LOTR Re-Read Running Thoughts - Bombadil
Apr. 4th, 2026 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingi(I mentioned last post that East-Farthing folk tend to use "funny" instead of "queer," but this was apparently a fluke. Merry is back to calling things "queer" and so do people in Bree.)
I understand why Peter Jackson cut out the Tom Bombadil. In addition to all the singing, it's one of the most digressive parts of LOTR, as it focuses very little on anything to do with the Ring (not nothing, but little). I had forgotten that Tom not only bursts into song a lot but talks almost entirely in meter. It is interesting, though, that he drops out of meter in the paragraph where he's talking about how old he is/how he predates the coming of Morgoth.
I had also forgotten that when the hobbits are cavorting naked on the Barrow Downs, it's actually only three of them cavorting naked. Frodo never loses his clothes, which is handy for him--and possibly, in universe, the hand of God--because he could have lost the Ring right there. This means, however, he owes us a naked scene, which he will give us later on.
Accents
At Bree, the gatekeeper identifies Frodo as being from the Shire by the way he talks, which I take to mean his accent because there aren't any obvious dialectical markers in his words (that I see).
This raises a thorny problem for LOTR adaptation or just reading aloud: what on earth is one to do about all the accents that would logically exist? Traditionally, (ex. BBC radio) readings have gone for elevated RP unless the lines show non-standard dialect markers. That's how I grew up and is my happy place, but I admit it doesn't make sense, and the Bree line suggests it's not reflective of Tolkien's intent. Jackson did possibly as well as one could with this, having subtle alterations between more British and more American across different groups. But I do find it weird that there's more accent variation among three hobbit cousins than across the whole rest of Middle-earth. Elves, to date, seem to always come out elevated RP, and Rings of Power got slammed for this--unfairly, I think, as it's just doing what everyone else has done and clearly did put some thought into accents. But it's a fair point that Elves are speaking a foreign language when speaking the Common Tongue, so it might make sense to have them sound foreign, relative to English. All in all, I don't have the perfect answer and would love to hear others' views.
I understand why Peter Jackson cut out the Tom Bombadil. In addition to all the singing, it's one of the most digressive parts of LOTR, as it focuses very little on anything to do with the Ring (not nothing, but little). I had forgotten that Tom not only bursts into song a lot but talks almost entirely in meter. It is interesting, though, that he drops out of meter in the paragraph where he's talking about how old he is/how he predates the coming of Morgoth.
I had also forgotten that when the hobbits are cavorting naked on the Barrow Downs, it's actually only three of them cavorting naked. Frodo never loses his clothes, which is handy for him--and possibly, in universe, the hand of God--because he could have lost the Ring right there. This means, however, he owes us a naked scene, which he will give us later on.
Accents
At Bree, the gatekeeper identifies Frodo as being from the Shire by the way he talks, which I take to mean his accent because there aren't any obvious dialectical markers in his words (that I see).
This raises a thorny problem for LOTR adaptation or just reading aloud: what on earth is one to do about all the accents that would logically exist? Traditionally, (ex. BBC radio) readings have gone for elevated RP unless the lines show non-standard dialect markers. That's how I grew up and is my happy place, but I admit it doesn't make sense, and the Bree line suggests it's not reflective of Tolkien's intent. Jackson did possibly as well as one could with this, having subtle alterations between more British and more American across different groups. But I do find it weird that there's more accent variation among three hobbit cousins than across the whole rest of Middle-earth. Elves, to date, seem to always come out elevated RP, and Rings of Power got slammed for this--unfairly, I think, as it's just doing what everyone else has done and clearly did put some thought into accents. But it's a fair point that Elves are speaking a foreign language when speaking the Common Tongue, so it might make sense to have them sound foreign, relative to English. All in all, I don't have the perfect answer and would love to hear others' views.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-05 09:05 am (UTC)I may have read different discussions than you, but I saw ROP being slammed not for making the Elves speak RP as such, but for how they used other accents, Irish especially, and the contrast that set up with RP-speaking Elves. It seems to have caused real offence in Ireland, at least for some viewers. (Jackson has been criticized for some of his choices, too, since.) It is a tricky issue to deal with in any adaptation, where you are dealing with the social implications of real-world accents.
For the book, on the other hand, theoretically it is all translated from Westron and written down by Hobbits, so I guess you would not really expect all dialect markers and accents to be reflected completely accurately? It is more of a flavour that is given.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-05 03:11 pm (UTC)Wow, it all goes to show how fraught the English language is. There's no "neutral" position on it, just as there's no neutral position on race in a racist world.