Jan 30, 2023
Raise the Shire! Now! Wake all our people!
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Raise the Shire! Now! Wake all our people!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Robin Smallburrow helps to tear down the New Mill.
A ficlet about the Scouring of the Shire for B2MeM! @spring-into-arda
A parade!
More Reading Thoughts: The Scouring of the Shire
YOOOOOO HECK YEAH LET’S GOOOOOOOOO
(Okay so I downloaded Phil Dragash’s reading of this and listened to it on the longest plane flight of my trip and may or may not have made a total fool of myself grinning at it throughout LOLOL)
(But I didn’t have time to write my reactions to it until now so here we go)
“On the further side of the river they could see that some new houses had been built…all very gloomy and un-Shirelike” Uh-oh.
BAHAHAHA the way Sam immediately goes OFF
“SCREW YOU AND YOUR STUPID SIGN TOO”
I love Merry trying to be a diplomat
Frodo like “oh goodness gracious, now what trouble has that Lotho gotten up to with MY house”
(Also that little bit of stealth sass like “well I’m GLAD he’s not calling himself a Baggins anymore, I can pretend I’m not associated with him”)
Merry be like “Fine, if you won’t open this gate, I’LL OPEN IT FOR MYSELF”
YO WHAAAAAT?? BILL FERNY?????
I mean I can’t say that I’m happy to see him but also it’s kinda fun to be this surprised. I’d forgotten all about him being here!
Haha the way he immediately runs away from Merry once he’s challenged tho
“Neat work, Bill!” HAHAHAHA
EAT PONY HOOF, LOSER
GOOD JOB BILL (the pony)
I love the fact that 50% of the hobbits’ intimidation factor comes from the fact that Merry and Pippin are so BigTM (and the other 50% is Swords)
Pippin listening to all this talking like “heck, I’m tired and wet and I don’t have time for this, just let me sleep in a shack if you want” is such a mood
Also Pippin tearing down the rule lists LOL
Sam has had it up to HERE with this nonsense
Me, at all the burning going on: “Uh-oh.”
“Looking both important and rather scared” Heehee X-D
“‘What’s all this?’ said Frodo, feeling inclined to laugh.” Me too, Frodo!
“Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools.” OKAY SAM GO OFF LOLOL
OKAY SO at this point in the audiobook Mr. Dragash had the most BRILLIANT reading for this line:
“To the discomfiture of the Shirriffs Frodo and his companions all… [dramatic pause, then raucous laughter erupts in the background] …roared with laughter.”
I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT’S SO PERFECT AHAHAHA
He also had a great reading for this part:
The sheriff, shouting after them, insistent but nervous: “But don’t forget! I’ve arrested you!” Frodo, with the softest voice ever: “I won’t. Never. But I may forgive you.”
Sam has a friend! :-D
I mean I’m sorry that this is the way we find it out but he has!! A buddy!!
Now I’m sure “cock-robin” must have had a different meaning in Tolkien’s time…
“If I hear not allowed much oftener, I’m going to get angry.” Same, Sam.
Eeeew the table hasn’t been scrubbed for WEEKS?? I can only imagine it looking like the underside of a restaurant table, months-old crusty chewing gum stuck on it and all. Blergh 🤮
LOLOL “They would have started earlier, only the delay so plainly annoyed the sheriff-leader”
Our four hobbits have come back from their adventure so delightfully full of SassTM
My word, if I keep pointing out every funny thing that happens here I’ll be writing down the whole chapter. Look at the hobbits hustling the sheriffs who were supposed to be “arresting” them!
NOW WHO’S ARRESTED WHO INDEED 🤣🤣
For someone who’s supposed to be arrested, it sure looks like Merry is the one who’s in charge :-3
And all the sheriffs like “WE GIVE UP” and the hobbits like “okay :-D”
ROBIN WAS ONE OF THE SHERIFFS THAT THEY WERE MESSING WITH OH NO 🤣🤣
“We shall break a good many things yet, and not ask you to answer. Good luck to you!” OKAY PIPPIN GO OFF
(......This is getting very long so I’m gonna put the rest under a read-more)
Was up late last night drawing the comic for today, and kinda had a brainwave…in a way, Robin Smallburrow and Beregond of the Guard are foils to each other.
(“Oh no, she’s talking about Beregond again,” you might be thinking, and to that I say “yes I love him shut up”)
Both Robin and Beregond are civil servants in their own countries. Robin is a Sheriff in the Shire, and Beregond is a Guard of the Citadel, which is the seat of government for all of Gondor. Both of them are minor characters, just normal dudes trying to do their jobs in the middle of a war. And both of them run up against a pickle where they’re forced to choose between what they’ve been ordered to do and what they believe is right.
Now, of course, their circumstances aren’t exactly the same. Beregond’s crisis has a very narrow time limit; Robin’s crisis is extended over several months. Beregond has to make one huge choice; Robin has to make dozens of little ones. Robin wasn’t handed a time bomb that says “commit treason now or someone you care about will be heckin’ barbecued alive”, and Beregond didn’t have to watch the job that he loved slowly degrade into stifling, nonsensical rules.
But if they did—if their situations had been reversed—how would they have reacted?
It’s not an easy thing to break the rules, even for a good reason, when your job is centered entirely around following them. It’s not an easy thing to risk your reputation, your livelihood, your life, even if it’s a matter of conscience.
I’m sure most of us—those of us who dream of theatrics and heroics, anyway—would want to be Beregond, breaking the rules in one brilliant display of righteous rebellion and saving the day. Maybe some of us will have that chance.
(When the time comes, I hope we choose well.)
But in reality, most of us are Robin. Maybe we do have a choice to make between what’s safe and what’s right, but it doesn’t happen all at once. It happens slowly, in little decisions scattered over the course of our lives. Maybe we know we’re on a bad road, but we think we’re too small, too weak, too far gone to do anything about it. Maybe we’re letting it happen, grumbling about the state of the world but too scared to take action; passively accepting one little infraction of conscience after another, sitting like a frog in a slowly heating pot that doesn’t realize it’s been boiled until it’s too late.
I have a lot of sympathy for Robin, because he is all of us. He loves his home. He has friends and family and hobbies. He wants to do what’s right, but he’s weak and scared, and he deduces—rightly—that he’s too small to change the tide on his own.
(What he fails to consider is that he’s not alone.
“If we all get angry together, something might be done.”)
What would Robin have done, if he were in Beregond’s position? What if he had to make one huge choice to save the life of another; even if he had to break the rules; even if he had to kill coworkers and friends over it; even if it cost him his own life? Would he have had the courage to make the right choice?
(Would we?)
Honestly, we should probably be grateful that Robin’s crisis wasn’t just like Beregond’s. It would be absolutely tragic if a hobbit had to kill other hobbits. But it does make me wonder—at what point does it become too much? At what point do the tiny decisions stack up enough to equal one Big Decision? When you’ve gotten so used to making compromises on your conscience, where are you supposed to stop? When you’ve played along, toed the line, and kept your mouth shut; is there a point at which you reach a line you refuse to cross, or will that line always be pushed back, and back, and further back, until you one day look up and realize you’ve abandoned everything you used to stand for?
Is it better to do what’s right at the very beginning—to stand your ground, surrendering nothing—and just endure whatever punishment comes out of that?
If you didn’t have the courage to do it the first time…is it too late?
Beregond’s choice was clear. “Do what’s right, or someone dies.” Robin’s choices were less clear, probably muddled by time and social pressure and the inertia of an otherwise cozy, sedentary life. But maybe the hope of this story is that even though Robin didn’t have courage like Beregond—even though he didn’t dig in his furry little heels and do what’s right the first time—he still gets a second chance.
“Some of the village-folk had lit a large fire, just to enliven things, and also because it was one of the things forbidden by the Chief. It burned bright as night came on. Others at Merry’s orders were setting up barriers across the road at each end of the village. When the Sherriffs came up to the lower one they were dumbfounded; but as soon as they saw how things were, most of them took off their feathers and joined in the revolt.”
I like to imagine that Robin was at the front of the line.
Goshdarnit Robin.
Scouring of the Shire/Right-Hand Man Part Four
Robin joins the party!
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See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!