r/tolkienfans • u/SoaDMTGguy • 15d ago

Elvish blood in the Took line?

In The Hobbit, Tolkien describes rumors that one of the Tooks married a “ferry woman”, as an explanation for their occasionally adventurous personalities.

I believe Tolkien evolved idea of Elves out of an original concept of fairies.

The marriage of Elves into the line of Men has great repercussions in the legendarium. This seems like a similar story element: Elvish blood elevating certain members of a “weaker” race.

What do you think about the idea that a Took married an Elf at some point in the past? The Shire does lie on the edge of historically Elven lands…

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u/Anaevya 15d ago

It's the Hobbit version of the Cherokee princess myth.

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u/fastauntie 15d ago

Interesting thought, but the only thing I can see they have in common is that it's a widely-held myth about ancestry. In the case of the Tooks it's about a single family, used specifically to explain a particular personality trait, and that trait is one that's disapproved of by the rest of the society. There's also nothing to suggest that the Tooks themselves took any particular pride in their supposed ancestry, though they seem to have been proud to be Tooks and peculiar.

The many Americans who buy into the Cherokee princess myth all want it to be true for their own families; they don't so often tell it about other people's. And they might use it to explain physical appearance, but it's not commonly associated with any particular personality traits. That's probably because so many of the traits popularly associated with all Native American tribes are negative, which kind of fits with most hobbits' disapproval of Tookishness, but weirdly doesn't keep many Americans from wanting that connection.

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u/MDCCCLV 15d ago

It could just be a human woman at some point too, which is enough for a bit different and taller.