Abby Epplett, Historian

During the early 19 th century, also known as the Regency era in Great Britain, clothing mimicked contemporary events in Europe, including revolutions and building empires. People were inspired by similar events in classical history such as Athenian democracy and the Roman Empire. Northwestern European scholars had long appropriated the history of the Mediterranean as their own past, but this was the first time the mythology had gone mainstream. The beginning of print culture , or the mass production of written documents including books, allowed the noble and merchant classes to own their own copies of The Odyssey and The Iliad , albeit with varying accuracy in translation, while the display of marble statues at public institutions like our old friend the British Museum allowed the general public to see how their favorite heroes may have looked. This interest in the ancient world continues today, as the so-called Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon have been on display in the m...

I last compared Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday to famous parties in the summary of Book I, Chapter 1 “A Long-Expected Party” , where I referenced biblical celebrations, parties gone wrong in France, PR stunts in Ancient China, and exclusive musical scores in Great Britain. This installment focuses on what the hobbits might have eaten at that party. While discussing “Prologue, 3 On the Ordering of the Shire” , I determined that hobbits appeared to live in two timelines with their political system and architecture reflecting the early 17 th century or post-medieval period while their technology, interior design, and fashion reflected the early 19 th century or Industrial Revolution. Their foods likewise are split into different time periods, with some staples being invented during ancient times in the Real World, others appearing in Europe due to the trade of the late medieval period, and still others dating from the Victorian era or mid- to late 19 th century. As the self-pr...

The third installment to my miniseries on the psychology of major characters in The Lord of the Rings will focus on Samwise Gamgee, later called Sam Gardner, who is considered the deuteragonist or secondary main character in the text. Unlike Bilbo and Frodo Baggins who enjoyed an enormous amount of privilege as part of the wealthy, educated elite, Sam and his family were among the lowest in the social hierarchy. Because of this disparity in status, Sam’s apparent psychological conditions were treated differently by the community than those of Bilbo and Frodo. While the Bagginses were explicitly called “mad” and “queer” for their behavior, attitudes towards Sam were less harsh. Mocking the Bagginses may have been the one way the ‘rustic’ hobbits could have an advantage over their ‘betters’, while Sam seemed to be considered another one of the villagers despite his differences.

Tolkien wrote his legendarium from the 1930s to the 1970s, and while he was ahead of his time in many aspects, he could not have anticipated modern understanding of mental health. He experienced significant childhood trauma and two world wars, which are known to cause mental health disabilities. This installment will not speculate on the state of Tolkien’s mental health and its potential effect on his work. Instead, I will study the text as if it was written by in-universe characters describing themselves and those they know. This will serve as the basis for case studies reviewing explicitly stated symptoms along with the history behind the diagnosis.

When creating prototypes and characters who might be classed as ‘rustic’ hobbits living during the late Third Age, or the time when The Hobbit and most of The Lord of the Rings took place, I considered how their physical appearance and occupation might affect their status within a complex, stratified society and accordingly influence their choice of clothing. Such stratification continues to occur in the Real World. In countries where people regard themselves as being democratic, like the United States, people attempt to appear egalitarian and middle class, even if this society currently faces the most extreme income gaps in its history. Meanwhile, in countries where people maintain remnants of feudalism or religious beliefs supporting hierarchy, like England and India, people take pride in their status and emphasize their identity through their clothing, especially if they are higher in the system, and even if their government has become democratic.

As the name suggests, Bywater was a hobbit town in the Shire located by water, more specifically by the Water, the hobbit-name for a river that emptied into the Brandywine. Unlike Hobbiton, which appeared to be a late medieval village overseen by a landlord, Bywater was a commercial center occupied by working and middle-class hobbits who owned a shop or knew a trade. My design of Bywater considers many factors, including a map created by Tolkien, pre-historic town design, medieval markets towns, revivals of medieval architecture occurring around the time of the book’s publication, and design features specific to pubs and shops still used in modern England.

Since the late medieval period, pubs have been a culturally and historically significant aspect of English life. Accordingly, the largest historical organizations in the region put forth great effort to catalogue and preserve such establishments. Historic England lists England’s Historic Pubs to commemorate businesses and their buildings that have shaped local identity, Historic UK has identified the oldest pubs and inns in England , while Heritage Pubs and Historic Pub Interiors recorded by The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) gives a glimpse of how pub-going has changed over hundreds of years, and how some aspects have remained the same.

While I previously discussed the appearances of upper class hobbit-lasses from the Shire at the beginning of the Fourth Age during my article about Elanor Gardner Fairbairn , I wanted to expand upon this explanation to include more Shire Hobbits from this time who would appear in the framing device . The opening scene of the hypothetical animated musical would occur during Shire Reckoning (S.R.) 1482 on the day after Mid-Summer and feature a diverse gathering of hobbits. Their clothing style would reflect real-world fashion from the 1890s in Western Europe and North America, while their physical appearances or phenotypes would follow the descriptions first presented in the “Prologue: 1 Concerning Hobbits” , and further explained below. As a leading scholar of medieval studies, Tolkien must have been well-acquainted with the variety of cultures living in Europe throughout its history, and I believe The Lord of the Rings paralleled his interpretation of real-world people and eve...

I have almost arrived at the dialogue portion of the books, but before I launch into the story, I will review the epigraph. The infamous poem, which begins with the line “Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky”, technically appears opposite the copyright page for each physical book in a three book set of The Lord of the Rings , after the Introduction by Peter S. Beagle but before the Forward by J.R.R. Tolkien . I don’t know why the book was set this way, as I would have placed the epigraph after the Prologue, but since the edition of the book I use was released the same year my parents were born, I was not around to set the publisher straight.

In past essays, I have given a lot of thought to Elanor Gardner Fairbairn, a minor character of great importance who would become a major character in the hypothetical musical. She first appeared during “Overview of Appendix A” with the mention of her birthdate, 25 March Third Age (T.A.) 3021 / Fourth Age (F.A.) 1 / Shire Reckoning (S.R.) 1421, which served not only as a symbol of rebirth after the worldwide War of the Ring but also as a demonstration on how tricky the calendars of Middle-earth can be . Her husband, Fastred of Greenholm, received a mention in “Appendix A, II The Kings of the Mark” , and a full explanation of her work as an editor of The Red Book of Westmarch was given in “Framing Device” just two weeks ago. Rather than reviewing her life and occupation as I have done previously, I now turn to physical appearance, especially personal clothing style.

In this week’s essay, my loves of historic house tours and The Lord of the Rings combine for the first time as I present my map of Bag End, also spelled Bag-End by the older generations of Hobbits. Since Tolkien was a philologist, it is fitting to take a brief break to explain the naming scheme around the property, along with the clan name of the family who built it. Tolkien studies expert Tom Shippey noted in The Road to Middle-earth that “bag-end” is a literal translation of “cul-de-sac”, which was further elaborated upon by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull in Reader’s Companion . The current meaning of a road terminating at a house or collection of houses dates from 1819.

On Saturday, November 23 and Sunday, November 24, I attended the two-day webinar, the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference hosted by the Tolkien Society via Zoom. Past readers of the blog know that I am a big fan of conferences, both in-person and virtual, so this was a great opportunity to combine my love of intense learning events with my research for the hypothetical animated musical. Even as someone on the younger end of attendees, I felt right at home through the friendly chat, the generous speakers, and my extensive knowledge of the Legendarium. Here are my favorite highlights from each talk, minus anything that seemed to be proprietary information. Any mistakes are likely because I have been up since 4:45 a.m. watching this conference. For naming conventions, as said succinctly by James Tauber, “It’s become a common convention in Tolkien studies to use Tolkien to refer to the father and Christopher to refer to the son”, so I will do the same in this summary. Sa...

At last, I arrive at the final section of the appendixes. After a hundred and fifty pages of comparing Middle-earth history to real-world history, I have an even stronger grasp of how Tolkien used his expertise as a philologist and historian to build a fantasy world rooted in fact. This will serve as a solid foundation for future research as I move into the dialog portion of the text and reveal vignettes for the hypothetical animated musical.

During this week and next week, I am taking a brief break from the appendixes to create more illustrations for the people of Middle-earth. I will focus on Maiar, a Race of angel-like or god-like beings who traveled as invisible spirits or took a wide range of physical forms. While this term did not appear in The Lord of the Rings , many Maiar appeared in the text, and explanations of Maiar and their powers were given in The Silmarillion . Wizards and balrogs will appear this week, while Maiar symbolizing the environment and crafts will appear next week.

The first part of “Appendix E: Writing and Spelling”, focused on pronunciation. I am notoriously bad at pronouncing words that I only know by sight, some of my favorites being liaison, epitome, Yosemite, and mischievous. Because I learned most of my vocabulary from reading, I rarely heard more difficult words pronounced aloud until high school or college, when I learned the hard way that what I heard in my head was not the generally accepted way to say the word. I tended to think my linguistic snafus were pretty funny.

Happy Hobbit Day to all those who observe! This essay is posted on September 22, the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, along with the autumnal equinox and the beginning of fall. The American Tolkien Society declared this a holiday in 1978, and since then, Middle-earth fans have celebrated with plenty of food and no shoes. While some fun-hating detractors argue that the celebration should really take place between September 12 and 14, owing to differences between the Gregorian calendar and the Shire calendar, a discussion of calendars will appear in two weeks and no longer be dwelt upon here. This week is dedicated to family trees. Genealogists gasp in delight upon reaching Appendix C, selections from the family trees of Hobbits first described back in Prologue, “1 Concerning Hobbits” : “The genealogical trees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small book in themselves… Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate… set out fair and square with no c...