainly to some degree or other.

The idea that Merry would have an anniversary illness is slightly more tenuous. It cannot be dismissed out of hand, for he also was exposed to, and wounded by, the same Enemy as his older cousin.

I would say that this particular meme is an application of logic and modern psychology, rather than canon. Nevertheless, although it seems on the face of it, to be possible; it remains purely fanon.

(7) There is a psychic link between some or all of the four hobbits who went on the Quest together. This particular example of fanon really stretches things. There are only two pieces of canon evidence that give very slim support to this. The first is that some hobbits, most definitely Frodo, and possibly also Pippin do seem to have some sort of psychic ability. Frodo has a number of prescient dreams, beginning even before he left the Shire, and after the Quest, he was frankly clairvoyant, prophesying Sam’s future, for example. Pippin also, on at least two occasions seemed to have a psychic insight: while in captivity by the Uruk-hai, he sensed Aragorn following them, and took the chance to leave the brooch he had been gifted in Lórien, and in Minas Tirith, he sensed against all evidence, that it was Aragorn arriving in the Black Ships of Umbar. He also was able to locate Merry when he was lost in the vast City after the Battle of the Pelannor, though that, admittedly might have been sheer luck. However, as we are often reminded by the author, chance plays little part in the world he created.

The second part is the exchange Frodo has with Faramir in “Window on the West”, in which, discussing how Faramir knows Boromir is dead, he quotes an old proverb: “Night oft brings news to near kindred.”, and he then tells Frodo of the vision he had of his dead brother.

While that may appear to be irrelevant to the question of hobbits--Faramir, is after all a Man, and of the Numenorean line--the remarkable thing about the exchange is that Frodo simply accepts it as a given. This saying seems to be known and agreed to by him. That there should be such a link between kin is not a strange notion to him, nor something to scoff at or doubt. This, to me, is far more telling than Faramir’s actual experience.

As to whether this fanon idea has enough evidence to give it a probability, I should say not. It does, however have enough evidence to give it credence as a possibility, as long as it is not stretched too far.

There are any number of other fanon notions: the hobbits' eye colors are often based on those of the actors in the films. There are the notions that Merry and Pippin liked practical jokes, or that one of them did not get on with his father (usually Pippin and Paladin), that Pippin was a sickly child, and many others to numerous to list. Some fanon is peculiar to certain genres of fanfic, such as hurt/comfort or slash (which does not come into the scope of this essay).

Those writers who are well-versed in the books, or have been writing for some time may recognize when such a meme has validity in canon or not. The choice of whether to use these elements should become a conscious one, and not an unconscious one. Learning to examine such things in the light of original source material should be something one is unafraid to do.

Newer writers, who are recently come to both the books and to fanfic would do well, when they come across ideas that seem familiar, to check with the original material and see whether this is truly so. Again, this is not to say that such notions should not be used--only used with caution, and with the knowledge of what canon does have to say, if anything.

New ideas about the original stories are part of what fanfiction is all about. If such ideas add to canon without detracting from what is already there, that is all to the good. Fanon can add a lot to one’s deeper understanding of the original canon, but it should never be seen as a substitute for canon.

This is a revised and edited version of an essay that first appeared in my LiveJournal. I hope you may find it useful

I have often seen discussions in various on-line forums, of words that seem distinctly out of place in fanfiction set in JRRT’s Middle-earth. I am not here speaking of the occasional modernism or Americanism, such as the word “okay”. I am speaking here of the use of profane or obscene language, or even the use of milder oaths that have a modern sound to them. Curious as to what sorts of expletives and oaths the characters in his books did use, I searched through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to see just what they did say in the way of “swearwords“.

There are surprisingly few of these, considering the number of words he wrote, and the amount of dialogue that is contained in the books. I was a bit arbitrary. I did not include, for example, Orc speech, or the sounds the Ents made. I have listed each one only once, in the order in which they appear. I did not include battle-cries, such as “Elendil!” or “Death!”. I also did not include those occasions when characters cried out in Elvish, calling upon Elbereth or the Valar, except for one. That was the cry Frodo made at the Ford of Bruinen, and I was a bit iffy about that. Technically, he is using it as an oath rather than calling upon her. But it was definitely not done lightly. This is the only use I came across using the name of Elbereth in that particular way. The other usages of the name of Elbereth seem to be more along the lines of an invocation, and in the cases of Frodo and Sam, seem almost to be made without conscious volition.

Eru is never referred to by name. The Valar are only referred to twice. Once is an invocation by Damrod: and the second is at Aragorn’s coronation, as a blessing by Gandalf.

'Ware! Ware!' cried Damrod to his companion. 'May the Valar turn him aside! Mûmak! Mûmak!' in the chapter "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit",

Unless otherwise indicated, the exclamations are those used by hobbits. If someone of another race uses it, I indicate that.

I did find one use, in the entire works, of the word “damned”, used as an epithet, not as a curse, and that was by an Orc. I did not include epithets or insults. However, I found that even these were surprisingly mild.

I was also surprised at an exclamation I did not come across. I was certain that somewhere Bilbo used the phrase “Bless my buttons!” but I did not come across it anywhere. If I missed it, please let me know of its location!*

Expletive-- b : an exclamatory word or phrase; especially : one that is obscene or profane

Epithet-- a : a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing b : a disparaging or abusive word or phrase **

“Good gracious me!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Confusticate and bebother…”
“struck by lightning!”
“Curse his name!” (Thorin)
“Great elephants!” (Gandalf)
“Bother…”
“Bless us and splash us…” (Gollum)
“Curse us and crush us…” (Gollum)
“Good heavens!” (first by Dori, then Beorn, then some of the other Dwarves)
“Upon my word!” (Thorin)
“By the beard of Durin,” (Thorin)
“Well, I’m blessed!”
“Thank goodness!

In The Hobbit the two exclamations used most frequently were “Dear me!” and “Bless me!”

“Fiddlesticks!”
“Well, well, bless my beard!” (Gandalf)
“Lor' bless me!”
“Hooray!”
“Good heavens!”
“Thank goodness,”
“…I’m blest…”
“Lawks!”
“bless you,”
“Oi! Oi!”
“Oh, indeed!”
“Well!”
“By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair…” (spoken by Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen)
“Splendid!”
“Alas!” (used first by Legolas, and then by various and numerous characters of several races, including the hobbits)
“Ai! Ai!” (Legolas)
“Hi!” (not used as a greeting)
“Hullo!” (not used as a greeting)
“Behold!”
“Well, well!”
“…in the name of wonder…” (Gandalf)
“Ninnyhammers! Noodles!”
“Snakes and adders!”
“Curse him!”
“…what the plague…”
“Whew!”
“…dratted…”
“O dear, o dear!”
“O come!”
“Hurrah!”
“How splendid!”
“Well now!”
“Good!”
“Dear me!”
“Bless me!”
“Lo!”
“O great glory and splendour!”
“Garn!”

That’s it. In 306 pages of text in The Hobbit and 1,008 pages of text in The Lord of the Rings (not including the Prologue or Appendices), these were all that he used. The majority of them were used no more than once. Of the hobbits, Sam had the most widely varied stock of oaths, and by far most of the ones near the end of the list come from him--nine of the last seventeen, in fact.

You do not see any of the characters swearing “By Eru” or “By the Valar”. They do not use any of the profane, obscene or scatological oaths that are commonly heard in our modern society, or are seen between the pages of most fiction from the late twentieth or early twenty-first century. Yet the lack of these things do not seem unrealistic in the context of his world. And it helps to give his work a timelessness that of others seems to lack.

It is definitely something to keep in mind when writing fanfic set in his world. By making use of the words he used, or, if using words or phrases not on the above list, attempting to keep the flavor of the expressions he used, one may keep a little closer to the style and spirit of JRRT himself.

And it will help to keep one’s readers from being jolted out of Arda and being unexpectedly dropped back into our own world.

* I have since been told that this was used in the Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit. I have been unable to verify if this is so; if it is, it certainly seems to fit the guidelines of using phrases that would seem to fit Tolkien’s own world.

***I used the Ballantine/Del Ray 1996 paperback edition of The Hobbit and the Houghton-Mifflin 2003 one volume paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings .

Some while back there was a discussion on one of the E-lists about the differences in maturity of Hobbits as compared to Men. JRRT seems to hint that the difference is approximately two-thirds. When reading what he has to say about faunts in Letter #214, and comparing the Coming of Age of Hobbits at thirty-three with that of humans at twenty-one, it seems to bear this out. During the discussion, Topaz Took came up with a formula that actually works the difference out at .64.

Using a calculator, I came up with the following chart. I have rounded the ages up or down to the nearest half-year for simplicity's sake. This is, of course, only for comparable physical ages, and does not take into account the possibilities of mental, social and cultural differences.

I fully realize that not everyone agrees with this ratio. A number of people believe that there is not a physical difference, and that Hobbits simply make their young people wait longer for the responsibilities of Coming of Age. Others believe that Hobbits grow the same as humans until they reach their tweens, when they then have an extended adolescence. Others believe that the ratio holds true up until Coming of Age, when it then begins to gradually fade. However, for those who do agree, I hope this Chart will prove a useful tool.

So very often in fics, we see Gandalf paying casual visits to Bilbo or Frodo, or even other hobbits in the Shire. Yet he had a good many other places to travel and things to do.

We know for certain that there were particular visits he made, and we also know for certain that there were some years he definitely was not* in the Shire, for JRRT tells us so in the Tale of Years.

TA 2758 (SR 1158) Gandalf’s attention is first drawn to the Shire and to hobbits during the Long Winter, when he renders them aid.

TA 2848 (SR 1248) Gerontius (the Old Took) becomes Thain. We know that during the time Gerontius was Thain, Gandalf “often” visited the Shire, and put on fireworks displays. But we don’t know how “often” was “often”.

TA 2890 (SR 1290) Bilbo is born. At some point in time, Bilbo knows and meets Gandalf, and sees his fireworks. As Gerontius is still Thain, this makes sense.

TA 2911 (SR 1311) Was the Fell Winter. We don’t know if Gandalf was around at that time or not, but it was a very important event in the Shire.

TA 2941 (SR 1341) when he arrives to recruit Bilbo as a burglar, Bilbo has forgotten him, until his memory is jogged. (This brings up a whole other question--how often did Big Folk show up in the Shire, that Bilbo might not realize who this Big Person was?)

TA 2953 (SR 1353) Saruman notices Gandalf’s interests in hobbits and the Shire, and begins to set spies and take his own measures.

TA 2983 (SR 1383) Faramir is born in Minas Tirith. Now at some point during the time of Faramir’s childhood, Gandalf must have been spending time *there*, which would presumably affect his visits to the Shire. (Remember that Faramir was close to Gandalf, and Denethor called his son “wizard’s pupil”?)

TA 2989 (SR 1389) Bilbo’s adoption of Frodo. At some point here Gandalf’s visits to the Shire again seem to be more often, because in

TA 3001 (SR 1401) when Bilbo throws the Long-Expected Party, Gandalf is a familiar enough figure that the children know he brings fireworks, and Frodo is already a good friend with him.

But we know that for three years after the Party, Gandalf is absent, returning in

TA 3004 (SR 1304) to make the first of “frequent” visits, which seem to be very brief ones.

April 12, TA 3018 (SR 1418) when he brings news of the Ring, and the Great Years begin.

So, I think what I’m wondering here is during those years when he did visit, how many times a year do you think “frequent” or “often” means? Or even once a year? How long could the visits have reasonably lasted and still left him time for his other tasks?

It seems as though during the tenure of Gerontius as Thain, (SR 1248 to SR 1320) Gandalf probably visited at least once a year, perhaps even twice a year, up until the end of Bilbo’s childhood. (The exception being SR 1250, when he would have been in Southern Mirkwood.) Since Bilbo was fifty at the time of his Adventure, I think it safe to say that the wizard had been gone from the Shire for at least twenty years, and perhaps as long as thirty. Or, if he did pay such visits, that they were only to the Tooks, and so Bilbo did not see him. This would allow Bilbo enough time to “forget” him.

Of course, Gandalf returns to collect Bilbo for the Quest of Erebor, in SR 1342, and brings him back a year later. He visits with Balin in SR 1349, and though it does not specifically say so, the impression given is that he had not been to Bag End since their return.

After this, it is possible he could have once more been a frequent visitor, though not necessarily as regular a one, up until the occasion of the Farewell Party. As stated above, however, he would also have been spending some time in Minas Tirith.

Once the Party was over, it is stated specifically that he absented himself from the Shire for three years, after which he returns to making frequent visits. But these visits are described as “brief”-- “coming unexpectedly after dusk, and going off without warning before sunrise.”**

His visits stopped abruptly in SR 1408, and he does not return until April 12, SR 1418, when he comes to inform Frodo of the truth about the Ring, and he remains until June 20. This is the longest visit we actually have any record of.

So, looking at this, it is possible to have stories in which he visits Bilbo and in which he meets the four main hobbits as youngsters, unless such a story takes place during a year when he is clearly stated to have been elsewhere.

I sometimes feel that Bilbo Baggins is all too often overlooked and ignored in fics. We often see him in his role as Frodo’s guardian, but we seldom see him on his own, either before or during the Quest of Erebor (AKA the Adventure with the Dragon) or after he leaves the Shire. Yet without Bilbo, there would have been no Frodo, no Lord of the Rings at all.

We all take for granted the fact that The Hobbit came first, and is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but we seldom take into account exactly what that means.

It was in 1937 that we begin to see, in JRRT’s correspondence with his publisher, the fact that he is being rather pushed to come up with a sequel to The Hobbit. At first, he has no clue what to write. He writes “All the same, I am a little perturbed. I cannot think of anything more to say about hobbits. Mr. Baggins seems to have exhibited so fully both the Took and the Baggins side of their nature. But I have only too much to say, and much already written, about the world into which the hobbit intruded.” ⁽¹⁾

Fortunately for us all, he soon found he *did* have much to say about hobbits, and shortly afterwards began the first draft of “A Long-Expected Party”. This first glimpse at Bilbo after his Adventure looks nothing at all like the one we are familiar with--no cousin Frodo in evidence, but Bingo Baggins, Bilbo’s son, instead. It took many changes, over and over and over, to arrive at what we now have. ⁽²⁾

What is not so clear, is the depth of influence that Bilbo and his Adventure had upon the sequel. I’d like to explore that in depth, both “story-external“, as regards the development of the plot and the characters, and “story-internal” as regards the motivations and relationships of the characters.

Of course, there are the obvious characters and devices which the two stories have in common: Bilbo himself, Gandalf, Elrond, Gollum, the Ring, Eagles, Elves, Dwarves, goblins/Orcs, and so forth. But there are even more similarities to be found.

It is interesting to note that at least one Tolkien scholar found the plot structure of LotR and that of The Hobbit to be nearly identical. While some of Randel Helm’s observations in 1974 were invalidated by the subsequent publication of The Silmarillion, his notes on the plot structure similarities are striking.

Both stories start with a party. Both times, the parties are followed by a scene of explanation for a proposed adventure. Both hobbits must leave the Shire on a dangerous quest.

Both of them gain swords after facing peril. (Bilbo with the Trolls, Frodo with the Barrow-wights.) Both of them are guests of Elrond of Rivendell, who advises them on what needs to be done. They both spend some time there, resting and recovering. Next, both of them brave the Misty Mountains, where they pass under and through caverns, and have encounters with goblins/orcs. (It’s notable that Bilbo first encounters Gollum in the goblin caves, and it’s in Moria that Frodo first observes that Gollum is following the Company.) Underground, both groups are separated from one another. (Bilbo from the Dwarves; the rest of the Fellowship from Gandalf.) Both of them then rest in the places of friendly beings, Beorn and Galadriel respectively. Then both hobbits travel down a river, and go through desolated lands to reach the Enemy’s place.

Once there, they each must find a way to exploit their Enemy’s vulnerability: Smaug’s unprotected side, Sauron’s need for his Ring. Also, there is are great battles in both, and leaders in each are lost (Thorin in The Hobbit; Théoden and Denethor in LotR). When the Quest is accomplished, both of the heroes awaken after unconsciousness. After a long journey home, both Bilbo and Frodo find they have to exert themselves once more, to regain their homes.

And of course, at the end of LotR, both of them leave together to go to the same fate in the West. ⁽³⁾

Once set on track, I noticed a few other similarities: The Eagles, for example, in The Hobbit save Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves after they leave the goblin caverns. And in LotR, they save Gandalf after his battle with the Balrog in Moria--and then, in both stories the Eagles play a key role at the end of the great battles. In both stories, it is someone other than the hero who ultimately disposes of the villain: Bard the Bowman dispatches Smaug, and it’s Gollum who actually destroys the Ring, and Sauron with it. Also, kingdoms are re-established after the victories: in The Hobbit, the Lonely Mountain and Dale; in LotR, Rohan and Gondor.

Amazing, isn’t it? It’s as though The Hobbit is actually a blueprint for LotR!

This is my favorite thing to investigate: the factors that are taking place *inside* the story itself, the motives, characterizations and events that bring these things to pass. So many times, fanfic writers like to explore these various factors--it is what leads me to write fic as well.

People sometimes like to write AU stories in which the Ring does not exist, or in which Bilbo did not find it. What they tend to forget, in focusing on their own particular scenario, are the repercussions.

Within the story, Bilbo *has* to exist and have his Adventure, or Frodo will never have *his*. If Bilbo had not found the Ring, he would not have survived his own Quest, nor would it have been likely that he would have lived long enough to take Frodo as his Ward. In this sense, story-internally, the Ring conspired in Its own destruction. For by prolonging Bilbo’s life, It meant that he was able to raise up Frodo as his heir. Furthermore, by extending Frodo’s own youth (for he did not age after receiving the Ring on coming of age) it also meant that those companions who would stand by him most stalwartly would be enabled to grow up and become Frodo’s close friends. It is also unlikely that without the Conspiracy of Sam, Merry, Pippin and Fatty, Frodo would have been able to escape the Black Riders as he did.

Bilbo returned to the Shire with a different reputation; he was now an Adventurer. Not something that was respectable to most hobbits, and it was blamed on Gandalf, and on his Tookishness. But he lived happily alone in the Shire for another 48 years, until he took Frodo in. What occurred during that time period? It’s a good long time. He would have known Frodo’s parents, and Merry’s and Pippin’s as children. He was, according to Letter #214, also Head of the Baggins family, which gave him a certain standing.

Also, we have a good many story-internal hints of the way Bilbo raised Frodo: taking him on rambles about the Shire, teaching him Elven tongues and history, and there are hints that Bilbo took Frodo to meet Elves. We see that Bilbo is no longer a shy or timid hobbit, but that he rather revels in his own eccentricity, and seems to enjoy tweaking the noses of more “hide-bound” hobbits. This too must have been a factor in Frodo’s own less than conventional behavior. We also see the impact Bilbo has on the Shire: while he may not be “respectable” he is popular. Everyone wants to be at his Party, and though there is much gossip, it’s clear that the hobbits of his area are fond of him for his generosity and kindness.

Why did Bilbo take Frodo in after all that time? Story-internal, we are led to believe that Bilbo saw in Frodo perhaps a spark of himself. There was clearly a deep love between Bilbo and his young ward.

What would lead Bilbo to leave Frodo, whom he loved? He tells Gandalf he’s feeling “old” and “stretched”. We later realize, of course, that it’s the hold of the Ring on him, as it begins to awaken to the call of Its Master.

We are told much about Bilbo between the lines, if we only have the will to dig it out. He is fully as worthy of his own stories as are Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

Before The Hobbit--why are there so few childhood stories for Bilbo? He was a tween during the Fell Winter, after all! And when was his last encounter with Gandalf, who by all accounts was a frequent visitor to Bilbo’s grandfather Gerontius? Why would Bilbo have *forgotten* the wizard?

Gap-fillers for The Hobbit-- what did Bilbo do during his first two stays in the Last Homely House? We are told that there were many pleasant things that “are soon told”, but not what they were. Did Bilbo explore Elrond’s library? Did he have encounters with Elladan and Elrohir? How about young Estel? (I have seen a few charming stories about that, but another would always be welcome.) What about stories set during his time in Thranduil’s fortress? (all that “endlessly burgling the same house over and over”? Surely he had a few close calls to getting caught!) How about the time immediately after the Battle of Five Armies and before the journey home? I’m sure there is nearly as much scope there as in Cormallen! What about his journey home with Gandalf? We are told there were some adventures then, though not what they were! And when he got home--just how did he go about stopping the auction and ousting the Sackville-Bagginses? And why them? According to the Family Trees, they were not of age at the time! Who was helping them declare Bilbo dead, and why?

After The Hobbit--how did he settle in at home, and what did he do with his time? What was his life like before he adopted Frodo? He was 51 when he returned from his Adventure, and he was 99 when he took Frodo in. What happened to him in the intervening 48 years?

After the Party--what was his journey like, as he left the Ring behind? Did he have “withdrawal” from It, or once it left his possession, was he free of It until It came into his reach once more? What happened when he returned to the Lonely Mountain? How did the Dwarves receive him? What led to his decision to retire to Rivendell?

As you can see, this is a fertile field for stories. Bilbo does not always have to be an appendage of another hobbit in order to have his story told!

⁽¹⁾ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Letter #17, 15 October 1937, to Mr. Stanley Unwin

⁽²⁾ The Return of the Shadow: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part One , J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien

One Ring To Rule Them All,

One Ring To Find Them,

One Ring To Bring Them All

And In The Darkness Bind Them!

Devoted readers of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, know this ominous verse by heart. In fiery Tengwar script, in the language of the Black Speech, the verse is the only identifying mark by which to tell this Ring from any other small plain golden band.(1)

These were the words Sauron himself spoke when he crafted the One, in the hopes of dominating all of those who bore the other rings--the Three hidden by the Elves, the nine which found their way into the hands of Men, and the seven which were distributed to the Dwarf lords.(2)

The Ring was Sauron's ultimate weapon, made to conquer all, imbued with his malice, deceit, greed and craving for power. The Wise feared it. Celebrimbor, when he heard the Ring come into being, hid the Three from it, lest they be sullied.(3) Gandalf feared to take it even for safe-keeping. (4)Elrond knew the only hope of the world was its utter destruction. Saruman desired it for the power it would bring him.(5)

One of the Ring's powers was to cause those who possessed it to become obsessed with it--it would become "precious" to them, above all other things. And it would create in others the lust to possess it, so that their craving for it would overcome their sense, and they would desire it above all things.

The Ring was powerful and irresistible. Right?

Well, let us look at its actual "track record". Sauron, its maker and rightful Lord, most certainly desired it, one it was gone from his possession. In fact, elucidating on the Ring in a letter, JRRT said …so great was the Ring's power of lust, that anyone who used it became mastered by it; it was beyond the strength of any will *(even his own)* [emphasis mine] to injure it, cast it away, or neglect it. So he thought. It was, in any case on his finger."(6)

But it *was* his, after all. So we will begin with the others who came in contact with it over the ages, beginning with those who actually *bore* the Ring.

Isildur was the one who struck the Ring from Sauron's hand, and as we know, he refused the council of the Elves to destroy it then and there, taking it instead as "weregild" for the deaths of his father and brother. This action has been portrayed by many as showing that Isildur very quickly fell to the Ring's lure. Indeed, he kept it for a while, and wrote of it as "precious to me". We are told that he was ambushed by Orcs near the Gladden Fields, and was slain by an arrow when the Ring slipped from his hand, betraying him to his attackers. This is the account as it is given in both LotR and The Silmarillion. But in Unfinished Tales we are given a bit more of the story. Isildur *admits* to his son: "I cannot use it. I dread the pain of touching it. And I have not found the strength to bend it to my will. It needs one greater than I now know myself to be. My pride has fallen. It should go to the Keepers of the Three."(7)

Leaving aside the question of whether it would have been wise to give the Ring up to Elrond or Galadriel or Círdan, it is clear that somehow, Isildur has managed to come to the point of considering giving the Ring up, when he is slain. Whether he could have actually done so or not is thus rendered moot.

Still, if the Ring had so powerful a hold on him, could he have even thought of giving it up?

The Ring settled to the bottom of the River, and there it remained for over two thousand years--until it was found by Déagol, and then immediately claimed by Sméagol. Déagol scarcely had the Ring long enough to tell what his reaction would have been to it, but it is clear that the effect on Sméagol was immediate: he murdered his friend in order to possess it, and then spent centuries obsessing over it, as he evolved into the creature Gollum. The Ring's power over him seems to bear out the strength of its corrupting power.

And yet, it is conceivable that if Sméagol had been a different sort of person, the Ring might have taken a good deal longer to have an effect on him. Gandalf tells us that Sméagol was "small and mean". He was always looking "downward". In the 478 years that the Ring was in his possession, Sméagol became Gollum, a creature afraid of the light, who lived a solitary life in the darkness, a nasty little murderer.

Along came Bilbo.

Of course, as Gandalf said, "Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its Maker…(8) Unlike the previous owners of the Ring, there was no malice in Bilbo. Sauron was malicious by nature, and so was Gollum. Isildur's malice was directed at Sauron, whom he slew--not an evil malice, but malice nonetheless. But Bilbo simply *found* the Ring. It was, to him, simply a lucky little trinket.

Unlike its Maker, he had no wish to dominate. Unlike Isildur and Gollum, he did not come into its possession by violence. It would have been the prudent and easy thing for him to do--to slay Gollum in order to escape. Instead, we have one of the most remarkable deeds of the entire tale, which takes place mostly in Bilbo's head:

"A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then, quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.

No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark…"(9)

Many years later, when Frodo says that it is a pity Bilbo did not slay Gollum, Gandalf replies: "Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.(10)

We have been told that Bilbo is the only person in the long history of the Ring that ever actually voluntarily parted with the Ring--and that he needed all of Gandalf's help to do so. We are also told he could not "cast it away". It was only by giving it to someone he trusted that he was able to leave it behind.

Bilbo possessed the Ring for sixty years. He used it frequently during his Adventure with no ill effects, save for not being entirely honest with the Dwarves as to how he acquired it. And it's quite clear that he used it from time to time once he returned home, if only to avoid unpleasant relatives. It was not until the end of that time that he began to feel "thin and stretched". (11)

He was and remained a hobbit of kindliness and generosity, and even though he lost his reputation for respectability, he seems to have still been well-beloved by the hobbits who lived around him, and by many, if not all, of his relatives. He certainly showed generosity in taking the orphaned Frodo in and adopting him. If the Ring had a corrupting influence on him, it was certainly minimal in its effect.

Frodo received the Ring, and it remained in his possession for seventeen years before he learned the truth about it. We are not told if he ever used it during that time--but there is an implication that he did not.

It would be difficult to examine all of Frodo's interactions with the Ring during the course of his journey without quoting back most of the story. However, we see that he actually *deliberately* puts it on his finger only four times before he reached Mount Doom. The first was in the house of Tom Bombadil; the second was on Weathertop; the third was to escape from Boromir, and the fourth, to leave the others behind when he made the decision to go to Mordor alone. (Some might even argue that those latter two were really one occasion--but he did remove it when he left Amon Hen, and put it back on when he took the boat.) And of course, he put it on accidentally (or through the Ring's intent) in The Prancing Pony.

But let us look at a time when he did *not* put on the Ring, in spite of pressure to do so from the searching Ringwraiths, and from the danger in which he found himself. Most notable was his temptation in the Barrow: "…a wild thought of escape came to him. He wonder if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way out. He thought of himself running free over the grass, grieving for Merry, and Sam, and Pippin, but free and alive himself. Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else to do.

But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily. He wavered, groping in his pocket, and the fought with himself again; and as he did so the arm crept nearer. Suddenly resolve hardened in him, and he seized a short sword that lay beside him, and kneeling he stooped low over the bodies of his companions. With what strength he had he hewed at the crawling arm near the wrist, and the hand broke off…"
(12)

Later, Gandalf tells Frodo that this moment in the Barrow, in which he was so sorely tempted, was the "perhaps the most dangerous moment of all". Yet somehow Frodo still managed to overcome that temptation.(13)

Once he had made his offer to carry the Ring to Mount Doom, it was placed on a chain around his neck, and there it remained until the breaking of the Fellowship. We are not privy to many of his thoughts during this portion of the Quest, yet he does not seem to have been so sorely tried again until much later.

However, it got more and more difficult for him as he drew near to its place of origin and to its Master. We are told that it actually grew heavier, and once he entered Mordor, it soon claimed all of his attention, so that he had no thought to spare for anything else.(14)

In the end, he did fail, and he did claim the Ring. And yet in spite of that, he remains the hero of the story and the saviour of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Of Frodo, JRRT says:

"I do not think Frodo's failure was a moral failure. At the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum--impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torment, and when starved and exhausted. Frodo had done what he could and spent himself completely (as an instrument of Providence) and had produced a situation in which the object of his quest could be achieved. His humility ( with which he began) and his sufferings were justly rewarded by the highest honour; and his exercise of patience and mercy towards Gollum gained him Mercy: his failure was redressed." (15)

Finally, we should consider Sam, the other Ring-bearer. He was in possession of the Ring for a very short time. Perhaps not long enough for it to consolidate a hold on him? Yet it took Gollum in far less time.

Unlike Frodo, Sam was not *given* the Ring; however, unlike Gollum, he did not *steal* it either. Instead, he took it because he was--as he thought--the last one left to carry on the duty laid on Frodo: to see the Ring carried to its place of destruction.

Still, the Ring was in a very powerful position: on the very borders of Mordor. And Sam was in a weakened state, in grief and despair over his master, whom he thought dead; in exhaustion from the trek up the Endless Stair; and from the battle with Shelob. And it was necessary for Sam to put the Ring *on*, in order to escape the Orcs.(16)

Once he followed the Orcs into Mordor, he took it off. But it was then the trial of his resolve began:

"As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and resolve. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dûr. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.

In that hour of trial, it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command."(17)

Sam renounced the Ring, and did not doubt that renunciation. And when he rescued his master, he returned the Ring--and though he felt a certain amount of reluctance, he handed it over anyway.

Looking at the above Ringbearers, it appears that it had consolidated its hold on two: Sauron and Gollum, had a tenuous hold on Isildur, failed to hold either Bilbo or Sam, and was only able to take Frodo at the end by overwhelming him with sheer force.

Not an especially good track record for an object that is supposed to inspire irresistible lust for it.

But what about those who came into the orbit of the Ring, through their association with the Ring-bearers? Were they tempted to seize it?

It is not possible to say what sorts of temptations those who were in the vicinity of Sauron or Isildur felt. While Sauron held the Ring, I am certain his own force of having a *right* to be the Lord of the Ring through being its maker probably kept others from casting lustful thoughts in its direction.

It is possible that some of those who surrounded Isildur wanted the Ring--yet there are no hints of that in canon whatsoever.

Sméagol/Gollum solved the problem of others wanting his "precious" by hiding away beneath a mountain for nearly five hundred years, so once more there is no evidence that anyone else would have wanted it.

Bilbo had the Ring during the remainder of his Adventure. As covetous as Dwarves are painted as being in "The Hobbit", we do not see any of them coveting his Ring, even once they knew about it. They were far more interested in the dragon-hoard and the Arkenstone.

He kept the Ring secret after returning to the Shire, so we have no accounts of other hobbits trying to get their hands on it. They did not know it even existed: with two exceptions--Frodo, whom Bilbo told himself (18) and Meriadoc Brandybuck, who found out for himself, and kept the secret for many years.(19)

Neither of them made any attempt to claim the Ring.

Gandalf rejected the Ring outright, when Frodo offered it to him, though he was clearly tempted, tempted by the idea of using its power to do good. Only his sure knowledge that any such attempt would backfire made him able to reject it.(20)

The Ring meant nothing to Tom Bombadil; indeed, it had so little power over *him* that he was not even rendered invisible when he tried it on!(21) Strider knows what Frodo carries. Yet he tells Frodo: "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will." Though the hobbits do not realize it, the Heir of Isildur has sworn fealty to Frodo Baggins.(22) If the Ring holds any temptations at all for *this* Man, we are never privy to them, and he fights them off by himself.

In Rivendell, at the Council of Elrond, the general consensus is that the Ring must be disposed of: either by dropping it into the Sea, sending it over the Sea, or destroying it. Only Boromir indicates any doubt of this--it is now we first see the theme develop of the Ring as a weapon. He thinks that sending Frodo into Mordor to seek the Cracks of Doom is "folly". It is, perhaps, the first indication of his eventual fall to the Ring's call.(23)

And yet we see no sign of the Ring acting upon anyone else, not in Rivendell, and not on the Quest--until Lothlórien.

Lothlórien is interesting when looking at the Ring's effect on people. Galadriel tests the loyalty and resolve of the Company, and we do not know that any of them were offered the Ring, or merely a chance to go home--Sam and Merry hint that it was merely the latter. But though it is never overtly stated, it does seem fairly conclusive that Boromir's test involved the Ring in some manner. It seems that it is this test that finally tips him in the direction he eventually takes.

And then, there is Galadriel's own temptation. Hers is truly a trial of the Ring's power. She confesses that she has often wished to have the Ring in her possession--this desire could be her downfall. She knows, as does Gandalf, that she has the strength to wield it.

Her temptation was clearly a *serious* one. Frodo actually *offers* to give her the Ring if she will take it! We see her taken aback by his offer, and then she begins to speak of what she would do if she had it. But in the end, she makes her rejection plain: “ ‘I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.’”(24)

The one real chance the Ring had in snaring one of the bearers of the Three, and it fails. We will examine this more, later on.

However, Boromir does not seem to be completely immune to the Ring’s siren call, as we see when they leave Lothlórien. He has not forgotten his thoughts that it might still be possible to use the Ring as a weapon, and it seems clear that he did not pass the test Galadriel gave the members of the Company. We see signs of it on the river-journey: “Boromir sat muttering to himself, sometimes biting his nails, as if some restlessness or doubt consumed him, sometimes seizing a paddle and driving the boat close behind Aragorn’s. Then Pippin, who sat in the bow looking back, caught a queer gleam in his eye, as he peered forward gazing at Frodo.”(25)

Then the Company reaches Parth Galen, and we come to the crucial point in the breaking of the Fellowship. Boromir finds Frodo alone, and makes at first an impassioned plea, then a demand, for the Ring. When Frodo does not comply, he attempts to take the Ring by force. This is another scene we shall look at in more detail later.

What happens next? Frodo puts on the Ring and escapes.

And: “Then catching his foot on a stone, he fell sprawling and lay upon his face. For a while he was as still as if his own curse had struck him down; then suddenly he wept.

He rose and passed his hand over his eyes, dashing away the tears. ‘What have I said?’ he cried. ‘What have I done? Frodo, Frodo!’ he called. ‘Come back! A madness took me, but it has passed. Come back!’”(26)

At this point, Boromir is no longer under the Ring’s spell. His fall has broken the temptation--even though he temporarily fell to its enthrallment, as soon as he realizes his actions, he renounces them as madness. He does *not* seek to go after Frodo--for even invisible, it’s certain that Frodo would have left traces of his flight. If the Ring truly had him firmly in its grasp, he could not have resisted following it. He returns to the Company, and in the event, he gives his life to save Frodo’s cousins as an atonement for his betrayal.

In other words--the Ring failed to consolidate its hold over him.

Now the Ring is across the River, and is moving closer to its Master, and to its greatest source of power. It’s clear that the closer they get to Mordor, the more of a drag it is on Frodo.

Yet the journey is interrupted in Ithilien, when the Ringbearers are captured by Captain Faramir.

Faramir is Boromir’s brother, and one might think him as subject to the Ring’s pull as his brother had been. Yet he completely rejects the idea of taking the Ring, or of taking the Ringbearers anywhere near Minas Tirith. Indeed, even with his suspicions of what Frodo might have, he rejects the Ring *before he even knows what it is*! “ ‘I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.’” Then, when Sam spills the beans about the Ring and their mission, Faramir reiterates his rejection, even though he now knows what the Ring is.(27)

As with Aragorn, we do not know if the Ring even tried to tempt him--it would be surprising if it did not. But if it did, it failed again.

Yet, it’s clear that the Ring did indeed incite lust for its power, and drew evil after it. We see it all through the books: it is a beacon for the Nazgûl when they seek the Ring in the North, and it comes close at least to revealing Frodo when the Ringbearers and Gollum are in the Dead Marshes, and again when they pass near Minas Morgul. It seems to draw the evil creatures after Frodo in Moria, and of course Gollum is able to follow its trail like a hound.

And there are three who, never even coming close to the Ring, still lust for it: Saruman, Denethor and Grishnákh.

It’s quite clear that Saruman had been searching for the Ring for centuries. In The Silmarillion we are told of his treachery: “Thus the Wise were troubled, but none as yet perceived that Curunír [Saruman’s other name] had turned to dark thoughts and was already a traitor in heart; for he desired that he and no other should find the Great Ring, so that he might wield it himself and order all the world to his will.”(28)

Saruman’s treachery was active. He was in communication with Sauron through the palantír, but he was planning to betray him as well.

Grishnákh is a bit of an anomaly. He is clearly a fairly low-level Orc officer, yet somehow he has a knowledge of the Ring.

The thought came suddenly into Pippin’s mind, as if caught direct from the urgent thought of his enemy. ‘Grishnákh knows about the Ring! He’s looking for it, while Uglûk is busy: he probably wants it for himself: cold fear was in Pippin’s heart, yet at the same time he was wondering what use he could make of Grishnákh’s desire.” Pippin--and then Merry, when he catches on to his cousin’s ruse--trick the Orc into thinking they have the Ring, by hints and making a “gollum” noise. It’s obvious that the Orc *does* indeed know about, and wants, the One Ring. We are left to speculate as to how he came by knowledge not generally given to underlings.(29)

Denethor was not a traitor. He was, however, unwittingly in Sauron’s power through his use of the palantír, and his notions of the Ring were influenced by his desires to defeat Sauron by any means. When he discovers what Faramir has done in allowing Frodo to go, he rages at Faramir, and says “Would that this thing had come to me!”

As Boromir had done, he calls the plan to send the Ring to the Fire “madness”, and then in the dispute with Gandalf that follows says:

“Nay, it should have been kept, hidden, hidden dark and deep. Not used, I say, unless at the uttermost end of need, but set beyond his grasp, save by a victory so final that what then befell would not trouble us, being dead.” (30)

Denethor was not evil, but he was filled with pride and despair, a bad combination, that can lead men who are not evil to *do* evil, and Gandalf knew this.

JRRT describes Denethor as a “politician”--“Denethor was tainted with mere politics: hence his failure, and his mistrust of Faramir. It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor despised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between orcs and the allies of Mordor. It he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful. He had become a “political” leader: sc. Gondor against the rest.”(31)

At any rate, it seems clear that the decisions of Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo to keep the Ring away from Minas Tirith was a correct one!

We can see then, through the temptations of Gandalf and Galadriel, and through the temporary fall of Boromir, and through the Ring-lust of Saruman, Grishnákh and Denethor, that the Ring *did* have a great power of corruption even upon those who never came within grasping distance. And yet, upon most of those who *did* come within grasping distance it either did not succeed at all, or only partially succeeded.

Why?

Here we enter a realm entirely of speculation. All that we are openly *told* about the Ring emphasizes its great power--yet all that we are actually *shown* about the Ring indicates that its power was not nearly so great as was believed.

It is my theory that there are a few reasons for this, and they are related.

First of all, there is the nature of the one who made the Ring, and the way in which he made it: “He only needs the One; for he made the Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so the he could rule all the others.”(32)

“…he had been obliged to let a great part of his own inherent power (a frequent and very significant motive in myth and fairy-story) pass into the One Ring. While he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in ‘rapport’ with himself: he was not ‘diminished’.”(33)

“Sauron made the One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to its and to last only so long as it too should last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring…”(34)

In other words, the Ring is a reflection of Sauron himself. And from what we are told of Sauron, he had a real blind spot: he could not conceive that anyone else would not want that sort of power that *he* wanted.

Gandalf gives us a succinct account of Sauron’s personality:

“Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall pass out of his reckoning.”(35)

In other words, Sauron had a blind spot about the motivations of other people, and therefore, the Ring had that blind spot as well.

This accounts for its utter failure with the hobbits. It could not offer any of them anything they truly wanted. Hobbits in general dislike power over others (not exclusively, of course, as Gollum, Lalia and Lotho all prove to be exceptions). But those hobbits with whom it came in contact did not want power--they were motivated by love: love for the Shire and devotion to one another.

Aragorn and Faramir--and ultimately Boromir, though he fell briefly--were motivated by honor and duty, another concept that the Ring could not wrap its “mind” around, because neither could its Master.

Gandalf and Galadriel were clearly tempted. They were used to, and had no compunctions about, wielding power as necessary to complete their tasks--and they longed to do “good” with the power. But beneath that, it was their love and compassion for others that motivated their use of power. It was the good they could accomplish and not the power in and of itself that appealed to them. Therefore they were able to forestall the Ring’s appeal.

“It appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond. But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected as is seen in Elrond’s words at the Council. Galadriel’s rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve.”(36)

Gandalf called upon this resolve when he rejected the Ring, and while it briefly filled Galadriel’s mind with those “imaginations of supreme power” she was able in the end to call upon that resolve.

Faramir unwittingly rejected the Ring even before he knew what it was: Not if I found it lying by the side of the highway would I take this thing.”(37) When he realizes what the Enemy’s token is, he holds himself as a man of honor, bound by that word--even though he did not know what he meant at the time. He also was able to call upon previous resolve in spite of his essential ignorance of the Ring.

Because of Sauron’s obsession with power, the Ring was obsessed with power. This was also a crucial mistake made, as the Ring tempted those it tried to claim. We only see three people actually grappling with the Ring’s “imaginations”: Galadriel, Boromir and Sam.

“ ’I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp. The evil that was devised long ago works on in many ways, whether Sauron himself stands or falls. Would not that have been a noble deed to set to the credit of his Ring, if I had taken it by force or fear from my guest?

‘And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!’

She then reveals her ring to Frodo, and for a brief instant he sees her as she described, and then she laughs.(37) It is the laughter that I think shows the weakness of this temptation--the Ring, in its “imaginations” went too far, and she realized just how silly “all shall love me and despair” was. In other words, the Ring went over the top, and so ruined all its efforts to take her, as her good sense and previous resolve asserts itself.

We have already looked at Sam’s temptation, but I would like to look once more at this portion: “And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be."(38)

And it is right after this part, that Sam’s love for his Master, and his “hobbit-sense” asserts itself. Once more, the Ring offered too much--being a reflection of Sauron, it could not offer less than such great power, and by doing so it went too far. It was not offering what Sam truly wanted.

Yet we see that Boromir does succumb, if only briefly. Why did it succeed in his case?

Well, first of all, Boromir had no “previous resolve”; he had taken no oath when the Company left Rivendell. And as we know, he was infected with the pride and despair of his father. But let us look at what the Ring offered him:

“ ‘We do not desire the power of wizard-lords, only strength to defend outserlves, strength in a just cause. And behold! in our need chance brings to light the Ring of Power. It is a gift, I say; a gift to the foes of Mordor. It is mad not to use it, to ouse the power of the Enemy against him. The fearless, the ruthless, these alone will achieve victory. What could not a warrior do in this hour, a great leader? What could not Aragorn do? Or if he refuses, why not Boromir? The Ring would give me power of Command. How I would drive the host of Mordor, and all men would flock to my banner!’

Boromir strode up and down, speaking ever more loudly. Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons and the mustering of men; and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise.”(39)

Boromir was a soldier, the Captain-General of Gondor. He was accustomed to thinking of power in terms of conquest and battles--and so the Ring was able to offer him just exactly what he wanted: these were the sorts of motives it could understand. Yet it’s conceivable that if it had continued in that vein--perhaps showing him casting down his own father, or becoming an Emperor of the world, he too might have realized what was happening, and his honor would have reasserted itself. Sadly, we will never know.

There is another factor as well: Sauron could not conceive that any would destroy his Ring, and so the Ring could not conceive that either--not until Frodo was at the very precipice of the Cracks of Doom did it realize its own danger, and seek to overwhelm him with raw power.

So, with these weaknesses built into the Ring by its maker, if it were not all that powerful, why was it necessary to destroy it?

The answer to that is clear. First and foremost, it was the only way to completely destroy Sauron himself. And secondly, “not as powerful as some people believe” does not mean it was not very powerful indeed.

It could and did, dominate the Nine, turning their bearers into slaves of great power and malice. It could and did, dominate the Seven--though all it achieved among the Dwarves was to kindle their greed, it managed to see that all of the Seven were ultimately destroyed.

It could, though it did not, dominate the Three. Only by hiding the Three, and never using them while the Ring was active, did the bearers keep those from being “sullied” by Sauron. And as they were made by Sauron’s knowledge, its destruction also meant the destruction of what had been wrought by the Three.

And it is also clear that given enough time, it could wear down the resistance of its bearers eventually, as it had begun to do with Bilbo after sixty years. And with enough power from its source, it could overwhelm the resistance of its bearer, as it did with Frodo.

The One Ring was indeed a thing of great and mighty power. But its power was flawed. It was never as powerful as its maker thought it, because *he* was never as powerful as he thought he was.

He forgot he himself was a mere creation, and that Love, Mercy and Grace came from One far more Powerful than himself.

____________________________

FOOTNOTES:

1 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
2 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter II, “The Council of Elrond”
3 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter II, “The Council of Elrond”
4 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
5 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter II, “The Council of Elrond”
6 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter # 131
7 Unfinished Tales, Part Three, The Third Age, Chapter I, “The Disaster of the Gladden Fields”
8 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
9 The Hobbit, Chapter V, “Riddles in the Dark”
10 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
11 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter I, “A Long-Expected Party”
12 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter VIII, “Fog on the Barrow-Downs”
13 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter I, “Many Meetings”
14 The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter III, “Mount Doom”
15 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #246
16 The Two Towers, Book IV, Chapter X, “The Choices of Master Samwise”
17 The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter I, “The Tower of Cirith Ungol”
18 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
19 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter V, “A Conspiracy Unmasked”
20 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
21 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter VII, “In the House of Tom Bombadil”
22 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter X, “Strider”
23 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter II, “The Council of Elrond”
24 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter VII, “The Mirror of Galadriel”
25 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter IX, “The Great River”
26 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter X, “The Breaking of the Fellowship”
27 The Two Towers, Book IV, Chapter V, “The Window on the West”
28 The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”
29 The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter III, “The Uruk-Hai”
30 The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter IV, “The Siege of Gondor”
31 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #183
32 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter II, “The Shadow of the Past”
33 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter # 131
34 The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”
35 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter II, “The Council of Elrond”
36 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter # 246
37 The Two Towers, Book IV, Chapter V, “The Window on the West”
38 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter VII, “The Mirror of Galadriel”
39 The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter X, “The Breaking of the Fellowship”

I hope that some of you will find a bit to chew on in this essay! I welcome dissenting opinions, or even arguments in favor of my theory that I missed or did not consider.

This project came about when I simply went to look in The Peoples of Middle-earth for a couple of good names for OCs. Thanks to Larner for the beta, and to Pearl and Lindelea for also giving it a look over.

At first glance, the ways in which hobbits name their children seems rather normal to those of us in the English-speaking world. (Since the Shire was JRRT's idealized vision of rural England, this makes a certain amount of sense.) They generally have both a first name and a patronymic surname, just as people do in most English-speaking countries.

Many of the names sound familiar to us: Tom, Dora, Sam, Ted, Bob, Rose and so forth. And many of the other names sound close to ours.

But there are some very important differences. First of all, we know that the names that seem so familiar to us are not, in actuality, any such thing. JRRT used a system in which he drew names from Old English and other European languages and called them "translations" from the Westron.

In the case of persons, however, Hobbit names in the Shire and in Bree were for those days peculiar, notably in the habit that had grown up, some centuries before this time of having inherited names for families. Most of these surnames had obvious meanings (in the current language being derived from jesting nicknames, or from place names, or -- especially in Bree -- from the names of plants and trees. Translation of these presented little difficulty; but there remained one or two older names of forgotten meaning, and these I have been content to anglicize in spelling, as in Took for Tûk or Boffin for Bophin.

I have treated Hobbit first-names, as far as possible, in the same way. To their maid-children Hobbits commonly gave the names of flowers or jewels. To their man-children, they usually gave names that had no meaning at all in their daily language, and some of their women's names were similar. Of this kind are Bilbo, Bongo, Polo, Lotho, Tanta, Nina, and so on. There are many inevitable but accidental resemblances to names we now have or know; for instance Otho, Odo, Drogo, Dora, Cora and the like. These names I have retained, though I have usually anglicized them by altering their endings, since in Hobbit-names -a was a masculine ending, and -o and -e were feminine.
(LotR, Appendix F, II, "On Translation")

It is clear from a close scrutiny of the Family Trees in Appendix C of LotR, that there are definite patterns in the first names given within each family. And while many of the names were ultimately rejected, some of the first names in the Family Trees in Chapter III of The Peoples of Middle-earth also bear out many of the same patterns.

In some old families, especially those of Fallohide origin such as the Tooks and the Bolgers, it was, however, the custom to give high-sounding first names.
(LotR, Appendix F, II, "On Translation")

The heroic and romantic names, of Fallohide legend according to the Hobbits, specially but not solely affected by Tooks, have been represented by names of a Germanic or Frankish cast. 'Classical' names or ones of similar form on the other hand represent usually names derived by Hobbits from tales of ancient times and far kingdoms of Men. (PoMe, Chapter II, "The Appendix on Language")

And there is this: "The Carolingians were the dynasty holding the throne of France from the eighth century to 987 and centering on Charlemagne (742-814; ruled 768-814, created Emperor 800) They seem to have played little role in Tolkien's imagination--though he used some of their names for contrast with the home family names of the Hobbits, as with Pippin Took." (Jared Lordell, "Carolingians" from J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment)

Mr. Lordell goes on to point out that Pippin was the name of Charlemagne's grandson, and shows that the name Lotho also derived from the Carolingian line, while Meriadoc was a Merovingian name. (The Merovingians were the dynasty that preceded the Carolingians, just as the Oldbucks preceded the Tooks.) He does not mention the several minor names from these sources found on the Family Trees.

Indeed, any search for medieval names of Frankish, Merovingian, Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon or Germanic origin will turn up a large number of names familiar to readers of LotR, and to anyone who has spent much time looking over the Family Trees in Appendix C.

Most of the Latinate names which JRRT originally considered for male hobbits were ultimately rejected, with the exception of Gerontius. The meaning of the name is "old one", which seems very appropriate for the Old Took.

While JRRT does not address the various jewels used for the names of some hobbit females, such as Diamond, Adamanta (which means "diamond") Esmeralda (for "emerald"), Berylla, Pearl and so forth, he does mention the flower names. He says:

"Hobbits very frequently gave their daughters flower-names. But even these are not so simple to deal with as might be expected. Where the flower is certainly to be identified I had naturally translated the name into English (or botanical Latin). But not all the wild flowers of the Shire, and cerainly not all the flowers cultivated in its gardens can be identified with flowers that are now familiar. In cases of doubt I have done the best that I could. For instance: I have translated Hamanullas by Lobelia, because although I do not know precisely what flower is intended, hamanullas appears to have been usually small and blue and cultivated in gardens, that the word seems to have been a gardener's rather than a popular name. ( "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe )

In some ways this note may be a bit disingenious and tongue in cheek. Lobelia was also known to be an herb used as a purgative-- something which would suit the character's personality, and it would seem natural that JRRT would know this, although this is mere speculation. But it is clear from this note, that he used garden-flowers for his purpose, without regard to whether they were species native to England, or even Europe. Indeed, on the Family Trees we find Camelia (which is native to China and Japan) and Mimosa (which is native to the tropics). This also fits in with his introduction into the story of such plants as tobacco, potatoes and tea-- he is not particularly concerned with botanical accuracy.

Most of the surnames in the Shire fall into three broad categories: Names which have no obvious meaning and tend to belong to the oldest of families, descriptive surnames, and geographical surnames. The Breeland hobbits add a fourth category, botanical names.

Names which fall into the first category are Took, Baggins, Bolger, Boffin and Bunce. These are actual English names, and they do not appear to have any particular meaning. A careless glance might connect Baggins with Bag End, and suppose the name to have derived from the place. However, it is clear that the name Baggins was an old one even before Bungo Baggins built the smial for his bride, Belladonna Took. Bag End as a Baggins dwelling only goes back one generation from Bilbo and the name of the smial was much more likely to have derived from the name of its owner than the other way around.

There are a number of descriptive surnames, such as Proudfoot, Goodbody, Headstrong, Goldworthy, Brown, Brownlock, Goodchild, and Greenhand. Assuming that Roper is a surname, it is descriptive of an occupation-- if so, it seems to be unique, as we find no Baker or Butcher or other such occupational names. Hornblower also seems an unusual descriptive name, and it would be interesting to discover what the story was behind that name.

Most of the names appear to be geographical, which is to say, playing off a feature of the landscape or the name of a town or village. Some are quite obvious: Banks or Burrows or Longhole fall into that category. Other geographical names seem to have evolved-- Gamgee is shown to have gradually mutated from the name Gamwich, the village from which Sam's ancestor came. Cotton evolved from Cottar-- who must have lived in a cot and not in a smial. One name which began as a descriptive name-- Oldbuck-- became a geographical name when Gorhendad Oldbuck moved across the Brandywine River and changed the family name to Brandybuck. (An interesting sidelight to this is that at least at some point in time, male hobbits must have referred to themselves as "bucks".)

Although the only botanical specifically hobbit name mentioned in Bree was Mugwort, the implication is that there were others. Some of the Mens' botanical names, such as Heathertoes, sound more hobbity than Mannish. It is possible some of these names may have crossed over.

Also interesting to note is that out of sixty listed surnames (which include the rejected names), fully one-fourth (or fifteen) begin with the letter "B", while one-sixth, or ten, begin with the letter "G". With the exception of the Tooks and the Gamgees, all of the "main" families begin with "B": Baggins, Brandybuck, Bolger, and Boffin.

Only two hyphenated surnames made it into the LotR canon: Sackville-Baggins and Chubb-Baggins. There were others which were considered by JRRT and then rejected: Bolger-Baggins, Took-Brandybuck and Took-Took.

About the subject of hyphenated surnames, JRRT has this to say in Letters, in Letter #214, in which he speaks of much of the social arrangements of the Shire:

Customs differed in cases where the 'head' died leaving no son. In the Took-family, since the headship was also connected with the title and (originally military) office of Thain, descent was strictly through the male line. In other great families the headship might pass through a daughter of the deceased to his eldest grandson (irrespective of the daughter's age). This latter custom was usual in families of more recent origin, without ancient records or ancestral mansions. In such cases the heir (if he accepted the courtesy title) took the name of his mother's family-- though he often retained that of his father's family also (placed second). This was the case with Otho Sackville-Baggins. For the nominal headship of the Sackvilles had come to him through his mother Camellia. It was his rather absurd notion to achieve the rare distinction of being 'head' of two families ( he would probably have then called himself Baggins-Sackville-Baggins); a situation which will explain his exasperation with the adventures and disappearances of Bilbo quite apart from any loss of property involved in the adoption of Frodo. (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #214, to A.C. Nunn)

Therefore, when Longo Baggins married Camelia Sackville, their son Otho took the hyphenated name Sackville-Baggins, and so became the head of the Sackville family in order that the name would be carried on; however, the Sackville-Baggins line came to an abrupt end with the murder of Lotho. Since customs differed among families, it is possible that there were other reasons for the Chubb-Baggins line, or it could be that Chica Chubb, who wed Bilbo's Uncle Bingo, may have been the eldest daughter of a lesser family among the Chubbs, a collateral line, which had only daughters.

Since the Tooks and Brandybucks are rather numerous, it could explain why he ultimately rejected the names Took-Took and Took-Brandybuck.

One of the most obvious things that may be noted on the Baggins Family Tree is the predominance of the -o ending for the male names. The fact is, every male born a Baggins has that suffix, as well as several from other families.

Even an examination of the rejected lineages in Peoples of Middle-earth continues to bear this out. The only name to appear there which is not on the Appendix Family Tree is "Inigo", which also contains the -o ending.

However, there are some interesting patterns among the female names, as well. There are several flower names: Rosa, Peony, Daisy, Poppy, Myrtle and Angelica, but no born Baggins female bears a jewel name. And there are many of the names that fall into the category of "names that had no meaning at all in their daily language", such as Laura, Linda, Belba, Dora, and Prisca.

While there were no Family Trees for these two families to appear in Appendix C, JRRT had nevertheless drawn up versions of them which appear in Chapter III of Peoples of Middle-earth*. He clearly considered both of these families to be in the category he called "the Great Families" in Letter #214 of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Boffins follow the pattern of the Bagginses when it comes to male names: we have Folco and Griffo and Hugo. There is a paucity of female Boffins, however the one who appears on a Family Tree in the Appendix has a jewel name: Berylla. And in the Boffin Family Trees in The Peoples of Middle-earth, we see a couple of plant names and "high-sounding" names for the females of the family.

The Bolgers eschew the -o names in favor of other "high-sounding" names. On the Baggins tree we see, for example Fastolph, Rudigar and Filibert Bolger; on the Took tree, Odovacar, and on the Brandybuck tree we have Gundabald. Though there are several names with various endings, the Bolgers seem to be the only family who uses the suffixes -var, -gar and -car.

Of all the hobbit families, the Brandybucks seem to have the strictest naming conventions.

First of all, they use the "high-sounding names" but in a very restricted manner. All the male names end with one of the following suffixes: -doc, -roc, -as, -ac, or -ic. Also in a preponderence of the names, the letter -r ends the first syllable. They also tend to names of at least three syllables. There are only three two-syllable names: Madoc, Sadoc and Marroc, who appear rather far back, and one four syllable name: Meriadoc.

We do know that the last Oldbuck, who became the first Brandybuck, was named Gorhendad, but by the time of the Family Trees shown in Appendix C, the -dad or -ad suffix appears to be no longer in use. However, the first syllable of his name does carry out the pattern by ending in -r.

Another interesting feature of the Brandybuck tradition is that all of the born females on the Brandybuck tree have flower or plant names. There are no jewel-derived names except for those who married into the family. The same thing goes for the "high-sounding names" for females.

Of all the families, the Brandybuck names underwent the most revisions before JRRT arrived at his final decision. At first, he used the end syllable -duc instead of -doc, and there were several four-syllable names shown. Among rejected names, we find Theodoric, Athanaric, and Meneaduc. Another change was that at one point, JRRT had considered using grandiose Latin nicknames for the various Masters of Buckland: "Superbus", "Pancrator" and for Meriadoc, "Porphyrogenitus"! He wisely decided to do away with this indulgence; however, he kept the idea of the nicknames, and so Meriadoc became "the Magnificent" while his father was "Scattergold" and his grandfather "Goldfather".

And originally, the females also had some of the "high-sounding names" as well. These too, were ultimately rejected in favor of the flower and plant names. However, jewel names were not used for any of the Brandybuck females, even among rejected names.

The Tooks are considered the pre-eminent family of the Shire so far as social status and wealth were concerned, though less so in terms of "respectability". Seven hundred years after the founding of the Shire, the office of Thain passed to the Tooks from the Oldbuck family, and they had held that office ever since.

It is, perhaps the reason for some of the peculiarities of the Took family's naming traditions. The Baggins, Bolgers, Boffins and Brandybucks do not seem to repeat names within the family, or at least not for very many generations-- too many to appear on the Family Trees, at any rate. But the Tooks do repeat names, not least among the heirs to the Thainship, and not only that, but they add numbers after those names, much in the manner of certain Kings in European history.

Another peculiarity is the way in which they repeatedly combine similar elements of a name. There are so many Isens, Isums, Isems, and Hildis that it must have made calling the children to supper difficult. All of the Took male first names are three syllables, with the exception of the four-syllable name Gerontius (which is the one name JRRT kept that was taken directly from the Latin without passing first through another language).

Among the female names, we find flower/plant names: Belladonna, Rosamunda, Pimpernel and Pervinca; jewel names such as Pearl and Esmeralda, and among the daughters of the Old Took, a rather odd way of combining the female names-- Belladonna was the first, with a plant name, but her younger sisters were Donnamira and Mirabella, both using elements of her name and of one another's names. This particular naming device is not found in any other family.

There are a number of ways in which the Family Tree of Sam Gamgee differs from that of his fellow Travellers. This is part and parcel of the fact that Sam, unlike the others, was a working class hobbit, who found himself unexpectedly upwardly mobile.

First of all, it cannot properly be called the "Gamgee Family Tree", and JRRT has shown this by calling it "The Longfather Tree of Master Samwise".

The family last names are shown as they evolve, for it is actually a depiction of both the Gamgee family ancestry and that of the Cotton family. Three ancestors are involved: Hamfast of Gamwich, Holman the greenhanded of Hobbiton, and Cottar. Sam's family descended from Hamfast, while Rose's family were descendants of Cottar, and they shared a common ancestor in Holman, whose older daughter Rowan, married Hob Gammidge and whose younger daughter Rose married Cottar's son Cotman.

We see, especially on the Gamgee side of the family, the sort of repetition of elements found among the Tooks and Brandybucks, though the most common prefixes used seem to be Hol-, Hob-, Hal- and Ham- while the most commonly used suffixes appear to be -wise, -man and -son.

Like the Tooks, and unlike the other hobbit families we have looked at, Sam's family tend to re-use names. Among the males, Halfred, Holman, Hamfast, Tolman and Wilcome are repeated. Female names repeated are Rose and May.

Sam carries on the idea of naming his children for others, though he goes outside his own clan for the most part, naming his first three male children after the friends of his travels, and his fifth son after his old Master, Bilbo. He does name one son after his father and another after Rose's father. His daughters all bear flower names with the exception of his middle child, Goldilocks, and the youngest, Ruby. (Elanor, of course, is named after the flower of Lothlórien.)

The family name continues to evolve even into the Fourth Age as we see the family name of Sam's oldest son become Gardner. Although there are some who think that the entire family takes on the name, there is no clear evidence that any of Sam's other children used another surname than Gamgee.

These lists were compiled using the following sources: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (primarily Appendix C, but also names gleaned from relevant chapters in the story), The History of Middle-earth Volume VI: The Return of the Shadow and The History of Middle-earth Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth. I have indicated the source of each name by the following abbreviations: TH=The Hobbit, LotR=Lord of the Rings, RotS=Return of the Shadow, and PoMe=Peoples of Middle-earth. One surname and one first name was taken from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #214.

I have done my best to include all the indicated names, including those which were ultimately rejected, those which were considered "Westron" translations, and those which would have been merely "historical" by the time of the War of the Ring. I may have missed a few-- there were far more names than I even imagined when I began this project.

Fallohide, Harfoot and Stoor are not included as surnames. While it is not beyond the realms of possibilty that these were at some time actual names of hobbit clans, by the time of the main story, they are no longer used as such but as a designation of three main groups of hobbits divided by certain physical characteristics.

Baggins (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Banks (LotR)
Boffin (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Bolger ( LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Bolger-Baggins (RotS)
The last name originally considered for Frodo's character, when he was still named "Bingo".
Bracegirdle (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Brandagamba (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of the Brandybuck name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Brandybuck (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Brockhouse [Bree] (LotR)
Brown (LotR, PoMe)
Brownlock (LotR)
Bunce (LotR)
Burrowes--a spelling variant of Burrows (TH)
This spelling variant appears only in The Hobbit, as one of the surnames of the firm in charge of auctioning off Bag End at the end of the story.
Burrows (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Button (RotS)
The surname of a character that originally appeared in Sam's conversation with Sandyman, later rejected in favor of Sam's cousin Hal.
Chubb (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Chubb-Baggins (LotR, PoMe)
Clayhanger (Letters, #214)
Diggle (PoMe)
Fairbairn (LotR, PoMe) Galbassi (PoMe) According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, this is the Westron version of the Gamgee name
Gamgee (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Gammidge (LotR, PoMe)
Gardner (LotR, PoMe)
Gaukrogers, Gawkroger (spelling variants) (RotS, PoMe)
Goldworthy (LotR)
Goodbody (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Goodchild (LotR, PoMe)
Goold (LotR)
Greenhand (LotR, PoMe)
Grubb (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Hayward (LotR)
Headstrong (LotR)
Hogpen (PoMe)
Hornblower (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Labingi (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of the Baggins name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Lightfoot (PoMe)
Longhole [Bree] (LotR) Lothran According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, this is the Westron version of the Cotton name
Maggot (LotR, RotS)
Mugwort [Bree] (LotR, RotS)
Noakes (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Oldbuck (LotR)
This was the original family name of the Brandybucks. Gorhendad Oldbuck changed the family name when he colonized Buckland. It is unclear whether all of the family changed the name, or only those Oldbucks who joined the colony at Buck Hill.
Proudfoot (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Puddifoot (RotS)
Sackville (LotR, PoMe)
Sackville-Baggins (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
The Sackville-Baggins were a very small family. There were only ever three: Otho, Lobelia and Lotho. Otho was the first of his line to bear the hyphenated name, and Lotho had no sons, so he was the last to bear it.
Roper (LotR, PoMe)
It is unclear whether this became an actual family surname, or simply an appellation adopted by Sam's cousin Andwise.
Rumble (LotR)
Sandheaver [Bree] (LotR)
Sandyman (LotR, RotS)
Smallburrow (LotR)
Took (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Took-Brandybuck (PoMe)
At one point considered as a possible last name for Meriadoc, but later rejected.
Took-Took (RotS)
A last name considered for one of Bilbo's uncles; later rejected.
Tûk (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of the Took name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Tunnelly [Bree] (LotR)
Twofoot (LotR)
Underhill [Bree] (LotR, RotS)
Whitfoot (LotR, PoMe)
Zaragamba (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of the Oldbuck name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".

Adelbert (PoMe)
Adelgrim (LotR, PoMe)
Adelard (LotR, PoMe)
Alaric (PoMe)
Alberic (PoMe)
Andwise "Andy" (LotR, PoMe)
Ansegar (PoMe)
Arnor (PoMe)
Athanaric (PoMe)
Balbo (LotR)
Banazir (LotR)
This is the Westron version of Samwise's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Bandobras (TH, LotR, PoMe)
Belisarius (PoMe)
A name briefly considered for Fredegar Bolger.
Bercilac (PoMe)
Name briefly considered for both Saradoc's brother and nephew; later rejected.
Berilac (LotR)
Bilba (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of Bilbo's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Bilbo (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Bilcuzal, Bildad, Bildat (PoMe) The Westron versions of the hobbit name often shortened to "Bill" Bildad (PoMe)
Replaced by Gundabald
Bingo (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Bladud (PoMe)
Blanco (LotR)
Bucca (LotR)
A name of one of the Brandybuck ancestors, and the first Thain of the Shire. It is likely that "Bucca" pre-dated Oldbuck.
Bob (LotR)
A Bree hobbit
Basso (PoMe)
Bodo (LotR)
Bosco (PoMe)
Bowman (LotR, PoMe)
Briffo (PoMe)
Bruno (PoMe)
Briefly considered for a Bracegirdle, meant to be the brother of Lobelia and father of Hilda
Brutus (PoMe)
Briefly considered for a Bracegirdle, meant to be the brother of Lobelia and father of Hilda
Bungo (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Caradas (PoMe)
Replaced by Saradas
Caradoc (PoMe)
Replaced by Saradoc Brandybuck.
Carambo (RotS)
Carl (LotR, PoMe)
Cedivar (PoMe)
Celedor (PoMe)
Ceredic (PoMe)
Replaced by Seredic
Cerdic (PoMe) Chilimanzar (PoMe) According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, this was to have been the Westron version of Meriadoc's name, but was later rejected in favor of Kalimac
Columbus (PoMe)
Replaced by Gorbulas
Conrad (PoMe)
Cosimo (RotS, PoMe)
The name originally considered for Lotho; later rejected.
Cotman (LotR, PoMe)
Cottar (LotR, PoMe)
Crassus (PoMe)
Replaced by Milo.
Crispus (PoMe)
Replaced by Moro.
Déagol (LotR)
Historical, used by the settlement of Stoors along the Anduin, not found in the later Third Age
Dinodas (LotR)
Doderic (LotR)
Dodinas (LotR)
Drogo (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Dudo (LotR, PoMe)
Elfstan (LotR, PoMe)
Erling (LotR)
Everard (LotR, PoMe)
Falco (LotR)
Faramir (LotR, PoMe)
Faramond (RotS, PoMe)
Name briefly considered for Frodo Baggins, and also for a son of Ferdinand Took
Fastred (LotR, PoMe)
Fastolph (LotR)
Ferdinand (LotR, PoMe)
Ferumbras (LotR, PoMe)
Filibert (LotR, PoMe)
Flambard (LotR, PoMe)
Flavus (PoMe)
Replaced by Mosco.
Folcard (PoMe)
Folco (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Fortinbras (LotR, PoMe)
Fosco (LotR, PoMe)
Fredegar (LotR, PoMe)
Frodo (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Fulvus (PoMe)
Replaced by Rufus Burrows and also by Minto Burrows.
Gerontius (TH, LotR, PoMe)
Goodwill (PoMe)
A name briefly considered for Fastred of Greenholm
Gorhendad (LotR) The last of the Oldbucks, he changed the family name to Brandybuck.
Gorbadoc, Gorbaduc [variant spelling] (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Gorbulas (LotR)
Gormadoc (LotR, PoMe)
Griffo (LotR)
Gringamor (PoMe)
Grossman (PoMe)
Gruffo (PoMe)
Guido (PoMe)
Gundabald (PoMe)
Gundahar (PoMe)
Gundobad (PoMe)
Gundolpho (PoMe)
Habaccuc (PoMe)
Replaced by Orgulas
Haiduc (PoMe)
Replaced by Gorbulas
Hal (LotR)
Halfred (LotR, PoMe)
Hamfast (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Hamilcar (PoMe)
A name originally considered for Fredegar Bolger.
Harding (LotR, PoMe)
Hending (LotR)
Heribald (PoMe)
Herugar (PoMe)
Hildibrand (LotR)
Hildigard (LotR, PoMe)
Hildifons (LotR, PoMe)
Hildigrim (LotR, PoMe)
Hob (LotR)
Hobson (LotR, PoMe)
Holfast (LotR)
Holman (LotR, PoMe)
Hugo (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Ilberic (LotR)
Iago (RotS)
Inigo (RotS, PoMe)
A Baggins name. Originally considered for Bilbo's great-grandfather, ultimately rejected in favor of "Balbo".
Iolo (PoMe)
Isembard (LotR, PoMe)
Isembold (LotR)
Isengar (LotR, PoMe)
Isengrim (LotR, PoMe)
Isengrin (LotR)
Isumbras (LotR, PoMe)
Jago (PoMe)
Replaced by Hugo Boffin.
Jo (RotS)
The first name of a character that originally appeared in Sam's conversation with Sandyman, later rejected in favor of Sam's cousin Hal.
Jolly (LotR, PoMe)
Kalimac (LotR)
This is the Westron version of Meriadoc's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Lamorac (PoMe)
Name briefly considered for both Saradoc's brother and nephew; later rejected.
Largo (LotR, PoMe)
Longo (LotR, PoMe)
Lotho (LotR, RotS, PoMe) Madoc (LotR, PoMe)
Magnus (PoMe)
Marcho (LotR)
Marco (PoMe)
Marcus (PoMe)
Replaced by Merimas.
Marmadoc, Marmaduc [variant spelling] (LotR, PoMe)
Marmaduke (RotS)
The name originally considered for Meriadoc in the early drafts of the story; later rejected and not used for any other character.
Marroc (LotR, PoMe)
Matta, Mat (LotR)
According to Appendix F, II, "On Translation" a common hobbit name in Westron and its shortened form.
Mattalic, Mat (PoMe) According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, a common hobbit name in Westron and its shortened form
Maura (LotR, PoMe)
This is the Westron version of Frodo's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Melampus (PoMe)
Replaced by Marmadas
Meneaduc (PoMe)
Replaced by Marmadas.
Meriadoc "Merry" (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Merimac (LotR)
Merimas (LotR)
Merry (LotR, PoMe)
While "Merry" was the nickname for Meriadoc Brandybuck, all indications are that it was the actual name of Sam's second son.
Milo (LotR, PoMe)
Minto (LotR)
Moro (LotR)
Mosco (LotR)
Mungo (LotR, RotS, PoMe) Nahand (PoMe) According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, the Westron for Déagol
Nob (LotR)
Nibs (LotR, PoMe)
Nicol (PoMe)
Nick (LotR)
Obo (RotS)
Odo (LotR, PoMe)
Odovacar (LotR, PoMe)
Olo (LotR)
Orgulas (LotR, PoMe)
Orlando (RotS, PoMe)
Otho (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Paladin (LotR, PoMe)
Peregrin "Pippin" ( LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Pippin (LotR, PoMe)
While "Pippin" was the nickname for Peregrin Took, all indications are that it was the actual name of Sam's second son.
Polo (LotR, PoMe)
Ponto (LotR, PoMe)
Porro (PoMe)
Posco (LotR, PoMe)
Priamus (PoMe)
Replaced by Dinodas
Prospero (RotS, PoMe)
Replaced by Everard Took.
Ranugad (LotR)
This is the Westron version of Hamfast's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Razanur
This is the Westron version of Peregrin's name. It never appeared in LotR except in Appendix F, II, "On Translation".
Reginard (LotR, PoMe)
Robin (LotR)
Robur (PoMe)
Roderic (PoMe)
Briefly considered for Rorimac Brandybuck.
Rollo (RotS, PoMe)
Replaced Obo Took-Took, and later replaced by Fosco Bolger.
Rorimac "Rory" (LotR, RotS)
Rudibert (PoMe)
Rudigar (LotR, PoMe)
Rudolph (PoMe)
Rufus (LotR)
Sadoc (LotR, PoMe)
Sago (RotS)
Samlad (PoMe)
Name briefly considered for Frodo Gardner's son.
Samwise "Sam" (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Sancho (LotR, PoMe)
Sagramor (PoMe)
Briefly considered for Rorimac Brandybuck.
Saradas (LotR)
Saradoc (LotR)
Scudamor (PoMe)
Seredic (LotR)
Sigismond (LotR, PoMe)
Sméagol (LotR)
Historical, used by the settlement of Stoors along the Anduin, not found in the later Third Age Tango (PoMe)
A name originally considered for one of Bilbo's uncles; later rejected.
Ted (LotR)
Theobald (PoMe)
Theodoric (PoMe)
Timba, Tim (LotR)
According to Appendix F, II, "On Translation" a common hobbit name in Westron and its shortened form.
Tóbias, "Töbi" (PoMe)
According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, the name of the Hornblower who discovered pipe-weed.
Tobold "Toby" (LotR)
According to Merry, in "The Road to Isengard", the name of the Hornblower who discovered pipe-weed.
Togo (LotR, PoMe)
Tolman "Tom" (LotR, PoMe)
Tomba, Tom (LotR)
According to Appendix F, II, "On Translation" a common hobbit name in Westron and its shortened form.
Tomburän, Tomacca, "Tom"
According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, a common hobbit name in Westron and its shortened form.
Trahand According to JRRT in "The Appendix on Languages", Chapter II of PoMe, the Westron for Sméagol
Uffo (RotS)
Replaced by Adelard Took.
Valdemar (PoMe)
Vigo (RotS, PoMe)
Wilcome "Will" (LotR, PoMe)
Wilibald (PoMe)
Wilimar (PoMe)
Will (LotR, PoMe)
Wiseman (LotR, PoMe)

Adaldrida (LotR, PoMe)
Alfrida (PoMe)
Amalda (RotS)
Replaced by Primula Brandybuck.
Amanda (RotS)
Replaced by Arabella Took.
Amaranth (LotR)
Amethyst (PoMe)
Angelica (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Arabella (RotS, PoMe)
Asphodel (LotR)
Belba (LotR)
Belinda (PoMe)
Bellisima (PoMe)
Replaced by Amaranth Brandybuck.
Bell (LotR)
Belladonna (TH, LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Bertha (PoMe)
Berylla (LotR)
Camelia (LotR, PoMe)
Cara (PoMe)
Replaced by Celandine.
Caramella (RotS)
Celendine (LotR)
Cora (PoMe)
Cornelia (PoMe)
Chica (LotR)
Daisy (LotR, PoMe)
Diamanda (PoMe)
Replaced by Rosamunda
Diamond (LotR)
Dina (PoMe)
Donnamira (LotR, PoMe)
Dora (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Duenna (PoMe)
Eglantine (LotR)
Elanor (LotR, PoMe)
Esmeralda (LotR)
Estella (LotR)
Fatima (PoMe)
Gerda (PoMe)
Gilly (LotR)
Gloriana (PoMe)
Replaced by Adaldrida.
Goldilocks (LotR, PoMe)
Grimalda (RotS)
Hilda (LotR, PoMe)
Jasmine (PoMe)
Jemima (PoMe)
Jessamine (PoMe)
Lalia (Letters, #214)
This name appears nowhere else.
Laura (LotR, PoMe)
Lavinia (PoMe)
A name originally considered for Bilbo's grandmother, later rejected in favor of "Laura".
Lily (LotR, PoMe)
Linda (LotR, PoMe)
Lobelia (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Malva (LotR)
Marigold (LotR, PoMe)
Mantissa (PoMe)
Replaced by Melilot
Matilda (PoMe)
Replaced by Menegilda.
Maxima (PoMe)
May (LotR, PoMe)
Melba (RotS)
Replaced by Arabella Took
Melilot (LotR)
Melissa (RotS, PoMe)
Replaced by Mentha
Menegilda (LotR)
Mentha (LotR)
Mimosa (LotR)
Mirabella (LotR, PoMe)
Miranda (PoMe)
Myrtle (LotR)
Nina (PoMe)
Nora (PoMe)
Pamphila (PoMe)
Briefly considered for Peregrin's second sister, Pimpernel
Pandora (PoMe)
A name once considered for Esmeralda Took Brandybuck.
Pansy (LotR)
Pearl (LotR, PoMe)
In addition to being the final choice for Pippin's oldest sister, it was briefly considered for Sam's mother, Bell.
Peony (LotR, PoMe)
Pervinca (LotR)
Pimpernel (LotR)
Poppy (LotR, PoMe)
Prima (PoMe)
Briefly considered for Peregrin's oldest sister, Pearl
Primrose (LotR, PoMe)
Primula (LotR, RotS, PoMe)
Prisca (LotR, PoMe)
Regina (PoMe)
Rhoda (PoMe)
Replaced by Myrtle.
Robinia (PoMe)
Rosa (LotR, PoMe)
Rosamunda (LotR)
Rose (LotR, PoMe)
Rowan (LotR)
Ruby (LotR, PoMe)
Salvia (PoMe)
Savanna (PoMe)
Selina (PoMe)
Semolina (RotS, PoMe)
A name once considered for Dora Baggins.
Tanta (LotR, PoMe)
Yolanda (PoMe)
A name once considered for Esmeralda Took Brandybuck.

Well, of course it can be very useful as a source for the names of original hobbit characters. Names which were rejected as too outlandish by JRRT could be used to excellent effect in a humor story or parody. And many of the names are still perfectly good hobbit names, if not filling their original places in the hobbit genealogies. It is also interesting to speculate on why some names were rejected, for example, it seems likely that Theodoric and Theobald may have been rejected when he realized that Théoden was to be a major character. Other names, such as Pandora, were likely rejected due to their connection to Classical mythology.

It is also a guide for what not to name characters. I am embarrassed to confess that had I known all this earlier there is at least one of my characters who would most certainly have had a different surname. I have one named "Harfoot", which I have come to the conclusion would not have been used as a surname during at least the latter part of the Third Age.

The implications of many of the names and their places within the Shire hierarchy can also lead to speculation, and perhaps even be the seeds of new story ideas. For example, for the first time I find myself curious about Lobelia's older brother, Bruno Bracegirdle, and the fact that at one time Dora Baggins (ultimately Frodo's spinster aunt) was at one point, to have had a husband named Conrad Bolger.

At any rate, it has been fascinating to look into all of this, and I hope that it will prove helpful to those who are considering what to name their hobbits!

* In the special 50th Anniversary Edition of The Lord of the Rings, the Bolger and Boffin trees were added to Appendix C. However, they never appeared in any prior edition.

J.R.R. Tolkien, History of Middle Earth, Volume VI: Return of the Shadow, The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part I, edited by Christopher Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin, 1988

J.R.R. Tolkien, History of Middle Earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-Earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin, 1996

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Houghton Mifflin, 2000

Jared Lordell, "Carolingians" from J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment, edited by Michael D. C. Drout

One of the most useful and fascinating parts of The Lord of the Rings are the Appendices. The Tale of Years, the Family Trees, notes on languages… all of these things are fodder for the fanfic writer, as well as giving us some of the details that give verisimilitude to Middle-earth and to our stories.

JRRT himself made no use within the story of the calendars he created for his world. He consistently used the modern names of days and months, rather than the less familiar ones he devised. Perhaps he (or his editor) thought that it would be confusing for readers to understand the unusual names. It was probably a wise decision, as first-time readers would have no frame of reference for them. And yet it is a shame to allow the wonderful calendar he created go to waste. In addition, the truth is that there are enough differences between the Shire Calendar and the modern calendar to make it rather inexact to correlate the months (for example, our February has only 28 days except in Leap year, when it has 29. The Shire version of February, Solmath, always has 30 days.)

"The Calendar in the Shire differed in several features from ours. The year no doubt was of the same length, for long ago as those times are now reckoned in years and lives of men, they were not very remote according to the memory of the Earth. It is recorded by the Hobbits that they had no 'week' when they were still a wandering people, and though they had 'months', governed more or less by the Moon, their keeping of dates and calculations of time were vague and insecure. In the westlands of Eriador, when they had begun to settle down. they adopted the King's reckoning of the Dúnedain, which was ultimately of Eldarin origin; but the Hobbits of the Shire introduced several minor alterations. This calendar, or Shire Reckoning' as it was called, was eventually adopted also in Bree, except for the Shire usage of counting as Year 1 the year of the colonization of the Shire". (LotR, Appendix D)

(In making use of Shire Reckoning, for those who usually write using the Númenorean dates, it is simple enough to convert to Shire Reckoning by simply subtracting 1600 (the year of the Third Age in which the Shire was founded) from the relevant Third Age year.)

"The Shire names are set out in the Calendar. It may be noted that Solmath was usually pronounced, and sometimes written Somath. Thrimidge was often written Thrimich (archaically Thrimilch) and Blotmath was pronounced Blodmath or Blommath. In Bree, the names varied, being Frery, Solmath, Rethe, Chithing, Thrimidge, Lithe, The Summerdays, Mede, Wedmath, Harvestmath, Wintring, Blooting, and Yulemath. Frery, Chithing and Yulemath were also used in the Eastfarthing." (LotR, Appendix D)

The calendar I have arranged differs from the one JRRT has in Appendix D only in having the days of the week added for convenience.

"Its [the Yellowskin] earliest entries seem to have begun at least nine hundred years before Frodo's time, and many are cited in the Red Book annals and genealogies. In these, the weekday names appear in archaic forms, of which the following are the oldest: Sterrendei, (2) Sunnendei, (3) Monendei, (4) Trewesdei, (5) Hevensdei, (6) Meresdei, (7) Highdei. In the language of the time of the War of the Ring these had become Sterday, Sunday, Monday, Trewsday, Hevensday (or Hensday), Mersday, Highday.

There are some very elegant and sophisticated elements to the Shire Calendar, that to my own mind make it in many ways superior to the modern calendar in use today. Not only do the years begin and end on the same days of the week each and every year, but the second half of the year begins and ends in the same way as the first half of the year. And each year, the same dates will always fall on the same day of the week, meaning, for example, that Frodo's and Bilbo's birthday will always fall on a Mersday (Thursday). Using the calendars that JRRT devised is not truly necessary in fanfic, given his own example, but personally I find using the Shire Calendar helps give me the feel of being more immersed in Middle-earth. At any rate, I think it is truly fascinating.

<><><><>January (Afteryule)

Saturday (Sterday)	2 Yule	7	14	21	28
Sunday	1	8	15	22	29
Monday	2	9	16	23	30
Tuesday (Trewsday)	3	10	17	24	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	4	11	18	25	-
Thursday (Mersday)	5	12	19	26	-
Friday (Highday)	6	13	20	27	-

<><><><>February (Solmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	5	12	19	26
Sunday	-	6	13	20	27
Monday	-	7	14	21	28
Tuesday (Trewsday)	1	8	15	22	29
Wednesday (Hensday)	2	9	16	23	30
Thursday (Mersday)	3	10	17	24	-
Friday (Highday)	4	11	18	25	-

<><><><>
March (Rethe)

Saturday (Sterday	-	3	10	17	24
Sunday	-	4	11	18	25
Monday	-	5	12	19	26
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	6	13	20	27
Wednesday (Hensday)	-	7	14	21	28
Thursday (Mersday)	1	8	15	22	29
Friday (Highday)	2	9	16	23	30

<><><><>
April (Astron)

Saturday (Sterday	1	8	15	22	29
Sunday	2	9	16	23	30
Monday	3	10	17	24	-
Tuesday (Trewsday)	4	11	18	25	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	5	12	19	26	-
Thursday (Mersday)	6	13	20	27	-
Friday (Highday)	7	14	21	28	-

<><><><>
May (Thrimidge)

Saturday (Sterday	-	6	13	20	27
Sunday	-	7	14	21	28
Monday	1	8	15	22	29
Tuesday (Trewsday)	2	9	16	23	30
Wednesday (Hensday)	3	10	17	24	-
Thursday (Mersday)	4	11	18	25	-
Friday (Highday)	5	12	19	26	-

<><><><>June (Forelithe)

Saturday (Sterday	-	4	11	18	25
Sunday	-	5	12	19	26
Monday	-	6	13	20	27
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	7	14	21	28
Wednesday (Hensday)	1	8	15	22	29
Thursday (Mersday)	2	9	16	23	30
Friday (Highday)	3	10	17	24	1 Lithe

Lithe was a three-day holiday most years. It consisted of 1 Lithe, which was the last day of Forelithe, Midsummer's Day (a day which was not part of a month or a week), and 2 Lithe, which was the first day of Afterlithe.

Midsummer's Day occurred each year, but "Overlithe" only occurred in leap years. The only Overlithe we have a definite year for is SR 1420. Using that date, it is easy enough to figure up and down to other years that would have had the extra Litheday.

<><><><>
July (Afterlithe)

Saturday (Sterday	2 Lithe	7	14	21	28
Sunday	1	8	15	22	29
Monday	2	9	16	23	30
Tuesday (Trewsday)	3	10	17	24	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	4	11	18	25	-
Thursday (Mersday)	5	12	19	26	-
Friday (Highday)	6	13	20	27	-

<><><><>
August (Wedmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	5	12	19	26
Sunday	-	6	13	20	27
Monday	-	7	14	21	28
Tuesday (Trewsday)	1	8	15	22	29
Wednesday (Hensday)	2	9	16	23	30
Thursday (Mersday)	3	10	17	24	-
Friday (Highday)	4	11	18	25	-

<><><><>
September (Halimath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	3	10	17	24
Sunday	-	4	11	18	25
Monday	-	5	1 2	19	26
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	6	13	20	27
Wednesday (Hensday)	-	7	14	21	28
Thursday (Mersday)	1	8	15	22	29
Friday (Highday)	2	9	16	23	30

<><><><>October (Winterfilth)

Saturday (Sterday	1	8	15	22	29
Sunday	2	9	16	23	30
Monday	3	10	17	24	-
Tuesday (Trewsday)	4	11	18	25	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	5	12	19	26	-
Thursday (Mersday)	6	13	20	27	-
Friday (Highday)	7	14	21	28	-

<><><><>November (Blotmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	6	13	20	27
Sunday	-	7	14	21	28
Monday	1	8	15	22	29
Tuesday (Trewsday)	2	9	16	23	30
Wednesday (Hensday)	3	10	17	24	-
Thursday (Mersday)	4	11	18	25	-
Friday (Highday)	5	12	19	26	-

<><><><>December (Foreyule)

Saturday (Sterday	-	4	11	18	25
Sunday	-	5	12	19	26
Monday	-	6	13	20	27
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	7	14	21	28
Wednesday (Hensday)	1	8	15	22	29
Thursday (Mersday)	2	9	16	23	30
Friday (Highday)	3	10	17	24	1 Yule

While researching dates for my story "Eleventy-one: Too Short a Time, Book One", I collected some information on Special Years in the Shire. I thought it would be helpful to share this information in case anyone else might find it useful; as for myself, I discovered that the chapter I wanted to write would not canonically fit into the time frame I wanted it to go! However, it did leave me with a good idea for another story sometime in the future.

We are told that elections for the Mayor of Michel Delving takes place every seven years, during the Midsummer (Lithe) Free Fair in Michel Delving. There are only two years specifically mentioned prior to Sam's election: S.R. 1420, in which year Frodo refused to run for Mayor and Will Whitfoot was re-elected, and S.R. 1427, in which year Samwise was elected Mayor for the first time, and each of Sam's terms is mentioned in the Tale of Years. A little simple math going backwards (subtracting 7 years) enabled me to pinpoint other Election Years. I went as far back as the last Election before Bilbo's birth in S.R. 1290, and forward through Sam's seven terms. In order to lend some context to these various years, I have also included information from canon as to what events were taking place in the Shire during those years for which we have the information, either in The Tale of Years in Appendix B, or in the Hobbit Family Trees in Appendix C.

(Years with an asterisk next to them are those years in which an Overlithe coincided with an Election Year. All years are, of course, in Shire Reckoning.)

1427 (Samwise Gamgee's first term as Mayor. Peregrin marries Diamond, and the King's edict is issued.)

1434 (Samwise Gamgee's second term as Mayor. Peregrin becomes Thain; The Thain, Master and Mayor are appointed as Counsellors of the North.)

1455 (Sam's fifth term; Fastred of Greenholm, husband of Elanor, becomes the Warden of the Westmarch.)

"The Mid-year's Day, and in Leap-years the Overlithe, had no weekday name. The Lithe before Mid-year's Day was called 1 Lithe, and the one after was called 2 Lithe...The Overlithe was day of special holiday, but it did not occur n any o the years important to the history of the Great Ring. It occurred in 1420, the year of the famous harvest and wonderful summer, and the merrymaking in that year is said to have been the greatest in memory or record." (LotR, Appendix D, "Shire Calendar")

As with the Election years, I begin with the Leap Year prior to Bilbo's birth, and go forward. Years marked with an asterisk are those in which an Overlithe coincided with an Election Year. All years are, of course, in Shire Reckoning, and naturally some events overlap.:

1436 (The King comes North, and meets Sam, Merry and Pippin at the Brandywine Bridge.)

1452 (The Westmarch, from the West Downs to the Tower Hills, is gifted to the Shire.)

1484 (In this year, Merry and Pippin resign their offices and retire to Minas Tirith.)

If you need to go further back than I did for either Election Years or for Overlithe years, or further forward into the Fourth Age, the math is simple enough. It's my hope, though, that I can spare someone else the work. I hope this will prove useful to other Hobbit writers, and that it might even provide some plot bunnies!

Author: Dreamflower
Title: Are You On the Outside Looking In...or the Inside Looking Out?
Topic: The uses of story-external and story-internal approaches to canon when writing fic.
Rating: G
Beta: Celeritas
Author's Notes: I've long been fascinated by these two approaches to canon since learning of them years ago on the Newsgroups rec.arts.books.tolkien and alt.fan.tolkien.
Summary: An examination of two diametrically different approaches to the text, and how each can contribute to writing fanfiction.
Word Count: 3,501

As readers, we are on the outside looking in: we may know or guess at the "kind of tale it is" from clues given to us by the teller of the tale. And as readers, we can also be on the inside looking out, as we identify with the point-of-view characters. Both the outside knowledge and the inside reactions inform our enjoyment of the story. Generally speaking, the first time we read a story, it is the latter reactions that increase our pleasure and anticipation in finding out what happens next. But if we enjoy the story enough to read it a second time or more, it is the knowledge that increases our pleasure: the first time we read a story, we do not know how it turns out. On re-reading we do know the outcome, but enjoy our knowledge, and our anticipation now is in seeing our favorite scenes unfold once more.

Another layer of enjoyment is added to that knowledge if we also engage ourselves in "meta", examining how the story is put together, and analyzing the author's development of the story, and in looking at "Story" as an abstract concept.

However, how do these approaches apply when it comes to writing other stories within the canonical milieu? Let us look at each approach first.

Story external is a method of examining a text by examining the author's possible motives in writing the story, and the historical circumstances around the writing.¹

I would go further, saying that story-external is looking at the way the story was constructed in order to fulfill the author's expectations of what he wishes to achieve in writing that story. We see certain plot devices, points-of-view, descriptions, character developments, styles and tones in terms of what the author is trying to do to advance his goals and themes for the story. We also may notice omissions of things, which may be deliberate or accidental, or due to constraints of time or space or publishing deadlines, or simply due to the author being who he was as a human being of his time and station.

For example, let us examine the episodes of the chapters in The Fellowship of the Ring covering Bree and the journey to Rivendell. The four hobbits arrive, and Merry goes for a walk while Frodo, Sam, and Pippin go into the common room. Frodo meets a mysterious and sinister-looking character called "Strider", who seems to know a lot more about Frodo's business than seems good. We gradually learn a little more about him, and along with Frodo begin to at least somewhat trust him, especially when Barliman Butterbur finally produces Gandalf's letter, but we still do not know very much about him. He proves to be a stern guide, but he protects them as they journey into the Wild following him. The author reveals a few things about him: he's good in the wilderness, he knows the lore and tales of the Elves and the way to Rivendell, he's a warrior, he knows a little about healing plants. He's clearly friends with an Elf named Glorfindel of Elrond's household. But we do not learn enough to put any of these hints together. Therefore it is a complete and total surprise when we finally learn that he's also a foster-son of Elrond's household, a dear friend to Bilbo-- and a long-lost King as well! We are never allowed inside his mind for even an instant during this time, lest the surprise be spoiled. This is a deliberate use of omitting information in order to advance the story, and a story-external explanation for Strider's reticence.

We also see that many things which are found in Middle-earth are there simply because of JRRT's own likes and dislikes. He liked smoking and beer, and so many of his characters indulge in both. He was fond of his meals, and so he made hobbits creatures who were also very fond of their meals.

Some things were in the stories because of his children. We know, for example, that the character of Tom Bombadil was originally a doll belonging to one of his children.⁴ And especially in The Hobbit, many of the elements included in the story were there because of his own children's preferences:

Many things are omitted simply because JRRT either did not have the knowledge to include them, or because he had no interest in them. A lot of readers find it unbelievable that we are shown no economic or industrial underpinnings to his world. But he had an antipathy to modern industry and little interest in showing "trade" within his world.

Because of the many posthumous publications of JRRT's early writings and incomplete drafts of JRRT's work, thanks mostly to the tireless efforts of his son Christopher, and of other Tolkien scholars and editors, those of us who have an interest in the Tolkien legendarium have much more information on his motives, and on his trials in writing his work, than is common with most other writers. It is not difficult for us to tease out many of the story-external explanations of various story elements.

And there is where we who write fanfic in Tolkien's world are lucky in being able to apply our knowledge of the story-external elements that have been left for us. We have a record of much of his authorial intent, as well as a record of the obstacles that caused him to make changes in the story as he wrote. We can use those story-external elements as springboards for ideas, either in expanding on the story as he wrote it and following in the footsteps of canon, or exploring the side-plots he abandoned due to time or editorial constraints, or in using some of his earlier versions to create an alternate version of the story as he might have written it if he had followed his original ideas.

In addition, information from story-external sources can add depth to other aspects of a story. We are given a good many insights through his letters, for example, on the characters of his stories, particularly Frodo and Sam, but also characters such as Gandalf, Faramir, Denethor, Aragorn, and Galadriel. We are also given some indications of the societies Tolkien created, most particularly the Shire, but also, to a certain extent, Gondor and Númenor. All of this information can be used as we choose in creating our own sub-sub-creations in his world.

Story internal is a term for an explanation of something unusual within a story that doesn't try to go beyond the text of the story itself to explain what is going on. ⁶

Again, I feel that this is a somewhat limiting definition. I would say, rather, that it is explaining anything within the story by means of the story itself, using only the circumstances of the story as written to come up with the explanation. We may wonder about why a character is motivated to take certain actions, and we seek to explain those actions using only that which is known within the story as a whole; or we may notice a seeming discrepancy in the plot; we may "know" from story-external sources the reason for the discrepancy, but a story-internal explanation makes use only of the circumstances which the characters who live within the story may know.

For example, let us look at that same part of FotR, in which the hobbits meet Strider in Bree and accompany him to Rivendell. We may well wonder, on re-reading the story, why he did not disclose his friendship with Bilbo to them. Surely letting them know their beloved older cousin was alive and well would have smoothed Strider's acquaintance with the four, and perhaps increased their trust of him. Leaving aside the fact that of course it would spoil the surprise for the reader (which is an explanation outside the story), why would he fail to tell them this? Since we are never given Strider's point-of-view at this time, we can speculate on his motives: Did he think that the letter from Gandalf was sufficient information? Did he feel that it was Bilbo's secret to tell, and not his own? Did he think that it was simply best that Bilbo's presence in Rivendell should not be spoken of, when there were enemies who might be seeking him? Any or all of these are explanations that can be accounted for with the information that we have from within the story itself, and used to construct our own idea of what his point-of-view and frame of mind may have been.

Using story-internal information in writing gapfillers is also something which can be done. We are not shown in detail what happened in other places in Middle-earth at the time that we are following the members of the Fellowship on their mission; but we are told enough that we can piece together what could have happened in the Shire, in Bree, in Rivendell, or Mirkwood to a certain extent.

One very important use of the story-internal approach is in characterization. By taking note of how a character is shown, however briefly, we are given a number of clues as to his or her personality. JRRT was very skillful in giving vivid personalities to very minor characters who appear and then are gone. It would not be difficult to construct a story around the character of Ioreth, for example, because her personality stands out sharply in the few places we see her! (And, in fact, a number of authors have taken her on very successfully!)

We still know very little about even the major characters, biographically speaking. We are given few details about Frodo's childhood, for example, save a few dates and the circumstances of his parents' death and his subsequent adoption by Bilbo. Yet with those few clues, it is possible to construct a plausible childhood background for him, and to portray him as he might have been as a child. The exact details and interpretations of how his circumstances affected him may differ from one writer to the next, but the foundations are there for a remarkably consistent portrayal. The same approaches may be used in constructing a plausible childhood backstory for characters like Elrond or Aragorn.

Then there are those niggling questions of details that are left out, or seeming inconsistencies between one version of a story and another. This latter comes into play especially for those who deal with stories set in the First or Second Ages, since almost all the information we have on those times was published posthumously and so is necessarily incomplete. Authors who primarily write stories set during the time of The Silmarillion often have to make choices based on two (or sometimes more) versions of the same events. These are still things which are internal to the story itself, however, and attempts to reconcile various versions can result in some really intriguing stories!

Some might wonder: with so many sources of information, how do we know which are parts of the story, and which are not?

First of all, let us agree with Samwise⁷, that all of the story of Arda is one long story. This means that a fanfic writer can construct a story-internal explanation of something that happens in LotR using information from The Silm; for even though they are completely different books, they are all part of the story of Arda.

But The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and The Children of Húrin are all obviously stories with a beginning, middle, and end. What about those bits and pieces of unpublished, or even rejected, stories which are found in Unfinished Tales or The Book of Lost Tales or The History of Middle-earth or The History of The Hobbit?

If it is part of a narrative, and has characters in it, it is story. This would include those stories that were not originally published in JRRT's lifetime, and those portions of the story that were ultimately rejected. They may or may not agree with the other versions, but they can be used in the same way to construct story-internal explanations that may be alternative interpretations of what "really happened" (within that context).

And there is some non-narrative material that can still be considered as "story" because the material was supposedly composed by the characters who lived within the story. This would include the various Appendices at the end of LotR (purportedly compiled partly by Meriadoc Brandybuck, and partly by Faramir's grandson Barahir), as well as such things as "Laws and Customs of the Eldar" in Morgoth's Ring or "The Teachings of Pengolod" in Peoples of Middle-earth or the early Hobbit Family Trees from that same volume, which would supposedly have been the work of hobbits. If it is allegedly "primary material" from Arda, then it may be considered story-internal.

Story-external could be such sources as JRRT's Letters, any material in which he spoke of his creative process in the first person, biographical material, and editorial interpolations by those who compiled his material posthumously, such as his son Christopher, his biographer Humphrey Carpenter, or the editor of The History of the Hobbit, John Rateliff.

It can also be historical knowledge of JRRT's life and times, social and scientific knowledge of the era, or other factors, whether social or psychological that may have affected his writing of the story.

Using the story-internal approach seems to be obvious to most of us. We ask ourselves a question about the story, and try to think of a way in which it can be answered that fits within the parameters of canon.

Why did Elros choose to be mortal? Why did his brother choose the life of the Eldar?

All of the above could be (or have been) turned into stories in which the elements that explain them would all make sense to the characters within the story, and would also make sense if told to another character who lives in Middle-earth.

Some are rather obvious. There is an entire sub-genre of AU stories in which JRRT himself plays a role. Often he is dropped into his world, or meets an Elf or other inhabitant of Middle-earth, or his finding of "The Red Book of Westmarch" is shown as an actual happening. Most such stories make use of biographical or autobiographical information about his life at the time the story takes place.

For example, we know that at one time the character of "Strider" was not a Man, but a hobbit named "Trotter". Someone could write a story in which that remained true.

We know that at the time JRRT wrote The Hobbit, Bilbo's Ring was not a particularly powerful or evil artifact, but simply a useful trinket. In fact, that is the way it still was in The Hobbit's first edition. A story could be written based on that version of The Hobbit.

We also know many of the literary antecedents of Tolkien's mythology, how it was influenced by such diverse elements as the Finnish Kalevala, Beowulf, the Nibelungenlied, the Welsh language, and Catholic theology. We can draw upon those same mythologies to find new stories for his world.

Or we can examine some of the circumstances of JRRT's life to draw psychological conclusions about his characters. We know, for example, that he strongly identified with Faramir ,⁸ and so using his own feelings and beliefs about such subjects as war, politics, and fidelity, we can find motivations for stories written in Faramir's point-of-view.

We can use story-external elements of history, sociology, and science to give fictional answers to questions like: How did hobbits come to have mantel clocks and umbrellas? Why was Dorwinion wine so potent? How did lembas work? Why did the creatures of Morgoth, such as trolls and orcs have black blood?

While any single fan fiction story may be more influenced by the story-internal or the story-external approach, they are not by any means mutually exclusive, but complement one another and help to give greater depth to our sub-creations of his sub-creations. But both approaches work best when we are aware of what we are doing, and how we are doing it.

¹ http://everything2.com/title/story+external
² Letter #213, to Deborah Webster 25 October 1958
³ Letter #66, to Christopher Tolkien, 6 May 1944
⁴ Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter, p. 162
⁵ The History of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: Part One, Mr. Baggins edited by John D. Rateliff, p. 253-254
⁶ http://everything2.com/user/Glowing+Fish/writeups/story+internal
⁷ The Two Towers Chapter VIII, "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"
⁸ Letter #108 to 'Mr. Thompson' 14 January 1958

My thanks to Dawn Felagund for the beta, and for her advice and input on writing characters in Silm-fic!

Often we read fanfic in which we feel that the characters are very true to the spirit of Tolkien’s world, even when they may be depicted in a style or point-of-view that Tolkien never used himself. Nevertheless, reading it, we feel that the characters capture Middle-earth, and we compliment the author by saying everyone seems to be “in character” or that she has their “voice” right.

Conversely, we may read a story in which something seems a bit “off”. We may say that their canon characters are “out of character” or OOC. We spot something that jolts us out of the story or makes us wince, though we may not always be able to put our finger on just what it is that causes us to feel that way.

In the first sort of story, the writer may actually have the character behave in an out-of-character manner, and yet we feel that under the circumstances it can be explained, and that somehow that character is still “in character”. And in the second sort of story, even if the author has the character engaged in the same activities that took place in the original story we still find that they are not quite believable.

What makes the difference? Of course, if it is a major canon character such as Frodo or Aragorn or Fëanor and the author gets an important fact wrong, such as the character’s age or circumstances, we can point to that. But sometimes the details are more subtle, and we are not quite sure of what it is that makes us wince. And what of stories that use minor canon characters or original characters? Why do some feel right at home in their place in Arda and others seem to be no more than cardboard cut-outs or the dreaded “Mary Sues”?

When writing conventional fiction, the author has free rein to create her characters out of whole cloth, just as she wishes. How engaging and captivating those characters are is wholly up to her own skill and insight into human nature, and she is not constrained by any pre-existing expectations from her readers, who will come to her characters without knowing them ahead of time.

But when writing fanfic, the writer knows that her readers will have expectations: a reader wants to see characters that she recognizes. The reader wants the Frodo to be a Frodo she recognizes, she wants to see the Aragorn she knows and loves, the Elrond who caught her attention when she first read the book, and so forth.

There are also those elements of “fanon” that many long-time readers expect and recognize. Yet some authors manage to handle fanon in a way that makes us feel she has “gone overboard”, exaggerating the fanon in question to a point where it seems over-the-top and unbelievable. Other authors use that same fanon in a way that makes the reader smile in recognition, but does not overwhelm the story. And some fanon seems to be very nearly canon, and something that many writers take almost for granted—and those fanon elements seem to grow naturally out of canon, rather than to be something merely grafted on because it suits an author’s whim.

I think the difference lies in the way that the author builds her characters, whether she simply writes in imitation of other fanfic authors, or whether she goes to the source and tries to figure out what makes a character tick.

Major canon characters are those who feature strongly in the story. Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf and Sam are the major protagonists of LotR, but there are other major players: the rest of the Fellowship, Faramir, Denethor, Éomer and Éowyn. We learn a lot about these particular characters, enough to be able to form our judgments of what sort of people they are. There is plenty of evidence to draw conclusions from. So let us look at one of those characters.

I’d like to start with examining a fanon characterization that seems remarkably consistent through most of the LotR fanfic that I have encountered. Across a number of genres and types of stories, the characterization of Merry Brandybuck seems quite similar even coming from very different writers. Some may emphasize certain characteristics more than others, but the same elements are found in nearly every story that features him, even stories by authors who seldom write about hobbits.

There is a reason for this: we are given a lot of hints and clues about Merry’s personality in LotR. These become very obvious when we have re-read the text (including the material in the Prologue and the Appendices.

What characteristics are common when we read fanfic about Merry? He is depicted as loyal, brave, reliable, determined, a hobbit who has a sense of humor, has a definite family pride, who plans ahead, who can scheme when necessary, who has a depth of feeling, is intelligent, thoughtful and protective of those whom he loves, and somewhat of an intellectual although usually depicted as less scholarly than Frodo.

All of this comes from the text of LotR. We see these characteristics unfold with each of his appearances in the story. His loyalty and reliability are shown when Frodo allows his young cousin to help in dealing with the aftermath of Bilbo’s Farewell Party, and his sense of humor is reflected in his very first speaking lines of the story: a jest at Lobelia’s expense. Frodo also entrusts him with the task of finding the house at Crickhollow, and of moving his possessions there. And of course we learn in “A Conspiracy Unmasked” that he can plan and execute a scheme to accompany Frodo’s journey out of the Shire. From that point forward we see him in several displays of bravery and acts of courage, although he never loses his sense of humor. In the Prologue we are told that he became a writer and historian in his later years. In the Appendices, we learn several things—just how much younger he was than Frodo and how much older than Pippin. We learn that he did well enough as Master of Buckland to earn the epithet “Magnificent”, and that he and Pippin retired to Gondor in their golden years.

It’s a lot of information about one hobbit, and it is information that has been mined for the characterizations of Merry that we see in fanfic.

Of course, fanon has been influenced by other things, such as the emphasis on his sense of humor in the movies, but even in movie-verse the other elements may be seen as the trilogy unfolds. He is not only a jester, even in the films.

The skill of a fanfic author is in striking a balance between all of the things we know about his character, even if we choose to place slightly more emphasis on one thing rather than another, and that depends on the story being told.

In a story taking place during his childhood, for example, the author may wish to show that some of those characteristics are only just being developed—for example, that he may be determined but he has not yet learned to be quite so reliable as he later became; or that his ability to plan ahead has yet to go so far as to learn how to weigh consequences; or that his loyalty might lead his temper to get the best of him.

In a story taking place immediately after Quest, an author might wish to emphasize his depth of feeling and how his sense of humor has been tempered by his experiences, while a story about his later years might show how the physical determination of his youth has translated into a more intellectual determination in his old age.

A comic story might choose to emphasize not merely his sense of humor, but also how his propensity for conspiring could lead to his schemes going astray in unpredictable ways, or show how his careful planning also indicates obsessiveness.

All of these characteristics rely on information about Merry which we can find within the pages of the books. By using this information as the foundation of our characterization of him, we can then judiciously add the fanon elements or personal quirks that appeal to us and will serve the story best, so long as they do not contradict what we have decided to use from the books.

For example, we are never told Merry’s eye color. Fanon usually gives him grey or blue eyes (possibly the influence of the movies) and so we might choose to do so as well. But perhaps we like the idea of brown eyes for Merry. We might decide to give him dimples or a cleft chin or a pug nose (another influence of the movies). None of those choices will affect the basic information we take from canon. We might decide to give him the fanon characteristic of having a fear of heights, or of being slightly vain about his appearance, or of being a bit boastful. These optional characteristics will spark recognition in readers, and give a charm of eccentricity to his character without changing the more important things we know about him. We should choose fanon details judiciously in a way that will serve the story, and not simply because “everyone else” does it.

Then we can begin to find some of our own ideas to add. These are stronger and more believable if we base those as well on what we already know. For example, we know from the Family Tree in Appendix C that Merry is fourteen years younger than Frodo, and yet at the time of “Shadow of the Past” he is described as one of Frodo’s two best friends. I use that information to make a deduction that the relationship probably extended all the way back to Merry’s earliest childhood, when according to the information we learn from the Gaffer in “A Long-Expected Party”, Frodo still lived at Brandy Hall. This led me to decide that Merry was much more like a younger brother to Frodo than a mere cousin. From this I began to extrapolate various things about their relationship and about Merry’s childhood personality, and adding to that details which would flesh out the information.

Likewise, we can also use material from the books in a similar manner to flesh out Merry’s later life as Master of Buckland. We know he kept up his ties to Rohan and to Gondor, for example, and that he remained close to Pippin. We learn that he earned the epithet of “Magnificent” from the Bucklanders. This information can be added to what else we know of him. Why did he come to be called “The Magnificent”, and how did that affect him and those around him? An author I know who has made some excellent use of this is Elanor in her novel “A Secret Gate” , which depicts the end of Merry’s life in the Shire and his decision to retire to the South along with Pippin. Every characteristic she gives him is one that seems natural and inevitable given what we know of the younger Merry who went on the Quest and came home to Scour the Ruffians from the Shire. He is still that same Merry, slightly mellowed and tempered with more experience and wisdom, but definitely recognizable as the Meriadoc Brandybuck we knew in LotR.

These same methods can be used on any of the more important characters of the stories. For some of them, we may need to do more research than for others—for example, to do a full characterization of Elrond, a writer may need to read not only the information we have about him in The Hobbit and LotR, she may need to check The Silmarillion and various volumes of The History of Middle-earth. To do justice to Gandalf, one would also need to look into what we learn of him from Unfinished Tales, and even to hints dropped by JRRT in his Letters. Those who primarily write of the events in The Silmarillion often consult the Tale of Years in LotR as well as various volumes of HoMe in order to find enough information about their character.

That’s all very well and good, perhaps, if I am writing about a major character about whom we have a lot of information. But what if I would like to write about a more minor character, one who has a small part with only a name and a few lines of dialogue to guide a fanfic writer?

As fans of Tolkien’s work, we are exceptionally lucky in this matter. Most characters who have even a little bit of dialogue, or whom we see only fleetingly, are given definite personalities. Such characters are intriguing to fanfic writers for precisely that reason: we want to know more about that person we see so briefly and vividly. This can sometimes even include characters who never appear in person, but are only spoken of by other characters.

Let us look for a moment at a character we see only once: Éothain. Éothain is one of the Riders of Éomer’s éored, when they encounter Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli on the plains of Rohan. His dialogue is brash and skeptical as he expresses his opinion of the three strangers, and he dares to speak openly of his objections to his captain and commander, Éomer, though he is obedient to Éomer’s commands. We never see him again in the story, and he could have been any Rider.

But when I look at his brash speech, I instantly think he must be young and hot-headed. The similarity of his name to Éomer’s made me think he might be a kinsman, while his obedience in spite of his disagreement showed me he was loyal. I had a very vivid picture of Éothain in my mind, in spite of the fact that we never saw him again.

When I needed a Rider of Rohan to be in charge of the delegation of Rohirrim in my story “A New Reckoning” and its sequel “The Road to Edoras” , I chose Éothain. I decided that his experience with the events of the War taught him a lesson about being too quick to judge, and that as a close companion of Éomer King, he might be chosen to lead such a mission. I made him Éomer’s first cousin on his father’s side (since we are told nothing of Éomer’s father, Éomund, he could well have had a younger brother). Someone else might make different deductions about him from the scant evidence, nevertheless there is enough evidence there to work with.

Other minor characters who appear only briefly, but leave behind goodly chunks of personality for a fanfic writer to work with are Beorn from The Hobbit, Barliman Butterbur, Lindir, Ioreth, and Elfhelm, among a host of others.

Especially among hobbits, there are minor characters who never actually appear in the story at all, but about whom we may make very accurate deductions. For example, Dora Baggins appears only as a name on a label and in the Family Tree. But in a single paragraph, she is perfectly characterized:

It does not take much from this to imagine a certain type of spinster aunt, one who always knows best—or thinks she does—and who is of firm and unshakeable opinions. I’ve made use of Dora Baggins in a number of stories, most notably “Miss Dora Baggin’s Book of Manners”.

I envisioned her as enjoying very much writing those “reams of good advice” to all and sundry. It was not much of a stretch from there to imagining that she might like to collect all that good advice into a book of proper Shire behavior.

In creating her character, I decided that she would be the quintessential hobbit, with no Tookishness that might lead to unpredictable adventures. In fact, she quite disapproves of them, as would most hobbits. But I also give her practicality and compassion, which are also very much hobbit racial traits. And in spite of her firm opinions, I felt the hobbit trait of familial obsession meant she was fond of Bilbo and Frodo, even if she might not approve of their actions.

Once I had decided on that, I was able to give her some eccentricities of her own, and modeled her written style on that of other such books in Victorian times, complete with randomly capitalizing letters in order to emphasize certain words. I also made her sense of humor decidedly dry, and if she has a flaw, it is in taking a little bit too much delight in Being Right.

I have a great deal of enjoyment in her character, and have been pleased with reader reactions to her.

Let us take a look at what another author has done with a minor character: jodancingtree’s “Following the Other Wizard” , gives us Radagast the Brown in an AU in which Frodo is able to find his healing in Middle-earth through the guidance of a wizard who remained.

In canon we are given very little information about him. In The Hobbit, Gandalf calls him “cousin”, and Beorn says he’s “not a bad fellow as wizards go”. In LotR, Gandalf trusts him, Saruman uses him and thinks him a fool. We learn that he has a love for birds and animals that has caused him to stray from the purpose given to the Istari when they were sent to Middle-earth to be Sauron’s downfall. Radagast is considered to have failed at his task, even by Gandalf who knows he is no enemy. He does do his part in alerting the Eagles and other birds to bring news to Gandalf, thus allowing Gandalf to be rescued from Orthanc. And in Unfinished Tales, we learn that his name was once “Aiwendil”, or “bird-friend”, and that it was at Yavanna’s bidding that he was sent to Middle-earth.

jodancingtree uses this scant information to make him Frodo’s mentor and guide to healing and salvation. She shows us a Radagast whose task did not truly begin until Sauron’s downfall, when he is to seek to the healing of the land and the creatures that the Dark Lord marred. Her Radagast is recognizably a wizard, an Istari, in the mold of Gandalf. He is wise, kind, gentle yet stern. But he manifests these characteristics in a manner that allows his own personality to unfold as he becomes Frodo’s teacher and healer. jodancingtree uses his canon characteristic of an affinity for birds and animals to add a layer uniquely his own.

There are so many characters who stand out for just an instant who leave us with a good amount of evidence as to their character, in spite of that brevity.

For those who write primarily in the First and Second Ages, even the characters who are considered major because of the role they play, may need to be treated as minor characters because of the small amount of material available, or due to the contradictory nature of the evidence. It is important when treating with these characters to differentiate between canonical evidence and fanon. For characters such as these there is a good deal of freedom in the interpretation of the evidence.

But what if we don’t even have that much to go on? What if all we have are a name and a date of birth? Or what if we wish to create an Original Character, or OC?

Again, within Tolkien’s legendarium, we are very lucky. It’s established that racial and family characteristics are far more influential in the Arda-verse than in our own.

Is your character one of the Dúnedain? He is most likely dark-haired, with keen grey eyes, tall and well-favored in appearance, and would share at least a few personality traits in common with the Dúnadan we know best: Aragorn. Is she an Elf? Then you have to decide what sort of Elf she is. A Noldo would have different ideas about many things than a Sinda would, but once that decision’s made, then you choose among the Elven characteristics you wish to emphasize.

If your character is to be atypical of his race, then it’s incumbent on the author to explain why he or she is different than the rest. Tolkien did this himself, with hobbits. He tells us that hobbits are quiet creatures who value comfort and staying at home. But all the hobbits we come to know best in his work are exceptions to this “rule”, and he blames this exceptional behavior on their “Tookishness” (a family trait atypical of hobbits in other families). Yet we are also told that most hobbits can show courage when they are pushed enough.

It is also a good thing to comb through the books to get an idea of your character’s “voice”. A hobbit of the gentry speaks differently than a hobbit of the working class. Yet in the first two chapters of the book, we get an excellent example of how working class hobbits would sound, as we listen to the Gaffer in the first chapter, and Sam and Ted Sandyman in the second. Educated hobbits would sound much as Frodo and his friends do—their speech is light and easy, but they have a different tone to their speech than the working class hobbits do, and sound more educated.

The language and speech patterns are also obvious in differences between the various races and between the various lands in which the characters pass. An Ent’s speech is different than a Dwarf’s, an Elf’s speech is different than a hobbit’s and a Gondorian’s speech is different than a Man of Bree’s.

JRRT uses the differences in speech patterns to good effect when he introduces “Strider” at the Prancing Pony, and Frodo even notices the differences in his speech when he finishes his talk with them, as compared to when he began. The best way to develop an “ear” for speech that sounds appropriate to your character is to read relevant passages from the books before you write.

Once you know your character’s race and family and social status, you can begin to build him or her, adding other characteristics as they serve the story.

An important thing is to have your character fill a function within the world of which he or she is a part. What sorts of people must have lived in Middle-earth, whom we never get to see? The story is peopled mainly with warriors and folk of legendary status, and yet there must have been a support system in place. We are told of servants, though we rarely ever see one mentioned by name. The Shire could not have been the only place to have gardeners and farmers, and Bree was not the only place with an innkeeper.

An excellent example of an OC who fills a needed position is annmarwalk’s Mag the Cook, who features in many of her tales and whose own story can be found in “The Life and Times of Mag the Cook” . Mag is realistic, a working class woman of Gondor. In canon, we only see one example of this type: Ioreth, who works in the Houses of Healing. Mag’s own position, as Head Cook in the Citadel is quite different, but annmarwalk has captured the same rhythm of speech and language that we see with Ioreth, yet she is a calmer and less excitable personality. Her interactions with the family she serves seem natural and unforced, and annmarwalk’s skill in conveying the voices of canon characters like Faramir and Boromir make Mag’s personality fit well.

She is a memorable OC, and reading the stories in which she features, it is quite easy to see her as fitting naturally into Middle-earth. She is not a canon character, not even a name, but it is clear that she, or someone very like her, must have existed in that world. She fits a natural niche, and her position is not obtrusive on the main story of canon, even when she features as the main character in the fanfic.

Another such OC is SurgicalSteel’s Serindë who features in “The King’s Surgeon” and other stories. Although SurgicalSteel prefers to use a more modern style and tone in her stories than Tolkien did, it is quite clear that Serindë is very much a person of Middle-earth. We see it in the way SurgicalSteel uses Serindë’s Númenorean heritage and the theme of lost Númenor is very much in evidence in many of the stories. She also takes advantage of the setting of Dol Amroth, giving it the cosmopolitan feel of a major trading port. Having Serindë hail from there not only makes her more believable as a character, it also makes Dol Amroth more believable as a place, rather than a mere name on a map.

SurgicalSteel is also very careful with her timeline, making sure that any events in Serindë’s story that intersect with the main story of LotR are taking place at the right time. And Serindë, like Mag, fills a niche: there must have been battle surgeons in Middle-earth, just as there must have been cooks.

There are, of course, other sources than Tolkien’s books that may also help in creating believable characters. A knowledge of history, and especially of the historical sources from which he drew is also helpful. But it is essential to making a character feel real and natural in his surroundings that you ground him or her first in the Middle-earth which Tolkien gave us.

But the Queen Arwen said: 'A gift I will give you. For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him now when he departs to the Havens; for mine is the choice of Lúthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. But in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it. If your hurts grieve you still and the memory of your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed. But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven!'

And she took a white gem like a star that lay upon her breast hanging upon a silver chain, and she set the chain about Frodo's neck. 'When the memory of the fear and the darkness troubles you,' she said, 'this will bring you aid.' (RotK, Book VI, Chapter VI, "Many Partings")

Indeed, Frodo's life was inextricably bound up in the fate of the Royal couple. Aragorn and Arwen had been charged not to wed until he became the King of both Gondor and Arnor, something that could not happen without the destruction of the One Ring. And Frodo, charged with seeing the Ring to its Doom, was the instrument through which the fate of Aragorn and Arwen's love could be achieved.

Aragorn's relationship with Frodo was one of guide and mentor, friend and comrade, companion on a desperate journey. He came to know Frodo as a friend, as indeed all the Company who left Rivendell together became bound in friendship.

Arwen did not know Frodo in the same way. She knew him only briefly before he left Rivendell, and through the reports to her of him by others. She very likely did come to consider him as a friend after getting to know him in Minas Tirith and on the journey to Edoras. There is no doubt that Arwen felt indebted to Frodo, who had secured her happiness for her, or that she felt compassion for his sufferings. These factors led her to offer to him her "white gem" and her "place" on the ship West. These story-internal factors are what drive her character to try to help the Ringbearer.

And yet there are other less obvious and more thematic story-external elements that tie the two characters together.

Each of them faced a choice, one which when taken, would sunder them from their own kin.

Arwen's choice was the choice faced by the peredhel, the choice her father and his brother had first faced, the choice her own brothers would eventually face: whether to follow the path of the Firstborn, accept her immortality and eventual sailing to the West, or to follow the path of the Secondborn, and accept the Gift of Ilúvatar and leave the Circles of Arda behind for an unknown fate.

It is fairly clearly implied that had it not been for her love for Aragorn, Arwen would have chosen to go with her father. "But there will be no choice before Arwen my beloved, unless you, Aragorn Arathorn's son, come between us and bring one of us, you or me, to a bitter parting beyond the end of the world. You do not know yet what you desire of me" is what Elrond says to Aragorn in App. A, v. which indicates that up until that point, Arwen thought she knew what her choice would be, and that it would be "no choice" -- in other words, to continue on as she had as one of the Eldar.

Therefore, when she admitted her love for Aragorn on Cerin Amroth, she had at that time made her choice to forsake the immortality of the Elves. She chose Lúthien's fate, which would end up causing her to be separated from her father and possibly from her brothers, and to forsake a reunion with her mother in the West.

Frodo's choice was different. Unlike Arwen, his choice was not a birthright, nor something he had known about all his life. And it would be, perhaps, more appropriate to call them choices, because while each choice he made led him on to the same end, he made the decision in stages: he chose to leave the Shire; he chose to take the Ring on the Quest; he chose to go on from Parth Galen alone; he chose with each step of the way to continue. And each of those choices was made when he decided to put the good of others ahead of his own.

Frodo's accomplishment of the Ring's destruction (and Tolkien is clear that this was Frodo's doing, even if not in the way Frodo had envisioned) was what enabled Aragorn to claim the kingship, and thus, his bride. It is very clear that a "happy ending" for Aragorn and Arwen rested upon Frodo's small shoulders. So while his choices were not as clear-cut and singular as Arwen's, the way in which he impacted her life and destiny were very clear.

Arwen's wisdom and compassion enabled her to see first what others had yet to see clearly -- that Frodo was fading. One can speculate that perhaps it had been her experience with her mother's fading that enabled her to see the signs that those closer to Frodo (such as Aragorn and Gandalf) had failed to notice, or had perhaps refused to notice. We know that Frodo's passage to the West was her idea, as Tolkien mentions it more than once in his Letters:

We know that when Tolkien began writing LoTR, Arwen was not originally thought of as Aragorn's true love. But his love of parallelism and his need to bring to fruition the fate of Eärendil's line at the end of the Third Age led to her creation. Thematically she fits Aragorn far better than the original draft pairing of Aragorn and Éowyn, (just as thematically Faramir and Éowyn are a better pairing). She enables the lines of Men and Elves to be connected one more time, before the time of the Elves passes.

Frodo sacrificed his innocence and life as he had always known it for the protection of the home he could no longer enjoy.

The culmination of the sacrifice for both of them was the sailing of the grey ship at the Havens. The ship that was to have carried Arwen with her father to a reunion with her mother in Elvenhome instead carried Frodo Baggins away from the life he had hoped to have and those whom he loved, save Bilbo and Gandalf. He was leaving on the chance he would find healing, but it was a loss nonetheless.

Yet Frodo's journey to the West could not have been possible without the intervention and sacrifice of Arwen. Because she noticed that he was fading, she was able to offer the solution of sending him to the West -- to find the healing that she hoped her mother had found all those centuries before. In addition, this was a way of offering a partial payment of the debt she owed to Frodo in enabling her to attain her heart's desire of marriage to Aragorn.

Fleming Rutledge, in her book, The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings discusses how Arwen's gift was a significant exchange.

She reminds us that "The Lord of the Rings is not a 'happily-ever-after' story. It is a story of cross-bearing, and therefore a story of wounds, scars, and loss."

In a highly symbolic way, Arwen exchanges places with Frodo. Rutledge goes on to say:

In many ways Frodo and Arwen were kindred spirits, united by their selflessness, their compassion, their wisdom and their mercy. It is only meet that in the end, Arwen celebrates the achievement of her own heart's desire by offering Frodo the possibility of his: healing and peace of spirit.

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, editor
The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings, Fleming Rutledge

March 10, 2013 Back-to-Middle-earth Challenge: personal memories
B2MeM Challenge: Wildcard (Athelas)
Format: Non-Fiction
Genre: personal essay
Rating: Gen
Characters: me and the books
Summary: How LotR changed my life

"It all depends on what you want," put in Merry. "You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway, there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the Ring. We are horribly afraid – but we are going with you, or following you like hounds."

I was 15. I was the classic nerd--not popular; picked on by some of the "cool" kids; a few friends, my closest ones younger than I was, but none of them really close in the BFF sense of the word. Being an Air Force brat, we hadn't lived in one place long enough for me to have a "lifelong" friend, and then when I was 12, my dad was killed in a workplace accident and we moved again. I'd always told myself that it didn't matter, my best friends were books, I was "too smart" for anyone else to appreciate...you know the drill. But I longed for that sort of friendship.

Does anyone remember "Scholastic Book Days"? You'd get a brochure and order books from there and then they were delivered to you in class, usually English class. I don't even recall the book I'd ordered, except that it was too short and I finished it by the time class was half over. The girl next to me had ordered two books and clearly was not as fast a reader as I was. I asked if I could look at the book she wasn't reading yet: The Hobbit. It was on the corner of her desk, and I remember seeing a picture of my heart throb, Peter Tork of The Monkees reading that. So I started it, and she let me take it to finish. I brought it back to her the next morning, having finished it--such a fun story, and I already loved the idea of hobbits!

So, I went straight to the school library where I discovered that they had three books by that author. Two were on the shelves, so I checked them out: The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers, and I started reading.

It was another fun story about hobbits--a little more grown-up than The Hobbit, but there was Bilbo and Gandalf and the Shire and it was interesting and intriguing, but it wasn't personal.

And then we came to Crickhollow, and "A Conspiracy Unmasked", and I had my first glimpse of that sort of cradle-to-grave true friendship I had always craved and would never know. That epic friendship of the four hobbits, and later the addition of the Fellowship--it struck something in me and transformed my enjoyment from an "interesting story" to a lifelong obsession with The Lord of the Rings.

It transformed my life in other ways I had no way of foreseeing. It was The Lord of the Rings that brought me together with my husband of almost 37 years now. And years later I discovered online fandom and found that I had many friends and friendships to be discovered.

I owe a lot of what my life is now and what I am now to J.R.R. Tolkien. I hope one day I can thank him.

Author: Dreamflower
Title: The Classic Lord of the Rings Gapfiller: How to Keep Folks Reading When They Know How the Story Turns Out
Rating: G
Theme: Non-fiction
Subject: Writing gapfillers
Type: essay, writing advice
Author's Notes: Within the cut
Word Count: 1,491

Author's Note
There are four stories that I will be using as examples in this essay. I'm putting this note at the beginning instead of at the end, as there are some mild spoilers, so I am going to link the stories here first so that if the readers who have yet to read these marvelous stories want to do so, they can read the stories before they read the essay.

Do you feel the same way, even when you re-read the story? What is the writer's skill in keeping a reader on the edge of her seat, even when the story is no longer a surprise?

Some writers are very skilled in such things, and we can examine some of the techniques they use not only in creating the suspension of disbelief necessary for reading any fantasy, but also in creating in us a willingness to forget that we know how things are going to come out.

Most of these stories take place in the parts of the story in which there are a few days or weeks in which Tolkien does not tell us specifics of what has been happening. Sometimes the author will tell us that she has grafted an extra day or two onto Tolkien's timeline, or that she has introduced a geographical feature which does not appear on the maps. While these features may render a story "mildly AU", the goal of the author is not to deviate from the main story as we have been given it. Instead the thrust of the story is to shed light on the characters, and to perhaps also shed light on why or how certain events that happened in canon did so. In spite of such small AU elements, the story remains canon-compliant overall.

Thundera Tiger's story "While the Ring Went South" focuses on the obstacles the Company of the Nine Walkers faced during the early part of their journey. The most memorable part of the story is a sequence in which Legolas, Gimli and Pippin are separated from the rest by a ravine. Legolas and Gimli are forced to forgo their feud and work together to care for an injured Pippin and rejoin the rest of the Fellowship. There is no doubt for the reader (the characters have considerable doubt) that they will rejoin the others, yet there is a good deal of suspense and doubt as to how they will do so, and whether the fragile truce the Elf and Dwarf have built will hold. Suspense is built anew by each new obstacle the two face together, and also by the concerns of the rest of the Fellowship as they attempt to find a way to rejoin their lost companions. The reader is rewarded by new insights into the characters of Legolas and Gimli, and how difficult the ingrained prejudices of each will be to overcome. The result at the end of the story is further admiration of the characters: they are not yet the best friends we know they will become, but we are struck by their ability to hold to their honor and to examine their own hearts in the face of evidence that flies in the face of their upbringing.

"The River" by Indigo Bunting has a similar plot: two members of the Fellowship separated from the others, this time during the fording of a river. Legolas and Sam, swept away from the others by rising floodwaters find themselves on the opposite bank from the others and parted from the others by many miles. Injured and alone, they still are trying to rejoin the others when they are captured by evil men and taken prisoner.

Indigo Bunting uses a method of changing point-of-view from chapter to chapter, each chapter a deep and focused POV from a different member of the Fellowship. This method not only gives us the chance to see what each person thinks of the situation, but is also a method of increasing suspense. It is the same method Tolkien himself used in Lord of the Rings after the breaking of the Fellowship: we become completely immersed in what is happening to one set of characters when we are suddenly torn away from them and switched over to another set of characters. In "The River" each of these switches takes place at a time of climax, so that every chapter is a cliff-hanger in one way or another. It's very easy to forget that the characters are going to come out of it all right: they have no such knowledge, and as we are immersed in their minds and their worries, we forget that as well. The choices each character is forced to make at each stage of the story also increases our fears for them. When the story finally ends by "rejoining" the original story, we see that the Fellowship has forged a greater commitment to one another and to their Quest.

Shirebound's "Spellbound" is somewhat different. Her story deviates not at all from the portion of the tale she chose to expand upon. Instead she chose to shed light on why things happened as they did. Set wholly within the chapter "Fog on the Barrowdowns", it's been meticulously researched and falls completely within the events it describes. In spite of this, it is a chillingly suspenseful tale. We see some things from the barrow-wight's POV, and learn the reasons the hobbits have been captured, why he treats them as he does, and how some of the things that happened to them were accomplished. She searched through the legendarium to find out anything she could about the barrow-wights and the war with Angmar in order to come up with logical explanations. She creates a terrifying and spooky atmosphere throughout the story with her descriptions, and by showing the characters' fears. By the time the story was finished, this reader at least, was convinced that it was exactly how the events must have gone. Like all the best gapfillers, it was an "Aha!" moment: how else could all be explained?

"Shadows of a Nameless Fear" by Budgielover takes place in Minas Tirith after the Quest has been accomplished, during the time between Aragorn's wedding and the departure of the rest of the Fellowship to return to their own homes. In this story, Frodo is abducted by greedy men, and everyone is frantic to find him. There is no stinting in the departments of peril and angst, with occasional flashes of humor that briefly relieve the stress. The best thing about Budgielover's stories is that she gives each and every character a chance to shine, to be a hero. Of course the reader knows they will survive to go home--but as we see one deadly danger after another, we wonder just how that can possibly happen. And as the reader cheers on each character as he or she grabs the opportunity to do something incredibly brave, we do not mind in the least that we know how the story will end. And even the happy ending is not quite what we expect.

So it behooves the fanfic writer to keep in mind some of the best examples of others when writing her own stories.

1. Create obstacles for the characters that will stretch them and cause them to grow as characters. Use what we know of them in canon and expand on that: how did they become the characters we know?
2. Use POV to draw the reader in, by making it deep enough that the reader can get immersed in the character, and by switching to another POV when suspense is at its height. Cliff-hangers are popular for a reason.
3. Use description and atmosphere skillfully to create a feeling of suspense. And search for the "Aha!" gaps that need to be filled, so that the reader really wants to know the how or why of what happened in canon. Something you find in the original story that you feel needs more explanation is probably something someone else has the same questions about.
4. Give the main characters a chance to "show their stuff", so that the reader wants to cheer him or her on. When we can get a chance to smile over their cleverness or applaud their courage, it draws us in. And surprising twists are possible, even when we are aware that the characters are going to survive--look for ways to do this.
5. Finally, one thing all these writers have is insightful characterization. None of the canon characters in these stories are "OOC", that is, "out-of-character". The reader knows these people as old friends, and it is that much easier to care about what happens to each of them.

I hope that this examination of some classic gapfiller stories may be of help to those who also want to create such stories for themselves.

Author: Dreamflower
Title: Why I Believe The Last Goodbye is the Perfect Last Song
Rating: G
Theme: Non-fiction
Subject: The Last Goodbye
Type: essay
Summary: An analysis of why the song works so well as a finale to Peter Jackson's series of movies set in Middle-earth.
Word Count: 1,927

The very first time I heard The Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd sung prior to the release of The Hobbit: the Battle of Five Armies. I was moved to tears. The song was all I could have hoped for as an ending to Peter Jackson's portrayal of Tolkien's Middle-earth through the course of six epic movies.

Of course, there is the element of satisfaction and appropriateness, that the person who portrayed Peregrin Took in The Lord of the Rings is now the one who sings this song. One can imagine Pippin, older and wiser than he was when he followed his cousins and friends into his own adventure paying tribute to the first of his cousins whose Adventure propelled theirs, as well as to the epic journey of which he was a part. There is a feeling about the song that Billy Boyd seems to be channeling Pippin once more.

And of course, it would be in character for Pippin to sing such a song, as he sang "The Edge of Night" in LOTR: The Return of the King (a song which Billy Boyd also composed the music for, to lyrics by Tolkien, slightly adapted). It is hard not to believe that when performing this song, Billy transports himself back to his role of Bilbo's young kin, but from a somewhat older perspective. It certainly feels that way to me.

I love music, but I am no musician, nor even a musical scholar. I cannot comment on the technical aspects of the melody, but I do have some personal observations on the music. There is a gentle wistfulness to the tune, beginning with those opening notes that seem almost like snowflakes, as it gradually leads into that sorrowful first verse. And there are places where some of the phrasing seems to lightly hint at the end song of LOTR: The Return of the King, "Into the West", by Annie Lennox, without losing its own originality. Throughout the song, the music maintains a sense of melancholy nostalgia.

But mostly, it is the lyrics that helps to anchor "The Last Goodbye" into, not just Peter Jackson's version of Middle-earth, but also to that of J.R.R. Tolkien's creation.

I saw the light fade from the sky;
On the wind I heard a sigh;
As the snowflakes cover my fallen brothers,
I will say this last goodbye.

This verse is clearly in Bilbo's POV. It is intensely personal and painful. The battle has ended in a victory won only through heartache and loss. Night is coming, the bitter day is over: "As the snowflakes cover my fallen brothers..." we are reminded that the fighting took place in the cold of winter. I had always known somewhere in the back of my mind that this portion of Bilbo's story took place in winter, but it took the film to show me what that meant in terms of the Battle.

The Dwarves were able to discover the entrance to the halls under the Lonely Mountain on Durin's Day: "when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together" on first day of the dwarves' New Year, which was "the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter." (TH, Chapter III, "A Short Rest"), and several days or perhaps even weeks, took place before the actual Battle of Five Armies took place. Peter Jackson showed us the snow, ice and bitter cold that would have accompanied the conflict.

In the books, the bleakness of a cold winter suits the tragedy of battle's end; while in the film, the landscape becomes a part of the story as snow and ice provide the treacherous footing for the fighters. Most particularly the fight between Thorin and Azog upon the ice actually depends on the weather. To call forth this imagery in the song ties it with these scenes.

With the phrase "...my fallen brothers..." we are made to understand Bilbo's grief: throughout the journey, he's developed a close, almost familial, bond with the Dwarves of Thorin's Company. They are his brothers now, but three of them are fallen, and he will miss them sorely. The snowflakes cover them, which seems to me to hint at the cold of sorrow and grief: both literally and figuratively, his friends are cold and gone.

Night is now falling.
So ends this day;
The road is now calling
And I must away.
Over hill and under tree,
Through lands where never light has shone,
By silver streams that run down to the sea.

Under cloud, beneath the stars,
Over snow on winter's morn,
I turn at last to paths that lead home.

Compare this to Tolkien's own version of "Roads Go Ever, Ever On" in the last chapter of The Hobbit:

Roads go ever, ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.
(TH, Chapter XIX, "The Last Stage")

In comparing it to the first refrain, we see most strongly the influence of Tolkien's own poetry and songs. Something I noticed in Tolkien's poems is that frequently they are driven by prepositions, especially the "hobbit walking songs".

This is echoed in "The Last Good-bye", with "over", "under", "by" and "through". The song and the character in the song (whether Bilbo, Frodo, Pippin, or just some hobbit on a more homely journey) is propelled forward by these words that take him through a landscape easily imagined: hill and tree, lightless lands (clearly a reference to the darkness of the tunnels and caves), and streams. It reminds us of Tolkien's songs without quoting them exactly.

And though where the road then takes me
I cannot tell.
We came all this way
But now comes the day
To bid you farewell.

This is the point of the song: Bilbo is saying good-bye to those friends whom he has made on his odyssey. The purpose of the Adventure has ended; his friends have their home in the Lonely Mountain back, and it is time for him to go back to the home he has longed for almost ever since he left it.

Many places I have been
Many sorrows I have seen
But I don't regret
Nor will I forget
All who took the road with me

These lines resonate with many layers of meaning: there is the personal meaning to Bilbo, who grew to deep friendship with those who took the road with him, especially those who are lost; there is the meaning that applies to the future, to Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, who will return changed from their own quest with the memory of many sorrows and of people whom they grew to love, who took the road with them; and finally there is the more general and yet also deeply personal meaning to those who hear the song and can recall their own journeys and those they have loved, and maybe lost, along the way.

To me this verse is the best one of the song, and ties together all the movies, not just The Hobbit but also The Lord of the Rings. In it we can see Bilbo's face as he enters Bag End and says of Thorin "He was my friend", as well as the scene in The Green Dragon, in which the four hobbits toast the memories of their friends in LOTR: Return of the King.

Night is now falling
So ends this day
The road is now calling
And I must away
Over hill and under tree
Through lands where never light has shone
By silver streams that run down to the sea

Once again, we are drawn into the wider world of the books by this refrain, and in this repetition we can imagine Bilbo reminding himself that he cannot linger any longer. It brings us to the next verse:

To me, I think of Bilbo taking his deep breath to actually leave his friends behind. Here he is speaking to those friends who still remain, whom he may once more see again if they ever come his way, when "tea is at four".

To these memories I will hold,
With your blessing I will go,
To turn at last to paths that lead home.
And though where the road then takes me,
I cannot tell,
We came all this way
But now comes the day
To bid you farewell.

In the first verse, he bid "good-bye" to his fallen brothers. In this verse, he bids farewell to those surviving friends who are gathered there to fare him well, also. He reminds them he will hold on to all the memories he's made during his time with them, and asks their blessing on his departure.

It would seem the place to end the song, and yet, after a musical bridge, we are brought back to the place where the journey began: sixty years later, when Bilbo prepares a speech for others he's leaving behind:

These words are in a slow contemplative voice, they are in a completely different tone reminiscent of the way Bilbo spoke the words at his Birthday Party. We have come full circle, ending where we began in An Unexpected Journey.

Bilbo is going back. At one-hundred and eleven, he's ready to leave the Shire behind once more as he bids farewell to the home he had returned to. Again, I think of this as tying in not only the movies but the books. In the books he did pay one last visit to his friends in Erebor, in the films he didn't quite make it, but it was his intention when he left. Those to whom he's bidding farewell now are not the companions he bid farewell in the earlier part of the song, but those to whom he had come home, all those exasperating relatives who kept knocking on his door, as well as his more beloved kin.

And in these last words we can also go forward to another farewell as Frodo leaves the Shire behind as well, accompanying his beloved Bilbo on "one more adventure" at the Grey Havens. And to me it also reflects the books in the "fond farewell" Sam, Pippin and Merry also made another sixty years after their first journey ended.

Finally, it is a fond farewell to the magnificently imagined re-creation of Middle-earth that Peter Jackson and others had so painstakingly built for us over the course of the years. Others may someday have their own versions, but to this one, it is finished. It's a farewell, for we may come together with friends to see it again; but a visit only and never the bright newness we experienced before.

These observations reflect my own feelings about the song; I confess I cannot get enough of it, and it continues to bring a suspicious moisture to my eyes every time I hear it. I hope my musings on it may give other listeners food for thought.

Author:Dreamflower
Title:How to Write a Good Summary for Your Fanfic (Because if you say you suck at summaries, who will want to read your story?)
Rating: G
Theme: Non-fiction
Subject: How to write good summaries for your Tolkien fanfiction.
Type: Tutorial
Author's Notes: All of the sample summaries come from actual summaries within the Tolkien fandom. However, I've left out the titles and the authors and other possible identifying information from both the good and bad examples. This is not to avoid giving the authors credit, but to avoid embarrassing the ones chosen as poor examples. I realized that if I gave anonymity to the poor examples, I should also do so with the good ones. If you have read the stories in question, I request that you do not "out" the authors in your comments, please.
Word Count: 3,000

The phrase is practically a running joke among those who read fanfiction: "I suck at summaries." Sometimes it takes the place of a summary. Sometimes it's used as a tag. Sometimes there is an actual summary, or at least an attempt at one, with the phrase tacked on.

Why put something like that in the place where your summary goes? Some people may honestly think they are bad at summaries, and hope that by a little self-deprecation they will be able to defuse criticism. Others think it's funny. And perhaps there are those who see others doing it all the time and believe it is expected behavior.

The truth is that most readers find it annoying and frustrating. When a reader is searching for a good story she/he isn't going to be enticed by someone whose summary "sucks". If you can't write a good summary, the reasoning goes, then why expect a good story?

Yes, it does take a bit of skill to summarize a story in such a way as to get the reader to click on the title and begin to read, but isn't it better to learn that skill than to wonder why no one ever reads your story?

A good summary needs to be brief. In archives that have a character limit for the summary it's important to get the most information you can into the summary within the count. If you go over the limit, your summary may be cut off in the middle of a word.

But brevity also needs to include the most necessary information. Somewhere between 15 to 25 words is usually sufficient to tell the reader what he/she needs to know. Imagine that "You are standing in an elevator and have two minutes to tell someone about your book."

What can you include in such a brief number of words? You can include who the main character is, what conflict he or she may face, an action that needs to be taken, and perhaps a hint of the setting if necessary.

If your main character is a canonical character, it is a good idea to mention the name, but if the main character is an original character (or OC) it's best not to waste the name in the summary, but rather refer to him or her in terms of his or her position in Middle-earth: "an Elf of Mirkwood", "a Ranger of the North", "a hobbit lass from Bywater", etc. Readers who normally do not read OCs, but like Mirkwood Elves or Rangers or Hobbits may be enticed by this description, whereas an unfamiliar name may lose their interest.

Next include a tiny bit of the plot. What conflict will your character or character face? Is he going into his first battle? Has she run away from an abusive home? Have they met their true love, only to find family opposition? However, do not give away too much. You don't want to spoil the story for your readers before they begin.

Some stories lack in conflict, such as slice of life stories, character studies, fluff or angst, or humor stories often have little or no active conflict. These sometimes are actually easier to summarize, as it is easier to tell what's going on. "On a summer afternoon, four young hobbits enjoy picking berries." "Legolas ponders what he knows about Gandalf." "Faramir mourns his brother." "Bofur loses his hat, and a hilarious search ensues."

There are other things that can be included in a summary, such as a romantic pairing, the setting, whether or not the story is a one-shot, and so on. In some archives or communities, such information can be included in a header required by the archive or community in question, while other archives may prefer such information to be included in the tags. By taking advantage of this, you can save room for the story details.

Here are a few really well-done summaries from various stories in the Tolkien fandom. You may or may not recognize the stories and authors, but I have taken out the titles, the authors' names and any additional information that might have identified the story.

"Merry’s routine firewood gathering errand turns dangerous when a band of brigands hunts the hobbits and Strider after Weathertop."

Notice that the author begins with the identity of the main character, and reveals the plot without giving away too much; in addition, she manages to pinpoint the particular gap and location as well. For a reader who is fond of Merry, or who likes gapfillers and adventures, this story would be very appealing.

"Glorfindel died... Glorfindel returned to Middle-earth... but what happened to him between these two events?"

This is perfect for an epic story about what happened to Glorfindel in the ages before he becomes a part of Elrond's household. The ellipsis is used artfully to indicate the ages that passes in between, and the question is not merely rhetorical, but incites curiosity in a potential reader: What did happen to him?

"As she travels between the Lockholes in Michel Delving and the home of relatives in Hardbottle where she's chosen to stay, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins finds reason to rethink her life and priorities.

In this summary, the author makes sure the reader is clued in to the time and setting of this gapfiller (mention of the Lockholes places the timeline at some point during "The Scouring of the Shire"), while the last phrase leads us to know it is an introspective character study rather than something more plot-driven.

Frodo begins sensing the thoughts of the bearers of the three Elven rings. When an accident injures Pippin and Elladan, and traps Frodo and Merry with Saruman and Gríma, will this new ability help or hurt? AU post-quest story, also starring Elrohir, Elrond, Celeborn, Gandalf, Sam, and Galadriel.

The unusual cast of characters here will interest fans of a broad range of character types. The author also sets up the AU and draws attention to how Frodo's new ability may move the plot.

There are things you may wish to clue the reader in on before they open the story. Many archives come with a warning system and drop down options or tags, but not all of them do. If you have the space to include some extraneous information after the story description is complete, you may add such information afterwards. Commonly these are things like "drabble" for 100 word ficlets; "one-shot" to describe a single stand alone story; "book-verse" or "movie-verse" or "book/movie blend" for those stories in which that matters. If the archive does not provide them, you might like to include any trigger warnings that might be applicable. You may wish to include information about whether the story was written as a gift or for a challenge. But all these things are not absolutely necessary in the summary, and can also just as easily be put in a beginning Author's Note.

There are a lot of things that cause a summary to fall into the failing category. Of course the worst is to not mention anything that is actually relevant to the story, and gives no information that would guide the reader into deciding to read it.

Many summaries tell us only about the author: "I was up too late eating candy, so I wrote this at 3AM on a sugar high." "I just thought this up randomly and thought I'd post it." "I had a weird dream and decided to write it down." "This was a class assignment so I thought I'd post it here."

Neither is a summary a place for your own opinion of your work. When an author begins their summary by saying "This story is totally unique", the reader is probably safe in assuming it is no such thing. "Best fanfic ever" is not going to win any readers either. On the other hand, saying "This story is pretty bad, but read and review it anyway" is not going to entice anyone to click on the title.

Many summaries include way too much negative information: "I just finished it and wanted to post it so excuse my spelling and grammar errors." "No beta." "Character bashing". "Character X is OOC (out of character)". Things like this turn off a lot of readers. If you are unsatisfied with a story, don'tpost it until you are satisfied. Saying in your summary that you know it could be better, but you did not want to wait and check it over first is just laziness, and readers know that.

It should go without saying that you should be even more careful about spelling and grammar and so forth in your summary. "Should" is the operative word. There are any number of summaries in which all the rules of capitalization, spelling and grammar are thrown right out of the window. If you can't maintain your standards in the short length of a summary, it's a fair inference on the potential reader's part that the story will be riddled with the same mistakes.

Some summaries tell too much, revealing spoilers for the story. Or they go into too much detail about their OC or the alternate universe they've created. Some things should be saved for an Author's Note at the beginning of the story, or maybe a prologue. The purpose of the summary is to tell just enough to whet the reader's appetite, not to hand over the full meal and dessert before they even open the story.

Here are a few examples of some bad summaries for LotR fanfiction; as in the above section, You may or may not recognize the stories and authors, but I have taken out the titles, the authors' names and any additional information that might have identified the story. I promise that ALL of them are actual summaries:

"Just a little random silliness I thought up in the middle of the night."
"My first attempt at comedy...you either love it or hate it, folks!"
"My first, not bad"
"A poem I had to write for school so why not put it on here?"

All of the above have something in common: they are not about the story, they are about the author. Unless potential readers are personal friends or family members, they do not care about the author, they want to know is the story worth reading. None of these "summaries" will tell them that.

"Oh wow, I'm so innovative! Yes, this story talks about a woman who stumbles in the LotR universe and is a 10th walker but what makes this woman different is that she's from a realm where Tolkien doesn't even exist, but she has very interesting clues about the future thanks to a dream that she described in a song not to mention that she shares heart with a dragon"

This summary is Too Much Information. First, the author indulges in bragging about the story; then there are spoilers for the plot of the story. Finally, the only punctuation mark is the exclamation point at the beginning. The rest is a breathless run-on sentence.

"[Original Female Character], is [an Original Unknown Race]. A creature filled with wonder and mystery. Born among the rare race, she is one of the few left in Middle Earth. Not only is she a rare being, she is a dangerous one. Threatening everyone around her with darkness that had beseeched her when she was a wee lad. [ Full Summary Inside ]"

This one has both too much and too little information. It spends most of the summary on describing the OC, but in very vague terms. It reveals nothing about the plot or about any canon characters or situations that a reader might identify as familiar, and thus enticing. And then it tells the reader to click on the story in order to get an actual summary. Most people will simply ignore it and move on to the next story on the page.

"this is a parody to lord of the rings, please post reviews, i am not sure if i should continue it and your support would help"

Not only is there no capitalization, the author begs for reviews, and then indicates that she is not sure she's going to finish writing it. Why would a reader bother with it?

"This is a little funny fic set in my hometown now...see if you can figure out the mystery guest and how they're there..."
"An extra character is added. Please R/R! Thanks!"

There is actually nothing to identify these two stories as fanfiction about anything Tolkien, or any real information about the story. Either of them could be about anyone or anything.

"This is a story written in hopes that u guys like it. I am taking the lord of the rings series one step further, in the future!"

At least this one indicates the fandom, even though it doesn't tell us much about the story. Using text-speak ("u guys") and failing to capitalize The Lord of the Rings doesn't help much either.

"oh just read it"
"PG 13 for drunk Hobbits. This is just a piece of madness that I came up with when running a bath, but unfortuntley, ff. net doesn't have a weirdness genre... Still, it's pretty funny, read and tell me what ya think"
"I'd like a few reviews before I go much further with this. I'm not sure how this will work yet, and if it is worth pursuing. Comments, please."

Ordering people to read your story is probably not the most effective way to gain readers. The same goes for ordering people to "Read and Review". It's better not to tell your readers what to do, even if you add a "please". Telling the reader that you don't know where the story is going is also usually a poor idea. (There may possibly be exceptions, but they are rare indeed.)

1. Go to an archive and look at random summaries on the browsing page. Study the summaries that appeal to you and make you want to read the story. What is it that attracts your interest? Is it the mention of a character or pairing that you love? Does it have a turn of phrase that incites your curiosity? Does it indicate a genre you are fond of?
2. Do the same thing with summaries that you dislike. What's wrong with them? Try re-writing them as a better summary if possible.
3. Choose a format for your summaries, so that you have something to get you started. When I first began to post fanfic, I used the old-fashioned beginning "In which..." for most of my short stories and ficlets. (For example, "In which Merry and Pippin tell stories, and Estella tries to prove herself.") This works very well for slice of life or fluff stories.
4. Create a "fill in the blank" for yourself: "[character name] must [verb] when [situation happens]. Will [he or she] succeed?" or some other such sentence that will work for you for many stories.
5. If your story is based on a particular canon gap or a quotation in the book (or movie), you may consider using a quotation as your summary. For example, if you were writing a story about the migration of the hobbits from the East, you could quote the entry for the Third Age from "Appendix B: The Tale of Years", for 1150: "The Fallohides enter Eriador. The Stoors come over the Redhorn Pass and move to the Angle, or to Dunland." This is a perfectly good summary for such a story.
6. Ask your beta or a friend who has read the story to tell you how he or she would summarize it. Sometimes another eye can see better than your own what it is about your story that other people would like. There is nothing wrong in getting advice from a trusted source.

Remember, the whole purpose of posting a story to the public is to gain readers. If you cannot sum your story up in a way that will draw readers in, you probably need to work on it some more.

1. Do use vivid verbs and nouns when appropriate. "Flee" sounds more exciting than "run"; "peril" is more vivid than "danger", and so forth. When you only have a short amount of space every word counts.
2. Do NOT spend a lot of adjectives on your Original Character. Save the color of her eyes and hair and the description of her personality for the story.
3. Do think of the things that make you want to read a story, and include those in the summary when possible.
4. Do NOT order the reader to do anything. If the reader is interested enough to click on the story, she or he will do so. Telling readers to "read and review" or even worse "review or I won't post anymore chapters" will likely even turn them off.
5. Do make sure to use correct spelling and grammar.
6. Do NOT make the summary about yourself. A summary is about the story, not the author. Your story is not about you; it should stand on its own merit.
7. Do use a positive and enthusiastic tone--if you are happy with the story, let it show.
8. Do NOT be negative. I have seen many summaries end with "I don't really know if it is any good." My personal reaction is always: "Well, if you don't think the story is any good, why do you expect me to?"
9. Do make sure to include all necessary information. Readers want to know if this is the kind of story they are looking for.
10. Do NOT substitute tags for a summary. Too many tags can also turn readers off... especially if one of your tags is "I suck at summaries".

Dreamflower's Musings by Dreamflower