I had never smelled pipe smoke before this encounter and I was enchanted by both the smell and the aesthetics of the pipe's shape and the way the sweet smelling smoke curled around the smoker's head before dissipating in the air above. Pipe smoking is a methodical and thought provoking exercise and was beloved by many of the world's famous author's. Chesterton, Hemingway, Tennyson, Twain, Lewis and of course Tolkien all smoked a pipe. Because pipe smoking requires patience and forces a person to slow down, it would be the ideal break for a weary traveler living in Middle-earth.
Tolkien may have recorded hobbits as the inventors of smoking a leaf through a pipe because it was an activity that he himself cherished and thus wanted to incorporate it into his work. That it is mentioned throughout the entire LOTR, though, marks it as something possibly more significant.
Pipe smoking is a historic activity steeped in cultures throughout the world. Cultures smoked pipes to commemorate important events and truces. Tolkien's inclusion of this activity throughout the LOTR may have been a way of ingraining pipe smoking into his myth for England. What are your thoughts on pipe-weed and smoking in the LOTR?
-Vairë
2 comments:
I have always adored the use of pipe weed smoking in The Lord of the Rings for it made the characters more believable in the novel. You always read about spirits being drank in fiction but very rarely do they mention smoking. It really adds a believable quality to the characters, especially Merry and Pippin and Bilbo and Gandalf. Tolkien really knew how to make his stories seem more realistic with adding such minor yet wonderful elements into his writings. The one question I always wondered was whether or not it was weed or tobacco in the pipe weed for it would make perfect sense that if it was marijuana then we now know why the hobbits ate like 500 times a day. It would also explain their cheery demeanor and quiet life styles. So last thought, was it weed in the pipe weed, just saying, and just asking....
I like how you elaborated on a topic I think many write off! I think integrating the pipe-weed smoking was important in multiple ways. One way was that I think it helped Tolkien express his alignment with Hobbits as it is another commonality between the two. I agree with Nessa13 in that it helped make the characters more believable and relatable, but I think that it added an element of the fantastical. I have never smoked, but I love the aesthetic of pipes and learning that it takes time and skill to smoke a pipe only heightens my adoration! In my mind, someone smoking on a pipe is out of the ordinary, but not unbelievable. It holds a mystery and comfort, which I find is a good description of the Hobbits. They may seem simple and cozy, but the more the reader/the characters in the book interact with Hobbits, the more it is understood that they are anything but!
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