[Lalwendë]

From the beginning we see how Hobbits can be tough. In The Hobbit, Gandalf says of Bilbo:

"Excitable little fellow,"said Gandalf, as they sat down again. "Gets funny queer fits, but he is one of the best, as fierce as a dragon in a pinch."

If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took's great-granduncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.

But with so much mention of great Men and Elves, it could be very easy to 'overlook' such seemingly little people.

Shades of Boys Own and other empire reading material for the nation's youth.

Oh yes, Bethberry, very true, but then I think Tolkien himself admired that kind of character; not the blustering kind, but the honest, everyday courage that Hobbits (and by extension, ordinary people) can display.

Now for the wriggling, wormy topic of Orcs. Davem says:

Why is it necessary for Tolkien to make this so clear - possibly because we are about to witness the wholesale slaughter of these creatures by our ‘heroes’, but more likely because Tolkien wants us to understand the real nature of ‘Evil’ - that Evil is not something that arises from ignorance, from not really knowing what you’re doing. Evil beings in Middle earth areaware of what they’re doing, & its that very awareness, that deliberate infliction of suffering on others in full consciousness, that makes it necessary for our ‘heroes’ to stand against them - its a moral necessity to oppose that evil.

Some parallels could be drawn here to human conflict. In all wars there is an 'enemy', and yet wars are not fought by the leaders but by the ordinary people. Without getting into the subject of evil and morality - it is interesting that Tolkien has given his 'enemy' a voice, and real character, as a real life enemy would have. And yet they are shown to be thoroughly morally bad (I cannot think of a scene where an Orc 'repents'). Has Tolkien portrayed Orcs in a manner reminiscent of propaganda? By this I mean in the way that foreign troops were often portrayed in the world wars, as cunning and devious, and inherently bad? I think it is necessary to show such a mass of enemies, who are about to be slaughtered, in this light. To do otherwise would take the whole tale away from a good/evil conflict.

Finally, picking up on what Boromir 88 says, it makes you wonder exactly what was in Lembas, doesn't it :

Eating the lembas the hobbits had slipped off into this dream, similar to Lorien, they weren't in "reality" anymore. They couldn't hear the battle going on, they just sat and remained in this dream, then Tolkien uses the line

Pippin was the first to come back to the present.