Week 4: “Food” – Tuesday 21
March 2023
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Welcome to #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday.
The hub for this Twitter-based event can be found here.
Tolkien Trewsday (the Hobbit name for Tuesday!) invites the #Tolkien community to form a fellowship to collectively tweet about a pre-selected theme about Tolkien, his works and his life.
Each week a new theme will be selected, often via a poll or by a guest host/curator, and together we will build a collective outpouring of creativity, knowledge and love for J.R.R. Tolkien and the adaptions based on his works.
The inspiration for this comes from the highly successful #FolkloreThursday which engaged lovers of Folklore, academics, artists and more to use Twitter to discuss it.
We only ask that if you are joining in, please do so with courtesy and kindness in your tweets. This is a positive-action community event, open to all and supportive of fan diversity. Intolerance, racism, bigotry have no place here.
💬 This week’s theme
Week 4: “Food, drink and feasts”
– Tuesday 21 March 2023
Following a poll, Tolkien Trewsday invites you to join us for a day focused on the theme of "Food, drink and feasts". From the feasts of Elves in glades in Mirkwood to the Dwarven party in Bag End to the wines of Dorwinion to Second Breakfasts of Hobbits, today we look at fine (and not so fine) dining and meals across Middle-earth.
How to contribute
We are keeping it very simple. All you need to do to join is tweet something about the current week’s theme and use the following hashtags in your tweet:
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Your tweet, besides following the theme, can be anything. Examples include:
- Favoured food of the various races of Middle-earth
- Eating and drinking habits of the Shire folk
- “Looks like meat is back on the menu” and other sayings about food and drink
- Food in song and poetry
- Taters
Nori hands an apple to the Stranger in Amazon Studio’s
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Episode 7: The Eye)
Week Four – “Food”: An apple a day, helps the Istari on his way…
“The Shire had seldom seen so fair a summer, or so rich an autumn: the trees were laden with apples, honey was dripping in the combs, and the corn was tall and full.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 3: “Three is Company” by J.R.R. Tolkien
One of the quintessential images of the English landscape is the bountiful apple orchard. But these apples, the sweeter variety, were not part of our ancestors’ diet back in Neolithic times, instead arriving much later in Roman times. Neolithic peoples gathered and ate crab apples (Malus sylvestris: “forest apple”) which were smaller and acidic in taste.
“The Apple Gatherers” (1880) by Frederick Morgan. Source.
Our modern domesticated apples, a sweeter fruit, originally came from Central Asia. These wild apples (Malus sieversii) of the Tian Shan Mountains in Kazakhstan:
“The original wild apples grew in ‘apple forests’ at the foot of the snow-tipped mountains and spread over miles and miles. The fruits would have been all different shapes and sizes and a huge variety of tastes (though the majority were not very palatable).”
The Orchard Project, “Where do apples come from?” [Online] URL: https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/blog/where-do-apples-come-from/ (Accessed 20/03/2023)
It is believed birds and bears eating these apples spread their seeds naturally further away from Kazakhstan and it was in Syria where the Romans found them. Using the Silk Road, the apples headed from the East to West and eventually to Britain. Romans used a technique called grafting (selective breeding) still used today. It was through this cultivation by Romans, medieval monasteries and later the Victorians that we have the apples beloved today. One of the traditions associated with apples I have noted before, wassailing, took different forms in early medieval and Victorian times.
“Gildor, Sam, Pippin, Frodo and elves” (2013) by Steamey. Source.
In Tolkien’s works, apples naturally feature in the Shire and are most associated most with Hobbits. But even Sam is impressed with apples shared by Gildor’s Elves at Woody End, when he declares:
"Well, sir, if I could grow apples like that, I would call myself a gardener.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 3: “Three is Company” by J.R.R. Tolkien
It is Sam, the gardener, who is associated most with apples during The Lord of the Rings. As they leave the Prancing Pony to head out into the unknown with Strider:
“Sam was chewing an apple thoughtfully. He had a pocket full of them: a parting present from Nob and Bob. ‘Apples for walking, and a pipe for sitting,’ he said. ‘But I reckon I’ll miss them both before long.’”
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 11: “A Knife in the Dark”
In Bree too are mentions of
apples. There is a family called the Appledore, an old English word (“apuldre”)
for Apple Tree. One of these men of Bree, Rowlie Appledore, was killed fighting
Bill Ferny and Sharkey’s ruffians in early January T.A. 3019 (Third Age). This
was told to Gandalf by Barliman Butterbur, recounting what had happened in Bree
since the Hobbits were last there (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King, Book Six, Chapter 7: “Homeward Bound” by J.R.R. Tolkien).
“Bill Ferny hit by the apple” by Cor Blok (1960). Source.
Earlier in The Lord of the
Rings, Bill Ferny doesn’t fare well against an apple thrown by Sam, with a
swift and accurate aim:
“Sam turned quickly. ‘And you, Ferny,’ he said, ‘put your ugly face out of sight, or it will get hurt.’ With a sudden flick, quick as lightning, an apple left his hand and hit Bill square on the nose. He ducked too late, and curses came from behind the hedge. ‘Waste of a good apple,’ said Sam regretfully, and strode on.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 11: “A Knife in the Dark” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Later, when the Hobbits return to Bree, they wonder if perhaps Sam’s throw had been more deadly than they thought:
“When they came to Bill Ferny’s house they saw that the hedge there was tattered and unkempt, and the windows were all boarded up. ‘Do you think you killed him with that apple, Sam?’ said Pippin. ‘I’m not so hopeful, Mr. Pippin,’ said Sam. ‘But I’d like to know what became of that poor pony.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 7: “Homeward Bound” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien uses as apples several times in his descriptions of characters. He says of Tom Bombadil:
“his face was red as a ripe apple, but creased into a hundred wrinkles of laughter.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 6: “The Old Forest” by J.R.R. Tolkien
On two separate occasions, Tolkien also uses the “apple of the eye”, a phrase appearing in the (King James) Bible figuratively (as opposed to Shakespeare’s anatomical use). One of the earliest usages was as far back as the C.9th C.E. with King Alfred the Great. In The Lord of the Rings, the phrase is used as a metaphor for two very different characters. Grishnákh, an orc captain, describes the Nazgûl as “the apple of the Great Eye” (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Book Three Chapter 3: “The Uruk-Hai” by J.R.R. Tolkien) whilst in Minas Tirith, Pippin called Shadowfax “the apple of the king’s eye” to Beregond.
Another horse connected with apples belongs to Isildur in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”. In Episode 6 (“Udûn”), Isidur and his horse Berek join the expeditionary force fleet heading towards the Southlands of Middle-earth. Whilst a stable-hand caring for the Númenórean horses, Isildur shares a bite of an apple with Berek.
Isildur gives Berek a bite of an apple in Amazon Studio’s
Returning to Middle-earth and the idea of orchards and wild groves of apple trees, Tolkien writes that the Entwives created gardens which were ordered and peaceful, where the plants were encouraged to grow and bear fruit to the liking of the Entwives:
“But the Entwives gave their minds to the lesser trees, and to the meads in the sunshine beyond the feet of the forests; and they saw the sloe in the thicket, and the wild apple and the cherry blossoming in spring, and the green herbs in the waterlands in summer, and the seeding grasses in the autumn fields.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Book Three Chapter 4: “Treebeard” by J.R.R. Tolkien
The gardens were said to be in the lands which are known as the Brown Lands, devastated in the wars with Sauron. In Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” it is the re-igniting of Mount Doom (Orodruin/Amon Amarth) that has devastating effects on the migratory Harfoots and their sacred Apple tree grove. After a long journey the Harfoots arrive at the grove only to discover that eruptions from Orodruin have flung fireballs amidst the orchard and destroyed many trees and apple crops.
There is a stark contrast between the Harfoot arrival to the Grove, picking burnt fruit of blackened trees and later after the Stranger has magically transformed it.
Burned apple in Amazon Studio’s
“The Lord of the Rings: A plea from the Harfoot trailfinder Sadoc to the Stranger, against the wishes of Nori and Poppy, leads to the Stranger attempting and apparently failing to “fix” the Orchard (whilst nearly hurting Nori and Dilly) and thus leaving to head off towards Mirkwood the Green. Overnight the Orchard returns to its earlier bountiful state, much to the delight of the awakening Harfoots.
The Harfoots harvesting apples in Amazon Studio’s
The scenes hark back to Frederick Morgan’s “The Apple Gatherers” (1880).
The apple bounty in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
In the X-Ray notes for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episode 7 (“The Eye”), we are told:
“The Grove used to be a home for some of the Big Folk, who likely planted the gardens that the Harfoots rely upon – but it’s been many lifetimes since they last lived there.”
Amazon Prime Video's X-Ray notes for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episode 7 (“The Eye”).
In the ruins of these buildings amongst the Grove, the Harfoots decide what to do next after the devastating attack on the Harfoot caravans by the Mystics, who were following the Stranger.
When the Stranger left to head towards Greenwood the Great, Nori had given him an apple. This heartfelt gift (which he later loses whilst following a disguised Mystic) held several layers of meaning to the Harfoots. It was an important part of their migration route which had kept them going for many generations. But apples also had symbolic meaning to the Harfoots: apples seeds were carried with them as reminders of Harfoots that were killed in pervious migrations.
The apple gift to an Istari in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
I wrote a Twitter thread exploring this Harfoot practice, which you can read here.
And this image of the Stranger holding an apple was the first image we ever saw of him in Amazon’s early advertising campaign and led to some of us (including myself) thinking he could well be Sauron. The image of a man holding an apple In his hand spoke of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden which Adam and Eve were meant to not touch. Were the Showrunners hinting this person was the Biblical snake who convinced Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden Tree? Interestingly the Bible itself does not name the fruit as an apple, but Western Christian art does depict the fruit as an apple.
The Stranger character reveal from Amazon Studios
Another adaption that uses apples quite a lot is Standing Stone Games’ “The Lord of the Rings Online”. The apple features prominently in the Harvest festival and also in crafting as an item for farming and cooking. There are too many to note here, but a few of the apples in LOTRO include the Shire Apple used in the farming craft (Artisan or Tier 4) for use in cook recipes and the wormy apple that can be picked during the “Apple-Shopping” quest for the “Manning the Market” quest chain during the Farmers Faire. During the Harvest Festival you can bob for apples as a daily quest and one of the “Treats or Trickery” doormats is the “Apple goblin”.
Cosmetic items (housing and costume) from LOTRO (left to right): Autumnal
Gaffer Gamgee asks you to help gather apples off the ground at the Bag End apple orchard in the quest called “Fallen Apples” and one of the rewards for the quest is a one-handed hammer called “Apple-seeker”. Cosmetic items with apples including housing: Autumnal Apple Tree and Bingo's Tub of Apples. There are also costume items: Basket of Apples and Basket of Fresh Picked Apples.
To end this look at apples in Tolkien’s works and Middle-earth, during The Hobbit poor Fili has the misfortune to choose a barrel that once stored apples as his ride out of the Elven King’s halls in Mirkwood. He declares:
“I hope I never smell the smell of apples again!” said Fili. “My tub was full of it. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is maddening. I could eat anything in the wide world now, for hours on end—but not an apple!”
The Hobbit, Chapter X: “A Warm Welcome” by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Fili apple nightmares” (2014) by AlyTheKitten. Source.
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