Where do Pippins come from? Also: herbs
A minor canon question :in the "Three's Company" chapter of FotR, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin are travelling east through the Green Hills toward Woody- End, and at one point, they see this:
In front of them they saw the lower lands dotted with small clumps of trees that melted away in the distance to a brown woodland haze. They were looking across the Woody End towards the Brandywine River. The road wound away before them like a piece of string.
"The road goes on for ever," said Pippin; 'but I can't without a rest. It is high time for lunch." He sat down on the bank at the side of the road and looked away east into the haze, beyond which lay the River, and the end of the Shire in which he had spent all his life.
Well, hmmm. Has Pippin spent ALL his life in the Eastfarthing? That would be peculiar, because Tuckborough of course is to the West. In RotK, when Pip gives an account of himself to Bergil, he says this:
My father farms the lands round Whitwell near Tuckborough in the Shire. I am nearly twenty-nine, so I pass you there; though I am but four feet, and not likely to grow any more, save sideways.
Erm, theories? Was Pippin in fosterage at Brandy Hall all his life? Was Pippin the unacknowledged love child of Saradoc? Was Tolkien, um, not paying attention? Does anyone know of any place in HoME or the Letters where this is addressed? (ETA: Several commenters have proposed that Tolkien meant "end" as in "border of the Shire as a whole" rather than "end" as in "quarter or part" (as in Woody End). This might resolve the issue but makes the next sentence puzzling, where Tolkien goes on to describe Sam as awed by the totally unfamiliar landscape before him.)
Also, herbs. If you use herbs in your fics, check this out this cool source (from around 1900) on their putative medicinal properties:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/comindx.html
Worth reading just for the names of the herbs. Consider for example all the alternate names for heartsease: "Wild Pansy. Love-Lies-Bleeding. Love-in-Idleness. Live-in-Idleness. Loving Idol. Love Idol. Cull Me. Cuddle Me. Call-me-to-you. Jackjump-up-and-kiss-me. Meet-me-in-the-Entry. Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery. Three-Faces-under-a-Hood. Kit-run-in-the-Fields. Pink-o'-the-Eye. Kit-run-about. Godfathers and Godmothers. Stepmother. Herb Trinitatis. Herb Constancy. Pink-eyed-John. Bouncing Bet. Flower o'luce. Bird's Eye. Bullweed. (Anglo-Saxon) Banwort, Banewort."
Ooooh, Banewort! Sounds Orcish to me. On the other hand "Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery" does NOT sound Orcish: "Seizing him roughly Ugluk pulled him into a sitting position, and tore the bandage off his head. Then he smeared the wound with some Kiss-her-in-the-buttery out of a small wooden box. Merry cried out and struggled wildly."
No. Not Orcish. Banewort would definitely work better there.
In front of them they saw the lower lands dotted with small clumps of trees that melted away in the distance to a brown woodland haze. They were looking across the Woody End towards the Brandywine River. The road wound away before them like a piece of string.
"The road goes on for ever," said Pippin; 'but I can't without a rest. It is high time for lunch." He sat down on the bank at the side of the road and looked away east into the haze, beyond which lay the River, and the end of the Shire in which he had spent all his life.
Well, hmmm. Has Pippin spent ALL his life in the Eastfarthing? That would be peculiar, because Tuckborough of course is to the West. In RotK, when Pip gives an account of himself to Bergil, he says this:
My father farms the lands round Whitwell near Tuckborough in the Shire. I am nearly twenty-nine, so I pass you there; though I am but four feet, and not likely to grow any more, save sideways.
Erm, theories? Was Pippin in fosterage at Brandy Hall all his life? Was Pippin the unacknowledged love child of Saradoc? Was Tolkien, um, not paying attention? Does anyone know of any place in HoME or the Letters where this is addressed? (ETA: Several commenters have proposed that Tolkien meant "end" as in "border of the Shire as a whole" rather than "end" as in "quarter or part" (as in Woody End). This might resolve the issue but makes the next sentence puzzling, where Tolkien goes on to describe Sam as awed by the totally unfamiliar landscape before him.)
Also, herbs. If you use herbs in your fics, check this out this cool source (from around 1900) on their putative medicinal properties:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/comindx.html
Worth reading just for the names of the herbs. Consider for example all the alternate names for heartsease: "Wild Pansy. Love-Lies-Bleeding. Love-in-Idleness. Live-in-Idleness. Loving Idol. Love Idol. Cull Me. Cuddle Me. Call-me-to-you. Jackjump-up-and-kiss-me. Meet-me-in-the-Entry. Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery. Three-Faces-under-a-Hood. Kit-run-in-the-Fields. Pink-o'-the-Eye. Kit-run-about. Godfathers and Godmothers. Stepmother. Herb Trinitatis. Herb Constancy. Pink-eyed-John. Bouncing Bet. Flower o'luce. Bird's Eye. Bullweed. (Anglo-Saxon) Banwort, Banewort."
Ooooh, Banewort! Sounds Orcish to me. On the other hand "Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery" does NOT sound Orcish: "Seizing him roughly Ugluk pulled him into a sitting position, and tore the bandage off his head. Then he smeared the wound with some Kiss-her-in-the-buttery out of a small wooden box. Merry cried out and struggled wildly."
No. Not Orcish. Banewort would definitely work better there.