#gaffer gamgee

hobbit jacket wip!!!

not connected to any canon lore but the flowers are slightly my interpretation of the garden at Bag End :)

They hammered on the outer gate and called, but there was at first no answer; and then to their surprise someone blew a horn, and the lights in the windows went out. A voice shouted in the dark: 'Who's that? Be off! You can't come in. Can't you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise? ' 'Of course we can't read the notice in the dark,' Sam shouted back. 'And if hobbits of the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I'll tear down your notice when I find it.'

Oh Sam, never change!

Bill Ferny flinched and shuffled to the gate and unlocked it. 'Give me the key!' said Merry. But the ruffian flung it at his head and then darted out into the darkness. As he passed the ponies one of them let fly with his heels and just caught him as he ran. He went off with a yelp into the night and was never heard of again. 'Neat work, Bill,' said Sam, meaning the pony.

Neat work, indeed!

'Very well, Mr. Baggins,' said the leader, pushing the barrier aside. 'But don't forget I've arrested you.' 'I won't,' said Frodo. 'Never. But I may forgive you.'

How very magnanimous of Frodo! (Honorary mention: the 'Who's arrested who' bit.)

'It takes a lot o' believing,' said the Gaffer, 'though I can see he's been mixing in strange company. What's come of his weskit? I don't hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.'

Another perennial Gaffer Gamgee Classic!

There was some discussion of the name that the new row should be given. Battle Gardens was thought of, or Better Smials. But after a while in sensible hobbit-fashion it was just called New Row. It was a purely Bywater joke to refer to it as Sharkey's End.

“Yes it is – a tidy way. I’ve never been so far meself.”

Telling a being from Mordor, who was once some great king or noble or sorceror, that a place within a day’s ride is far away.

“They’re queer folks in Buckland.”

To an undead spirit: “yeah, those guys over there” – other hobbits with the same society and very slightly different customs – “are total weirdos”

“Why? Why’s none of my business, or yours.”

I know most of the Hobbit actors are now too old to reprise their roles accurately, but you know a solution to that? Flashbacks! Have the pitch being the older Pippin, Merry and Sam telling the stories of the Scouring of the Shire to their children and or other companions-- Having younger, similar looking actors play them in the flashback sequence. Which makes sense, as it's just the form of a memory--

And this within itself brings up a myriad of different elements at play too. Different perspectives. Different hobbit family members being introduced. Fatty Bolger lovers! He'd be included too! His sister Estella too (she later became Merry's wife after all!)

What truly happens when lands so fair and peaceful, never having to see war in ages, are suddenly ravaged by brutal violence? How do Hobbits, who once lived very simple lives, then force themselves to become warriors and heroes? How do they then recover to semi-normalcy? And in present day... have they ever truly come to said normalcy?

All the fun-loving hobbit content combined with the very real level of a Hobbit who has seen war, describing its reality, and recovery, to his children. While yes, the actual "scouring" would have ended with the Battle of Bywater, that's not where the actual story ends, as the title has a double meaning. The physical Scouring of the Shire... as well as the scars left behind not only on our heros, but on the land. How does one, after seeing death, manage to make home feel like home again?

I get the overwhelming impression that Sam is actually from an abusive relationship. The only one who was nice to him was Bilbo, who let him in and taught him to read, no doubt despite Gaffer expressing that that's wasted on Sam. That probably also led to Sam being included in Frodo's friend group despite being the only one not from an extremely privileged position (to be honest, I am not sure about Fatty Bolgor).

Sam is pretty intelligent (though he doesn't have all the wisdom and knowledge of Frodo, likely thamks to being working class and not having the time, and also being younger), he is courageous, strong, talented and a poet in his own right, but he never for a second believes in himself, and it all seems to stem from his father's mistreatment. The fact thatvhe even tries poetry no doubt comes from Blbo, too.