@prekliata-bryndza I Realize What Gets To Me About Elrond As Specifically The Minstrel Of Gil-galad.

Cartographic Practices in Arda: Hobbits

[overthinking fantasy cartography series: Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Men]

o   We know Sam isn’t much for geography - “maps conveyed nothing to Sam’s mind” - but Frodo studied Elrond’s maps in Rivendell, as did Merry, and both made sense of them; so if hobbits do use maps, they may use similar techniques or representation practices to the Elves, and their maps would be mutually intelligible

o   Hobbits do not seem to travel much beyond the Shire, nor need to know much outside its borders. Merry and Pippin, however, who do travel quite a lot back to the south in the Fourth Age, could expand hobbit cartography and place the Shire within a broader political and geographic context. Whether this knowledge is spread among the hobbits more generally, hard to say

The sparse and stylized map given in The Hobbit might be a fair in-world depiction of the limits of hobbits’ grasp of geography, gained through rare instances like Bilbo’s travels

If Merry and Pippin do contribute to updated maps (Merry more likely than Pippin, I imagine), they might well incorporate mapping practices, place names, and territorial divisions according to the realms they serve (so, situating the Shire as an autonomous region within the reunited Arnor-Gondor realm, and adopting Men’s cartographic practices)

Such maps would be more useful to outsiders adding the Shire into their spatial conception of Middle-earth; I doubt they would be much used in the Shire itself

o   Hobbit cartography would relate to land use primarily, I think, mostly agriculture; towns and land tenure would also be noted, since their class structure seems based on land ownership (even though the mechanisms of land acquisition or means of wealth accumulation are murky - they aren’t feudal lords; they aren’t collecting tribute from workers, but plainly there *are* workers and landed gentry, so ??? how did that develop??)

Though, if property arrangements are fairly stable and inherited, and everyone knows which hobbits belong where, is it even necessary to make formal maps of this? Might not customary boundaries just be common knowledge and maybe marked on the ground itself, but hobbits wouldn’t need maps for it?

If they did make physical maps, there would probably be notations for social establishments – taverns, inns, etc. Beyond the borders of the shire, Bree might be the last place actually marked. Again, though, these are the kinds of spatial relations I think would be negotiated in real time through spatial practice, but not recorded cartographically

I suppose given the Sackville-Baggins’s coveting of Bag End, property disputes may be a thing, and being able to assert recorded land claims might be useful - so records of property ownership might be cartographically relevant

o   Beyond such record-keeping, though, I think hobbits wouldn’t really need or make maps unless engaging with outsiders – they know their territory, they understand the rules of ~property ownership~ (historically inexplicable as it is to me) and whatever implicit spatial boundaries or sites of importance exist across the Shire. There might be casually-made “maps” for basic wayfinding if one had to travel to a distant village, but I doubt anyone’s making the type of formal or standardized maps for territorial governance that might be used by a more established state and military - which the Shire lacks, of course (and good for them)

we all have a limit to the bad things characters can do until we're not comfortable liking them but tbh some of you are just super fucking boring

I'm going to learn to make lactose free, extra spice eggnog. I'm done with the super sweet stuff with just a hint of nutmeg that they sell at my grocery store. A small sack of nutmeg is no longer worth enough to set you up for life!!! Give me more!!!

Too much praying directly to the Valar and not enough praying to their Maiar for their intercession

[ID: screenshot of a tag by tolkien-feels that says, "eol about maeglin".

End ID.]

my beautiful infant son Untitled Document

Bilbo Baggins has ADHD! It says in the first chapter of The Hobbit that he didn’t remember things well unless he wrote them down! – Absolutely! He also:

randomly bursts into song

is driven by his emotions and impulses

took like 70 years to write a book

his mind works in ways that other people don’t follow easily

talks too much and has no idea that his listeners aren’t into it because he’s so into it

h y p e r f i x a t i o n

I can’t write these scenes bro I just can’t

[ID: a black and white one-panel comic featuring a displeased Lobelia Sackville-Baggins in the foreground washing dishes in Bag End and Lotho Sackville-Baggins in the background moving a box. In the top left corner is written "Bag End, September 24, S. R. 1418" End ID] I love it!!! Thank you!!!

Here’s my @officialtolkiensecretsanta​ 2020 gift for @penelopes-poppies​! She wanted a character-motivation study so I was planning to write a fic but unfortunately I’m having a health problem that’s making it difficult to type comfortably for long stretches; however, she did also mention the idea of Lobelia and Lotho Sackville-Baggins rolling into Bag End after Frodo leaves for Buckland…and finding a ton of disorganization and dirty dishes to do! So here’s a little cartoon of that. (Lobelia is doing the dishes because Lotho is one of those guys who’s semi-deliberately inept at housework so mommy dearest will do it for him–poor Lobelia!)

Merry Christmas, @penelopes-poppies​!

Half of reading silmarillion fanfiction is getting annoyed that your favourite elf is being characterised wrong, and then realising said elf is only mentioned by name 9 times in the entire silmarillion and the version of them you've created in their head is not in fact their actual character

my therapist: ancient greek man-faced crab drachma isn't real, it can't hurt you

ancient greek man-faced crab drachma: