No Married Persons

[Faramir Jones]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Well Both Fodo and Bilbo use the word "married" with regards to what Sam is planning to do with regards to Rosie, so their presumably has to be some sort of formal action. Probably similar to some old English marrying custom. Which one or ones I have no clue (except I am fairly sure that, given the nature of hobbit costume, the one where the groom touches the bride's head with one of the brides shoes is probably not one of them!) Maybe they jump the broomstick (given how clean the hobbits tend to be I'm sure no Hobbit household lacks one.)

When I said 'nothing', I meant that we didn't know about the marriage ceremonies of the dwarves and the hobbits. This was unlike those of the elves, and of the men influenced by them. Marriage obviously exists among the Free Peoples, and monogamous marriage at that. According to Tolkien:

'Monogamy' was at this period in the West universally practised, and other systems were regarded with repugnance as things only done 'under the Shadow'. (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, (London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), Letter 214, p. 296)