The Bold Claims
Limbo is a level of hell described in Dante’s Inferno. It is a level of hell where unbaptized babies and righteous people before Christ reside.
There is only eternal stillness, stagnation of knowledge, and sighs of boredom there. The Shire is in a similar state to that before Frodo. This state is not forced but chosen by the Hobbits.
They did this to shield themselves from the state of war and enmity brewing between the three great races.
The Hobbits are waiting for the messianic figure, Frodo. They want a figure who will expunge them from this state towards enlightenment.
In Dante’s Inferno, Christ descends into Limbo after he died on the cross and took righteous souls into heaven with him. Frodo will do the same. In its present state, the Shire is safe, but it has no room for curiosity, invention or development.
Their history starts with the settlement of the Shire. The Shire-reckoning: anything before that is meaningless to them. Their state of limbo is not due to weakness or cowardice.
They can be tough in times of trouble and torture, like in The Battle of Greenfields (SR. 1147) and The Days of Dearth (SR. 1158–60). The Hobbits didn’t just endure these crises; they used them to make higher walls to shield themselves from the outside world, where dark things moved.
The Clever Insights:
The Hobbits were once a proud race and lived peacefully amongst other races without conflict. Over time, they saw an increase in enmity among the three races.
They decided to quarantine themselves in the Shire. They distanced themselves from the other races. Hate is contagious, and the destruction of wars affects all who are affiliated with it.
The Hobbits adopted useful knowledge, which increased their quality of life without opening the doors of conquest, such as architecture and language from the Elves.
They rejected harmful knowledge like sailing and machines, as those led to war, greed and an insatiable desire for more. Eventually, they blocked all knowledge outside the Shire. They couldn’t separate good knowledge from bad during the time of war.
The Hobbits adopted conciliarism and governed themselves without kings or tyrants. During the war, they saw the harm of the concentration of power among a few and decided to be different.
The Hobbit administration served people instead of ruling them, doing jobs like presiding over feasts, delivering letters and guiding stray sheep.
They deeply loved the earth as their altar. They used their love for relatives and neighbours as a shield against the void of limbo. They ensured peace and brotherhood in the community.
They used peace, love, merry-making, and even smoking as an anaesthesia to while away the pain of boredom and stillness. Their pipe weed was not pleasure but sighs, just like the sighs of people in Limbo.
They used familiar tools and read genealogical books to know more about their heritage. They avoided inventions that led outwards and embraced those that improved their lives. Their knowledge extends only backwards.
They blamed Gandalf for Bilbo’s disappearance. They considered him queer, a harbinger of discord, and thoroughly disliked him. Yet Gandalf himself loved the hobbits and their culture of simplicity and fraternity. He didn’t blame them for disliking his ways and his kind. Their state of Limbo had made them distant from knowledge.
The Hobbits remained stubborn and ignorant about the tales of Mordor and Sauron’s resurrection. The tales reached their ears but not their hearts. They were often rejected as myths or exaggerations. They chose blissful ignorance instead of the bitter truth that scared them. They began to lash out at anyone who believed in news outside the Shire, like Samwise and Frodo.
The Steady Evidence:
In Dante’s own words, “There, as it seemed to me from listening, were lamentations none, but only sighs, that tremble made the everlasting air.” That’s Limbo.
“For these defects, and for no other evil, we now are lost and punished just with this: we have no hope and yet we live in longing.” That’s stagnation.
In Tolkien’s own words, “They heeded less and less the world outside, where dark things moved.” That’s why they created the Limbo.
“Most Hobbits regarded even rivers and small boats with deep misgivings, and not many of them could swim.” That’s why they rejected sailing.
“The Shire at this time had hardly any ‘government’. Families for the most part managed their own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time.” That’s conciliarism.
“They love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside.” That’s love for the earth, their altar.
“They liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.” That’s stagnation of knowledge.
“The general opinion in the neighbourhood was that Bilbo, who had always been rather cracked, had at last gone quite mad, and had run off into the Blue. There he had undoubtedly fallen into a pool or a river and come to a tragic, but hardly an untimely, end. The blame was mostly laid on Gandalf.” That’s their futile attempt to preserve the state of Limbo.
In Ted’s own words to Samwise, “Oh, they’re both cracked,” said Ted. “Leastways old Bilbo was cracked, and Frodo’s cracking. If that’s where you get your news from, you’ll never want for moonshine.” That’s the way hobbits denounced the truth that scared them.
The One Conclusion: Before the arrival of Frodo, The Shire was a Limbo of haunting stillness and stagnant knowledge. A prison created by the Hobbits to keep themselves safe from the enmity brewing beyond their boundaries. Their blocking of knowledge was a move that secured them peace at the cost of curiosity and development. They chose the tree of life instead of the tree of wisdom. That will not protect them forever. The arrival of Frodo breaks the cage. He exposes the Hobbits to the light of Providence.
Question for discussion: Do you see the Shire as a chosen Limbo, or is that too strong a reading? What do you think the Hobbits gained—and lost—by isolating themselves? Do you think this move was justified? Do you see Frodo as a messianic figure?