Thread: Letter # 214
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Old 01-08-2022, 09:07 AM   #3
Mithadan
Spirit of Mist
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,310
Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
LMP, interesting. I have not looked at the letter or his draft response so I will give an off the cuff response.

One can create rational explanations for such apparent inconsistencies but they remain speculative. Whether JRRT had something in mind (and from HoME and NoME we can see that he often did have thoughts on such details) to explain this is unknown. Conjuring up answers, Smeagol was living on the shores of the Anduin with his community hundreds of years before The Shire and its Hobbitish traditions existed. The nature of the community is a bit unclear but it was likely less established and less financially stable than Hobbiton. The giving of many, perhaps dozens or even hundreds, of "birthday presents" on one day, even if they are often Mathoms, can only be a practice of the well off. Perhaps Gollum's community was not so stable so they adhered to the poor practice of others giving presents to the person celebrating.
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