Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 50
Comment on Bob, the assumed hobbit:
Comment on Bob, the assumed hobbit:
- Is there any textual evidence that Bob is a hobbit? Surprisingly, no, despite the fact that most people assume he is a hobbit, as his name rhymes with Nob, who is explicitly a hobbit.
- One piece of evidence that Bob is a man is that he is employed as an ostler, which would be easier if he were larger, especially if handling full-sized horses.
- It might be implied that Nob might be too small to take care of Shadowfax when Butterbur asks Gandalf to see to his own horse, as Bob, the ostler, is no longer at the inn.
- This might also be because Shadowfax will only allow Gandalf to handle him anyway. Shadowfax only allows Pippin, who he also carried, to approach him because Gandalf has asked for it.
- Gandalf might have done this on his first trip to Bree on Shadowfax, and Butterbur remembers.
- Could a hobbit be an ostler for a full-sized horse? Maybe, with some help with their height.
- Bob maybe the only named character about which this debate is possible, and only due to the unique living arrangements of Men and Hobbits in Bree.
- The fact that they are spoken of as a pair, and no distinction is made between them, we can easily jump to the conclusion that they are both hobbits.
- It’s possible that the hobbit narrator (Frodo) would make sure to mention that Bob were a man, having met him just after Nob, and Men are still strange to the Shire-hobbits.
- Note: In the original drafts, all of Bree was a hobbit settlement, and all the characters were therefore hobbits. This was only changed much later.
- Frodo has obviously fallen short in his cover story by not coming up with a convincing genealogy, as this is something that hobbits, especially the real Underhills, would want to know.
- The news coming in from the South reminds us of the encroachment of the outside world into Bree, who are having a similar experience to the Shire, though some issues are different.
- One issue unique to Bree is the presence of the refugees from the South. The people being displaced seem to be driven out by Saruman, rather than the attacks on Gondor.
- These refugees have left, possibly from Enedwaith or northern Dunland, due to Saruman’s unrest and recruiting of armies, and Saruman has planted agents and spies among them.
- The Dunlendings might seem too strange to blend into Bree, as they are called “wild men”, but the “goblin-men” sent into are explicitly trying to be incognito.
- Note: In LOTRO, the Dunlendings are depicted like the ancient Picts or Celts, and their relationship to Rohan and Gondor is parallel to the Picts’ or Celts’ with Anglo-Saxons or Rome.
- The spy from Isengard is referred to as “ill-favored”, but this is a mild, tactful way to say “ugly”.
- The Breelanders have a somewhat balanced approach to the refugees; they are mistrustful of all strangers, but they are sympathetic to the refugees’ plight and allow them to stay, for now.
- Butterbur does not sound displeased with the extra business that he is getting right now.
- Living on the crossroads, the Bree-folk would be okay with the strangers’ arrival as long as they don’t make trouble. Employing a gate-guard at night shows that they have reasonable caution.
- The appearance of Frodo’s company is stranger not because they are outsiders, but because they are from the Shire, especially for the Bree-hobbits.
- The focus on the mixing of the Shire and Bree-hobbits is may portray a hobbit bias in the authorship. The Men and Dwarves continue having their own conversations.
- The hobbits don’t join in with the bigger conversations because they think it is irrelevant.
- The men in Bree are mostly interested in wider news in as much as it affects their homes.
- Since Bree-hobbits consider Shire-hobbits to be “colonists”, they are even more a curiosity.
- The narrator emphasizes the figure’s weather-beaten and well-traveled appearance.
- Unlike the Bree-men, he is not minding his own affairs, while trying to hide his own face.
- His dress is out of place, wrapping himself in his cloak despite the heat of the room.
- The quality of his clothes and pipe show that he is not poor, only that they are well-used.
- That the stranger is smoking is not strange in Bree, but what Frodo notices is his strange pipe.
- The fact that one of the Men is paying attention to the Hobbits, which is noteworthy, given than Men and Hobbits normally keep to themselves.
- Though the Bree locals know who he is, he wants to avoid being noticed by any of the strangers or others who may be in league with the Enemy. He will voice his suspicions later.
- The cloak also obscures the sword; going armed in the common room would draw attention.
- Frodo is conscious of the stranger staring at them, and he heeds Gandalf’s warnings of spies.
- Frodo has also noticed that Butterbur did not introduce the stranger, but he may have entered after the introductions or avoided being introduced.
- Butterbur and the others seem to have contempt for the Rangers, and a Ranger may not be considered part of “the company”, who are the only ones that Butterbur has introduced.