Ponderables

[rabidsamfan]

If hobbits don't wear shoes or boots (except in rare instances) then why on earth does Sam sing about big Boots in the Troll Song, and why does he pack woolen hose?

And when Sam puts the Ring on and chases after the Orcs when they take Frodo, when does he take it off again? How many minutes/hours does Sam wear that thing, actually, and where was Gollum all that long time?

Why is it that I've never run across even one fic so far where Frodo starts out on the Quest properly hobbit-shaped, i.e. tubby in the tummy? And what happened to those rosy cheeks that Gandalf told Barliman about? Well, no I actually know the answers, don't I...

Comments

Re: Tom & his boots

[frodobaggins-88.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Frodo have an unnormal aversion to eating though? I thought it said somewhere that he didn't eat as much as everyone else. I don't know. Maybe I read it in a fic and got it stuck in my mind. Who knows? Maybe it just said he was more slender?

Re: Tom & his boots

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

In the book he starts out a little more portly and comments about losing weight during the trip to Rivendell with Strider. And it's Gandalf who described him as being "a stout little fellow with red cheeks" "taller than some and fairer than most, and he has a cleft in his chin; perky chap with a bright eye." Gandalf said that to Barliman Butterbeer, describing Frodo as he was just prior to setting out. I think Sam fusses at him about eating on the journey, and I know he was a lot thinner by the time he woke up in Rivendell, but whether or not two months of rest restored some of the weight is not made clear.

Sam, on the other hand, is described as "sturdy" and "brown" (probably from the sun), and his eyes are definitely brown.

To be honest, I'm not in the least offended by this omission in most fic, I just think it's funny.

Re: Tom & his boots

[eykar.livejournal.com]

Frodo's anorexia is a fanon entirely. I think it is based partly on Elijah Wood's computer-modified appearance and partly on the fact that most of us have been raised to find skinny feminine persons sexy.

Tolkien does not describe his characters physically except for a few symbolic features (e.g. tall and grey-eyed, meaning Numerorian) because he wants us to know them from within.

His one physical description of Frodo is Gandalf's to Barliman Butterbur: "A stout little fellow with red cheeks. That won't help you much, it goes for most hobbits, Barley. But this one is taller than some and fairer than most, and has a cleft in his chin; perky chap with a bright eye." This description rouses Sam's indignation but it isn't for Sam; it is meant to let a big person -- one of us -- recognize a particular hobbit.

On the quest, after months with little to eat, Sam thinks in his Frodo-centered way that Frodo has become too thin for a hobbit. A third party would have said the same of Sam, as both are subsisting on the same spare rations. When they are able to get a good meal on the quest, or even an adequate meal such as Faramir provides and which seems like a feast compared to what they've been living on, both hobbits fall seriously to eating in the manner of all hobbits.

In the later stages of the quest, while Frodo is entirely absorbed in fighting off the attacks of the Ring, Sam has make sure Frodo eats. This isn't anorexia on Frodo's part. He is too absorbed by the Ring and by trying to figure out a course to Mount Doom to think of anything else. On the other hand, Frodo might feel more hunger than he shows because he doesn't want Sam to give him all their small remaining stock of food and starve himself.

There is no record in the post-quest chapters that Frodo was in any way unwilling to eat. These chapters are less intimate and more publicly-focussed than the preceding few, however they do take note of Frodo's regularly-scheduled wounding anniversaries, his fear of being near Weathertop, etc. Since those signs of enduring damage are noted, so ought to be any others.

Back in the Shire, Sam's "vague anxiety" on Frodo's behalf concerns only his withdrawal from the life of the Shire. Nothing is noted about anorexia, nightmares, or any other of the dramatic manifestations so dear to the hearts of fanfic writers. If a hobbit didn't eat, any other hobbit would very likely be seriously alarmed, not vaguely anxious.

Based on what Tolkien wrote, Frodo has, in normal times, as healthy an appetite and rotund a shape as Bilbo before him or any other member of his species.

Re: Tom & his boots

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't think even the fanfic has him anorexic, at least not very often. Just slender enough to be noticeable.

I had a vague notion of a reference in Mordor somewhere, though, of Frodo forgetting to eat. But skimming through just now it strikes me how much Frodo is taking care of Sam -- making sure he eats and drinks before they leave the tower of Cirith Ungol, and taking his hand instead of the other way around when Sam tells him about Shelob and his other adventures.

*happy sigh*

Re: Tom & his boots

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Doublechecking -- Frodo probably has a strong Fallohidish strain, and the Fallohides were "taller and slimmer" as well as fairer of skin and hair than most hobbits. Sam's description as "brown" puts him among the Harfoots. (And Gollum, we know is a Stoor.)

Re: Tom & his boots

[frodobaggins-88.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You all know the books better than me, but then again I'm only to Cirith Ungol in TTT. Got a ways to go. And, eykar, I wasn't meaning anorexic, just to let you know. Rabidsamfan said what I meant. I think that whole skinny female stuff is way too much emphasized in Hollywood. I know I wouldn't want to be that skinny. I have no problem with a chunkier Frodo because I know how Hobbits are supposed to be.