Trotter, the Ranger Hobbit!

[Birdland]

I'm in the Middle of Reading The History of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Shadow, and enjoying it immensely. More than I would have figured.

In an early draft of the book, the Hobbits run into a mysterious Halfling at the Prancing Pony. He is smoking by the fire, shrouded in a cloak despite the warmth, and wearing WOODEN SHOES! (OK, that part is kinda lame.)

"Who is that over there?" said Bingo. (Later to become Frodo.)

"Him?" said Barnabas (A Hobbit, later to become Barliman) "O! that is one of the wild folk - Rangers we call' em. ...What his right name is I never heard, but he's known 'round here as Trotter...But there's no accounting for East or West, as we say here, meaning the Rangers and the Shire-Folk, beggin' your pardon."

Of course, we all know that Trotter the "Wild Hobbit", (Tolkien also referred to him as an "Aborigine") evolved into our beloved Strider. And no trace of Trotter remains, except for few descriptions of the "bold" Fallohides in the Prologue and Appendices.

I myself was enchanted by this early concept of Tolkien, having always wondered what type of Hobbit a Fallohide would be. (Remember, that Frodo was thought to have a strong Fallohide "streak" in him.)

But what about the rest of you? Would you have liked to see Tolkien continue down this road? Should LoTR have been an "All Hobbits, all the time" book? Would Trotter have turned out to be an Ernil i Periannath (Prince of the Halflings)? Would he have gone to Mordor with Bin - I mean, Frodo?
(Remember, Sam is not even a gleam in Tolkien's eye yet, but the character of the Dark Lord was evolving.)

Or perhaps you are down on your knees thanking the One that J.R.R. commited Trotter to the "circular file drawer". [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Or maybe you would have liked a blend of the early and the late drafts. Any thoughts?

[Mayla Took]

That is so interesting! I have never heard of that draft before! I think I am going to pick of that book. Thanks for the info! That sounds so funny....

[VanimaEdhel]

That's really interesting! I am happy with how the story turned out though. Other races are more fun...and Aragorn being human, related to Isildur, who didn't destroy the ring, and resisting taking it...I think it is better. It somehow makes it seem more realistic to me to have humans in it...something I can relate to (even though I still love Elves, Dwarved, Hobbits, Valar, Istari, Maiar, etc).

[Vinyacairwen]

I thought it was hilarious when I read The Return of the Shadow [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]...Trotter/Strider/Aragorn..? A hobbit..? Hahah..

Another point of interest is that Trotter, the hobbit, was originally going to be either Peregrin Took or Bilbo Baggins...which Tolkien obviously decided against both.

[mordor136]

you guys have to wish he didn't cut out that original ending. (read epilouge)

[Lyliac]

I think that I like the book better the way it is.

[Kalimac]

Hmmm...I don't own the books (don't have THAT much money) but I remember looking throught them at Borders and having the irreverent thought that the name "Trotter" had a lot in common with "Bored of the Rings"'s Stomper. I'm glad Frodo didn't continue as Bingo as well, there are just too many connotations.

I liked the epilogue, too, but can see why Tolkien didn't include it - there's a distinct drop in the tension when you compare it to the last chapter of ROTK proper. After that wonderful sad scene at the Grey Havens, suddenly coming back to "Eighteen Years Later" and the quarrellings of Sam's children is funny, and good to read, but it does seem to diminish the last chapter somewhat. Those scenes were probably best left to the reader's imagination, anyway. And you don't get a better ending for a book than Sam pulling up a chair, holding his daughter in his lap and saying "Well, I'm back." After that, what more needs to be said?

[ElanorGamgee]

That's so funny! At first I thought you were joking [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] I'm glad the book turned out the way it did, though. Trotter the ranger hobbit somehow isn't a formidable as Strider [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] And Bingo instead of Frodo...that's just funny!

[Nevtalathiel]

Yeah, the names Trotter nad Bingo are kind of strange and very much like Bored of the Rings. I think it wuold have been interesting to have Trotter the ranger hobbit, but the end of the book would have been SO different, it's really interesting to think about!

[Child of the 7th Age]

Trotter sounded like an interesting character, and I definitely would have liked to read some stories about him. However, the whole thrust of the LOTR is the passing of the Age of the Elves and the new dominance of the Age of Man. Given this cosmological shift, Tolkien was right to focus on a figure like Aragorn. You can't have the beginning of a new Age of Man without some extraodinary representative from the human race, and Aragorn seems to fit that role well. The whole Strider/Aragorn thing is a great way to tie into this. Aragorn's Elvish blood and his marriage to Arwen also help to underline this whole shift taking place in the center of Tolkien's universe.

I do wish Tolkien had written more about Trotter in another place and context. I am definitely biased in favor of hobbits and would absolutely have loved to read more about another hobbit, especially one that was so obviously a character and standing out from the general trend of the community. (Boots, really? I can't believe that.)

Has anyone tried writing any fan fic centering on Trotter? What a lot of fun you could have, since the field on who he is and what he did is wide open. sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Birdland]

Well, actually...(Birdie blushes) I have a fan fic floating in my head about early Third Age Fallohides, who are kind of Trotter-eque.

I read somewhere that Tolkien suggested in a letter that early Hobbits were "primitive", and he did refer to them as being like Aborigines.

Hey that core of toughness in the dullest present-day hobbit had to come from somewhere!

Still looking for a certain "McGuffin", but maybe I should just sit down and write it out, and it will come to me...say in 17 years. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[Nar]

I scanned the book in the bookstore and thought 'Thank God, thank God he changed the name to Strider.' Trotter the Ranger Hobbit! Just reading it makes me smile.

I think Trotter and an all-Hobbit story belongs to the simpler children's novel, the sequel to the Hobbit that Tolkien originally conceived.

Something similar happens as the story of Beren and Luthien evolves. Originally it's about a ragged gnome and a lovely elf who get drawn into an epic battle between giant evil cats, let by the wicked Prince of Cats who would become Sauron, and a great heroic hound, Huorn. It's a great children's story, and the most well written and satisfying version of their love story that Tolkien managed to write. It's in The Book of Lost Tales 2, Ballantine. The History of Middle Earth has the same material in a classier binding, but I don't know the volume numbers.

Then, the story of Beren and Luthien became grander and inter-racial. It is summarized in The Silmarillion, but the unfinished poem is a much better version-- you have to be able to tolerate verse, though. I'll take fully fleshed out verse over bone-dry summary any day. It's in a Ballantine paperback, The Lays of Beleriand, and some early volume, my guess would be 3, of the History of Middle Earth Series.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Birdland--I hope you go ahead and write that fanfic on Fallohide hobbits in the 4th Age. It sounds different which would be great. So much that is written is set in the 3rd Age or tying up "loose ends" with characters from that period already very familiar to us. I'm guilty of the same, but would like to see a wider range all the same. Also, thanks for the referral to Quinn's Ishmael off another thread.

Now, about Bingo, I'm quite sure I read somewhere that one of Tolkien's children had a teddy bear named Bingo and that's where the name came from. I wonder if there was also a teddy bear named Trotter? Anyways, I'm really glad the name Bingo didn't stick around. I just can't see Frodo as "Bingo". I guess all this was just part of the transition from the tone of the Hobbit to the LOTR. The information on the origin of Luthien and Beren is also quite incredible. I am just geting several of the middle-earth histories as a birthday present and I will look for this in Lost Tales, II. sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Frodo Baggins]

Prince of Cats?????? Tolkien did not like cats?????!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAA!!! If he was here right now, I would give him a serious tongue lashing! I adore cats! I am severly partial to Hobbits, it might have been fun to read more about them. Sam's children quarreling? sounds funny. The only reason I don't wanto to read the Silmarillion is because there are no hobbits. However, Frodo is better as Frodo than Bingo. There was however, a Bingo Baggins. He was the youngest brother of Bungo Baggins, Bilbo's father. (I spend too much time on hobbit family trees)

[Mithadan]

To add a quote from Tolkien's Letters, he numbered cats among "the fauna of Mordor".

[Enedhil]

To add a quote from Tolkien's Letters, he numbered cats among "the fauna of Mordor".

Hm, charming. I love cats as well. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]


Are Tolkien's letters published in book form? and is it still available to buy?

[Nar]

Yes, Tolkien's letters are published by Houghton-Mifflin, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien,edited by Humphrey Carpenter (with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien) latest edition 2000. I bought them at Barnes & Noble, but I don't often see them there.

There is an onslaught of all kinds of material, but I loved every bit. Generally, the beginning deals with Tolkien's worries about the war and his son, with a lovely letter imagining Christopher's guarian angel, (Letters # 89) then the back and forth of trying to get LotR published-- which almost didn't happen. Perish the thought.

From about the second third of the book onward the letters deal more and more with Tolkien's explanations about LotR and plans for the Silmarillion-- this is where people go for many of the Letters quotes used to answer questions.

Towards the end there are some hilarious rants about a horrible animation movie (I wonder if it was ever done? That wasn't the Bakshi, was it? They had Lorien as a Disney castle and everyone in the fellowship flying about on eagles, and I'm pretty sure I'd remember that if it was in the Bakshi version. I remember the Balrog all right!) (sorry, I can't find the letter #) There are also some very funny rants about interviews, horrid allegorical interpretations of LotR, horrid translations, and so forth. This is where Tolkien says no to LotR names for cats, but helpfully makes up some elvish names for a reader's herd of cows, after kindly giving her permission to name it the Rivendell Herd, though he doubted Rivendell would have been suitable for pasture. I love those letters. (Letters #342,345)

If you want to read writing at all reminiscent of Gandalf, with his cranky wit and underlying kindness, this is your best hope.

[Aosama, the Wandering Star]

Frodo as Bingo??? Trotter the Ranger Hobbit???
Where do you people get these books?
I prefered Aragorn as Trotter's replacement, though (the multi-race thing comes to mind, and the dominence of Men). But I'd really like to pick up a copy of "The History of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the Shadow" and "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien". Hmm, now I know what to ask for for my birthday! Sam's kids quarrelling sounds funny, and not unlike them, as I think of them. We barely hear much about younger hobbits, and it'd be interesting to hear what they'd be like (given Merry is 18 at the party, and his very polite dealing with the S-Bs, I'd say very mature).

[Birdland]

To add a quote from Tolkien's Letters, he numbered cats among "the fauna of Mordor".

Hmmmmph!! I must remember to name my next cat "Reuel". [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[Frodo Baggins]

Why, pray tell, did Tolkien number cats in the "fauna of Mordor"????

[Halfir]

I am very much down on my knees thanking the One that we avoided having a hobbit Trotter, along with a Bingo -Bolger Baginns et.al. What is interesting, I think, is that when you read the earlier drafts and then see the names that Tolkien unltimately settled upon, the 'rightness'of that final choice shines through. Ultimately that 'philological nose' that had stood him in such good stead won through.