Sport in Middle-Earth

[The Saucepan Man]

However, if i was unable to attend, the last thing I would do was put a flag on my ruddy car! It seems over the top, almost non patriotic, demeaning to the colours, and and even a bit xenophobic.

Well, that's me told.

I think it's time we went back to sport in Middle Earth.

Yes, I suspected that my desperate attempts to keep my posts vaguely on topic by including reference to the White Tree would fool no one, least of all you Esty.

I agree that we should move back to the topic at hand before I am cast any further in the role of nationalist xenophobe.

So, in an effort to do just that:

... in The Hobbit there's a whole list of "quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort"that Hobbits play: quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wind, bowls, and ninepins. Now I have no idea what half of those are, but still, they're nice Hobbit-games.

Quoits is throwing hoops over pegs, isn't it? Bowls involves rolling balls in an effort to get nearest to the target jack, while ninepins is simply skittles by another name. No idea what "shooting the wind" is, though. They are all very much the sort of games that one would associate with Hobbits, being games that are tradionally played in quiet country pubs. I can imagine Hobbits liking nothing better than a nice evening of beer and skittles.

I can see Hobbits playing cricket too, since it fits in with the idyllic rural feel of the Shire (village greens and all that) and the Hobbit talents of "aiming and throwing", although I seem to recall (perhaps from his Letters) that Tolkien himself was not overly fond of the game.

But the references to football (and golf) were probably put in by the modern translator of Bilbo's There and Back Again.

Fair point with regard to the football references, but the circumstances in which golf is mentioned define what kind of game it is. So, whatever it was called, Hobbits must have had a game which involved using clubs to hit balls into holes. Unless they only played it when Goblin heads were available ...

[Selmo]

Saucepan Man,

"Shooting at the wind" should be "shooting at the wand", the wand being a narrow, upright target in archery.

[Lalaith]

I can't place the quote now, but either in the Hobbit or the LotR there is a reference to young hobbits throwing stones at small animals, apparently as a hobby....

[Selmo]

The quote is something like "small animals learned to get out of the way quickly if a hobbit bent down to pick up a stone".

I cann't remember were it's from, either.

[Ardamir the Blessed]

The Saucepan Man posted:

although I seem to recall (perhaps from his Letters) that Tolkien himself was not overly fond of the game [cricket].

You are correct:

Letter #183:

About as amusing to us (or to me) as are stories about cricket, or yarns about a touring team, to those who (like me) find cricket (as it now is) a ridiculous bore.

Letter #199:

I was as happy or the reverse at school as anywhere else, the faults being my own. I ended up anyway as a perfectly respectable and tolerably successful senior. I did not dislike games. They were not compulsory, fortunately, as I have always found cricket a bore: chiefly, though, because I was not good at it. ....

Lalaith posted:

I can't place the quote now, but either in the Hobbit or the LotR there is a reference to young hobbits throwing stones at small animals, apparently as a hobby....

The Prologue:

They [Hobbits] shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.

[Lalaith]

Thank you for those quotes Ardamir.
I've also found this, from the Hobbit:
"As a boy he (Bilbo) used to practice throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop."
I remember being shocked by that when I first read the Hobbit as a little girl.
I had been led to believe that only very naughty, nasty boys threw stones at animals....
Oh, and after this quote there is the passage Elianna mentioned about quoits, bowls and so on. All very nice traditional English pub-and-village green games.

[Mithalwen]

Hmmm I have no doubt though that if the hobbits developed cricket, in latter years when theyears of peace had let the population expand enough for them to develop colonies in areas where the climate allowed them to play more cricket....teams from the now independent hobbit communities would come back and thrash them on a regular basis..... no evidence for that ..just a hunch....


I wonder if Cirdan's lot did any recreational sailing?

[Mithalwen]

HI-ing again....

[Garulf]

More evidence that wrestling was a sport in Middle-Earth: Tulkas the Valar was a wrestler. Plus he was the most fun-loving Valar of them all which leads me to believe that he probably wrestled for fun and not just in war.

I always pictured the hobbits playing rugby and cricket and not just because they seem British. On second thought rugby might be a bit too violent for hobbits, but cricket definitely works.

[Mithalwen]

There is a reason for this...( I cannot link)..... cf "where is everyone from"

[GreatWarg]

I believe hobbits do have some form of golf. I keep thinking I've read somewhere about Bullroarer Took whacking some goblin's head off with a stick, and the head rolled into a hole, thus creating the sport. Mind you, I can't seem to recall exactly where, though I'm quite sure it is in Lord of the Rings somewhere--I've already checked Hobbit. Direct quote from the passage would be nice.

Please tell me I am not insane. Yet.

GW

[Ardamir the Blessed]

The Hobbit, 'An Unexpected Party':

He [Bandobras Took (Bullroarer)] charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.

So if we are to trust The Hobbit, Hobbits probably started playing a type of golf after this. But if we imagine that Tolkien never had written The Hobbit, I doubt that golf would have been mentioned in LotR or any other text instead. Golfimbul's name is the origin of the name of the sport, but in that case 'Golfimbul' had better be a modern translation of this orc-leader's real name in Westron, Black Speech, Orcish or any other language that existed in the North-West of Middle-earth in the Third Age, and that the real Hobbit-Westron name for golf was not 'golf' but something else; I am not sure if it sounds like such a translation (similar to Frodo, Bilbo etc.). To me it sounds more like true Westron (though I am no language expert). Though maybe it works if we suppose that the name 'golf' that exists in many languages today was derived directly from 'Golfimbul' and survived to our days, even though 'Golfimbul' was perhaps true Westron.

[Elmo]

Did they have any sport in Middle Earth except hunting? I can't imagine the 'civilised' Gondorians or Elves indulge in bear-baiting or other typical Medieval sports, maybe the Rohirrim or Orcs, I'd love to see Warg baiting

[Raynor]

The Hobbit mentions football and golf . I don't know how seriously we can take that.

well mabye arrow bow competitions? :P hehe I don't know :P

[ninja91]

Archery, sword-fighting (maybe fencing), golf, and hockey. Phil Kessel looks like a hobbit, right?

[Elmo]

Perhaps they used to play that old type of football in Minas Tirith when you had to get the ball by any means possible to the other side of the town. I suppose people living in the upper circles would have a distinct advantage at that game.

[Raynor]

In the first chapter of LotR, there is a quick mention of games being held at Bilbo's party; in Flies and Spiders, the Hobbit, it is mentioned that some of the recreational activities Bilbo had indulged in were "quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort".

[The Might]

Makes a lot of sense since Hobbits were known as good archers and could aim pretty well as shown by Bilbo when throwing with stones at the spiders.
I think that the type of sport would depend on the region.
Hobbits would probably have sports similar to our own considering what is said in the books.
Rohan would definitely have horseriding.
Elves might have archery contests, just as other areas.
Swordfighting wouzld probably be quite widespread throughout Middle-earth.
Orcs would perhaps like gladiatorial type of games where the winner takes all.

Anyway, except quiet and peaceful areas like Hobbiton, sport in other areas would probably often have much in common with war. Sport might be used a way to stay fit and practice, so that you would be ready in case of a real battle. It could also create a competitive spirit between the people in the area and each would try to become the best, thus having a positive outcome.

[Mithalwen]

I remembered this thread from when I was a very new Downer - it is about the first I posted on


[Moderator's edit: Thanks for the link! I merged both threads, as they have the same title and subject. *Esty]