This is slightly off-topic but I've wondered if you knew the supposed origin of Hobbit names. Quite a few years ago I read "The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays" by Guy Davenport. In one of the essays he mentions that he corresponded with Tolkien and that the Hobbit's last names were local family names in Kentucky that Tolkien learned through Davenport's letters. This came as a big surprise and I wonder if this tidbit from a relatively obscure book is well known in Tolkien circles.
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The gals do have a better chance of marrying upwards.
This is slightly off-topic but I've wondered if you knew the supposed origin of Hobbit names. Quite a few years ago I read "The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays" by Guy Davenport. In one of the essays he mentions that he corresponded with Tolkien and that the Hobbit's last names were local family names in Kentucky that Tolkien learned through Davenport's letters. This came as a big surprise and I wonder if this tidbit from a relatively obscure book is well known in Tolkien circles.
drizz- I don't think it is well known, but I don't think it is true!
Assistant Village Idiot knows something about the Kentucky story, which apparently is not new.
"The Shire" means Wigtonshire, "The Stewartry" is Kirkcudbrightshire, and "The County" Dumfriesshire. Source: my mother.
I once googled the first of those; the usage goes back centuries.
Wigtonshire
It's tough to imagine a more splendidly English-sounding name!
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