Bob of the Prancing Pony

I suspect he isn’t a hobbit. As the stablehand, he would be attending to horses as well as ponies. Handling a horse and its saddle and tack would be very challenging. Indeed, on their return to Bree, Gandalf is asked to stable Shadowfax in Bob’s absence:

“And I’ll see what can be done about supper, as soon as may be; but I’m short-handed at present. Hey, Nob you slowcoach! Tell Bob! Ah, but there I’m forgetting, Bob’s gone: goes home to his folk at nightfall now. Well, take the guests’ ponies to the stables, Nob! And you’ll be taking your horse to his stable yourself, Gandalf, I don’t doubt. A fine beast, as I said when I first set eyes on him. Well, come in! Make yourselves at home!”

Yes, Shadowfax is a horse of special magnificence, but that isn’t cause for making an honored guest do the work of a stablehand. I’d argue that it’s because Nob wouldn’t be able to reach the top of the saddle.
 
Funny I had always assumed he was Nob's brother. Everyone with rhyming names are siblings after all

I always assumed Bob was a Man, but that they probably claimed to be brothers as a joke. They'd introduce themselves to foreigners at the Prancing Pony as brothers, and the guests would be all confused. "Is...is that how things work in Bree?"
 
“And you’ll be taking your horse to his stable yourself, Gandalf, I don’t doubt. A fine beast, as I said when I first set eyes on him. Well, come in! Make yourselves at home!”

Yes, Shadowfax is a horse of special magnificence, but that isn’t cause for making an honored guest do the work of a stablehand. I’d argue that it’s because Nob wouldn’t be able to reach the top of the saddle.
You may very well be right about Bob, but I always interpreted this part as being more about Gandalf not trusting anybody else to mess with his horse - much like Aragorn nearly causing a diplomatic incident rather than letting anyone else handle Anduril. And from the opposite angle, condescension by the wise and powerful is a virtue in Tolkien's work, and I can easily see that extending to the care and stabling of one's personal horse, especially when that horse is such a good friend to one, like Shadowfax is to Gandalf.

I believe Barliman learned as much when Gandlaf passed through town after Frodo and company left, here during the early chapters; I'm don't think he'd suggest one of his stablehands should take care of Shadowfax, regardless of whether that stablehand is hobbit or human.
 
After the discussion in class, I was curious enough about the challenge that caring for a large horse would present to a hobbit to want to see it in pictures. So, with some assistance from Crystal...


Horses and Hobbits
Click on the image for a larger version

I took this picture from the point of view of my hobbit alt, Pondofast. The big people are our bass player and drummer.

You can see that, indeed, Meliandora the Hobbit would need a step-stool to be able to saddle and groom that large horse. It would be a reach for the big people, too, but they could accomplish the task without mechanical assistance.

I don't see this as a show-stopper for Bob the Hobbit. In real life, short people are used to using little ladders and other mechanical marvels to reach places that tall people can get to. I'm sure that in a city where Hobbits live right alongside Men, they would do this as part of their daily lives without even thinking about it, and that they would habitually build facilities to accommodate both races. For instance, a horse stall might have simple platforms running along either side to give hobbits a place to stand while grooming the horses.

Based on that, I shall stand firm alongside the professor with my life-long belief that Bob is a hobbit.


Amusement: After the photo session with the horses, we, being us, could not resist relogging the big folks to their own hobbit alts and making some noise at the the Yule Festival.

LOTRO_00591_hobbit_edition_768x512.jpg

Hearth and Table: The Hobbit Edition

Being short is no barrier to achievement as long as you can climb up on something to do what you want to do.
 
And, I suppose, we wouldn't accept someone's job as Elephant Keeper as evidence of them being 11 feet tall.
 
For most writers (indeed, nearly all), the mere fact that two names which they had created happen to rhyme with one another would be piteously weak evidence for proving the kinship of the two characters possessing those names; but I think we nearly can all agree that J. R. R. Tolkien would be the grand exception to this rule. Of course, this does not prove anything, but perhaps if we divided the number of “characters created by Tolkien with similar sounding names who are related to one another” by the number of “characters created by Tolkien with similar sounding names who are NOT related to one another,” then we could get a ratio that would be approximately equivalent to the likelihood that “Bob and Nob are related” verses the likelihood that “Bob and Nob are not related;” with the former suggesting that Bob is indeed a hobbit, and the latter proving still nothing.
 
We'll get another bit of "suggestive but still not evidence" text in a couple of weeks. Sam is gifted some apples by "Bob and Nob", worded in a way which suggests they are a unit - co-workers are a unit, but brothers/cousins are a better unit.
 
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