Where did Folco go??

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Rereading LotR, I stumbled across a person who's mentioned as one of Frodo's good friends at the beginning, then never spoken of again - Folco Boffin! He helps with the packing for Frodo's move, along with Fatty Bolger, who does stick around for more of the story, showing up at the end as well. But I never found another reference to Folco...

[Kuruharan]

Alas, he seems to have gone the way of the Entwives.

At least Fatty Bolger was mentioned when he got out of the jug, but poor Folco seems to have vanished. smilies/wink.gif

[Aldagrim Proudfoot]

Maybe he just didn't have anything else to do with the war of the Ring except maybe being one of the Hobbits at the Battle of Bywater.

[Rimbaud]

Unexpectedly found on an island out in the ocean, clutching a spear and muttering "Never Surrender" some years later.

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Jamaica? smilies/smile.gif

[Morquesse]

I find it interesting that Tolkien introduces a character, and makes little use of him. He could of skipped Folco all together, and it would have no effect on the plot.
Weird.

[Legolas]

Rimbaud must be reminiscing about Sean Connery's role in First Knight.

[Kalimac]

Where have all the hobbits gone?
Gone to Lockholes, every one...

Sorry, that was bad. It is weird that Folco was introduced and then dropped for no discernable reason, though I'm betting that Tolkien just forgot to cut him (in HoME, the names of the hobbit extras, especially in the first few chapters, went through so many revisions that it's a wonder there aren't more incomplete cuts of characters like Folco). It seems like it would have been mentioned if Folco had been in the Lockholes or in the Took Rebellion, or anywhere in the Shire for that matter.

So Folco left the Shire somehow. Three possibilities I can think of (besides, of course, the heretical "Tolkien forgot to follow through on the cut" possibility smilies/smile.gif).

1) Folco, inspired by Bilbo's and Frodo's stories, also by a streak of Tookishness which he may have had in him, took off for parts unknown and was never seen again (though who knows, he may have become as big a name among the Wild Men as Merry and Pippin did among the Rohirrim and the men of Gondor).

2) Folco went boating and met with a tragic demise.

3) Folco bumped into Trotter the Ranger Hobbit while visiting kin in Bree and decided to go traveling with him. Later, disgusted at Trotter's exile from the book, he chose to accompany him instead of abandoning the forsaken character and flocking to the side of Strider.

OK, it's late and I'm silly. Enough for now smilies/smile.gif.

[Arwen Imladris]

When will we ever learn
When will we ever learn...

Not to look at threads in which Kalimac has posted! smilies/smile.gif Sorry. I'm just kidding. I don't know which is more sad, what you said or that I knew imediatly what you were talking about? Oh well.

[doug*platypus]

My Too Sense

I'm going to cling to the absolutely baseless belief that Folco was part of the rebels that Fredegar led, and that he was killed in a desperate charge against Sharkey's Men. Were any hobbits killed during the occupation, before the Battle of Bywater?

[Finwe]

I'm sure that some Hobbits were killed by the Ruffians. If they weren't killed outright, they could have been severely injured, and later died of their wounds.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

After over two years of just wondering, I've decided to 'find out' what happened to Folco. I'm having a most fascinating time filling the blank spots in the history of the War of the Rings as it concerns the Shire! Interestingly, some of the things I'm 'discovering' fit in with suggestions made on this thread long ago. I've started writing a fan fiction about Folco; for those who are interested in reading my version of what happened to Tolkien's lost character, it's posted here (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=29&t=000080) on the Barrow-Downs Fan Fiction forum. So far, only the prologue and Chapter 1 are there, but I will continue with the following chapters as I have time to write them.

[mark12_30]

Geared up and awaiting chapter two.