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All Work and No Play  by Lindelea 1 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 12 on 12/18/2025
It appears to have been a particular gift of the Fallohides to first see what others did not see, and to then think outside the box as to how to respond to what they have seen. Their ability to analyze situations and find creative ways to respond to them made them accepted as leaders, but at the same time to arouse suspicions about them. "We love them for solving problems, but how does one understand them?"

Sam's Gaffer might have been worried that his son was in danger of getting too caught up in his "betters'" ways, but it worked to the good for all of the Shire in the end.

Author Reply: I'm rather irked by the idea of class differences, even as I write about how I imagine they worked in the Shire.

I love your imagined quote: "We love them for solving problems, but how does one understand them?" (Still, Sam didn't seem to have a problem in that area, luckily for all of the Shire and Middle-earth in the end.)

I wonder if the three tribes of Hobbits Tolkien devised reflected different people-groups in Tolkien's England or historical England? (Perhaps the Fallohides might equate to Arthur Pendragon's people, whom I've heard called "Romanized Britons", or Alfred the Great, a Saxon king, I think, during the Viking invasion?) Or am I reaching too far in trying to find a correlation?

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