"As a rule"

[The Saucepan Man]

When I saw your post, Elianna, it immediately struck a chord with me because you are absolutely right. It is an expression that Tolkien uses frequently. And your observation that it is used particularly in connection with Hobbits is very astute.

"As a rule" is an expression, still frequently used in the English language, to denote "generally" or "usually". I imagine that it was an expression that Tolkien used a lot. It is a colloquialism of sorts, a phrase which is used in every-day conversations in the familiar surroundings of the pub or post office. It therefore seems rather well suited to the Shire.

In narrating The Hobbit, Tolkien uses many such turns of phrase to speak to the reader in language with which he or she is familiar, and this translated over to the beginnings of LotR. It seems a natural phrase to use, when describing Hobbits, as the Shire and its inhabitants are, to my mind, intended to be familar to us as readers. They provide us with an anchor in this new world with which we can identify.

However, although it might seem well-suited to the pubs and burrows of the Shire, it would seem out of place on the plains of Rohan or in the Halls of Gondor. It would grate with the epic style used when describing such places in LotR. I could not imagine, for example, the Rohirrim being described as "fierce and, as a rule, fey in battle". Nor would it be fitting to describe the Gondorians by saying that they were "as a rule, rather proud and noble."

So, being a phrase which was presumably oft used by Tolkien, he naturally used it when describing those characters with which he wanted his readers to identify, but was naturally disinclined to use it when addressing the more epic narratives in his tales.