Otho and Lobelia Apply for a Mortgage

[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.