Flats / LOTR

[bluesox4113]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles" <catlady at w...> 
wrote:
>
> 
> John wrote:
> 
> > I *still* agree with Ursula LeGuin. I think that the "sir" thing
> > could have been left out. They're meant to bloody well be 
> > contemporaries... *frowns*
> 
> It's social class, not age. For Tolkien, one of the things that was 
> good about the Shire and the old days and bad about Mordor and 
modern 
> times is that social class was rigid and taken for granted in the 
old 
> days, and nowadays people try to get above their upbringing.
Tolkien 
> was fabulous in many ways, but that was not one of them.

I think I remember an interesting discussion of this very point in, I 
believe, Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien.  Tolkien 
always was irritated by critics who tried to argue that LOTR was a 
sort of allegory about World War II.  Whether or not WWII shaped the 
writing of the book, Carpenter, however, makes a good argument that a 
lot of Tolkien's experience in World War I was probably an even bigger 
influence on the book.  Remember, Tolkien personally experienced 
trench warfare.  The blasted landscape, the mustard gas, the fatigue, 
the hunger, the terror--sounds like Mordor, doesn't it?  And he lost 
two of his dearest friends in WWI--I'm sure he was thinking about that 
when he wrote the scene where Aragorn comforts Boromir at his death.

But the point that I found particularly interesting in Carpenter's 
discussion is that he hypothesizes that Tolkien based the
relationship between Sam and Frodo upon the relationships he saw 
between the officers he knew in the army with their batmen.  A batman 
is an orderly of an officer in the British army; he waits upon the 
officer, keeps his gear in order, etc.  These relationships often 
became extremely close, particularly if the batman respected and 
admired his officer, and under the extreme conditions of warfare.  
When you think about it, that is precisely Sam's relationship with 
Frodo.  He looks after him, manages the gear, cooks the meals, 
feels responsible for him, etc.  This explanation makes sense to me, 
and if Carpenter is right, that's probably why Tolkien had Sam address 
Frodo as "sir." That is how batmen address the officers they are 
serving, and so it probably felt "right" to Tolkien as he was writing. 
 Not just a class thing, but a military thing.

Cheers,
Peg