Tolkien and Middle-earth essays now hosted on MERP.COM

[Michael Martinez]

Okay. Many of you now know that I have left Suite101. However, I always intended to continue writing essays for Tolkien fans. At first I hoped I could just move everything to Xenite.Org, but three dead hard drives destroyed that plan.

I am happy to say that MERP.COM (Middle-earth Role-Playing) stepped in and offered to host the new essays section for me. I'll be contributing essays on a more-or-less monthly basis. And the first one is now up:


What a hobbit wants...

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." One of the most famous opening lines in English literature lays down the law for our perception of the basic hobbit lifestyle: comfort. Hobbits don't live in "nasty, dirty, wet hole(s), filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell". They live in comfortable tunnels "without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats...."

People have lived in holes and caves throughout history, sometimes as a means of evading detection, sometimes for purely defensive reasons. But we have never really lived in hobbit holes. Bilbo's hole, Bag End, represents the lifestyle of the aristocratic hobbit, and among Big Folk like you and me, aristocrats live in castles, palaces, mansions -- anything but holes in the sides of hills.

Tolkien's fascination with underground dwelling undoubtedly owes something to his wartime experiences in France, where millions of soldiers filled trenches and underground bunkers that were clearly "nasty, dirty, wet hole(s), filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell". As with so many other writers of his generation, Tolkien's fiction pursues an escapist course which seeks to wipe away the memory of the battlefields of northern France. But in Tolkien's case, he paints a more pleasant memory over the unpleasant one while leaving a remarkably evocative set of clues to the inspirations his imagery.

Read the full essay here:
http://www.merp.com/modules.php?op=m...article&sid=48


Thank you, MERP.COM! Here's hoping we have a long and mutually enjoyable association.