Proverbs of Middle Earth

On Starting Out

It's a dangerous business going out of your door.
You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet,
there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

BILBO

One always wants to start a new project (be it a blog, a Quest, or whatever) in a blaze of glory amid the fanfare of trumpets, and that's sometimes fitting, but usually it's more of a case of taking that first step.

On September 23rd, the hobbits stepped into the Road.

Concerning Hobbits

The Holbytlan haven't been around long enough for a mature wisdom tradition to describe them.  But Gandalf's axiomatic language leaps into the void.  Since we usually see Middle Earth through the hobbits' eyes, we forget how anomalous they are to everyone else.  These descriptions help.

Hobbits really are amazing creatures.
You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month,
and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.
GANDALF

Soft as butter [hobbits] can be, and yet sometimes as tough as old tree roots.
GANDALF

The Bagginses

 

Bilbo was a one-off.  And then, so was Frodo.  It is no surprise that Hobbiton and Bywater look up at the Hill with distrust and a shaking-of-the-head: the Bagginses are exceptions to the rule.  The Shire is not the sort of society which encourages quirky individuality or ostentation - everyone has their place and should stick to it, not rock the boat.

Boats are quite tricky enough for those that sit still.
GAFFER

It will have to be paid for.
HOBBITS

Bag End's a queer place, and its folk are queerer.
SANDYMAN

Even the Gaffer, though close to and trusting of the Bagginses, is uncomfortable with his son becoming more than their employee.

Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters.
GAFFER

It is advice that Bilbo could well have been advised to take, had something Tookish not woken up inside him, once upon a time.

On Advice

Go not to the Elves for advice, for they will say both no and yes.
FRODO

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise,
and all courses may run ill.
GILDOR

On The World

The wide world is all about you:
you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
GILDOR

All’s well as ends well;
though perhaps we should not say that 'till we reach our own doors.
FARMER MAGGOT

September 25: The hobbits, now in Crickhollow, unmask their conspiracy and prepare to leave the Shire - their oasis is no longer any protection, and the only course of action available is the most dangerous.

Gildor's words from the previous night ring true, as, unwittingly, do those of Farmer Maggot, who was not to know just how long it would be before the hobbits finally would reach their own doors.

On the Wild

When pools are black and trees are bare, ‘tis evil in the wild to fare.
BILBO

On Sun & Shadow

Make haste while the Sun shines!
GOLDBERRY

Some things are ill to hear when the world's in shadow.
TOM BOMBADIL

The emphasis on light and darkness in Middle Earth is more than symbolism; to the characters, the physical world reflects a reality deeper than mere colour:

The Dark Lord, the Black Land, the Black Riders, the Mountains of Shadow.
The White Council, the White Rider, the White Tree, the White Lady.
The Star-Glass, the Evenstar, Gilgalad ('Starlight'), Elanor (the 'Sun-Star').

At Bree

September 29, and the hobbits have arrived in Bree-land.

One thing drives out another.
BUTTERBUR

It never rains but it pours.
BUTTERBUR

Bree is a crossing point, where the Greenway (joining Arnor to Gondor, via Tharbad, Dunland, and Rohan) met the Great East Road (traversed by the Elves of Lindon, Rivendell and Mirkwood, as well as the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and the East).

It had been under the authority of the Numenorean kings of Arnor, but retained little of that high culture, having been settled by lesser men and by hobbits.

It might have been expected that such an ethnic and geographical meeting place would provide the perfect opportunity for the accumulated wisdoms of Middle Earth to combine and meld into something High, but almost the opposite is the case.

What’s done can’t be undone.
BUTTERBUR

There’s no accounting for East or West.
BUTTERBUR

The wisdom and consequent sayings of the Breelanders are almost entirely practical, functional, and run-of-the-mill, and the general attitude to the Outside World is one of bemusement and shoulder-shrugging wonder, mixed with distrust of what their ears pick up.  News is plentiful, but the men and hobbits of Bree are more concerned with day-to-day functionality than with great things, even though they can 'see through a wall, in time'.

If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be.

ARAGORN

On Strider

Folk are not always what they seem.
PIPPIN

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.
ARAGORN

Handsome is as handsome does.
PIPPIN

Aragorn is emblematic of the paradoxical nature of reality in Middle Earth: the heir of kings whose looks are against him, he fails to impress, his sword is broken, his clothes are stained and worn.  But handsome is as handsome does, as Bilbo recognised in his poem of proverbs:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

The Good Life

Apples for walking, and a pipe for smoking.
SAM