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Old 04-22-2018, 10:28 PM   #1
Balfrog
Haunting Spirit
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 87
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The Origin of a Pygmy Hobbit

The last article of Ms. Seth's 'Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean' series discusses a new theory to the naming origin behind 'hobbit', and 'baggins'. Once again it links back to the parody theme developed in earlier essays.


https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...connections-2/


Essentially what she puts forward is that the early to late 20's was a period of time where Tolkien inserted a lot of comical content into his works. Accumulated then is a reasonably large body of evidence (The Hobbit Trolls, The Root of the Boot, 'Bilbo' from Match Me in London, and now 'Hobbit'; and 'Baggins') that this historical era influenced Tolkien far more than we have previously thought.

Could it all be coincidence? Hard to summarily dismiss.

In any case the latest article ties in myth, fairy-tale and theories abounding in the late 1900's on the origin of neolithic man in Britain. It's the first article I've seen that makes sense of why Tolkien cast Bilbo Baggins as essentially an English 'pygmy'!
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