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Originally Posted by Tuor
Btw, had tobacco use spread to Gondor (perhaps Thorongil
brought the vice there).
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It doesn't look like pipeweed was ever exported any farther south-east than Isengard. Théoden's bafflement at the sight of Merry and Pippin smoking clearly indicates that he was unfamiliar with the custom (LotR Book III, The Road to Isengard):
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'For one thing', said Théoden, 'I had not heard that they [=halflings] spouted smoke from their mouths.'
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As for Gondor, the Prologue quotes Merry's
Herblore of the Shire as saying,
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The Men of Gondor call it sweet galenas, and esteem it only for the fragrance of its flowers.
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Confirmed by Aragorn in LotR Book V,
The Houses of Healing:
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If your pack has not been found, then you must send for the herb-master of this House. And he will tell you that he did not know that the herb you desire had any virtues
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Anyway, even if the Gondorians had picked up the habit of smoking, they would have had no need to import tobacco from the Shire. Again from Merry's
Herblore in the Prologue:
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It grows abundantly in Gondor, and there is richer and larger than in the North
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