horncall of buckland

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by mark12_30

Morth, I'm glad that you brought that up. Sil is so heavily mythical, that seems to me to be the heart of this whole discussion; what works in the myth and what might not. LittleManPoet describes it as "what breaks the enchantment." Apparently for some on this thread, too much magic breaks the enchantment. Odd, but there it is.

You are right, in a manner, Mxii_xxx. But it is more like too much magic where it doesn't belong, and who wields it. Prior to the 4th Age in the Shire, none but a small coterie of 5 or 6 Hobbits out of thousands (Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and perhaps Fredegar) knew anything of magic rings, elvish swords that glowed blue, the true nature of wizards or of Sauron, for that matter. Most Hobbits were xenophobic isolationists, and even considered other Hobbits who lived beyond their borders as 'queer'. It was even 'queer' to wear boots! The Gaffer doesn't even go in for ironmongery "whether it wears well or no."

So, along comes a poster -- who I am sure is an affable, logical and decent person -- and mistakes a metaphor for actual magic in the Shire. A speaking horn? What exactly is the point? Why not just scream "Fear, Fire, Foes"? Unless, of course, the magic horn had a clip-on microphone running through a Marshall Stack and was blown at 120 decibels like a Who concert. Maybe magic Hobbit amplifiers go up to 11.

I am being facetious. Only the lead guitarist of Spinal Tap has an amp that goes up to 11.