[Ania]

Is it just me, or do people generally prefer to avoid hobbit fics and tend more towards elves? I know that elves are generally preferred, but I was wondering, why are hobbit fics gnerally avoided by so many?

[sindohte]

When I first started reading LOTR fanfic, I was just simply amazed by the amount of Frodo-Sam pairings. Not that I don't love a good slash fic, but that seemed to be the primary Hobbit romantic pairing. Certainly there are enough Aragorn-Legolas fics out there, but I didn't find them out there to the same extent. So that was one reason I veered towards reading het stories about Elves and men.

Another reason I have generally avoided Hobbit-fic is that in the stories that I did read which did not feature a slash romance, Frodo always seemed to be portrayed as this whiny, ball-less wonder who was SUFFERING from the terrible burden of the RING. Certainly the age of writer would play a role in that younger writers seemed to play up the angst component of Frodo's suffering to the point it was ridiculous. And then the noble Sam had to take care of poor, pathetic Frodo, which seemed like self-insertion to me. Certainly there is a lot of self-insertion going on with Legomances, but I would rather read about Legolas getting a girl vs. Sam playing caretaker to Frodo.

As I have continued read fanfic and also started reading some of Tolkien's other work, I made the conscious decision to focus primarily on Elves. I did this because of the sheer size of the Tolkien literature. I want to nail down as much knowledge as I can about the Elves before I start branching out into other areas. As it is right now, I still cannot recite the names of the 7 sons of Feanor from memory And if I cannot do that yet, I sure as heck do not want to tangle with trying to learn and remember the lineages of the Brandybuck family for example.

I am not saying that I would turn up my nose at a good Hobbit fic. And as I get to the point where I am happy with my level of knowledge about Elves, I will then have the time to devote more attention to Hobbits.

[Ania]

I know what you mean, I recently attempted to write a fic on hobbits and the time I spent researching the lineage was quite extensive, but upon sifting through all the appendicies and other books I have, I found that there is generally a lot more information concerning the elves.

[SilverMoonLady]

Welcome, precious, to a tiny corner of LOTR fanfic: decent hobbit-centric het. There are not many of us out there, but the good stuff does exist. Why there is less of that than elf-related fic (good and bad, serious and fluff) is a mystery, though there is some effect from the presence of a certain fangirl-drawing archer
Certainly, hobbits are neither tall nor necessarily *desperately* beautiful/handsome, unlike the ethereal, by-definition gorgeous elves. There just isn't the same 'mystique' about the Little Folk. The lineages are an awful lot of fun (or work) but there is a lot one can do within that framework, or even outside of it. A decent quest-time fic needn't even touch on that detail of their lives.
I am also very turned off by the whimpy MovieFrodo that seems to dominate fanfic right now, and that has made me steer clear of that particular hobbit until recently. (Check out bagendwest.net for an excellent batch of Frodo-centric fic as well as good recs for many others, even a few non-hobbit centric ones)
A lot of hobbit-fic is bad for the same reasons elf-fics are bad: careless authoring, immaturity of the writer, one-note characters, etc. But there is an additional handicap here: hobbits can, and often are perceived as childish/child-like (Pippin is the worst victim of this) or as drunken and childish (thanks PJ )
But I could easily ride this soapbox forever <<*avowed PHF* In any case, we *need* more more MORE good hobbit fic! The Ringbearer and his kin deserve the same care and attention Elrond's gorgeous twins do! Write us the Frodo that saved the world, honey, and our cheering section, small as it might be, will be waiting open-armed!
Hey, we've got good ale and seedcakes and mushrooms!

[BittenBuggy]

[SilverMoonLady]

Hehehe... *rubs her hands*

Thank you dearie:) Too darn tall for me anyways...



You know though that it *is* possible for things to get a little scary even in the most peaceful looking places, right? And that for all their simplicity and love of 'quiet and good-tilled earth' hobbits are people, and they are as varied as you and I, and dare I say it, as elves are too. Just a thought....

[Viv]

I love hobbit-het and have read some very impressive ones here (stories by Pearl Took and ArielArat pop right to mind).

However, I never write the stuff. Hobbits are English: they have English habits and speaking patterns and mannerisms. As a non-English person, I'd have to do a lot of work to ramp up on all that stuff, and it would probably come off badly anyway. This is the same reason I don't write Harry Potter fic. A girl just needs to know her limitations (or recognize that she's too durn lazy to make up the difference).

[Ariel]

Well, anyone who wants to write them, please, be my guest. I am ALWAYS on the lookout for new stuff.

While no one can truly influence the fic preferences of another, there are some historic (and social) reasons for the lack of good hobbit het. One problem has been the perceived lack of quality of het in general (thanks to many poor quality MS’s) and the enormous popularity and growth of F/S. It seems to have become the general consensus that hobbit het=bad, hobbit slash=good, and so even people writing good quality het pieces find their work dismissed, overlooked or assumed to be poor quality because of this commonly held belief.

Though it is only my opinion, I do think that the lack of hits, reviews or commentary on a particular genre of work over time discourages authors from writing it. From what I have personally seen hobbit het gets far fewer hits than man or elf het or hobbit slash.

In actual fact, hobbit het can be hot, brilliant, heart wrenching and as skillfully written as any other genre but it is handicapped by a well-entrenched prejudice. Until there is a ‘market’ for it, and the MS stigma is removed, few people are going to write it. If you like to read these kinds of stories, (there are a few pieces right here on OS) or even if you are curious why the genre is so sparse, seek them out and comment on the pieces you find. Those few of us ((((SilverMoonLady)))) who do write it will greatly appreciate it.

In case you want to see a hobbit het piece that isn't droll or boring, stodgy or whatever the elf folks think hobbits are, may I respectfully suggest the following piece?

http://www.west-of-the-moon.net/servlet/ReadGenStory?storyID=262

It is probably the most hysterically funny (and HOT) hobbit het piece I have ever read.


Ariel

[SilverMoonLady]

[GypsieRose]

Speaking on behalf of both myself and my writing partner, the main focus for the two of us is neither Elves nor Hobbits; we like the Men, specifically Aragorn (Gypsie) and the Stewards (Rose).

In my experience, every Tolkien site has its own mix of Hobbit fans, Elf fans, and fans of Men (with varying sprinkles of people who like Dwarves, Orcs, Ents, Valar, or whatever). The mix determines the "flavor" of the site. This place seems to have a healthy representation of both Elf fans and Men fans, but somewhat less for Hobbit fans. This may be due in part to the fact that there are fewer Hobbit het writers, as Ariel suggests; I don't really know.

But yes, there is excellent Hobbit het out there--I've seen some of it. I've just started "Too Many Tooks," the story Ariel recommended, and WOW! *fans self* And then there's Ariel's own work, which can be found on this site, as well as the Seasons in the Shire trilogy by Aratlithiel (co-written with Ariel and MBradford). I'll have to check out your work, SilverMoonLady!

It would be nice to see if there is a good way to attract more Hobbit het writers to the site, though. We should have a Hobbit sex challenge, or something...or maybe a more general challenge to write a sex story for a species you don't usually focus on...or would that be too vague? Could produce some interesting results, though! It is easy to get cozy in your own little niche, maybe a bit too cozy.

--Rose

[Andreth]

I like Hobbits as a culture and find them very interesting because of their eccentricities. Like everything else in Tolkien's world, they're a lot more complex than people think and once you start reading the behind the scenes stuff in HoMe and Letters that's pretty easy to see.

I don't mind Hobbit het and have actually found a few stories that I enjoyed reading. But I'm like Sindohte and had gotten put off by Hobbit stories because it seemed like every one I found was either showing Frodo and Sam in some codependent , angst-ridden relationship, or showing one of the four Hobbits with someone like Boromir or Aragorn and all I could think of was 'yuck!' and 'ouch!'.

Also the fact that everyone tends to portray the Hobbits as they were in the movie and not as they were in the books puts me off as well. Sam did support him and Frodo certainly wouldn't have succeeded without him, but they weren't like a couple of women on Oprah or something. Sitting around and crying every few seconds and carrying on in typical drama-queen fashion. Frodo was a strong, intelligent individual who was an adventurer and very unusual as Hobbits go, and Sam was a character who surprised people with the deep wells of strength and wisdom he had beneath his simple surface. I've read very few stories that even begin to scratch the surface of what their characters really were.

Okay, off my soapbox (I won't even get started on Merry or Pippin ) and I'll just say that Hobbit culture is a lot more interesting than people give it credit for. There are quite a few authors on this site, though, that do a remarkable job with portraying Hobbits. cough*silvermoonlady*cough.

While I'm thinking about it, have any of you Hobbit fanciers read the Epilogues in the HoMe volume Sauron Defeated? I had forgotten about it until I read through it again last week. It's Sam and Elanor discussing different things like Frodo, Ents, Celeborn, the King's Letter (where the line 'Now we have all got Elvish names!' comes from) and it was very sweet because Sam calls Elanor 'Elanorellë' throughout the discussion.

But the point of my ramblings was that what I really liked was what was originally intended to be the last few paragraphs of the Return of the King:

"Master Samwise stood at the door and looked away eastward. He drew Mistress Rose to him, and set his arm about her.

'March the twenty-fifth!' he said. 'This day seventeen years ago, Rose wife, I didn't think I should ever see thee again. But I kept on hoping.'

'I never hoped at all, Sam,' she said, 'not until that very day; and then suddenly I did. About noon it was, and I felt so glad that I began singing. And mother said: "Quiet, lass! There's ruffians about." And I said: "Let them come! Their time will soon be over. Sam's coming back." And you came.'

'I did,' said Sam. 'To the most belovedest place in all the world. To my Rose and my garden.'

They went in, and Sam shut the door. But even as he did so, he heard suddenly, deep and unstilled, the sign and murmur of the Sea upon the shores of Middle-earth."

I always thought that it was so romantic that Rosie had such a connection with Sam that she knew when the Ring was destroyed (March 25th around noon) and she knew in her heart that Sam was coming back. Also that Sam stayed there in Middle-earth until after Rosie died, even though he was being pulled by the call of the Sea. I think Hobbit-love is just as romantic as Men or Elf-love.


Anna

[GypsieRose]

[Ariel]

[SilverMoonLady]

[SilverMoonLady]