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Shire: Beginnings  by Lindelea 2 Review(s)
DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 11 on 10/1/2004
Whoosh! After that build-up, I was afraid that Thorn wasn't going to make it back!

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 11 on 12/8/2003
This is an interesting chapter. Here you use 'Thorn' as if it were a title more than a family name, as I had assumed. Are we to think of it as the origin of the word 'Thain?' I wonder what the Tolkien etymologists would make of that (there are such people, you know)...

I am not sure if I like calling attention to the quaint use of the familiar form by the hobbits, and then dispensing with it. I know Tolkien says that the hobbits did use the familiar, and that those in Gondor were surpried by Pippin's address of Denethor so, believing that it must connote high status in his own land as the Prince of the Halflings, yet Tolkien did not show the archaic form except for very rarely, and not by the hobbits in their own speech or as delivered to others. I think I would either ignore it completely or retain the familiar for the hobbits speaking to the elves, but not call attention to it. I am personally not fond of notes addressed to the readers in the midst of the text.

The fact that the Thorn can hear the Lady directly, especially in urgent or dangerous situations, is very interesting. It certainly surprises the elves who, somewhat smugly in my opinion, pride themselves on hearing Illuvitar's song better than any other race. Actually, they are surprised by the Hobbits woodcraft, their speech and their knowledge. All that from a very simple and innocent race - very worth watching in the future. And Glorfindel taking orders from this little creature is quite an image.

The elves have definitely been helped by the hobbits here. What will the legendary curiousity of the Elves lead them to do next? I can't believe they'll just walk away from them....

Author Reply: Well, I'm told that Tolkien took the term "Thain" from the Scottish chieftains, to approximate a word in hobbit-language, just like all his other names are approximations translated from whatever you'd call hobbit-language. (Hobbitish?)

I did research "Gandalf" as far as I could and came up with no definite origin other than that it was the name he was called by the Men of the North, so I have had fun imagining my own origin, in addition to the hobbits' very practical adaptation of the word "goblins". There is at least one more distintive feature of Gandalf that will "originate" in this story.

Thorn is a family name, and a title as well (and the story was written, by design, to have that fact become gradually evident to the reader). Perhaps this family passes down the trait of being able to hear the Lady of the Wood. After the Lady sends them out to seek a new land, the leadership will not necessarily be tied to the one family--though I suspect the Tooks are descended from the Thorns. I have not found a surname for Marcho and Blanco anywhere, and unless I find otherwise before fleshing out the outlined chapters, they will be Thorns as well, though I think they change their name in the new land... that is only outlined, not written, and thus subject to change.

I must admit, I deliberately called attention to the familiar form because of my own shock at realising, 25 years after reading the original for the first time, that "thee" and "thou" is what JRRT meant when he said the hobbits' speech was quaint by the standards of the people of Minas Tirith. I think I must have read it in an appendix, or perhaps one of JRRT's letters, but only within the last few months. I'm sure it is not in the text or I would have noticed it in one of my annual re-reads (and these are not deliberately scheduled, mind, it is just that I turn to this book whenever sick in bed and stuck with nothing else to do. It is a comfort read to be sure.) I will rethink in accordance with your comments, especially if I hear a second opinion to the same effect.

You have mentioned before your dislike of author asides. I avoid these as much as possible, but evidently not enough! *grin*

"The Hobbit" has disappeared again (under someone's bed, no doubt)--we have only three copies, perhaps a fourth is needed, to be chained to the bookshelf! Thus I cannot cross-check my gut feeling that Thranduil was not familiar with hobbits, though Elrond was. Therefore I have devised a way for the hobbits *not* to accompany the Rivendell elves to the North. Hopefully it is plausible.

Perhaps the reader is asking the logical question: Why don't modern hobbits hear voices in their heads? I think the spirit (Valar probably) who is the Lady of the Wood has decided that it is time for hobbits to grow; she has mothered them long enough, and while they were engaging children she has great hopes for their future. It is interesting that she has nurtured the future of the Ring-bearer as well, was this all part of Illuvatar's song?

I am just getting into the Sil again, after laying it down 20 years ago. I must admit it adds such depth and richness to Tolkien's world. That comment in itself sounds trite and obvious, sorry, you cannot know the wonder that infuses it.

I suspect that the Rivendell elves won't say much about the hobbits to Thranduil, or what they do say will scarcely be believed. But the Rivendell elves will meet with the Fallohides again, on the other side of the mountains. The Lady, after all, has promised that the People will survive.

Whew, this has gained the length of a chapter! Sorry to ramble so! My editor is "on vacation" and I have no one else to ramble at, at the moment...

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