Bill's name

SarahJ

New Member
In session 221: The Tenth Walker, we had the lovely discussion about why Sam would give the name of Bill to the inestimable pony. As I was re-listening and thinking about the possible hobbit humor involved, I wondered Sam thought of the name as a play on "bill of goods."

From my cursory research, it seems that the phrase "bill of goods" went from meaning a simple consignment of merchandise to knowingly selling something defective or shoddy occurred early in the 1900s. So Tolkien may have known of the negative connotation of the phrase.

Sam certainly would have thought that Bill Ferny believed he had pulled one over on the Company in selling them "the poor beast." And yet, with care and love, the pony grows "fatter and stronger" and shows his excellence in "picking out path and sparing its rider as many jolts as possible." Makes me wonder if Sam names the pony Bill as a riff on "bill of goods" rather like someone might name a tiny dog Giant.

Later on in the discussion, we talked about the description of Bill as a "beast of burden." The echo of that noun phrase is what nudged my brain to think of "bill of goods."

Thanks for asking the question. This is now part of my head cannon.
 
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