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A Question of Trolls by Dreamflower	13 Review(s)
PSW	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 11/13/2016
This is a conversation I've never really thought of -- but very well done! I very much liked Bilbo's thoughts and reasonings as you have described... Thanks for writing!

harrowcat	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/13/2016
For such a brief conversation you have managed to pack in an awesome number of truths.. The one that captured my attention as I read it this time was the need to find ways to tell your own story. For me that tends to be through an on/off diary, music making and creative arts such as zentangle and cross stitch. It is also what draws me back, time and again to LOTR and fanfiction. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment and food to ponder.

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 9/29/2006
“I never thought any of you would need preparation, child. I always thought that the stories would remain just stories, and I didn’t necessarily want them to be believed. I know I did not want to frighten anyone with the knowledge of just how terrible the real world could be. It never occurred to me that some of my dearest little ones would grow up and have to go out and face those terrible things.” He sighed. “I guess if I had known--well, Lord Elrond always says not to guess what I would have done, that it is useless to speculate.” I found this so poignant, almost heartbreaking, especially from the point of a parent/aunt watching a younger generation begin to take on their challenges. As our parents undoubtedly watched us... And I think of one of my grandmothers, who watched her son and three sons-in-law go off to World War II, and come back irrevocably changed.

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 9/29/2006
Awww, that was sweet, and hit the spot. I hadn't read it before. I never thought of Bilbo "toning things down", but it fits well with something that came up in our FOTR discussion group today, as a matter of fact. (It's a jr. high class in a homeschool co-op, that I sat in on during my free hour.) The kids were talking about how different in tone Hobbit is from LOTR, and the different aim (Hobbit was a children's story), and someone mentioned having read that JRRT was actually dissatisfied with Hobbit, thinking it too shallow or silly or something. And yet, I loved that book, and it drew us (and wee hobbits hereabouts) into the story, and so I cannot fault it for being deceptively simple. I guess with my bunny, I was thinking that Pippin would bring up Bilbo's trolls, and how they didn't seem so fearsome once he realised they were stone, and one even had a bird's nest behind its ear! And then a conversation much like the one you recount here, for the second part. So you see, you really did write something like what I was looking for! Thanks!

Queen Galadriel	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/30/2006
Oh, this plot bunny is not going to leave me alone--and I kind of need it to at least give me a rest till after school! :) I'm thinking of the spiders here. Think about it: the spiders in the hobbit are so different in some ways from their mother, Shelob. They could speak while she obviously couldn't, and that doesn't really make sense, unless Bilbo invented all that to make it more interesting. But Shelob was more crafty and much, much more dangerous. I'm still not sure what direction this is going to take, but keep an eye out for something called "Making Light of It." :) Author Reply: grin I shall definitely be looking forward to it! Spiders, eh? ;-)

Queen Galadriel	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/29/2006
Ah. This seems very realistic, that Bilbo would make light of it all. I wonder, then, just how terrible some of those experiences really were? gasps Oh my word! I've got an idea! May I have permission to write a sort of companion piece to this, Dreamflower? God bless, Galadriel Author Reply: Of course you may! I am quite eager to see just what sort of bunny my little story spawned! It has always seemed to me that in order to reconcile the differences in tone between The Hobbit and LotR in a story-internal fashion, the only solution is to accept the idea that Bilbo rather bowdlerized his Adventure in order to make it more suitable for young ears. In reading The Hobbit, one can easily glimpse the underlying desperation in many of those seemingly humorous moments. The three trolls are only the first of such things.

Dana	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/1/2006
You know, I hadn't ever thought of that -- but it does make sense. There would have been a lot of unpleasantness that Bilbo would have had to gloss over. Hoenstly, you can't go telling that sort of thing to little kids. But, well, poor Pippin -- talk about expectations, and how they don't always match up! This was a nice exchange between the two. Author Reply: Well, let's face it: trolls in The Hobbit and trolls in LotR are two different things altogether. And then Bilbo supposedly wrote that silly poem about the troll "Perry-the-Winkle" as well. But as most of his stories were for children, it makes sense that he would sort of "bleep" them, when it came to violence and so forth. And yes, poor Pippin. I can imagine him lying in his cot in Cormallen, thinking about that great stinking troll, and how it wasn't anything like Bilbo's! It was a conversation that just had to happen.

Gryffinjack	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/16/2005
For such a cheery, fun loving lad, that little Took sure is having an awful lot of serious discussions lately! I so enjoy seeing Bilbo, we don't see enough of him. And when we do see him, he's usually with Frodo or else it's an earlier story before the time of our four hobbits. What a treat to see Bilbo and Pippin having such a serious discussion. I'm glad you addressed this because there is quite a diversity between the picture of trolls we get from Bilbo and that which Pippin and the other three hobbits encountered. And of course, it is Pippin who the issue of trolls would most bother. Now while I chalked most of the difference up to them being different breeds of trolls, that still does not account for trolls being horrible creatures not to be encountered. Bilbo is absolutely right, of course. There is no way he could have told a story to fauntlings about how real trolls are; they'd be afraid of the world and the unknown things in it. Also as Bilbo pointed out, he had no expectaction that any of them would actually encounter a real troll. Not many Shire hobbits even venture as far as Bree, let alone to areas where there are trolls. I absolutely adored the way Bilbo treated Pippin, calling him "child" and yet treating him with the respect and honesty that he was due. Through it all, Bilbo's love not only for Pippin, but for Merry, Sam, and especially Frodo shone through. It saddened me the way Pippin noted how frail Bilbo had become. “You just need to think what you will tell of your own story when you get home. And you need to tell that story--do not hide it away or let it fester inside you. Even if you are not believed, even if you are called ‘mad’, even if people do not want to hear, you must tell it.” Sage advice for all four of the travellers. I can't recall now, was it Frodo or Pippin that honestly told their story to Aunt Primrose or Aunt Peridot? I adore Bilbo. He is so much more than the "Mad Baggins" that the rest of the Shire credits him for being. Your stories of hobbit interaction are absolutely wonderful. I'd say more, but I feel like I keep repeating myself about how spot on your characterisations and voices are, how clever the situations are, and how moving all of your stories are. Just consider that I've said that about every one of your stories, past, present, and future. Author Reply: Yes, after the Quest, Pippin would have a great many questions--and a lot of them he would want answered before he came home. This story was sparked by a discussion of the discrepency between the trolls in The Hobbit and those of LotR in rec.arts.books.tolkien/alt.fan.tolkien (the Tolkien newsgroups). I felt the simplest solution was that when telling his stories to children, Bilbo rather bowdlerized many of the events to make them less frightening. And then it occured to me: how would Pippin have felt when he began to realize that Bilbo had not exactly told the truth? Pippin had such a talk with his Auntie Peridot. But he took Bilbo's advice to heart, as you will see in "When the King Comes Back", for he is honest with the rest of his family as well. I adore Bilbo too. Have you read PrimSong's "Stone of Erebor" yet? It is brilliant--she does a marvelous Bilbo. Her story "Nothing of Note" is great, too! I'm so glad you like my stories, and it's a wonder you don't give me a swelled head with all the praise. But what I love about your reviews is how thoughtful and insightful they are--they give me some meat to chew on! I like having to think when I'm writing replies!

Rachel Stonebreaker	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 2/26/2005
You are right! This IS a great story. It is sooo much better than my little comments on Pippin's encounter with the Troll. I loved how Pippin was so young. The problems Bilbo had a story teller has modifying a story to fit the audience were so true. You can not just go about telling little ones all sorts of horrid things. And most adults truly don't want to hear that sort of stuff either. So, the good story teller, like Bilbo, must make the story fit the audience. Poor Pippin! To have been the audience for so long as to not see that Bilbo's stories were just that, stories! I loved this. Thanks for the recommendation to read it. I've bookmarked the site so when I've a moment or two I can delve on in for some more great reads. ~ Rach Author Reply: I'm glad you like it. It's just a little vignette, but somehow I found it satisfying to attempt to answer the question of why the trolls in The Hobbit were so very different from the trolls in LotR. That is exactly what Bilbo had done, made the story fit his audience. But he had done such good job of it that Pippin was taken aback when the real life version did not match his expectations. He was so very young when Bilbo left, that he was still impressionable. Anyway, you can see now why I love your story so much. It just kind of seems to fit in, with Pippin wondering about his own story-telling abilities. It's kind of like they were made for each other. Almost spooky.

Hai Took	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/31/2004
That was a lovely little bit between Bilbo and Pippin! I liked Bilbo just "resting his eyes". Poor Pippin, I guess after Bilbo's story he really couldn't imagine what trolls were really like! Thank you for sharing! Author Reply: The trolls in Bilbo's story are a menace, but they are so funny they are almost cute! To come up against the real thing must have been a shock for Pippin. I know that when I read LOTR, I was struck by the differences myself. Thank you for the nice review.

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