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Old 02-26-2007, 07:59 PM   #10
Formendacil
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I don't know about charisma... but it would probably be off the mark to call any of the Fellowship Hobbits ordinary-- except maybe Sam, who interestingly is referred to by Tolkien as Bilbo's "successor", in terms of ordinary-ness.

Quote:
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien
Sam is the most closely drawn character, the successor to Bilbo of the first book, the genuine hobbit. Frodo is not so interesting, because he has to be highminded, and has (as it were) a vocation. The book will prob. end up with Sam. Frodo will naturally become too ennobled and rarefied by the achievement of the great Quest, and will pass West with all the great figures; but S. will settle down to the Shire and gardens and inns.
--Letters, #93

Frodo, Pippin, and Merry are all aristocrats. Not particularly overbearing ones, I'll grant, but they come from the Shire's upper-most crust. Frodo is a middle-aged bachelor in a society that prizes marriage, and considered to be "cracking", if we take the ordinary Hobbits of the Green Dragon at their word.

From the very beginning, Merry and Pippin are cast as not QUITE normal for Hobbits. It's all that Tookish blood and Brandybuck breeding showing through. And if we look at them from the END of the book, they are certainly charismatic leaders then. Whether or not this is their nature, amplified by their adventures, or completely a talent learned on the adventures is open to debate. I would say that there must have been some sort of a native talent to begin with, since we do not see a similar effect on Sam (who admittedly had a different sort of adventure), or on Bilbo (who I would say had a very similar sort of adventure, and who was of a similar character, probably, at their age-- though the effects of the Ring could play a part here in thwarting a similar growth).

Which is all simply to argue that I'm not really sure I'd say any of the Hobbits other than Sam can truly be called ordinary.
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