Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/04/the-hobbit-economy-not-bucolic-utopia-but-tenant-farming-and-ostentatious-displays-of-clan-wealth.html
…
11 Likes
Many, many years ago I remember engaging in long discussions on UseNet about whether Lobelia Sackville-Baggins’ umbrellas were made by a specialist craftsman somewhere in the Shire or if there was a factory somewhere and they were imported. Neither option seemed to fit with the world we catch glimpses of, really, but I guess it is possible that they could be the equivalent of our modern supercars?
9 Likes
My exhaustive research has revealed that Lotho Proudneck of Tuckborough and Goldie Bleecker-Baggins of Fair Downs are the hobbit names for Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, respectively.
11 Likes
I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more…
29 Likes
The films especially gloss over that fact that Sam is not the equal of “Master” Frodo, but his servant.
28 Likes
They have social mobility. Sam was able to raise his social status, become master of Bag End, mayor of Hobbiton, etc. All he had to do was lift himself by his bootstraps; go on a deadly quest across the world; kill a number of Orcs; wound Shelob; carry the One Ring, and give it back; survive Mount Doom exploding.
Young Hobbits these days are afraid of a little hard work.
57 Likes
Be quiet ! I order you to be quiet!
12 Likes
Yeah, some features of the Hobbits’ lifestyles seem more Victorian than medieval – and even Bag End and the like seem more like Downton Abbey than a medieval lord’s estate.
5 Likes
It does get a mention or two at least. Plus he addresses Frodo as “Mr. (Master) Frodo” throughout the movies, never just “Frodo.” So still clearly a person of lower station even if Frodo is portrayed as a friendly and benevolent employer.
Tolkien drew a lot of inspiration from his experience in WWI, and the Frodo/Sam relationship was basically that of a British officer and his dedicated personal servant.
Tolkien clearly internalized a lot of the classist ideas that shape British culture to this day, such as “noble bloodlines” that make certain people inherently better (or at least more inherently fit to rule) than others.
24 Likes
6 Likes
Also Elves are selfish layabouts who suffer from terminal nostalgia and the Fellowship was stupid for not asking the Eagles to take them straight from Rivendell to Lorien. Hot takes abound in Middle Earth.
12 Likes
kind of helped that he saw frodo off to the “undying lands” right before acquiring the property. sure, sam, sure. tell us another.
( although i think he also cornered the market on potatoes )
15 Likes
Not just Frodo. When they were starting off, didn’t Merry and Pippin tell Sam to have the kettle and first breakfast ready in the morning?
3 Likes
That’s ok. All the halflings in my campaign are “cousins,” “totally legitimate businessmen,” and tend to “know a guy.”
14 Likes
I’m sure the foundations of Bag End are soaked in old blood.
How was it that Frodo was an orphan, his parents “drowned” or something? A likely story…
8 Likes
… well, the other explanation for the hobbits’ material prosperity in a world of prehistoric human squalor is that they’re magical beings who live in hollow hills
Tolkien, and fantasy in general, use this same idea over and over, with the hobbit holes, dwarf mines, wight barrows, and goblin caves
Nobody sees a need to speculate about how the barrow-wight economy works 
4 Likes
Well… why not? If someone finds it interesting and wants to explore it, why not? I mean…
And why shouldn’t that include delving into the fictional economy of literary worlds… After all, everyone constantly harps on and on about how Tolkien’s world building is second to none, so why not put that to the test by looking into things like political economy of various peoples in question…
14 Likes
Aren’t barrow-wights undead?
As for the Shire, no one talks about the pipeweed convoys to the outside, wagons with mounted dwarven repeater heavy crossbows.
11 Likes
I bet they STILL have an economy, tho!
5 Likes
