[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

The things that made me wonder here were two things rather loosely related to the main theme. They would probably merit threads of their own, but I will mention them briefly. First off, Tharbad. We know it was a city of men, we know where it was located and we know the year of its ruin and desertion (T.A. 2912). But what else? Who were these people who lived there? When was the city founded and by whom? What kind of political role did it play? I have never come across with any further information about the city yet the topic intrigues me...

Okay, this is not exactly on topic, but concerning this, there are some passages which at least briefly speak about Tharbad and the region around it in the Unfinished Tales, I think it's the "additions" after the tale of Aldarion and Erendis. Quite some stuff, about Númenoreans coming to Middle-Earth and making their first havens there...

However, they key thing here, I think, is that no one was really oppressed or discriminated in the Hobbit society. The rich helped the poor, women were (I think) rather equal with men even though the traditional gender roles were predominant (hmm... please, let's not talk about this because otherwise I might start ranting *would add smiley if hadn't passed the limit already*) and even those considered odd (like the Bagginses) were tolerated and had some friends. I think we could rather safely assume that homosexual Hobbits would be treated similarily. Gossiped about, and not always nicely, but in principle liked and tolerated and not shunned. Even though, I find the idea of a publicly gay Hobbit very hard to imagine.

Actually, of all the societies in Middle-Earth, I can imagine gay Hobbits probably the best. And I would rather stay with what you said at first: that homosexual Hobbits would be treated similarly. If there were any existing in there, I think except for a few Sandymans to gossip, they might be quite widely well accepted.

and in the Scouring of the Shire there are written rules on the walls of the "guest-house" or whatever it is. One could assume that if Saruman's ruffians new hobbits were illiterate, they would not bother with written rules.

Speaking of this, I might add that I wonder whether the Ruffians could read... I'd actually wonder if they did. But maybe Saruman, being the propagator of "Knowledge, Rule, Order" made all his servants as educated as possible, literacy included? Anyway, this is off-topic - let's save this for the final chapters of the re-read

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Also, there are two examples of rather rude behaviour by nice Hobbits in this chapter. I wonder if it's because I don't get Brits'/Tolkien's/Hobbits' sense of humour or because it's really rather rude.

You kind of answered yourself during the course of writing , but at least to me, it never seemed rude. Although somebody said that Czech and English people have similar sense of humour - but personally, I don't think it would be THAT different with these "regional humours". Anyway, Merry's joke is just very good, I have never noticed what Frodo says before really, but I think what Merry says is just a very nice, very clever and simply just brilliant way to make a joke like that. It's that kind of "intelligent way of saying something rude, while making it also really funny in the process".
And as for how I understood the present for Dora, I always imagined it like that when writing to Bilbo and Frodo, she may have produced also lots of "by-products" or badly written letters which she later decided to throw away. However Bilbo's intention may be interpretated otherwise, I certainly wouldn't even think of looking for any sarcasm from the author's part in it.

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

How the Ring verse got into Elven lore is no real puzzle at all, I think. During the Council of Elrond, Gandalf says of the verse,

The verse is not just a creepy poem; it is, I believe, the spell through which Sauron bound the lesser rings to his, including the Three which he apparently knew about, but had never touched. It's not terribly surprising that the Elves would remember it. How they heard it, or if only those who owned the Three heard it, is perhaps the only real puzzle. That and where Sauron learned how to make such nice poetry (though if he could invent the Black Speech, one might suppose that he if no one else could write poems in it ).

Sauron sure was a great poet; remember, he was a Necromancer, or rather THE Necromancer (something like THE Ka), and remember his "battle" of songs with Finrod... in M-E, every "Wizard", resp. "Spell-caster" was also a singer and a poet, or at least one of those. Saruman was at least a rhetor, if nothing else... The power of words... hmm... that would almost do for a thread...
And yes, I agree what you say about hearing the words. It is obvious from the text that the Elves heard it, imagine whatever you wish under it, I always imagined it the way it's said, but you can think of any theories yourself, like "clairaudience" or "teleempathy" or whatever. Isn't this referred to in any Letter, by the way? Just asking.

I had some ideas also to comment on from the posts above, but I don't recall now... maybe fortunately, thinking about the length...