Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week Five

[sigridhr]

 Epic Tolkien Bookclub: Week Five (The Hobbit)
Chapter IX: Barrels out of Bond
Chapter X: A Warm Welcome

Rules

I very much doubt we'll require much in the way of formal rules, but just for the sake of formality and clarity:

• Discussion is welcome and encouraged, as is disagreement. Name-calling and personal attacks will be punished by forcing you to read Evil!Thranduil Badfic for the rest of eternity. 
  
• There is no spoiler policy in place. Although we're reading the Hobbit, please feel free to bring in things from other Tolkien works, any of the films, the History of Middle Earth, the Letters of JRR Tolkien, and, if you should like, other literary sources. 
• There is no such thing as too much geekery. Or taking the text too seriously.  
• If you have any concerns at any point, I'm the closest thing this gong show has to a mod, so feel free to get in touch. I can be reached either by PM through this site, or directly by email at sigridhr.lokidottir@gmail.com. 

Discussion on this post will officially run from Friday 8th February 2013 to Friday 15th February 2013. However, the post will remain open after that point, so you're more than welcome to continue discussions on. 

Comments

[j_quadrifrons]

CRANNOGS ARE SO COOL you get WOOD and CLOTH and FUCKING AWESOMENESS

in one crannog they found the best collection ever of royal jewelry (and some dice and some wine bottles and some deer bones, sounds like a great night)

basically the ancient Irish were all "fuck this bog, imma build my house here anyway" and then they DID

I have a lot of feelings about Irish archaeology apparently

[sigridhr]

Yessssss. I think I read about that one. I wanted to work them into an essay of some kind, but I never got the chance. But I remember we did one class on them and I spent the entire time scribbling notes furiously because YES THEY COMPLETELY WERE LIKE SCREW YOU MOTHER NATURE IMMA BUILD MY HOUSE WHERE I LIKE. Bog stuff is the coolest stuff. I mean, you have crannogs with this fantastic preservation, and then you have freaky possibly sacrificial burial sites in bogs with also fantastic and creepy preservation.

Bogs are wicked cool.

[j_quadrifrons]

I took a class from the guy who excavated that crannog, I say as though I'm namedropping the president or some shit, I don't care he was awesome. Crannogs are awesome. Bogs are awesome.

(Did you know they recently discovered that what they thought was two bog burials in Scotland turned out to be six people? OH MY GOD the ritual and religious implications of that are SO COOL I MIGHT EXPLODE)

[sigridhr]

gagheoa I am writhing in envy.

AND NO I HAD NOT SEEN THAT. OH MY GOD.THAT IS SO CREEPILY COOL. Could you imagine being in the lab when those DNA results came in?