Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibrīnišilpathānezel
The curious part, to me, is the "standing stone." Other than this mention in the song, the Three Farthing Stone is the only other mention of such a thing in the Shire, and that seems to be more of a mile marker than a megalith, such as those that are found in the "real" world. It just always struck me as an odd thing to find in a Hobbit walking song, since (given size and culture) they seem to me to be the least likely people to be raising such things. Then again, the reference may be to finding a surprise of something that was NOT raised by Hobbits, especially since Bilbo wrote the song. I can't imagine any proper adventure-adverse Hobbit wanting to sing about taking "the hidden paths that run toward the Moon and to the Sun."  |
It's yet another layer to the text which makes The Shire resonant of the real world. They have Barrows and megaliths just as we do, and they have stories about them just as we do - and what's even better is that while they can make some decent guesses as to who might have constructed the barrows, the megaliths remain enigmatic; our archaeologists can make some good guesses about the inhabitants of barrows but our megaliths remain a mystery.
As to Hobbits singing of adventure - maybe they do this instead of going on them? In much the same way I like reading travel books but I haven't got a passport because I'm not going to go anywhere? I am growing more like a Hobbit every day
I wonder if the Three Farthing Stone was put there by Hobbits or was there already? If it was already in situ then the Hobbits must have formed their administrative boundaries around it, which is pretty cool.