Fic: Just Looking

[dreamflower]

A little tribble written for wee_hobbits and inspired by a challenge at the Pippinhealers Yahoo group.

Rating: G
Summary: Frodo fixes wee!Pippin's boo-boo, and gives him a little comfort (a tribble--300 words)

Just Looking


(Cross-posted from wee_hobbits

Comments

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

*muffles a squee, for it is late in her corner of the world*

That was really really cute.

(Pippin: Let's see, you give me a splinter, but then I get storytime with Frodo; you break my leg, but then I end up getting to woo Diamond in a suitably fascinating-and-not-out-of-character-considering fashion--thunder, woman, I can't get angry with you!)

[dreamflower]

It's late here, too. I had gone to bed two hours ago, but a bit of heartburn woke me, and I got up again. I really should go *back* to bed.

(Well, I'm glad he's not mad at me about his splinter and his broken leg. I hope he doesn't hold against me his severe sunburn and narrow escape from being murdered as a child, the time he was trapped in a dark tunnel with rats, or the time that he nearly died of alcohol poisoning and ended up grounded all summer...of course, he got bagpipe and harp lessons out of that last incident.

At least I never squashed him under a troll. Someone else altogether did that to him!)

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know how much of your fic Pippin's read (translate: how much of it I know well enough to attempt to inform myself of his opinions on it). If my memory doesn't wholly fail me, the response to the alcohol one is, "Yeah, but then eventually Merry totally kicked them in the--"

"Pippin! Not in mixed company!"

*cough* "Er, well, you wrote it. And the troll couldn't be helped. That one actually happened." *slightly aristocratic-sounding sniff* "And what's a bagpipe?"

[dreamflower]

LOL!

Well, when you play them, Pippin, or someone who knows what he's doing does, they are one of the most divine-sounding instruments on earth! But when someone who isn't quite so skiled plays them, they sound about like a cat being tortured.

One of the most misunderstood and underappreciated musical instruments ever.

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Sorry; I had to poke fun at the "Celtic Took" fanon just a little bit. :-P

I usually only have heard bagpipes played by professionals, personally, but it still took me years to actually appreciate them. Something about those drone pipes...

[dreamflower]

*grin* Just imagine going to a Celtic fest, where there are all sorts of amateur pipers, and the only two songs they seem to know are "Amazing Grace" and "Scotland the Brave". And that at any given time, there will be at least two groups playing, and one is playing one song and the other is playing the other song.

But I love a solo piper rather than a pipe-and-drum band, and there is nothing more moving than a bagpipe lament.

I honestly was more thinking of my "musical Pippin" fanon than the "Celtic Took" fanon, although I did realize that it would play into the latter, I just wanted him to play an instrument that I really love and would like to know myself. And bagpipes are an ancient and worldwide instrument--I had an SCA friend who used to make Turkish bagpipes.

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

I did not know that bagpipes existed anywhere other than among Celtic musicians! I thought through previous correspondence that you were going more with "musical Pippin" (which I almost, but not quite, want to make an anti-fanon of, mostly consisting of everyone else making fun of Pippin's musical talents in the "We do WHAT in fic?" universe). But at the same time, bagpipes are not exactly English, and I think you call them "Tookland pipes" as well. *tsks*

Oh, well. It works because there aren't any other indicators of Scottishness among your Tooks (and for some reason I imagine that if Pippin played them he'd play the uilleann pipes anyway).

And drat, Wiki saith that there were bagpipes at least in Northumbria... I stand at least semi-corrected...

But apparently "my" Pippin has now officially never heard of them! Fascinating!

[dreamflower]

LOL! It's funny, sometimes, the things we will find out about "our" versions of the characters. And in my M-e, bagpipes are known not only in the Shire (and are called Tookland pipes only because that's where they are most popular--they *are* played elsewhere!) but they are also known in Dale and northern Erebor--but *NOT* in Rohan or Gondor!

I don't like to think of the Tooks as Scottish either, but I don't mind allowing some of the RL Scottish themes to "stand for" a certain separateness of Tooks within the Shire. But I feel the same way about Buckland, which I also think has a certain separateness.

For example, I sometimes mention a Tookish accent, although I NEVER try to reproduce a Scottish brogue--if that's how my readers seem to hear it in their heads, that's fine. But I also sometimes mention a Buckland accent as well--and once more, I don't try to reproduce it either! I try to use the upper class diction and grammar indicated in the book, and fancy that for the most part I am as successful as an American can expect to be.

As for "musical Pippin", well his instrument playing is definitely sheer fanon, and he tends to play--when he does--whatever instrument the writer plays or wishes she could play, LOL! But I think that there is sufficient canon evidence that Pippin sang and sang well. (Because I think that "Well enough for my own people" answer to Denethor was basically hobbity modesty, because when they set out, Pippin's usually the first to burst into song, and no one ever tells him to shut up.)

What say you, Pip? Can you sing, Master Hobbit? *grin*

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Eh, I doubt it'll ever become C!canon. There are some things I like to leave alone in my fics, even if I'll personally entertain the idea just to cheese everyone else off.

How much of that "separateness" of the Tooks is canon, I wonder? As far as I can tell about the only thing that keeps them apart from the rest of the hobbits in the books is a disposition for adventure and the fact that they have defensible hills. Other than that they're smack dab in the middle of the Westfarthing--and only 14 miles off from Hobbiton, too, which might be enough for some variation but not much. Versus Buckland clear on the other end of the Shire that takes Bree's names for months.

Only songs that have been wiped devoid of all happy lyrics. And it works best when my audience has bad table manners. Don't ask.

[dreamflower]

I don't think the Took separateness is so much geographical, which the Brandybuck certainly is--but it's clear from some of the things said about the Tooks in the first chapter of The Hobbit that they tended not to mingle all that much with other more conventional hobbits.

From what it said, "across the Water" seemed to indicate that it was a place less respectable than Hobbiton--kind of like our saying "the other side of the tracks". Of course, it didn't have anything to do with money, since the Tooks were loaded, or with status, since they were the highest of the Gentry. But they were not "Respectable"! And as such it seemed to set them apart.

And in a rural society, 14 miles could make a lot of difference in an accent, especially if most hobbits did not travel much.

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

You're right about the "rural society" but looking at the family trees it appears that the gentry, at least, did their fair share of travelling (which might suggest a homogenization among all of them). It's hard to say with hobbits and their short legs, but I thought the general rule was that you could walk maybe 30 miles in a day and so that was the most that most people travelled. So maybe some there was some variation, but not much--like the difference between accents in various areas of England? I don't know, but I'm not giving up that easily! ;-)

[dreamflower]

I do think the gentry did get around more than the common folk. Which is why my hobbit gentry sound like the best attempt at British uppercrust that I, a lowly American, can manage, and not like a bad imitation of Scotty on Star Trek:TOS.

But I do think there might have been just a little bit of local accent in pronunciation in different areas of the Shire. However, it's not all that important to me--which is why all anyone ever gets from me is vague references to "Tookish" or "Buckland" accents--it's a fancy I like, but I'm not going to sacrifice character to make use of it.

I do wish I could break some people from using the "Scottish brogue" as Tookish dialect. However, some of them are very attached to it, and are not open to beta-ly hints on that score. *sigh*

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Great, now I'm stuck with this image of Pippin running around yelling, "Captin! The engines canna take it anymore!" *sturdily ignores the crack!bunny that has just bitten her in the ankle*

Vague references are always nice; they allow people to read into situations whatever they want. And I'm actually rather taken with Lindelea's idea of the Tooks sounding somewhat Welsh, because that accent isn't quite as distinct to my ears and, well, it's different.

And as far as I can tell the "Scottish brogue" trend is on the wane among those who are still writing. :-)

[dreamflower]

And as far as I can tell the "Scottish brogue" trend is on the wane among those who are still writing. :-)

I can only hope so.

Lin has a way of using a sort of dialect among the working class Tooks, which Pippin sometimes adopts at will, especially when he's trying to be winning or cajoling. I really enjoy that idea.

But I know of a few writers, some of them dear friends, who are absolutely wedded to that Scottish brogue. I just have to remind myself it's *their* universe, and neither mine nor JRRT's (even though it is his sandbox).