Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Overview for Book I, Chapter 2

At long last, I have managed to reach Book I, Chapter 2. During these past two weeks, I carefully read the chapter using multiple lenses of interpretation, including those of history, literature, world religion, and potential animated musical. I have written the first draft of the script to be used while crafting the animatic for this section, something I should have considered while creating the first chapter instead of building the landing gear while landing the proverbial plane. I have scheduled the essays I plan to write leading up to the release of the next animatic, which brings its launch to about a year from now, on October 25, 2026. Faster production is relative; I spent almost a year and nine months on the first chapter, and this is an improvement.

For this essay, I am focusing on two topics that did not fit into other scheduled essays related to this chapter. First, I will give a brief summary that highlights reoccurring literary themes in the text. Second, I will hypothesize about the evolution of Stoors, a “breed” of hobbits that diverged into two groups. Third, I will note differences in the dialects of Frodo and Sam, including a subtle linguistic shift made by Frodo. I hope these shorter essays will be more manageable for readers than the thesis-length behemoths I produced earlier in this series, along with allowing me to balance historical research with artistic creation.

What Happened?

After a few pages describing the on-going hatred that other hobbits have for Frodo, along with Frodo’s inability to mentally or physically mature, Gandalf arrived back on the scene to give a wordy explanation about the history of Middle-earth, the history of the Ring, the origins of Gollum, and hints about Gandalf’s personal problems. While Frodo badly struggled to understand what Gandalf was telling him despite excruciating detail and occasional redundancy, the hobbit decided to leave his home with the Ring if only to save the Shire and the often nasty people who lived there. Sam was much quicker to understand than his master, and Gandalf ordered him to join Frodo on the trip to “punish” Sam for “eavesdropping”. Being wise and able to read minds, Gandalf appeared to be the first person to understand the growing friendship between Frodo and Sam, even before Frodo fully understood. Gandalf certainly would not be the last wise person to support this unusual bond.

Diverging Stoors

As I last described in “Races: Hobbits”, I explained how hobbits were implied to have evolved from other Races, while these Races had been given life by the creator deity Eru Ilúvatar. Significant but not conclusive evidence for this evolution appeared in “Prologue 1 Concerning Hobbits” and contrasted the origins of other Races described across the legendarium.

Gandalf had known the Hobbits of the Shire for many generations, but he seemingly did not become aware of their ancestors until his research on the origins of Bilbo’s ring and its previous master, Gollum or Sméagol. He described Sméagol and his family as “a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors”. These people who lived near the Anduin or Great River shared the same love of the water and boats as their modern relatives in Buckland. Appendix B described how the Stoors had split into two factions after briefly settling in the Angle, with one faction moving west to the Shire, and the other moving east to the Anduin near Gladden Fields.

This movement of a single group of people diverging into two groups, west and east, reflected a well-known linguistic theory in Tolkien’s day. Philologist Friedrich Max Müller believed that Aryans, now known as Iranians or Persians, migrated to or invaded regions to the east and to the west of their original territory. According to this theory, the Aryan invasion most greatly affected the subcontinent India, where the Indo-European languages of the Aryans found in northern Indian replaced the Dravidian languages found in southern India. Müller originally thought there was a strong connection between the apparent race of these groups and their languages. The theoretical Aryans had lighter skin than theoretical Dravidian people. Müller later rejected this part of his theory, but the British colonial government and later the German Nazi party took only this portion and ran.

On top of theoretical Aryan migration to India, which modern geneticists believe is unlikely, Müller hypothesized that Aryans moved west to Ireland, also known as Irish Orientalism. This theory was expanded upon by Henry James Sumner Maine, who was born in Scotland and worked in India. Maine’s Celtic heritage seemingly drove him to find correlations between Indian cultures and Celtic cultures, which including fasting in protest, “supernatural fear of retribution”, and legal codes. Once again, modern geneticists find no connection between modern Iranians and modern Irish people. Müller and Maine believed they were bringing together seemingly disparate cultures within the British Empire. On the surface, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, their theory was rooted in colonialism, as uniting colonized people under a homogeneous imperial culture made these subjects easier to control.

What has this to do with hobbits? The Stoors may lampoon this theory, with Stoors of the Shire coded as Celtic people, and Stoors of the Anduin coded as Asian people. The most obvious references to this coding come from the physical descriptions and actions of Sméagol, who had a skin tone described as “sallow” by other characters; fought with his hands instead of weapons, similar to martial arts broadly associated with Asian cultures; and preferred raw fish to cooked fish, not unlike sushi and sashimi. I will dive deeper into this comparison in later essays.

Finally, while Stoors of the Anduin were far removed from Stoors of the Shire, and farther removed from Fallohides and Harfoots, all “hobbit-kind” shared commonalities. Gandalf remarked. “There was a great deal in the background of their minds and memories that was very similar. They understood one another remarkably well, very much better than, say, a Dwarf, or an Orc, or even an Elf. Think of the riddles they both knew, for one thing.” Gandalf points to two distinct commonalities between Bilbo and Sméagol. They shared a cultural background, including “memories” such as “riddles”. Additionally, “the background of their minds” operated in the same way so they “understood one another remarkably well”, suggesting a neurological or genetic component to their shared commonalities.

Compounding the fascinating theory presented in this statement was Gandalf’s choice in the Races he listed, not “a Dwarf, or a Man, or even an Elf” as the reader might expect, but “a Dwarf, or an Orc, or even an Elf”. Gandalf apparently viewed Orcs as being little different from the other Races despite their status as slaves to Sauron. Elsewhere in the legendarium were hints that Orcs shared a common ancestor with Elves, and I will further explore this connection in the future.

The Idiolects of Frodo and Sam

Since this is a book about linguistics, the idiolects of characters, or individual ways of speaking, should be closely tracked. The term “idiolect” is fairly new, having been coined around 1948. In the Real World timeline, this is between the initial publications of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The term “dialect” is much older, having appeared in the 1570s to mean the way a group of people speaks. The differences in dialect between Frodo and Sam are immediately obvious. Recalling the concept that this text was translated from Westron, the translator chose Standard Modern English for Frodo when he spoke with Gandalf. For the original audience in the 1950s, Frodo likely sounded similar to a young professor, an upper class person with a high level of education. Sam’s dialect was working class, evident by his use of slang and nonstandard verbs. Sam would say “ain’t” and “heard tell” where Frodo would say “is not” and “heard it said”.

While the other wealthy hobbits spoke much like Frodo, and the other ‘rustic’ hobbits spoke much like Sam, some words in their vocabularies were particular to them. Sam exclaimed “Lor bless you” and “Lor bless me” after he was caught by Gandalf. This indicated a religion in the Shire that otherwise was never mentioned. In fact, the phrase seems to have secularized. For the fictitious translator, the phrase originally spoken by Sam likely glossed as the Judaeo-Christian phrase “Lord bless you” found in Numbers 6:24. (Incidentally, in the Jerusalem Bible where Tolkien contributed parts of Jonah, the phrase was translated as “May Yahweh bless you”.) Dropping the “d” in Lord was consistent with some working class English dialects, but it may have referred to Lorien, the Vala responsible for dreams. Frodo and Sam may have learned of the Valar from Bilbo but likely would not have made the connection between Sam’s catchphrase and an ancient deity or angelic figure.

One comic moment in the chapter occurred when Gandalf asked Sam, “How long have you been eavesdropping?”, causing Sam to declare, “There ain’t no eaves at Bag End”. The term “eavesdropping” originated during the 17^th century, while the term “eavesdropper” was from the mid-15^th century. The term “eavesdrop”, meaning the place on the eaves where the rainwater dropped off, came all the way from Old English when it was spelled yfesdrype. Sam’s literal interpretation made Gandalf exclaim, “Don’t be a fool!”, perhaps referencing the meaning of Sam’s full name, Samwise meaning half-wit. However, as I described in “Middle-earth Psychology Case Study #3”, Sam was highly intelligent but likely neurodivergent. Literal interpretation and over-analysis are two common indicators for this family of neurological conditions.

Finally, I observed a subtle change in Frodo’s speech between his conversation with Gandalf and his conversation with Sam. The most obvious example in this section appeared when Frodo ordered Sam to answer Gandalf’s questions. If Frodo was speaking in the Westron equivalent to Standard Modern English, he may have said “You had better answer his questions at once!” Instead, Frodo said, “But just you up and answer his questions straight away!” This phrase was much more similar to Sam’s dialect and demonstrated Frodo’s ability to code-switch or change his idiolect to align with multiple dialects. In future essays, I will show more examples of Frodo and other characters code-switching, which occurs frequently throughout the text.

What’s Next, Abby?

Having mapped out the release of essays, instrumentals, songs, and illustrations for “Book I, Chapter 2”, I feel highly confident in my ability to stick to the schedule. For the next two weeks, you will see a pair of essays with colorful illustrations demonstrating Frodo’s wardrobe for this chapter. Since he inherited Bilbo’s “rooms full of clothes”, I assume he would wear a wide range of outfits stretching from Bilbo’s young adulthood to the present day. I will take a break from posting on Sunday, November 30 as this is part of Thanksgiving Weekend and the start of the crazed holiday season. (If Ted Sandyman thought Bilbo and Frodo were cracked, I can’t imagine what he would say about modern Americans in December.) Regardless of the pending chaos, I will return to share character designs for Frodo’s grown-up cousins, talk about maps, and compare folklore about the woods with modern refugee narratives. I look forward to sharing history and literary analysis with you over the next year.