#Hobbit meta

[ithrilyann]

well, let's talk about Bilbo/Tauriel parallels ♡

This is what Philippa Boyens says about her in 'Desolation of Smaug' commentary.

Tauriel being curious to see the world beyond Mirkwood is an obvious parallel to this scene in movie one, when Gandalf reminds Bilbo of

Bilbo and Tauriel both leave their homes and go into the world following their respective reckless dark-haired sons of Durin.

They fight for their Dwarves.

They risk their lives to save them...

...and fail.

And then, in movie three

"You will not be the same."

Evangeline Lilly was asked in an interview what happens to Tauriel after the events of the movie. She said:

“It’s going to sound very mundane, but I think she goes back to Greenwood — and she goes back to work. Ultimately, she has a job. She has a responsibility. And maybe she doesn’t go back to being head of guard, maybe she’s been softened and wouldn’t resume her old position, but maybe she would be even more impassioned to protect what she loves, to protect her home, to protect what’s important to her, but maybe she’ll do it now with more compassion and a little bit of softness”.

They both return home and resume their old life, mourning for their Dwarves. Changed forever.

It's almost unbelievable how perfectly their character arcs mirror each other, from the beginning to the very end.

It is beautiful and i will never be over it.

(also, i recommend this excellent piece of meta that summarises all of this very well)

#bagginshield #thilbo #the hobbit #bilbo #bilbo baggins #tauriel #parallels #hobbit meta #philippa boyens #pj's crew talks the hobbit #quote #you will not be the same #still not over it #my stuff #Ithril makes gifs

[avelera]

Okay, so I have to ask because I love your OFMD meta and I just finished reading The Hobbit for the first time... I don't get Bilbo/Thorin! I just don't feel a connection like that between them. I'm not opposed to it whatsoever and I really want to see it, so I'm inquiring here to let you talk about it, if you want! Was it more a movie thing?

Hey Anon, I certainly don't blame you for not finding Bilbo/Thorin content in The Hobbit book. Going into an Unexpected Journey, I genuinely expected Bilbo/Balin to be the main pairing (if there even was one, which I doubted) based on their book interactions.

Bilbo/Thorin is almost entirely in the films. It is a result of some major changes to Thorin's character (from an old treasure hunter looking for his last big score to a noble exiled prince in his late prime looking to restore a homeland for his people) and some minor ones to Bilbo's character (that he chooses to go on the adventure, rather than being hustled out the door by Gandalf). It caught pretty much everyone who went to see it by surprise. Even then, I'd say I didn't get the fanfic-y "Oh." of falling in love with the ship until the last couple of scenes of AUJ. Then it all came together for me.

If you're looking to ship Bagginshield and understand why I wrote tons of meta and fic for it, you'll (unfortunately, in the case of some rather subpar film elements mixed with stellar individual performances) have to watch the films :)

#bagginshield #thilbo #my meta #hobbit meta

[tanatoes]

It has bothered me for more than forty years now that Bilbo cheated to win the riddle game. I just had to get that off my chest.

#he’s supposed to be the hero #cheaters win and it sucks #hobbit meta #hobbit #bilbo’s a rotten stinking cheater #Curse the Baggins #We hates them forever

[maeofthenoldor]

The mithril shirt makes me so emotional. The way that Thorin gave it to Bilbo out of an act of love, even when he was deep in the gold sickness. It represented what they could have had. When Thorin and his nephews die, Bilbo leaves with the shirt, the only reminder he has of him. He then donates it to the Mathom-house, because he cannot bear to see it, again, a reminder of the terrible ending of his journey. When he departs from the shire, he brings with him the mithril shirt for his last adventure. 

He never even knows how valuable the armour truly is, how it was worth. And the FACT that Gandalf never told him probably leans to the idea that it would only remind Bilbo of what happened on the adventure. (We see how Bilbo's way of grief is denial, he never tells the true story, only child-versions of it so it doesn't feel real). Many years later, he gives it to Frodo, in hopes it would protect him, in a way that it didn't for him. Bilbo sent him off to a perilous journey and prayed that his wouldn't end in tragedy like his. 

 But It saves Frodo's life, and god the PARRELS of Thorin failing to save his nephews, but saved Bilbo's nephew.  In the the Tower of Cirith Ungol, the mithril shirt causes the orcs to fight over it. Remember, it was borne out of an act love, and orcs hate everything about light, so it was almost like an act of vengeance that they only saw the value in the mithril, and not how Bilbo saw it (love) which causes them to kill each other. This allows Sam to save Frodo and THIS is the most emotional scene about the mithril shirt for me. Thorin and Bilbo's story ended but it allows Sam and Frodo's to continue.

The mouth of Sauron takes possession of it, and mocks the remaining fellowship. Imagine how Gandalf must have felt in that moment. He knew what it meant already. How he would have to tell Bilbo that the mithril shirt, the one that already invoked his mourning now held the only thing left of his beloved nephew, who he loved like a son. The regret he must feel, for the both of them. No wonder in his wrath, he retrieves the mithril shirt.

Of course, Frodo is alive and the chain mail is returned to his possession. By then the shirt has saved his life twice. I think that Bilbo's thoughts on the shirt shifted, no longer a reminder of what he lost, but what has been saved. Now we dont know if it goes to Valinor with them, I’d like to think it did, but another idea is that Frodo gave it to Sam. It goes in full circle like Thorin giving it Bilbo then Frodo giving it to someone he loved.

it becomes a family heirloom and is passed down through the family, through the Gamgee's descendants. A final act of love.

Maybe I look to much into things and this is just a string of ramblings. Maybe this was a pointless analysis with a clear bias to my favorite ships then an actual true interpretation to the text. Either way, the mithril shirt makes me feel a sense of loss, love and hope. There is something more then a piece of armour that saved the protagonist. One cannot deny how valuable it is to the story.

#bagginshield #samfro #lotr #the hobbit #Thorin Oakenshield #bilbo baggins #lotr meta

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

I feel like legolas is the kind of elf that, while he absolutely can take the reins of a situation and lead people, is also absolutely chill with being the second in command. Unless it’s needed or the one in charge is gonna do smth stupid, he’s fine letting other people deligate tasks and make decisions and such.

Legolas walks the fine line between being more of a solo act and being a team player

And you can see this pretty clearly in lotr too, like he lets Gandalf and Aragorn take the lead for the most part bc he knows this isn’t his area of expertise, but we also see his initiative and confidence when he volunteers himself for the quest instead of letting someone else take part (like glorfindel).

It’s also really important to me that legolas is someone who follows orders because he chooses to follow orders. He doesn’t follow orders bc he has to or bc it’s what he’s supposed to do, he lets other people tell him what to do only when he trusts them/trusts their decisions/agrees with them.

#lord of the rings #lotr #lotr elves #the hobbit #legolas #the 9 walkers #legolas has a quiet strength of character #and the only reason we don’t see him rebel that much is bc he doesn’t have to much rebel about #since he more or less agrees with most actions #tolkien meta

[sunaddicted]

Sometimes I think about Thranduil feeling Mirkwood waste away in his bones because he's rotting inside too, inextricably bound to the fate of his realm

#jrr tolkien #tolkien #the hobbit #thranduil #the elvenking #headcanon #meta

[lauramkaye]

you know when you think about it

Hobbit/LOTR is basically Tolkien's Fantasy AU Fix-it for WWI.

Sometimes I think of him serving in the trenches and foxholes of the Somme and then later inventing a different kind of shelter under the earth: one that is warm and bright and full of comfort, with a full larder and a cheery fire and a little green door.

One of the things that I very much love about humans is the way that we can take the things that hurt us and look for ways to transform them into something that can bolster us, even if they are only ideas. Even if they are only stories.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

#tolkien #the hobbit #lotr #literary analysis #meta

[annoyinglandmagazine]

‘more dangerous and less wise’ I’m sorry WHAT!? Is Tolkien seriously trying to tell us that the freaking Sindar are the feral ones out of all the Elven races? After the entire First Age? As for more dangerous, Galadriel is still here. You know, Feanor 2.0 the only one that actually survived. Using the Elven metric for being batshit insane yes, Mirkwood is weird, but not swearing blood oaths, setting everything on fire, murdering everyone in sight, telling the gods to go fuck themselves, challenging gods to one on one combat insane.

The line of Oropher isn’t even Thingol levels of mental. They’ve never even touched a silmaril or a ring of power! They’re downright sensible by first age standards! They’re arrogant sure, they have low self preservation instincts and seem pretty xenophobic (dwarf stuff). Also depending on your point of view there might be colonist undertones. All of which is just toned down versions of the First Age Sindar. They probably have developed weird customs from living in the murder forest so long and being pretty isolated but there’s nothing to indicate they’re all that bad. I mean they’re still alive and they’re holding on to their kings at a relatively steady rate.

I absolutely agree with takes going around that this is some sort of deliberate protection technique they have to ward off trespassers and that Thranduil is sitting there in his cave coming up with rumours to spread about all the messed up things they do to people. Because in the book they seem kind of chill? And this becomes a million times more funny to me if he bases the rumours off stuff he heard about from Elrond.

As in ‘Yeah we totally eat giant spider meat, that’s definitely a thing we do,’ and everyone’s reacting as horrified and scared or not falling for it while Elrond’s believing every word and just looks sympathetic, ‘Aww you guys have food shortages? I hear you, supplies were pretty shit during all that destruction of an entire continent in the War of Wrath. You know if you wanted more options I wouldn’t recommend raw orc meat before you build up a tolerance but I can defo show you how to butcher them properly!’ Thranduil just staring back at him like ‘Fuck you. I was trying to make up some story to scare children at night with, you guys actually did this shit? How hard is it to come up with something you fucking Noldor haven’t done already?!’

And also: Thranduil proceeds to take out a notepad, ‘Ok so tell me again about what the kinslayers did to interrogate those prisoners?’ And Elrond replies, ‘Oh, that wasn’t Maglor and Maedhros, that was a story about Gil Galad’s army in the War of Wrath.’ Thranduil ‘I’m sorry WHAT the actual fuck.’ Elrond nodding understandingly ‘Too much for the Third Age?’ Thranduil rapidly taking notes ‘No it’s perfect keep it coming.’

#silmarillion #tolkien #thranduil #mirkwood #feral elrond #feral elves #elrond peredhel #feral Noldor #Lotr #the hobbit #Meta

[nevertheless-moving]

i like to think that whilst drunk the last night in Lake Town, Bilbo is asked to explain who he is (why is he here) and of course he can't say "Burglar" because he JUST talked up being a Distinguished Baggins and stuff vouching for thorins honor but also they kinda hate the rich in Laketown so he's like "hm? Oh I do a bit of gardening (very respectable), here and there you know...

And then he goes and fights a Dragon AND the Dwarves AND The ORCS (the story grows in telling) so Hobbit's get a hyperregional name for being unhinged baddasses, with 'gardening' being a euphemism, backed up by local exchange of stories with Erebor.

When Sam is like "I'm his gardener" explaining to Faramir why he's in the middle of a war zone with the Ringbearer, Faramir has not heard the Dale gardening slang.

But then Sam the Gardener goes on to defeat SHELOB the DEMON SPIDER of CIRITH UNGOL in SINGLE COMBAT!! (yes that story gets told, Noone has been able to use that pass in living memory, and it's honestly easier to talk about then the other shit they dealt with over there) also sam wise gamgee fought his way out of a whole squadron of GONDORIAN SOLDIERS and ALL THE ARMIES OF MORDOR (the story grows in the telling, though not that much really)

And so hobbits independently get a reputation among the men of Gondor and Rohan as kind and gentle little people, except for when they are full of rage and burn kingdoms to the ground, and especially watch out for the Gardener...

Eventually trade between the realms of men flourishes under King Elessar's rule and these stories meet in perfect complement, and hobbits earn a middle earth wide reputation among the mortal race as gentle folks, except the gardeners, gardening means something VERY different, terrifying warriors, the King himself bowed-

Which is ironic and tragic but really mostly very funny to the children and grandchildren of Tooks and Brandybucks and Gamgees who venture onto the great wide road in search of ents and elves but mostly seeds to trade because everyone knows that the most magnificent flowers and soil and even the Great Party Oak come from Outside the shire and they HAVE to win next year's gardening competition -

#the hobbit #LOTR #nevertheless meta #gardening

[s0fter-sin]

i was making a “what has it got in its pocketses” joke and realised something very interesting. gollum only ever uses “he” as a pronoun for bilbo when he says, “he stole it. he stole it”. other than that, he exclusively uses “it” when referring to bilbo. it’s interesting that the only time he recognises his humanity is when he takes the ring from him​

he views bilbo as food for the first half of the scene so why would he use a gendered pronoun for something he’s about to eat and after he hates bilbo so much that he strips him of this momentary humanity

#its only through his relation to the ring #this thing that corrupts and epitomises human greed #that he recognises bilbo as a person #a person who covets the precious just like the last person who saw it #and then through his hatred he reduces him back to just a thing #‘curse it and crush it we hates it forever’ #no longer something to eat but something even less than that #hes acknowledged his humanity and now hes purposefully stripping it from him in his hatred #that is incredibly interesting and id love to know if im interpreting it right #its a type of emotional intelligence people dont really associate with gollum #coming out of my cage and ive been doing just fine.txt #far over the misty mountains cold #talk meta to me #the hobbit #lotr #lord of the rings #gollum #smeagol #bilbo baggins #an unexpected journey #riddles in the dark

[thekingofwinterblog]

Tolkien's crowns.

You know something that really annoys me about the Tolkien movie adaptions?

Crowns.

Like a lot of things Jackson did, he basically crafted something completely new out of the bare bones we get from some descriptions, for better or worse, but the Crowns are another matter, because not only did Tolkien give very clear descriptions, and even drew the two most notable ones(the crowns of the dwarves and gondor)that appeared over the course of Lotr and the Hobbit, both had very, very clear cut meanings and symbolism behind them, that tied them to their real life origins.

The crowns of the dwarves of Erebor and Moria look like someone took their helmets and filed down the sides so only the skeleton remained, to varying degrees of success.

But you know what tolkien used?

In the books, Tolkien's dwarves uses crowns speciffically modeled after the crown of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Why?

Well if you know anything about said empire, and the actual inspiration for Tolkien's dwarves, the picture is a bit clearer.

See Tolkien specifically modeled his dwarfs, their history of losing a homeland, desire for a new one, and their proud, industrious culture of craftsmen and skills of making money on a mixture between the Norse mythical dwarves, and the Jews in the long centuries after the Romans kicked them out of their original homeland.

Now with this in mind, Tolkien choosing to model the Dwarves crown on the Austrian one is him specifficaly choosing a real, Germanic crown as the inspiration... As well as a nod to the fact that the Austria-Hungarian empire was legendary for his time(The time Tolkien grew up in) as a progressive haven for jews, probably the best in Europe.

An empire, that was also destroyed by fires of war, just Moria and Erebor.

In other words, there is so much symbolism here that is completely and totally stripped away by the helmet crowns the movies gave them.

Hell, even the original hobbit animated movie got this right, while Jackson did not, as they basically just made the crown the austrian one, just a bit more exagerated.

Meanwhile, there is the crown of gondor, which completely missed absolutely everything tolkien tried to do with the Gondor crown.

It's a crown that fits perfectly with the rest of the city, this is truly a crown of the Gondor that the movies portrayed.

Meanwhile, Tolkiens Winged silver crown... Does not.

Even within the context of the fact that the books gondor is an early medieval(as it does not have plate armor at all) styled kingdom in terms of armor and clothing design, the crown does NOT fit in the slightest.

And that's the point.

The original crown of Gondor was a simple war Helm of the day that Elendil wore, and the later one that Aragorn wore was a more fancy replica of that helmet.

It is outdated by thousands of years, a relic of an elder time that was long lost even when Gondor's lost it's Kings in the first place. It's not supposed to fit in.

Also the fact that Elendil wore this, and it was considered just fine, tells us a lot about Gondor's fashion and style of arms during the closing days of the second age.

However, then we get into the deeper meaning behind the crown and where it was inspired from.

Gondor's winged crown was very deliberately inspired and based on the crowns of ancienct egypt, which was one of the main inspirations for Gondor and(to a lesser extent) arnor.

Just like Egyot there were two kingdom, an upper and a lower one, though in middle earth it was instead called the northern and southern ones.

Just like egypt, Gondor's entire socity and political and economic strength was based around their massive river that ran through the realm.

Just like Egypt, one of the biggest problems the gondorian elites had was their obsession with grand mousoleums and graves for their elites, focusing far more on the dead rather than their living children, and wasting who knows how much coin, manpower, energy and resources on such rather than just burying them in thr ground.

Basically the same problem egypt had building stupidly expensive superstructures for their dead in the form of pyramids, rather than something actually useful.

Then there is the fact that just like how lower and upper egypt combined their regalia together(as in they fused the two crowns into one, bigger one), Aragorn very deliberately made the royal regalia of the reunited Kingship BOTH his ancient and out of place winged crown, and the Silver scepter of Annuminas, the royal symbol of Arnor, combining the two of them together into one office.

#j r r tolkien #tolkien's legendarium #peter jackson #lord of the rings #the hobbit #crowns #meta #austria hungary #egypt #symbolism #gondor #arnor #khazad dum

[ithrilyann]

“The Arkenstone, it’s this mystic rock that the Dwarves uncovered. It doesn’t essentially have power, it’s not something that’s gonna be able to melt tanks and blow things up. But it’s become so symbolic that it’s the only thing that will unite the seven Dwarf families who are scattered around Middle-earth”.

“Rather than just being a shiny stone or jewel we wanted the Arkenstone to be something quite special. Its uniqueness wasn't in its form, but in its properties. I think it might have been something Philippa [Boyens] said that sent us down the cosmic route with the design – thinking of it as a kind of seed of creation, a mirror of the beginning. Captured within it is some kind of hologram of what the universe looked like at the moment of its creation”. 

“We would look at photographs from the Hubble space telescope. That would give us the kind of reference that we were using for that sense of deep space that we see when we peer into the stone. And then Peter wanted that to sort of expand, sort of trail out into the air from the Arkenstone itself”

– Peter Jackson and his design team (from ‘The Hobbit: Art & Design’ and the BOTFA ‘Behind the Scenes’)

*

Personally, I never quite liked it when in post-botfa AU fanfics the authors made Thorin destroy the Arkenstone. Like, to smash it with his hammer or cast it to the abyss – ‘cause having now freed himself from the dragon spell he’s tormented by remorse and cannot bear to look at it. This is unfair. The Arkenstone isn’t the One Ring, it does not contain evil in itself. It wasn’t the cause of Thorin’s dragon sickness, just a symbol that in his deluded mind he’s given too much significance to. This jewel is a marvelous object, a wonder of creation – almost a living thing, in the same sense that Feanor’s Silmarils were. It deserves to exist.

#the hobbit #peter jackson #alan lee #dwarves #erebor #arkenstone #hobbit bts #quote #concept and design #the greatest kingdom in middle earth #on fanfics #hobbit meta #my stuff #Ithril makes gifs

[nin-varisse]

I have this strong belief that Finrod did not only fuck every major race in middle-earth but that he also produced many bastards during his wild years in Beleriand (as he should). Elven children, half-humans, dwelves and yes also half-hobbits. "HOBBITS?!", you might wonder, "how did you get that idea?!". Well do you remember that bit about the Took family having fairy ancestry?

There was something not hobbit-like about the Tooks.

So I propose to you: Peregrin Took of the house of Finrod.

"But why did no one know about Hobbits then for so many years?" It's Finrod, he probably thought it was a hairless dwarf and didn't want to be rude and address that.

#finrod is the took's fairy wife #finrod #finrod felagund #pippin #peregrin took #hobbits #silmarillion #silm #lotr #meta #? #headcanon #house of finrod #i'm tired and I should go to bed

[sevlinop]

Masculinity in Middle Earth, and Thorin and Bilbo's reconciliation

I'll be upfront that I've only been getting back into Middle Earth recently, and likely have forgotten a lot of the finer details of the lore. Still, I wanted to write this while it was fresh on mind. I finally went back through and rewatched The Hobbit trilogy, and was pleasantly surprised. They're certainly flawed, especially the last one. I mean, I think the goofy Legolas scenes speak for themselves?

Still, if it did one thing right, it was capturing the gentle masculinity that's suffused in all of Tolkien's works. Not to say that Middle Earth isn't filled will cruelty, brutes, and war. It's that despite all this, love between friends and tenderness endure. Obviously I'm not the first or last to write about this, let alone notice it. I wanted to share my favorite example of it though. I will say the rest of this is informed by the book, not the movies. Just wanted to stop and praise them some though!

Despite reneging on his promise with Laketown, threatening to kill Bilbo, and forsaking his brethren at first during The Battle of Five Armies, Thorin does redeem himself. Unlike his father, who was unable to tear himself away from his treasure, Thorin’s heart is both softened and strengthened by his realization of what he’s become. And he forgoes living with his treasure, to bravely fall in battle so his people will have their home. And in his sacrifice, Thorin is absolved of his prior greed.

What I'm the most touched by though, is Thorin and Bilbo's reconciliation. It's sentimental but not to the point of being saccharine. Thorin apologizes, and for the first time acknowledges Bilbo on his own terms. Not for being brave like a dwarf, but praising his humility and the way that Hobbits live. Praising his virtues as a Hobbit. What isn't said explicitly said though is that Bilbo's learned from Thorin. Learned to be brave, learned that creature comforts aren't the be all end all, and of course, that some things are worth dying for.

After Thorin dies, Bilbo openly weeps. He doesn't shed a couple of tears, he weeps for days. And he takes an acorn that will remind him of his lost friend, and the lessons he taught him.

Very beautiful stuff, and now I'm going to have to reread (and rewatch) LOTR!

#the hobbit #lord of the rings #bilbo baggins #thorin oakenshield #jrr tolkien #The Hobbit meta #the hobbit movies #middle earth #tolkien #analysis #I don't ship them personally #but I can see it #Sevlinop's rambling again

[maeofthenoldor]

As Tolkien often observed; “names often generate a story” and always nearly contributed or suggested something of the nature or personality of the character, thing or place that has been named. Yet the most intriguing name he has created in my opinion, is the main protagonist of “The Hobbit” Bilbo Baggins who is the hero of the classic tale, and despite being seen as such, his name holds interesting and contradicting connotations. For Baggins suggests harmless, humble and well- contented characters (though with criminal undertones!) Yet the name Bilbo suggests an individual who is sharp, intelligent and even dangerous….

The family name of Bilbo is  “Baggins” which derives from a double source-the English Somerset surname Bagg, which means “moneybag” or “wealthy.” The term “Baggins" itself means “afternoon tea or snack between meals” and at first is appropriate in describing our well off  hobbit. Initially he is presented as a mildly comic, home-loving, upper middle class “gentle hobbit” who seems harmless and composed enough, if given to some annoyance. He is mostly concerned with his mothers dishes, doilies, domestic comforts and food. However, once recruited by Thorin and his Company, we see the respectable gentle hobbit reveal his true colours- he is an excellent and highly skilled burglar.

Tolkien has maintained that his tales are often inspired by names and words from the real world, and indeed, in the jargon of the nineteenth-and early twentieth century criminal underworld there were a cluster of names around the term “bag” and forms of theft. “To bag” means to capture, to acquire, or to steal. “A baggage man” is an outlaw who carries off the loot and a “bagman” is the man who collects and distributes gold on the behalf of others by dishonest means or purposes.

His surname not only characterises himself, but also plots out the narrative for the story. For in the hobbit we discover Baggins is hired by Dwarves to bag the Arkenstone. He then becomes the baggage man who carries off the loot. When he realises Thorin has fallen under the gold sickness, he becomes the bagman and is dishonest to the newly crowned king, distributing the Arkenstone to Thrandruil and Bard. After the Battle Of The Five Armies he hands out the treasure to those who are rightfully in need of it, and thus ends him being the bagman.

Another aspect of Bilbo Baggins character can be revealed by the analysis of his first name. The word “Bilbo” entered the English language in the late sixteenth century as a name for a short and deadly piercing sword of the kind once made in the Spanish port city of Bilbao where the name derives from. This is an excellent description of Bilbo's elvish sword (often called a letter opener) named “Sting.” Found in the troll hoard, Bilbo's “bilbo” can pierce through any animal hide that would break any other sword. In The Hobbit however, it is the hero's sharp wit rather than his sword that gives Bilbo his sharpness. Bilbo's well-honed wits allow him to survive the journey and to trick monsters, a dragon  and to get himself out of bad situations. 

When we put these two names together as Bilbo Baggins, we fully understand the two aspects of his character, showing someone who is dangerously witty, but ultimately good and humble to a fault. If we want to dig deeper into how these names also affected the events of the Lord Of The Rings, one has to look no further than Frodo Baggins.

 Along with the Baggins family name, further “baggage” is passed on to Bilbo's nephew and heir, Frodo Baggins who in the context of the one ring is a link to another underworld occupation; the bagger or the bag thief. This bagger or bag thief has nothing to do with baggage, but is derived from the French word bauge, meaning “ring.” A bagger then, is a thief who specialises in stealing rings by seizing a victim's hand and stripping off its rings. It had common usage in Britain's criminal underworld between 1890 to 1940. The Baggins name holds the idea and plot for both The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. For Bilbo's skill as a burglar, one might say that in the perspective of outsiders, the Baggins baggers of Bag End, Bilbo and Frodo, are naturally born ring thieves.

#tolkien #bilbo baggins #frodo baggins #bilbo #frodo #lotr meta #meta #analysis #linguistics #the hobbit #hobbit #hobbits #i spent way to long researching this #lotr #silm

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Nah, the whole The Hobbit story was just a major disrespect to the silvans as a whole, bc at first the white council more or less ignores the return of sauron for like 2000 years, only for gandalf to help thorin reclaim the mountaim becaus gandalf knows it would have major strategic value if the dark side claims it.

And the proceeds to just not tell Thranduil, the elf who’s been holding back the darkness alongside his people for millenia, about it at all. Like he literally points the dwarves into Mirkwood and goes off to get the rest of the white council in order to banish the necromancer from it’s woods (and that might’ve unleashed who knows what) all without informing Thranduil.

It’s like they view Thranduil’s title as king as an elfling playing dress up or something, there’s absolutely no regard or respect for him as the ruler of the forest.

Like, imagine how much simpler it might’ve been if the white council actually went “you know, maybe we should let the guy who’s been warning us about sauron for millennia know that we intend to finally do something about it”.

#lord of the rings #lotr #silmarillion #the hobbit #lotr elves #thranduil #silvans #mirkwood #tolkein meta #this is my opinion #you’re free to your own just don’t start yelling at me #i still ove the story and Bilbo though!! don’t come at me for that!