Otho and Lobelia Apply for a Mortgage

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by alatar

That all said, then why is Frodo's 33d birthday such a big todo?

Yes, and why do the young Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, behave often childishly in LotR when they were well past 21 (in fact, Merry was 36 at the start of the story). And why did folks like Elrond suggest they were too young for the Fellowship?

Yet Otho and Lobelia were old farts at 21?

Anachronistic and asynchronous simultaneously if you ask me.

[Lalwendë]

Merry and Pippin are upper class though, and upper class boys never grow up until....well, they just never grow up! You only have to look at Boris Johnson. I'm sure so many people voted for him just because he's amusing and a buffoon

Otho and Lobelia are nouveaux riche though, a bit like the Posh and Becks of The Shire. The sort who would think nothing of decking a child out in Gucci and diamond earrings so he/she looks "all grown up". So they might have been raised from a young age to be materialistic.

Bilbo and Frodo on the other hand are traditional middle class and all that kind of thing is "stuff and nonsense". Harumph. *shakes Daily Mail in disgust*

[Lindale]

Unless I'm dreadfully mistaken, Otho was also a Baggins, quite respectable (and I assume, also part of the middle class); Lobelia related to the Bracegirdles who had pipeweed farms? Unless pipeweed farms are not that well-off, though.

*runs in a corner and hides*

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Lindale

Unless I'm dreadfully mistaken, Otho was also a Baggins, quite respectable (and I assume, also part of the middle class); Lobelia related to the Bracegirdles who had pipeweed farms? Unless pipeweed farms are not that well-off, though.

*runs in a corner and hides*

They're definitely not 'traditional' middle class despite their more solid relations - if they were they'd never have dreamt of making such a fuss about gaining Bag End, and they're always struggling to gain 'status'. Plus Tolkien did write them with a satirical eye on the 'metropolitan middle classes' and aesthetes of the early 20th century; it's no mistake that they are called Sackville Bagginses. If he'd been writing today they might have been called the Blair-Bagginses or the Rushdie-Bagginses

[Lindale]

Oh, my bad.

Yeah, I read those bits on LotR too. Something about silver spoon obsession. And remember Gandalf with the Dwarves commenting that Hobbits don't usually have silver spoons.

Maybe I got confused with calling them "traditional middle class." Language barriers; in my university-sick mind, that may be translated as the bourgeoisie, and like Lal said, the S.-B.s are the noveau riche, with the Tooks and the Brandybucks as the aristocracy. I get it now! Thanks Lal.