Burglary, Pockets and the Hobbit

[doug*platypus]

And Then Somewhere in the Middle It Got Serious

surely Sauron, as well, never wore anything so mundane as trousers with pockets.

I beg to differ. Or perhaps you have never heard of such an important item as the Keys of Barad Dûr? I suppose you think that when he went from his office to the factory at Orodruin, or to get a loaf of bread from Núrnen, he just LEFT IT UNLOCKED for any filthy tark to come strolling in.

Pockets are and have always been a very manly thing, so perhaps the pockets of our three shortest ringbearers were further proof of their masculinity (remember, all ringbearers are very masculine, even Galadriel). In hunter-gatherer societies, hunting is exclusively the domain of the man. Pockets served to keep small implements or other supplies in while on hunting forays, leaving the hands free for the task at hand. The female gatherers had less need for pockets, and so they did not proliferate amongst the gender.

As for Gimli's almost American Pie-like fondness for lembas, don't forget his initial thoughts. "Cram," he muttered. Or was it "Dwarf women," he muttered, believing that all such baked goods were as bland and tasteless as the ones back home. Lembas, and Galadriel, are much newer and fresher for him. And so gobbling, he was taken by the fiendish elven spell.