Happy Hobbit Day!
September 22, 2013 11:38 AM   Subscribe

Not only is today, September 22, the Autumnal Equinox it also happens to be Hobbit Day, the date Tolkien fans celebrate the shared birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins as well as Hobbit culture in general. So go around barefoot, or smoke some pipe-weed, but watch out for eating seven meals each day, because you know. . .

that kind of thing can be Hobbit-forming.
posted by Curious Artificer (35 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm favoriting this post just because of the more inside.
posted by hippybear at 11:39 AM on September 22, 2013 [21 favorites]


In honor of hobbit day I had like six mimosas at brunch and an entire basket worth of baked goods.

also because
posted by The Whelk at 11:42 AM on September 22, 2013 [10 favorites]


And don't forget the seed cake for your after dinner morsel!
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 11:43 AM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


Annual Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Burning Day.
posted by Artw at 11:51 AM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I totally had second breakfast this morning in honor of Hobbit Day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
posted by ambrosia at 11:53 AM on September 22, 2013


Today's FoxTrot marked the holiday as well, because Bill Amend is a big ol' nerd.
posted by dismas at 11:54 AM on September 22, 2013 [4 favorites]


Went for a hike (there and back again) this morning.

I have small patches of hair on the tops of my feet, and I did have that hippie barefoot phase in my early 20s. I am, however, over 6' tall, so I must have guzzled a ton of Ent-draught as a toddler.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:57 AM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


My daughter shares a birthday with Frodo and Bilbo. Sadly, because she stayed up sooooo late, she missed first and second breakfasts. I will make sure we have an appropriate luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper though.
posted by vespabelle at 12:00 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


you know about elevenses
posted by clavdivs at 12:03 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


It's six meals a day. Seven must be inflation.
posted by wilko at 12:07 PM on September 22, 2013


Pretty sure it's seven.
posted by hippybear at 12:13 PM on September 22, 2013


MetaFilter: I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
posted by sbutler at 12:17 PM on September 22, 2013 [28 favorites]


Pipe weed, you say? Only if the day ends in 'Y'.
posted by brand-gnu at 12:34 PM on September 22, 2013


The Prologue to 'Lord of the Rings' puts it: And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them).

Anyway, everyone should enjoy hobbit culture - if they can. There was this story a while back about it being viewed as subversive by the Kazakhstan authorities:
The most frequent form of harassment is less severe, said the 17-year-old Tolkienist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. She said Tolkien enthusiasts were stopped in the street and ordered to remove their costumes and surrender their rubber axes and home-made wooden swords.
posted by wilko at 12:38 PM on September 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


What are hobbits in Marxist terms, the petit bourgeois? Sauron is clearly haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie), owner of the means of production. According to R. J. B. Bosworth, the petit bourgeois were to become the political mainstay of Fascism in a terroristic response to the inevitable loss of power (economic, political, social) to the haute bourgeoisie. If Sauron won (inevitable according to Marxist theory), the Hobbits would turn fascist.
posted by stbalbach at 12:43 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was thinking of getting some pipe weed, but it turns out that I am a little short today.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:43 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


What are hobbits in Marxist terms, the petit bourgeois? Sauron is clearly haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie), owner of the means of production. According to R. J. B. Bosworth, the petit bourgeois were to become the political mainstay of Fascism in a terroristic response to the inevitable loss of power (economic, political, social) to the haute bourgeoisie. If Sauron won (inevitable according to Marxist theory), the Hobbits would turn fascist.

Well, when Sauron's agent took over the Shire, the hobbits became the struggling proletariat.

Happy birthday, Frodo and Bilbo!
posted by Atreides at 12:48 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


The hobbits are agrarian culture without land owners to which they must pay tribute. They are suspicious of those with wealth (although there are social climbers in their society, see Sacksville-Baggins). I don't think they really fit into Marxism very well.

Although, of course, Tolkien's writing was heavily influenced by his experiences in WWI, and so the hobbits represent an idyllic representation of rural england village life, Sauron represents destructive industrialization, humans represent the bourgeois who can be manipulated by powers, and elves represent... um... the aristocracy and the CoE?

I took a course on this stuff in college, but that was AGES ago.
posted by hippybear at 12:49 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


...and of six meals a day (when they could get them).

I used to have the trilogy (including the prologue and all the appendices) practically memorized, but I did not realize there had indeed been meal inflation in the Hobbit mythos.
posted by Curious Artificer at 12:56 PM on September 22, 2013


The Shire as a model for anarchy seems on the right lines to me.
posted by wilko at 12:57 PM on September 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


Pipe weed, you say? Only if the day ends in 'Y'.

/sticks on the Sabbath.
posted by Artw at 12:57 PM on September 22, 2013


This explains why I had that massive pizza today. The Ring made me do it!
posted by ersatz at 1:58 PM on September 22, 2013


One crust to rule them all
posted by The Whelk at 2:04 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Well, I have been smoking pipeweed, not trees, all day, and my fuzzy toes hate shoes, so you do the math. No big meals, but I have been snacking all day.
posted by Samizdata at 2:06 PM on September 22, 2013


I had so much champagne and pipeweed and delicius baked goodsthat I wrote a supernatural ficlet.

These things happen.
posted by The Whelk at 3:14 PM on September 22, 2013


I've started on the edited version of LOTR for my niece, but the date totally slipped my mind. 87 pages, 40-odd thousand words, and I'm almost to the end of Chapter 4 in Fellowship. This is clearly going to take a lot longer than I thought.

Frodo is an awesome girl, by the way.
posted by orrnyereg at 3:27 PM on September 22, 2013


Oh also, it's blindly obvious to me now, but watching the first LOTR movie it struck me how much of the movie's momentum comes from blind terror. Horrible things are after you! And you have no context! It's practically a horror movie.
posted by The Whelk at 3:30 PM on September 22, 2013


Houses of the Hobbit Diaspora
posted by homunculus at 3:58 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


No wonder I've been in such a foodie mood today.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:59 PM on September 22, 2013


Downing a fine ale right now, got turkey medallions and Tuscan PO-TAY-TOWS cooking, and a fine pie for dessert. Perfect for award show abominations. I need this considering how I am getting my ass kicked in the football pool today.
posted by Ber at 4:29 PM on September 22, 2013


And, to my ever eternal happiness, my birthday, despite the subterfuge in my profile. Hobbits unite!
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:00 PM on September 22, 2013


I had pie.

Pie is good.

Hobbits love pie.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:00 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


Don't forget the pie.
posted by The Whelk at 7:14 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Pie? No way I could eat pie. I stuffed in another cookie, and might not eat again until this date next year.
posted by Cranberry at 10:44 PM on September 22, 2013


I find it funny, while Tolkien is clearly a UK writer, and we have societies all over the place that it remains the Americans who celebrate things like Hobbit Day much harder then any others. Last year I was ask to do an interview on the radio to explain hobbit day. I'm into Tolkien for my whole life and actually had to look it up. Does it have to do with the fact that Americans just like to make 'days' for things or with the fact that the movies have been very "American" ... what is it I am pondering?!
posted by TolkienLibrary at 12:12 AM on September 26, 2013


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