Taters to Taters

[Nogrod]

Neglected (ignored, disregarded, rejected)


"The Bath Song" - Actually one of my favourites. The "absurdo-meter" rings loud and clear! And you could come up with reasons as well: just think of the songs Tolkien wrote and which of them are celebrated, composed to music, heralded as great English literature masterpieces... you don't find the Bath Song from the list of top-recorded Tolkien songs or from the academic papers analysing Tolkien's poetry. Ignored, disregarded, rejected... yes.

Merry Brandybuck - Another one I like: I would say he's the most neglected major character by the prof in the whole LotR, and compared to the closest meaningful parallel aka. Pippin it's clear Pip gets time and attention whereas Merry is mostly just tossed around ignored and disregarded - even rejected by Theoden. The Pelennor fields just seems to top his fate as the ignored character.

King of the Dead - Like someone said already, being forgotten and neglected inside their mountainy-tomb for millenia. The fact there wasn't a true heir to Isildur around to fulfill the prophecy might be played as cause for the neglect (so it is not negligence as such but just that the conditions for invoking them were not ripe until Aragorn turned in) but they were surely disregarded, nevertheless.

Halls of Mandos - Maybe I should like this one because it doesn't seem to make any sense to me. But it doesn't make a funny or absurd sense either. It's an ever enlargening and ever crowding place and one of the most important places in Valinor every elf would have to consider. An elf really couldn't ignore - not to talk of disregarding or rejecting - the Halls of Mandos! Well, maybe as the actual "contradiction" card taking the satirical meaning: the most important place = the most ignored place...

Weathertop - Weathertop had been in a sense neglected for a long time by most of the folks - but then again no one kind of lived near enough (which could be used as argument for them being neglected as well). But if we look just at the LotR, no one can say Weathertop is neglected or ignored! Gandalf and Aragorn saw it important enough a place to pay a visit there even if was side from the main routes - and the Nazgûl thought it important enough to keep constant watch on it.

Celebrimbor - Hmm. There is some considerable lack of data concerning Celebrimbor and it could be actually argued he is - as a character - neglected by Mr. Tolkien. Or to be more precise: he was added into the legendarium to fill a place but Tolkien never quite got into writing about him and to make him a real character of "flesh and blood" but left him as just a name and a place-filler. Actually a pretty decent choice.

Cats of Beruthiel - Well, on top of what tp said that they had the love and company of Beruthiel herself - and were very important to her - one could add that they became legendary creatures tales were told generation after generation. Yes, Tolkien gave us very little of them and could be said to have ignored them somewhat, but that notwithstanding, they were highly considered and known all over, even in common sayings of the third age...

Entwives - It's hard to see any argument seriously stating Entwives to be neglected. Disappeared: yes. Neglected, disregarded, ignored - or rejected(!), no way! They were on the ents' minds constantly and they thought of them all the time asking anyone they met if they had seen the Entwives - and they sang about them, reminisced them, thought of them all the time - and longed for them deeply. That's hardly what you'd call negligence.

The Party Tree - Like somene said: it's the centerpiece of a festival. You could also point out that it takes a lot of work to pick, fall and erect it - not to talk of decorating it. Yes, one could argue that after the festival is over the Party tree could be neglected or disregarded - but I doubt the Hobbits did that. And anyway, it should be some random "ex-party tree" then, not "The Party tree" - which clearly points at the one on Bilbo's jubilee.

Radagast - echoing tp here: "the isolation was self-imposed". And adding this: if we wish to talk of neglected or ignored wizards, then how about talking of the so called Blue Wizards first? You may say Saruman disregarded his importance and ignored his particular role - but even with his erring conception of Radagast he didn't neglect him but tried to use him to his own ends.

The Lonely Mountain - Haha! I think this has winner-qualities. I mean whatever the actual negligence (which probably isn't that true) the name kind of does it. If something is named the Lonely Mountain then how do you argue against it? Okay, one could try saying that if it had been truly neglected or ignored no one would have bothered to name it in the first place... but well, I just like this pick.