Ace Barret King
New Member
I've been listening asynchronously from the beginning, and normally by the time I manage to organize my thoughts into something vaguely resembling coherency they've either been addressed by someone else or I've forgotten whatever it was I wanted to say, but the idea that Frodo being described as 'fairer than most' by Gandalf as being in reference to his physical attractiveness really doesn't seem to fit the context in which it's used.
Every other description he provides to Butterbur is a an objective one (he's tall-ish, he has a cleft chin, etc), so including one purely subjective description (he's cute) seems a bit out of place. Further, Gandalf doesn't say he's fair, he says he's fairer than most. Hobbits have brown hair, but brown is a very broad spectrum of hair colors, and IIRC they're also said at some point (maybe in the prologue? I don't have the book with me right now so I can't double check to make sure. At the very least I'm fairly certain Sam and Bilbo are both described at least once each as having brown hands) that most of them have 'nut brown' skin. So, if most hobbits have dark skin and dark brown hair, than if Frodo has a ruddy complexion and medium brown hair, he would still qualify as 'fairer than most' without being 'fair'.
It's entirely probable that the description was intended to be taken in multiple or possibly even all three senses, but I really don't think it was only a measure of physical beauty or attractiveness.
Every other description he provides to Butterbur is a an objective one (he's tall-ish, he has a cleft chin, etc), so including one purely subjective description (he's cute) seems a bit out of place. Further, Gandalf doesn't say he's fair, he says he's fairer than most. Hobbits have brown hair, but brown is a very broad spectrum of hair colors, and IIRC they're also said at some point (maybe in the prologue? I don't have the book with me right now so I can't double check to make sure. At the very least I'm fairly certain Sam and Bilbo are both described at least once each as having brown hands) that most of them have 'nut brown' skin. So, if most hobbits have dark skin and dark brown hair, than if Frodo has a ruddy complexion and medium brown hair, he would still qualify as 'fairer than most' without being 'fair'.
It's entirely probable that the description was intended to be taken in multiple or possibly even all three senses, but I really don't think it was only a measure of physical beauty or attractiveness.
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