mamakitty187:

quixoticanarchy:

spatscolombo-deactivated2022030:

How DARE Tolkien omit in the final draft the information that the traditional hobbit marriage custom is to have unspoken vibes for years and then disappear without explanation for an indeterminate length of time!?

[ID: a photo of a partial book page labeled across the top “First Version”, “A Long-Expected Party”, and “17”. The text starts midsentence and reads “curious habit in their weddings. They kept it (always officially and very often actually) a dead secret for years who they were going to marry, even when they knew. They they suddenly went and got married and went off without an address for a week or two (or even longer). When Bilbo disappeared this is what at first his neighbors thought. ‘He has gone and got married. Now who can it be? - no one else has disappeared, as far as we know.‘ Even after a year they would have been less surprised if he had come back with a wife.“ /end ID]

Okay but… Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin all randomly deuces out the same night… can you imagine the Shire gossip???