Quote:
Originally Posted by R.R.J Tolkien
So we can see from the text it is not saying the beast was bigger than a house, only that "it looked to him" and that "fear and wonder" enlarged the beast in the hobbits eyes. But that it was indeed a very large creature.
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Right. But again, the animal
did have the remains of a 'war-tower' on its back. How high would such a tower have been? depends on its purpose, which I would posit was for observation. So I would estimate a height of at least 10-15 feet for the tower. If that was approximately equal to the height of the creature's back from the ground, that seems reasonably effective for the purpose, as well as not being unduly unstable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by R.R.J Tolkien
This also brings up the question of the size of a house, we would assume sam would use his typical hobbit hole size house. I am unsure of the size of a hobbit hole, but would they be 30 feet high? if the oliphaunt is 20 at the shoulder like you suggest, i dont think so. Maybe.
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Hobbits were said to have had a general dislike of heights, so most Shire-houses were likely one-story. Certainly the ones seem by Sam would probably have been on the smaller side, since the bigger houses seem to have been in the Eastfarthing where the majority of Stoors were located (not to mention Brandy Hall). Roof height of the 'normal' residential house in the Shire could possibly be around 15 feet.