What might the motive be though? Anyone who watches Morse/Lewis knows that barring madness, there must be a motive!
I can't think of one (it would take someone pretty nasty to commit murder to get her hands on a necklace), so it was likely accident, and if Pippin was a clumsy young oaf then it's likely his sister was too. No doubt it would cast suspicions upon her, and a large helping of shame upon the family too in the gossipping Shire, hence this might be why they would seek to bar her from big events and keep things hush-hush. Of course after a decent time she would be forgiven for making a tragic mistake and the jewels could even have been promised as part of a will. Was the gossip about them something which stemmed from the Tooks or from the general population?
And yes, they
do have lawyers in the Shire - they were in the process of selling off Bag End at the very moment Bilbo returned!
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Faramir Jones
While Tolkien presented the Shire as a more idealised version of a village in the English Midlands c.1897, he cleverly did not present it as some kind of utopia.
|
Indeed, and one of the nastier aspects of village life is the ridiculous level of idle gossip, in fact it's one of the nastier aspects of
British life full stop!