The Moral Economy of the Shire
Who paid for this? There’s a certain meme that I see making the rounds on Facebook every so often about the bucolic nature of life in the Shire, from Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord o…
An interesting analysis of Tolkein's descriptions of Hobbits. Quite a lot of quotes/citations. It really cuts through the whole "hobbits are anarchists" theory.
So, what does this all mean? There is an unfortunate tendency for these sorts of essays to be framed as REVEALING THE SURPRISINGLY DARK HIDDEN REALITY OF THE SHIRE or whatever, which is not the point I’m trying to make.
Haha
Bilbo and Frodo were literal kulaks while Merry and Pippin came from kulak clans. Sam was a textbook class traitor.
Good article but misses one thing, the shire can have a large agricultural surplus because the hobbits are smol beans with probably a third the caloric needs of humans yet still grow the same sized crops
But what about second breakfast?
