Nerd of the Rings

[waider]

My sister and her boyfriend called over on Saturday, and we watched bits of FotR. She's borrowed my LotR boxed set to get the "real" story. During the course of watching, both her and the boyfriend asked me various questions about LotR, FotR, and so forth. And I was able to answer pretty much all of 'em. Correctly. With Proper Names, occasionally.

I hadn't realised I was that much of a Tolkien geek.

Actually, I'm re-reading The Hobbit. I notice when Bilbo meets Gollum, he reveals himself to be Mr. Bilbo Baggins, but never mentions the Shire. So how come Gollum's giveaway in Barad-Dûr is "Baggins! Shire!"?

Comments

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

Tolkien kind of handwaves this, but he does address it. Gandalf is talking to Frodo:

'Baggins would pay for it. That was his chief thought. He hated Bilbo and cursed his name. What is more, he knew where he came from.'
'But how did he find that out?' asked Frodo.
'Well, as for the name, Bilbo very foolishly told Gollum himself; and after that it would not be difficult to discover his country, once Gollum came out.'

Later Frodo asks why Gollum hadn't tracked Bilbo back to the Shire years ago, and Gandalf surmises that instead he went to Mordor.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Aha. See, if I hadn't loaned my books to my sister, I'd have been able to look this up.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Well, presumably Smeagol was a hobbit of sorts once, right? Although not a Shire hobbit; a 'stoor' hobbit, whatever that is. Sounds vaguely fecal.

Anyway, what kind of a hobbit would you have to be in Middle Earth not to know that the Shire is where hobbits hang out? (presumably Gollum retained enough memory of his former life to realize that Bilbo wasn't his kinsman.)

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

Smeagol's information about hobbit settlements would've been very out of date. By the time he came out from under the mountains I don't think there were supposed to be any hobbits left on the shores of the Anduin where he had found the Ring. They would all have migrated to the Shire and Bree, and I don't have the books here to check on whether those areas had been settled back when he was a kid, but I'd doubt it.

Since Gollum is more than 500 years old by the time we meet him, his family relationships are pretty irrelevant. He's the ultimate guy who can't go home again.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Bah, you're too hard on the guy. Besides, doesn't he get a shot at redemption, a photo opportunity, or something before the end?

[waider.livejournal.com]

I guess he does. Otherwise he'd end up a cartoon, in a cartoon graveyard.