Glorwingel and Child,
A very good point about how Frodo is introduced to us! We need to have him juxtaposed to something to help us understand his character. Thanks for those quotations Child.
davem,
You quote a most idyllic passage about Victorian villiages in the 1880's which is quite sweet, but there are other perspectives of those same villages, which discuss the dreadful nature of public sewage and infant mortality and the sanitary conditions of water. I think also of scenes from
Tess of the d'Urbervilles or
Far From the Madding Crowds and other Hardy novels. I don't wish to deny any of the very attractive features of The Shire or of the Hobbits in all this, of course, (for it is attractive) but to balance them with the distance which Tolkien's wit and humour create for me.
My point is that Tolkien's depiction of The Shire depends more on what he wants to do artistically or narratively in this chapter. He is not writing actual history, but the 'fiction' of history. He draws on his experience, but does not limit his writing solely to that experience.
However, I would like to ask you what you think Tolkien meant by this most intriguing word in Letter #190 which
Guinevere posted: parody. (To be honest, I'm not sure that I myself can fully appreciate his meaning.) I will copy it here again:
Quote:
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The toponymy of The Shire, to take the first list, is a 'parody' of that of rural England, in much the same sense as are its inhabitants: they go together and are meant to.
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I think
Child has made a telling point, that the conditions we are given of The Shire function to throw our hero in a different light, so we can begin to understand how he is uniquely qualified for this Quest and consider what his journey might be. The Shire is, in a sense, Frodo's and Bilbo's '"foil."