Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
Yes, the general unpleasantness of the Sackville-Bagginses and specific misdeeds of Lotho seem to have been treated as known by the hobbits. Maybe it's just a matter of Tolkien thinking he didn't want to be too detailed about the Shire goings-on during the great events of the War.
After all, he was concerned during initial drafts of the first chapters of what would become LOTR that the tale had "too many hobbits". It seems the reader is told just enough to know Lotho was a bad apple as far as hobbits went.
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In some ways I like it...
Ted Sandyman is clearly an unpleasant person, and we see enough of him in the initial chapters in order to remember him when we return to the Shire. It would probably have been too obvious if Lotho had suffered a similar fate. Another Hobbit clearly targeted as a bad person in the initial chapters, and then, lo and behold, also turns out a villain in the end.
One of the elements in Tolkien's writing that I really like, is the references to a broader world, references without proper explanation (after all that is what we have the appendix and a ton of subsequent publications for).
However here it seems like he is asking a lot of the reader.
I mean, why not give Lotho a bit of back story, like Lobelia and Otho? Even just one story about an alteration between him and Frodo/Merry/Pippin, would have relieved my of my confusion in the scouring of the shire.