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Its different near the Shire
And so it is, because with the appearance of Strider we are suddenly in a bigger, older world. If Tolkien had continued with his original idea we would have remained in the world of the Hobbit, Bombadil & Farmer Maggot.
Aragorn changes the whole story. As Child says, he is the link to the Sil. This is fascinating for me. The appearance of a single character changes the whole story. It is no longer to be a children's book, it is no longer to be a fairy story, it even changes its purpose - no longer a sequel to the Hobbit, its now the culmination of the Silmarillion.
Having said that, I like Trotter, & I can't help wondering what kind of adventures he'd have lead the hobbits on. Of course, one could speculate that as time passed. at least for hobbits in their rural isolation, the whole history of the end of the Third Age became a fairy story - Bilbo became 'Mad Baggins' who disappeared with a bang & returned with wagon loads of treasure, Sam chased black men up mountains & Aragorn became a mysterious hobbit who wore wooden shoes. Its almost like Tolkien first 'discovered' this version, & then slowly worked backwards to discover 'what really happened'.
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