Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Anachronistic Gifts
The morning after Bilbo disappeared during his Long-Expected Party, his heir Frodo took the brunt of the backlash while handing out gifts labeled with insults written by Bilbo. These gifts were remarkable not only for their snide nature but also for being more modern than other gifts given throughout The Lord of the Rings . While variations of these objects had existed for centuries, if not millennia, their status as items once owned by a single person suggested once again that the Shire had entered an early industrial revolution, allowing goods to be mass manufactured at prices that were a fraction of previous costs. Even with these reductions, such gift-giving was an extravagant display of wealth, especially when considering how Bilbo left the remainder of possessions to Frodo. In this essay, I will review the items given to the ungrateful relatives, describe the history of similar objects in the Real World, and reveal how some of these insults were even worse than what appea...